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FEMINISM IN UKRAINIAN HISTORY MARTHA BOHACHEVSKY—CHOMIAK Ukrainian feminism, as an ideology and as an organizational principle, was saved—ironically—by the Bolsheviks. We must go forward and backward in time to see the irony of this phenomenon. The Bolsheviks suppressed the feminists and estab lished their own variants of women’s organizations. None of the prominent Ukrainian women were in the leadership of the party zhinviddily. The zhinviddily, which were to mobilize the women for communism, were disbanded in 1930, the year that Olena Pchilka, an open critic of Bolshevik policies in Ukraine, died. Col lectivization, russification, the famine and the purges completely discredited not only communism, but many aspects of socialism. Feminism freed from the socialist ideological strait jacket came to attract women. Owing to the above, as well as to the experiences of the Ukrainian national-liberation struggle, the coming together of various organizations of Ukrainian women, and the international contact that were made through women’s organizations, by 1921 Ukrainian women out side the Soviet Union were ready to form an effective women’s organization. The Women’s Union (Soiuz Ukrainok)—founded in western Ukraine, which was then under Poland, but representing an even larger number of Ukrainian women outside that territory—was signifi cant in the general European context. Symptomatically, few of its members realized its singular characteristics. It was a mass organization that pursued effective and moderate programs promoting social and economic change. It brought together women of different social classes, became nationally aware and active. For Ukrainian women, feminism was a pragmatic movement that promoted economic, personal and cultu ral progress. It did not challenge God, country or family. Rather, it expanded the social role of women by appeal ing to them to engage in enlightened service to God and country. But unlike the quasi-facist and integral- nationalist organizations—which the union denounced vehemently, openly and early— the union never lost sight of the needs of the autonomous individual. To illustrate the type of work done by the women and the influence of feminism in Western Ukrainian society in the interwar years, it is most convenient to look at the work of Olena Simenovych Kysilevska, who died in Canada in 1954, and of Milena Rudnytska, who after 1945 tried unsuccessfully to continue the same kind of feminism in Europe, Canada and the United States. Kysilevska, by her own account, became a feminist at the age of six, when she found out that men could vote and women could not. She was the youngest par ticipant in the first Ukrainian women’s rally in 1884. She founded and edited, in the 1920s, Zhinocha dolia (Women’s Fate), a simply written and very effective journal in Kolomyia, which served as a means for organ izing women for over a decade. It dealt with managea ble, practical subjects. Its common-sense approach was reinforced by contributions from her brother, who lived in the United States, in which he extolled the virtues of hard work for all social classes. Kysilevska’s treatment of feminism cut through the maze of subltle arguments. She argued simply that since emigration and seasonal migratory labor were no longer options open to the peasants, the only way they could survive was by more intensive and rational farm ing. This could be done only through the participation of educated women. Otherwise, a low standard of living, frequently reduced to bare marginal existence, would be the lot of the peasants. Education, a larger public role, and political participation for women were precon ditions for effective modernization. Without a women’s organization it would be impossible to reach the pea sant women with the information they needed to imple ment more rational agricultural techniques. Kysilevska helped develop a training program for the women acti vists, who tirelessly travelled through the Galician coun tryside setting up branches of the Women’s Union. At first, Ukrainian men did not oppose the Women’s Union. Indeed, some aided the effort, not because they necessarily favored equality for women, but because of economic considerations. Much of Poland’s economy was controlled (if not owned) by the interwar Polish government, which allocated little of its revenues for the needs of those areas where Ukrainians lived. The Ukrainians, therefore, had to rely upon their own com munity organizations for basic social services. In 1921, the same year in which the Women’s Union was estab lished, the network of Ukrainian economic cooperatives started under the Austro-Hungarian Empire was central ized. The cooperatives traded extensively in dairy pro ducts and eggs, the production of which was primarily in the hands of the women in the peasant household. Unless these women could be persuaded to sell to the cooperative rather than to the local private merchants, the cooperatives had little chance for expansion. So, throughout the 1920’s, the cooperatives, as well as the major cultural organization of the Ukrainians, Prosvita, assisted women’s organizational efforts. to be continued "It is women who give birth to children... women are more than half of the world's population.. We cannot hope to create the necessary conditions for growth while leaving aside half of the human resources required for that growth." Helvi L. Sipila, UN Assistant Secretary-General for Social Development and Humanitarian Affairs. (1975) 22 ’’НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ”, ГРУДЕНЬ 1984 Видання C оюзу Українок A мерики - перевидано в електронному форматі в 2012 році . A рхів C У A - Ню Йорк , Н . Й . C Ш A.
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