[2] He was born on November 9, 1872, in the village of Kryvenke, in the same house where the Polish insurgent Bogdan Jarocki once lived.

[7][8] Lepky would later recall that most young Ukrainian and Polish students were noted for their ethnic tolerance, mutual respect, openness, and active participation in choirs, stage productions, and concerts with a repertoire of both Polish and Ukrainian productions.

[citation needed] After completing the gymnasium in 1891, Lepky was admitted to the Academy of Arts in Vienna[9] but left after a year to pursue a degree in literature.

He then went to the Lviv University, studying Ukrainian history and literature, and was a part of the society Vatra and the choir Boyan there before he graduated in 1895.

Lepky later said that one of Wyspiański's plays prompted him to compose Zhuravli: "In the fall of 1910, in Kraków, I was walking home after viewing a theatrical production of Wyspianski's drama Noc Listopadowa.