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UKRAINIAN WOMAN OUR ENGLISH COLUMN 70 YEARS OF UKRAINIAN FEMINIST MOVEMENT It w a s in th e secon d h a lf o f th e 19th c e n tu r y th a t t'he U k ra in ian w o m a n co n ceiv e d th e n e c e ssity o f h er equal -share in so c ia l and p o li tica l life o-f her n a tiv e land, and se t out to o r g a n iz e for th e s tr u g g le 'for th is riighlt. The organizational initiative came from W estern Ukraine s'inc-e there was- no such .possibility in Eastern Ukraine under the Czar- 3$t regime. Of course, -even in Austria conditions were not fav or afcie for women as they enjoyed neither political rights nor even the equality to study in the in stitutions of higher learning. The Ukrainian woman has been aware of the structure and impor tance of the statecraft -since old en times when Ukraine had -been a free nation. Let us mention the reign of the Great Princess Olga of Kiev, exactly one thousand years ago, whose administration and reforms are recorded in his tory as purposeful and successful. The light of her spirit and glory radiated ever since, especially when our country had to be de fended, when the Ukrainian wom an had to oppose the invasion by the enemy, on equal footing with t'he man, notably during the struggle against Tartar invasion in the 13th century, as well as Cossack wars against Polish do mination in the 17th century she lvad^ to take over her husband’s duties. In these Avars she had fre quently to take up arms and she was defending with dignity her native country. Let us recall an historical figure, that of Olena Zavisna, who exploded the bas tion Busha, killing herself and her children, only to prevent them from being taken prisoner and then enslaved by 'the enemy. T h e h ig h sp irit and p a trio tism of the Ukrainian woman set an example and added to building -up of tradition of the freedom-loving Ukrainian people. The age-long and appalling serfdom imposed on the Ukrain ian peasants by Poland and Rus sia, it seemed, had broken the time-honored spirit of resistance. Yet in the lifeless silence there was born and risen a great spirit of a new prophet of freedom for Ukraine, the poet and martyr T a ras .Shevchenko, whose call “Rise and break your chains” aroused the whole Ukrainian people. At the same time spoke through her writings a young Ukrainian authoress, Marko Voivcholk, in Ukrainian and Russian (her short stories were translated into Rus sian by the noted Russian writer Ivan Turgenev). Vovichok (Maria Markovich) pictured in her w rib ings in expressive colors the frightful social .conditions of serf dom in which lived the Ukrainian peasants, and the women in par ticular. Her writings had trem en dous influence in Ukraine and Russia, and the abolition of serf dom in 1861 is rightly ascribed in a great part as was ascribed — incidentally, at the very same *cime — the abolition of slavery in U. S. to Harriet Beecher Stowe- Following into Vov'chok’s steps were other Ukrainian women working toward tlhe attainment of freedom for their country. In 1870-ies the Ukrainian social worker, Christine Alchevska, founded a school for workers and their children in Charkiv. At about the same time another Ukrainian, Sophia Russova, to gether with her sister, established in Kiev the first Ukrainian kin dergarten. Thereupon Olena Pchilka, mo ther of the famous Ukrainian po etess Lessya Ukrainka, started her activities as a social worker, a journalist and a writer. She did a great deal in gaining for Uk rainian women the proper .posi tion in social life in Eastern Uk raine. In Kiev, or in Central Ukraine generally, ithe women were al ready in the front lines of social action and they dlid not form special organizations of their own. In fact it was not possible to create such societies under the stern Czarist regime. Ukrainian mien and women were limited in their endeavors mostly to scienti fic, pedagogic and beneficial or ganizations. However, the most ardent young iboys and girls were joining the illegal underground societies. The Ukrainian women engaged in patriotic work within legal or ganizations, were preparing, to gether with men, for the coming change of which the poetess Lessya Ukrainka, was the most prominent protagonist. The progress made by the Uk rainian women was recognized by the reborn Ukrainian nation which granted equal rights to women in 1917. In a quite different way was progressing the feminist move ment in West Ukraine. Its pion eer and most prominent leader was Natalie Kobrinska. Imbued with the spirit of the native tradi tion and animated by the growth of ithe feminist movement in the West where she had been study ing (in Switzerland and in Vien na), she organized the first Uk rainian women’s society in Stani- slaviv (West Ukraine) in 1884. The active forces of the wo men around her were directed to ward higher education, toward gaining the right to it, toward so cial and economic emancipation. The Ukrainian woman did not try to compete with the man. She
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