“Ukraine is the sharpest word”

A memorial service was held on July 21 next to the Commemorative Cross at Babyn Yar, Kyiv, to mark the 100 th birth anniversary of the outstanding poetess Olena Teliha executed by the Nazis during World War Two.

Doctor of Letters Ivan Denysiuk recalls, “Something irresistible made you look at her, peer into her eyes. Although not beautiful, she was still rather tall and slender. Her smile was wonderful, full of mystery, grace and charm.” Among those who were ideologically closest to Olena were Dmytro Dontsov, Oleh Olzhych, Yevhen Malaniuk, Mykhailo Teliha (her husband), et al. Here is what art researcher Arkadiy Horniatkevych says about Mykhailo, “He first made his wife Olena a prominent person in Ukrainian literature and then lived and died in her shadow.” They were in the thralls of a great feeling. Four months before departing this life, Olena wrote to her husband, “My dearest treasure in the world, my best and beloved Mykhailyk! My darling! What is going to be in Kyiv? I don’t know! And I am so sorry that you are not with me. Come over, my dearest one!” (Rivne, August 17, 1041). And he did come. When writers were being arrested on Triokhsvyatytelska St., he said he was a man of letters and went on his last journey together with his wife.

Olena Teliha’s works were first published in 1946 in the book Flags of the Spirit, and the most complete collection of her oeuvres came out in France almost three decades ago. Teliha’s verses were printed in America, while in her fatherland the collection Ukraine Is the Sharpest Word was only published in the early 1990s. Only 41 poems of her creative legacy have survived. Teliha lived a short life but left an indelible mark in the hearts of many people who dreamed of an independent fatherland. In connection with Teliha’s anniversary, the Ministry of Ukraine for Culture and Tourism has launched a competition for the best project of a monument to the poetess and her comrades which is planned to be erected on the territory of the Babyn Yar memorial complex. This project is being co- sponsored by the ministry and Kyiv’s municipal government.

THE DAY’S REFERENCE

Olena TELIHA (SHOVHENIVA) was born on July 21, 1907 (other sources cite 1906), in Saint Petersburg. She lived in Kyiv in 1918 to 1923. Her father, Ivan Shovheniv, headed the Department of Railways in the UNR government. After emigrating, Olena lived in Poland and Czechoslovakia. On July 15, 1941, she and Ulas Samchuk crossed the river Sian and came to Lviv, then arrived in Kyiv on October 22. She was one of the OUN leaders, headed the League of Ukrainian Writers, and edited the journal Litavry (“Kettledrums”). Arrested on February 9, 1942, she was tortured by the Gestapo. Olena Teliha was executed by firing squad on Feb. 22. She was buried in a Babyn Yar mass grave.