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“НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ”, ЛЮТИЙ 2011 17 QUARTET On February 13, we commemorate the tragic death of Olha Basar a b . The daughter of a Western Ukrainian priest, Olha lost both parents at an early age and moved to Vienna, where she studied medicine while working to support herself. Returning to Halychyna, she helped organize the first female Plast troop and became a member of first women’s platoon of Sich Riflemen in Lv iv. In 1914, she met and married Dmytro Basarab, an officer in the Austrian army and a passionate Ukrainian patriot. The marriage was brief — Dmytro died a year later on the Italian front. Widowed at the age of 25, Olha channeled her energies into charitable and educational work, aiding wounded and ailing Ukrainian soldiers and civilians in Vienna. Her work was recognized and lauded by t h e International Red Cross. Returning to Polish - occupied Halychyna in 1918, she worked as a bookkeeper for the Western Ukrainian National Republic (ZUNR) and helped organize Ukrainian military units comprising soldiers demobilized by t h e Austrian Army. She also joined and served on the executive of the Lviv branch of Soyuz Ukrainok. Early in 1924, Olha was arrested by Polish police as a suspected terrorist. Tortured mercilessly, she died on February 13, 1924, and was buried in an unmarked grave. The authorities attempted to cover up what had occurred, pronouncing her death a suicide, but in the face of outraged protest, Olha’s body was exhumed, returned to her family, friends, and compatriots, and given a proper burial, which was attended by most of Ukrainian Lviv. February 18, 2011, marks the 155th anniversary of the birth of Sofiia Lindfors Rusova . Educator, author, and political activist, Rusova was a member of the Ukrainian Central Rada and headed the Department of Preschool and Adult Education in the Ministry of Education under the Hetman government. She was also a founding member and first president of the National Council of W omen/Ukraine. After leaving Soviet Ukraine in 1922, she settled in Prague, where she taught at the Ukrainian Higher Pedagogical Institute. A member of the expatriate group of Soyuz Ukrainok in Czechoslovakia, she frequently represented Ukrainian women at i nternational conferences and conventions. In her book Feminists Despite Themselves , Martha Bohachevsky - Chomiak provides a glimpse of Rusova’s commitment to the Ukrainian women under Soviet rule. Attending the International Women’s Suffrage Alliance Congres s in Rome in 1923, she spoke at length and with much passion on the plight of these women, painting a “dismal picture” while emphasizing “the willingness of the Ukrainian women to struggle for genuine liberty and equality.” (p. 271) On February 21, we commemorate the loss of poet and nationalist Olena Teliha , a woman whose belief in an independent Ukraine was born while she was a student in Prague, nurtured during the years she lived and worked in Warsaw, and blossomed during the early years of the seco nd World War when she lived in Lviv and Kyiv, became a member of the Ukrainian Writer’s Union, and joined the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalist. As editor of a literary weekly, she was pressured by the Nazis to publish materials sympathetic to them and their worldview. When she refused to accommodate their demands, she was arrested by the Gestapo and shot. The circumstances of her arrest and death are a reflection of the poetry she wrote . . . the tempered steel of a warrior’s heart disguised by soft ve lvet and delicate lace. February 25 marks the 140th anniversary of the birth Larysa Kosach - Kvitka , a woman whose name and whose brief life are so well known in Ukraine, in our diaspora hromadas, and in the world beyond, that there seems nothing left u nsaid. And yet it is in this pervasive knowledge of so many details of her work and her life that many of us have transformed her into a symbol, a legend, an icon — someone too exquisite and awesome to be truly human. And yet, one cannot help but wonder what this well - connected, well - traveled, erudite, and prolific young woman might have become had she lived to a ripe old age. And somewhere in this wondering, perhaps another question: Would she be pleased or appalled at what she has become? Shocked or amused by the statues, the lectures, the articles and books in which she and her works are examined, analyzed, enshrined? And what wonderful insights might be forthcoming had we but the chance for one brief conversation with the Spirit of Flame . . . contra spem spero. TSC
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