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When war broke out between Germany and the Soviet Union, she and Mykhailo moved to Lviv and then Kyiv, where Olena became head of the Writer’s Union and editor of a nationalist weekly. The Nazis found her work and her ideas about nationalism unacceptable and dangerous; she and Mykhailo were arrested and executed by the Gestapo at Babyn Yar on February 21, 1942. Olena Teliha was 35 years old when she died. Sixty-five years later she is remembered for her heroism as well as for her poetry. In 1992, a cross was erected in her memory at the site of her execution. The following article was originally published in the February 1972 issue of Our Life. It alludes to repressions and injustice suffered by writers and poets under the Soviets during the 1960s and 1970s—the era of the Gulag Archipelago and the defiant ’’Shestadesyatnyky. ” Thirty years have passed since the death of the prominent Ukrainian poetess Olena Teliha at the hands of the Gestapo. She has become a legend, but as with most legends, she was a real person, with real accomplishments, and real feelings. Many have heard of Olena and her martyrdom, but few fully understand where her greatness lies. Her poetry is fiery, imaginative, and strong; at the same time, it is thoroughly feminine. It has yet to be fully studied and appraised. Undoubtedly, there were other poets in her time who showed as much talent and who wrote equally beautiful pieces. What has caught the imagination of an entire generation, however, is the fact that Olena not only wrote her poetry—she lived it. When she felt that she must act, she acted without hesitation, even though action resulted in her death. In some ways, her death was a wish fulfilled—in one of her poems she expressed a desire for a fiery death rather than a cold dying. Olena Teliha was bom in 1907, at a time when being Ukrainian was not popular and could be unpleasant. Her father was a professor at the St. Petersburg Polytechnic Institute. Shortly before the Russian revolution erupted, the family moved to Kyiv where Olena’s father became actively engaged in the Ukrainian struggle for independence and became a member of a newly formed Ukrainian government. With the defeat of the Ukrainian Army, Professor Shovheniv was briefly interned in a Polish POW camp; his family followed him into exile and eventually settled in Podebrady, Czechoslovakia, where Shovheniv resumed teaching. Olena entered the Pedagogical Institute and soon became a member of a group of Ukrainian students who had been driven out of Ukrainian by intolerable conditions. At the Institute, Olena met her future husband, Mykhailo Teliha. She also began to write poetry—her “personal letters to the world.” Her poetry was full of the joy of life and awareness of its hardships. When Olena and her husband moved to Warsaw, she taught, continued to write poetry, and contributed her work to literary publications. She knew, however, that poetry alone would not suffice to help a nation attain its freedom. Both she and her husband longed to live among their own people and be a part of the quest for freedom. When war broke out, they returned to Lviv and eventually (and illegally) to Kyiv. From her own experiences, Olena knew how terribly Russian rule had scarred the Ukrainian people. Even in her parents’ home, where only Russian was spoken. She knew how much work it would take to instill national pride in people who had been too long oppressed, and she felt that she and her husband could help with this task. In Kyiv, Olena became editor of a Ukrainian literary maga zine. She probably realized that the German regime would not look kindly at the resurgence of Ukrainian nationalism. Still, she felt that something could be accomplished before repression set in, and she worked with her characteristic enthusiasm. The reaction she expected came swiftly. The publishing house for which Olena worked was “reorganized” and put into the hands of German collaborators. Olena Teliha was asked to continue as editor, but was told that the editorial policy would have to conform to German terms. She resigned in protest and continued her work as a member and leader of the Ukrainian Writers’ Union. When the Gestapo realized that the Telihas and their friends would not give up striving for Ukrainian freedom, they were imprisoned and shot in February 1942. Olena Teliha died for her beliefs. The Ger man victory over her was hollow. Her works live and speak for her; even today, a new generation willingly, like Teliha, faces persecution and death for the same ideal: that Ukrainian people may live and develop their talents unfettered by any foreign power.
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