Skip to content
Call Us Today! 212-533-4646 | MON-FRI 12PM - 4PM (EST)
DONATE
SUBSCRIBE
Search for:
About Us
Publications
FAQ
Annual Report 2023
Annual Report 2022
Annual Report 2021
Initiatives
Advocate
Educate
Cultivate
Care
News
Newsletters
Sign Up For Our Newsletter
Join UNWLA
Become a Member
Volunteer With Us
Donate to UNWLA
Members Portal
Calendar
Shop to Support Ukraine
Search for:
Print
Print Page
Download
Download Page
Download Right Page
Open
1
2-3
4-5
6-7
8-9
10-11
12-13
14-15
16-17
18-19
20-21
22-23
24-25
26-27
28-29
30-31
32-33
34-35
36-37
38-39
40
LUBOV DRASHEVSKA OLENA PCHILKA — STAR OF UKRAINIAN REBIRTH (c o n tin u e d ) Community Activist At the end of the 1890s Olena Pchilka was a renowned writer and author of scholarly publications on ethnographic subjects. Olha Petrivna Kosach was widely known as an activist within the Ukrainian intelligentsia community and its cultural life. In Kiev at all concerts and public meetings her graying head could be spotted, her cutting retorts could be heard. Olha Petrivna was famous for her sharpness. She disliked compromises and could cut anyone to size in a friendly or unfriendly discussion. It was said that at some time in the 1900s the noted academician and scholar Perets visited Kiev and met Olha Petrivna at a community forum. She turned to him with these words: “Well, you have become so well acquainted with the Ukrainian language that no doubt you have learned all the Ukrainian proverbs. Perhaps you know the one about the gentle calf that suckles two mothers?” The academician was not perturbed. ”l not only know that one. I know this Ukrainian proverb too: This woman is so crafty, that the devil himself hands her boots on a pitchfork.” In 1903 all of Ukrainian intelligentsia came to Pol tava to witness the unveiling of a memorial to Kotlia- revsky. There were delegates also from Halychyna. At the last minute the police forbade speeches to be made in the Ukrainian language. However, Olha Petrivna as the only one from Eastern Ukraine, delivered her speech in her native tongue. Her address in Ukrainian was the first to be heard on the “Russian territory” in an official meeting. In 1905 Olha Petrivna, as one of four Ukrainian delegates, went to Petersburg to see minister Vite, lob bying to achieve permission for the right to publish in the Ukrainian language. Energetic and resourceful Olha Petrivna was a suit able candidate for every delegation. She was an able organizer of libraries, of associations, and of clubs, and she wrote articles on various subjects, never shying away from all kinds of tedious work. Olha Petrivna always kept busy. The Green Grove The quiet, clear Psol. A forest. The damp, muddy environment of Volyn’ had a bad effect on Lesia’s health. In order for her to be with her family in the summer, they decided to go to Hadiache in the Poltava region. In 1899 the Kosach family built a house about a mile from town, in the forest on a high bank of Psol River. The two story dwelling was designed by Olha Petrivna. It had Ukrainian decorations around the win dows and on the balconies. They called it the Green Grove. They didn’t want to cut the trees, and their multi- tutidinous branches embraced the windows forming transparent green decorative frames through which one could see the Psol River, distant fields and vast pa noramas. The house was cool in the green half-light. The damp, muddy environment of Volyn’ had a bad effect on Lesia’s health. In order for her to be with her family in the summer, they decided to go to Hadiache in the Poltava region. In 1899 the Kosach family built a house about a mile from town, in the forest on a high bank of Pslo River. The two story dwelling was designed by Olha Petrivna. It had Ukrainian decorations around the win dows and on the balconies. They called it the Green Grove. They didn’t want to cut the trees, and their multi tudinous branches embraced the windows forming trans parent green decorative frames through which one could see the Pslo River, distant fields and vast panoramas. The house was cool in the green half-light. There were many, many people who visited there in the summer. The whole family came together: daugh ters, sons, counsins, aunts, and older as well as young friends. There were so many guests that there was hardly room for all to sleep. Oksana Kosach and Ari adna Drahomanov were titled ’’duchesses de pantry” because they slept in the pantry. Everyone who was anyone was there: the cheerful, friendly Mykhailo Kotsiubynsky who loved to recount poetic tales, the pensive Ivan Franko, the typical old bachelor Ivan Nechui-Levychky. There was the painter Ivan Trush who later married the daughter of Mykhailo Drahomanov, Ariadna. There was Vasyl Stefanyk, Myk- ola Lysenko, the contemplative Olha Kobylanska who stayed in the same room with Lesia. Olha Petrivna gathered everyone from the Ukrainian literary world around her. In addition to the old group from Kolodi- azhne, here there were many more people from the younger generation. How they argued back and forth! The group was made up of Ukrainians of several generations, of differ ent views, of different political convictions. The older 22 “НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ”, ГРУДЕНЬ 1991 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.
Page load link
Go to Top