Fedir Zharko was one of the most renowned singers of dumy (sung epic poems) in Ukraine.
Here he also became acquainted with the bandurist Vusatyj from the city of Chyhyryn, who inspired him to learn to play the bandura.
From 1936 to 1940 up until World War II he worked as a village school teacher in Kiev Oblast (province).
After World War II he spent six years incarcerated in Irkutsk and Kolyma for being a village elder during the German occupation of Ukraine.
Ukrains'ki narodni pisni dlia holosu v suprovodi bandury Yuni spivaky-bandurysty