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natural sciences and physics there. The school excelled in the teaching of German and French. Olha spent the holidays with her brother’s family where she was able to meet the cream of Ukrainian intelligentsia. She continued to read as much as she could. The first short story written by Olha Drahomaniv- Kosach was published in German. In 1866, her German language teacher gave an assignment to write a humor ous story. Olha’s story about the adventures of a young lady and her hat on the Dnipro River, was so good that the teacher published it in a German magazine, paid the seventeen year old author a lot of compliments and told her to keep writing. Olha Drahomaniv graduated from the Nelhovsky Boarding School in the Spring of 1869. Enthusiasm For Ethnography The provincial gentry of Volyn’ loves to dance. Wrapped in furs, the young women arrive at Zviahel on sleds from their neighboring estates. City officials also come, but it is grandest when a regiment is stationed nearby, for then, during the ball, the gold on the uni forms of the officers sparkles and shines. The regimental orchestra plays heartily, while cou ples swing by. In the steamy ballroom one hears Rus sian, Polish, French. Young Mrs. Kosach, the wife of Zviahel official Petro Antonovych Kosach loves to dance. Tall and pretty is Olha Petrivna, with large gray eyes, black hair and soft Slavic features. The elegant beauty dances waltzes and quadrilles, but later the guests gossip amongst themselves about some of the idiosyncrasies exhibited by Mrs. Kosach. ’’Imagine, they speak the peasant language at home. Yes, yes, Mrs. Kosach, her husband and children speak like the peasants.” ’’Mrs. Kosach was again dressed like a peasant. She wrapped her head with a kerchief.” ’’Her children speak only the peasant language and are dressed in typical Volyn’ jackets.” It is a fact that Olha Petrivna constantly uses the Ukrainian language. The childhood years in Hadiache, in the heart of Poltava region; the years of her youth spent amid the Ukrainian intelligentsia in Kiev had influenced her deeply. At 19 she married the young Ukrainian nobleman Petro Kosach whom she met in Kiev and in 1869 the couple moved to Volyn’, since he got a position in Zviahel. In these years, the 60’ and 70’ of the last century, the Ukrainian intelligentsia, though russified or polon- ized till then, progressively ’’rediscovered Ukraine.” Initially this discovery was triggered through that which identified Ukraine best — language, songs, embroidery. At that time the peasant genius Taras Shevchenko was still alive. Kosach had met him once and Shevchen ko’s former love Lukeria, since she used to visit the Kosach home. Feelings of nostalgia were awakened, nurtured by a romantic interpretation of Ukrainian his tory. The intelligentsia was delighted to listen to the kobzar (minstrel singer) and the ladies loved to wear Ukrainian folk dress. Few people had a clear picture of socially and nationally oriented causes or objectives. Most of the enthusiasm was based on sentiment rather than concepts, but all supporters of Ukrainian rebirth, teachers, artists, students, considered it their responsi bility to collect ethnographic material such as songs, poems, proverbs, embroidery. There were discussions — can literary and scho larly works be written in the Ukrainian language or should it remain only as an instrument for “ household use.” Olha Petrivna Kosach was not interested in social conflicts. She was a total Ukrainian, a passionate per son, a daughter of her time and all her being was given to serve the Ukrainian rebirth. In her autobiography Olha Petrivna writes: ” lt was still when I was in my brother Mykhaylo’s group that I began to love ethnography. This interest to compile ethnographic data I brought with me to Zviahel. What riches I found in the Volyn’ region! This whole country, but especially the Zviahel area enchanted me. The language of the Volyn’ people seemed so rich, so beautiful. Of course there were par ticulars which differed from my native Poltava, but this is what I found especially endearing. The embroidery is incomparable.” The work ’’Ukrainian Ornament” was published under the pseudonym Olena Pchilka in 1876. It con tained more prominent examples of embroidery from the Volyn’ region, and even today stands as one of the more notable works on this branch of study. The wife of “ His Honor” loved to dance at a happy get together. She laughed at the students who walked about with cropped hair and plainly dressed. She loved life too much not to have taken advantage of all its little pleasures. Revolutionary ideas were strange to her. In the pat riarchal Hadiache she did not witness any sharp social disparities. Everyone lived in harmony in the Draho maniv household. Olha Kosach did not agree with the revolutionary liberators who changed into folk dress and went “propagating among the people.” She grew up among the people and felt she knew them. She believed it was not necessary for her to become a “ phony” in order to win their trust. Grandmother Korszynsky came to visit her. The old woman was a walking encyclopedia of oral traditions. Two lyre players sat in the gentry house and sang their songs. Together with a small group of Ukrainians Olha Petrivna published several Ukrainian books. It was in 1869 that the twenty year old Mrs. Kosach founded a public library in Zviahel, that contained only Ukrainian books. To be continued (Translated from Ukrainian by Marta Baczynsky)
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