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18 WWW. UNWLA.ORG “НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ”, ЛИПЕНЬ - СЕРПЕНЬ 2012 tee of the rights of Ukrainians. To th e contrary, the Polish occupation government was making every effort to deprive Ukrainians of their national rights in all spheres of Ukrainian life . During 1928 - 1934, Milena Rudnytska represented Western Ukraine at the League of Nations in Geneva, whe re she informed the inte r- national community about the criminal pacific a- tion of Ukrainians by the Polish authorities. See k- ing support of European states in Ukrainian ma t- ters, Rudnytska visited almost all European cap i- tals, spoke at the League of Nations abo ut Hol o- domor in Ukraine, and agitated against commu n- ism abroad. After the founding of the Ukrainian National Council in 1948, she served as its repr e- sentative in Switzerland. In 1928, Rudnytska was elected Pres i- dent of the Ukrainian Women’ s Union, and s he served in this capacity till the beginning of World War II. During her term, the organization r e- cruited more than 100, 000 members in 28 r e- gional branches and 110 village circles. Since 1934, she was an active participant in the work of interna tional wo men’ s organizations as President of the World Union of Ukrainian Women. “ The Ukrain i an women’ s movement was founded on the idea that Ukrainian women are no less r e- sponsible for Ukraine’ s present and future than men, ” wrote Rudnytska about the women ’ s movement in Ukraine. “ We believe that women have special tasks to carry out not only in the fa m- ily but also in society, in the life of their nation and of all humankind. These tasks are closely a s- sociated with motherhood and the mothering i n- stincts women possess... Activists in the women’ s movement are convinced that women have the right and the duty to introduce into the life of their nation their experiences and their unde r- standing of what is good and just... ” Justifying and defend ing the Ukrainian Wom en’ s Union required much energy and effort. The Polish opposition and some Ukrainian polit i- cal figures tried in vain to push Rudnytska out of politics. To this end they created alterna tive women’ s organizations of varying political stripes. At the demand o f the Polish government , who were afraid of Rudnytska’ s sharp critiques and her dedication to the defense of Ukrainian rights, the UNDA leadership prevented her re - election to the Sejm. Thereafter Rudnytska took active part in creating the Contact Committe e that aimed at uniting moderate Ukrainian parties in the stru g- gle for Ukrainian rights in nationalist Poland of the interwar period. Milena Rudnytska had zero tolerance for all authoritarian regimes. She condemned both Communist and Nazi ideologies, an d after mee t- ing the Italian dictator Mussolini, she wrote a long article that denounced authoritarianism. Rudnytska was also a journalist and a writer. Her articles on political, cultural, feminist, and educational topics appeared in the Ukrainian and Vien nese press. She edited the women’ s page in the weekly Dilo ( Action ), and in 1935 - 1939 she worked as editor - in - chief of the magazine Zhinka ( Woman ). In 1950 - 1958, she worked for the news paper Svoboda in the United States, and in 1956 - 1960, at the Ukrainian radio station “ Svob o- da ” in Munich. Rudnytska authored a number of essays, including “ Ukrainian Reality and Wo m- en’ s Tasks, ” “ Western Ukraine under the Bolsh e- viks, ” and “ Twenty Years of Polish Lawlessness in Western Ukraine, ” as well as book - length studies Don Bosco: Individual, Teacher, Saint ; Invisible Stigmata ; and From the Past of the Rudnytsky Family . After the first Bolshevik occupation of Western Ukraine, in an effort to avoid gover n- ment repressions, Rudnytska illegally crossed the border. First she lived in Cracow, later in Berlin and Prague, and after the war, the International Red Cross invited her to move to Switzerland. There Rudnytska founded the Ukrainian Aid Committee that hel ped over 500 families from Czechoslovakia, which had been occupied by the Red Army, escape to the West. She chaired this Committee until her emigration to the United States in 1950. When in 1963 His Beatitude Patriarch Josyf Slipyj returned from the Siber ian gulag, M i- lena Rudnytska, who had become ver y devout in her elder years, was among the first people to greet the Head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. Her monograph Invisible Stigmata is one of the best works on Josyf Slipyj. Milena Rudnytska pa ssed away on March 29, 1976, in Munich. In 1993, her remains were transferred to Lviv for a reburial. For the members of the UNWLA, Milena Rudnytska will always be a model of ardent Ukrainian patriotism and selfless service to her people. Even today, the national idea continues to be the driving force of most Ukrainian wom en’ s organizations. As Rudnytska had put it once, “the Ukrainian women’s movement draws its inspir a- tion and strength from the national idea...” Abridged translation by Olesia Wallo Source s: Martha Bohachevsky - Chomiak, M Diadiuk, eds. Milena Rudnytska: Articles, Letters, Documents . Lviv: Misioner, 1998.
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