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people announced their protest in a bolder and stronger fashion. From the lips of hundreds of young men and women sounded the powerful Ukrainian anthem, while the blue and yellow flags flew proudly over the demon strators. When the soldiers arrested a few young men, the multitude of people moved against them. “We all sang, we all sang. Take us all.” As a result of her open stand against the occupying force, Olha Petrivna was arrested in May 1920. Upon her release she was forced to leave Hadiache and move to Mohyliv Podilskyj to her daughter and later to Kiev. While in Podilia Olha Petrivna gathered ethongra- phic material. With her granddaughter Olesia for com pany, Olha Petrivna visited villages where she copied decorative folk art ornamentation in peasant houses, she visited market places and purchased ceramics, and enjoyed the billowing lanscape of the countryside. She was over 70 years old and her legs were the first to give way. Now the vivacious and quick Olha Petrivna began to walk slowly and liked to sit down more often. With great pleasure she would sit on the high banks of the Dnister River. The Final Years From 1924 Olha Petrivna lived in Kiev. She worked in the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences as a member of the committee on ethnography, literature/history, and social studies. As always, she worked systematically and attentively. In 1926 she published the results of her research “About Legends and Songs,” and ’’Wall Paint ings in Ukraine” (in Ukrainian peasant houses). Olha Petrivna also published memoirs of her brother Myk- hailo Drahomaniv, of Mykola Lysenko, and an anthol ogy of stories she wrote in her youth to which she had added her autobiography. Her circle of friends became smaller. Some of them went abroad, and those who stayed in Ukraine were slowly disappearing into exile or prison. Olha Petrivna read a lot. She was interested in the new literature, even up to the futurists of the “New Generation.” She often went to the theater. In January 1930 Olha Petrivna became ill with a cold. She had attended a premiere in Franko’s theater. It had been cold there, drafty. The ensuring grippe drew complications. In the summer she was so weak, she could hardly walk. In the Fall of 1930 agents of the secret police came to her home at night with a search warrant. At that time Olha Petrivna was no longer able to leave her bed nor did she get up for the uninvited guests. She was calm but her flushed face betrayed her anger. They searched the room but were unable to find anything. They said, ’’Get dressed, you are coming with us.” ”l can’t walk by myself. Now I only walk when I am supported.” The agent of the police went outside to call his boss. He found a telephone in a nearby drug store. A friend of Olena Petrivna heard his conversation by chance. "The old woman is ill and does not walk. What should we do with her?” The anwer evidently was, “Leave her me.” The 80-year old Olha Petrivna did not linger for long. Ten days after that night, on October 4, 1930 she died. Maria Turkalo described the funeral of this noted Ukrainian woman. ’’The announcement in the newspaper filled the hearts of Ukrainians with grief, those who were still free. The vestigages of the Ukrainian bourgeois nationalism, as we were called then, made our way with heavy hearts to the unpretentious quarters on Ovrutsky street, where in a small room lay the coffin covered with flowers, with the body of Olena Pchilka. On the day of the funeral the entire street in front of the building was filled with people. They stood quietly, speaking amongst themselves and looking over their shoulders since there were many secret police agents in the crowd. I saw professor Mykhailo Hrushevsky with his wife, Oksana Steshenko and further down the street were Mykola Sadovsky, Mykola Zerov, Maria Hrinchenko and other familiar faces. We were all united in grief at the death of Olena Pchilka. The coffin was brought down and placed on the funeral bier. The procession extended for several blocks. There were no clergy and no orchestra. All walked quietly. Those in charge of the funeral arrangements led the procession to go past the Ukrainian Academy of Scien ces. In the depths of their souls there was a spark of hope that this Ukrainian cultural institution would react and in some way honor the memory of one of the pio neers of Ukrainian cultural studies, the untiring com munity activist and writer. But hope was for naught. In the Academy of Sciences a new spirit was in place and no one thought, it necessary to greet the procession and say a few, if not very sincere, words. The building of the Academy stood silent and forbidding. Very slowly the procession passed it and wound its way to the Bai- kovo cemetary. The final resting place of Olha Petrivna was along side the grave of Lesia Ukrainka. In silence the coffin was lowered. There was no music and no speeches. What was there to say? Official speeches, though allowed in such situations, could not convey what was in the hearts of everyone. In effect, they would have offended Olha Petrivna. What one wanted to say, was forbidden to utter. No one dared to disturb the solemnity of the mo ment. This grave and absolute silence only reenforced the greatness of this moment which held a protest, a mute protest and sorrow. Myhkailo Hrushevsky, who stood at the edge of the “НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ”, СІЧЕНЬ 1992 17
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