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
investigate the social origins of professional folk artists in Ukraine during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and the ways they competed with each other. In 1934, Mykhailo Hrushevsky died under somewhat mysterious circumstances while on vacation in the Caucasus. But he was given a state funeral and buried in Kyiv. As part of the funeral arrangements his body was laid in state in the great hall of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences. Those who had not dared to visit him in life, now paid their respects. "In his honor the scholarly workers stood in rows like motionless statues," wrote historian Natalia Polonska- Vasylenko many years later. "From its place to the side, Kyiv's best orchestra played Chopin's funeral march. In the half-lit hall a great stream of people quietly circled the casket. They came without end. It seemed that all Kyiv passed through the room. Alone, entirely by themselves, sat M[aria] Hrushevsky, the daughter, brother, and his wife. No one approached them." After her father's death, Kateryna devoted herself entirely to the preservation and publication of his remaining manuscripts. It was she who saw to press the tenth volume of his great history of Ukraine and arranged for the publication of the fifth volume of his history of Ukrainian literature. While all around her arrests and denunciations were taking place, Kateryna quietly and bravely continued her work, now at the Institute of Literature of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences. Finally, on July 10, 1938, she herself was arrested. On that day, over ten armed police officials searched Maria and Kateryna's Kyiv apartment, scattering valuable research papers all over the floor and confiscating everything of value that the two women still possessed. Kateryna, who was already sick with what is believed to have been tuberculosis, was carried off to jail while Maria was left almost destitute. Kateryna was accused of belonging to a counter-revolutionary Ukrainian nationalist organ ization and found herself deserted and even denounced by some of her colleagues; she was terribly tortured and forced to sign a confession. On April 15 and 16, 1939, she was sentenced to eight years of incarceration in a hard labor camp, deprivation of her political rights for five years, and confiscation of her personal property. Even in the face of these difficulties, however, Kateryna appealed to the judge to see that her father's valuable manuscripts were taken out of the hands of the political police and turned over to the Academy of Sciences. Strangely enough, her appeal succeeded, and some of the papers were transferred to the academy and preserved. Kateryna was sent to one of the most terrible labor camps, Bukhta Nagaeva in the Magadan region. There, it is believed, she suffered horribly. Occas ionally, however, some mail got through. In a last surviving letter dated June 10, 1941, Kateryna wrote to her mother and asked about her health and that of other members of the family. She also asked what had become of the sixth volume of her father's great history of Ukrainian literature which she had managed to have preserved at the Academy of Sciences. She ended "I kiss you Mama, my dearest Mama [moia mamunka]. Be well and keep your spirits up [bud zdorovenka і blahopoluchna]. I kiss you warmly and all my thoughts are with you. Your K[ateryna]." Maria made strenuous and repeated appeals to the authorities to have her daughter released but they were all in vain. On March 30, 1943, Kateryna died while still in prison. Her mother passed away some four years later. The achievement and tragedy of Kateryna Hrushevsky mirror the varied fortunes of the Ukrainian intelligentsia of the first half of the twentieth century. She was bom and raised in Galicia where the national movement was making rapid progress, but after 1905 she spent more and more of her time in eastern Ukraine which was also slowly opening up to the national cause. In 1917-18 she was a young eye-witness to the revolution and saw the rise and the fall of the Ukrainian republic. From 1919 to 1924 she acquired her credentials as a professional anthropologist; this turned out to be a fitting and rewarding occupation for a social scientist wishing to serve the interests of a stateless and oppressed nation. In Soviet Ukraine, while still in her twenties, Kateryna flourished and made a substantial contribution to the national culture. This contribution was rooted in authentic Ukrainian tradition but also displayed the cosmopolitanism of a scholar who had been exposed to many languages and was in close touch with the most recent developments in her field. Finally, she shared in the defeats of the Ukrainian intelligentsia during the 1930s and, like so many others, ended her life tragically in the Gulag. Throughout all of her short life, Kateryna remained her father's daughter. She was always dedicated and loyal to her country and her profession and she worked tirelessly for the benefit of her people. In addition to being a serious and reflective scholar, she appears to have been a warm and likeable person. "Not being exceptionally beautiful," wrote Marta НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ”, ВЕРЕСЕНЬ 1998 13
Page load link
Go to Top