Mother’s plakhta and daughter’s last photo
The Lesia Ukrainka Research Institute at Volyn National University has received valuable new exhibits
Lutsk — Tamara Skrypka, a graduate of the Lutsk-based Lesia Ukrainka Teacher-Training Institute and now a research associate at the Ukrainian Free Academy of Sciences in New York, has brought some priceless relics to Ukraine from the US. They were once kept by the family of the Drahomanovs-Kosaches, particularly Lesia Ukrainka’s niece, the now late Olha Serhiiv-Borysova. While handing over the documents, books, and photographs to the Lesia Ukrainka Institute, Skrypka modestly called herself a “carrier.” But she admitted later that one must be a very good diplomat to be able to find things and convince the family that they are valuable.
This is not the first time that Skrypka is returning Lesia Ukrainka’s memorabilia to Ukraine and Volyn. Last year she handed over a part of the Kosaches’ family relics, including Lesia’s manuscripts and an iconographical archive, to the Institute of Literature, Ukraine’s National Academy of Sciences. Some things were presented to the Lesia Ukrainka Museum in Kyiv and the memorial museum in the village of Kolodiazhne, Volyn.
She would also hand over interesting objects to VNU’s Lesia Ukrainka Institute which she once helped to establish. The February 2009 exhibition displayed the autographs of Lesia and her close entourage. Some unique photographs were for the first time: photos of Lesia’s sisters Oksana Kosach-Shymanovska and Isydora Kosach-Borysova and Lesia’s nephews and nieces — Yurii Kosach, Oksana Shymanovska-Gaab and Olha Borysova-Kosach.
Yurii Savchuk, Ph.D. (History), chairman of the State Service for Controlling the Movement of Cultural Valuables across the State Border, has now handed over Skrypka’s rarities to the Lesia Ukrainka Museum. The batch consists of 31 documents and 27 books, including a valuable 19th-century Poltava plakhta (traditional wraparound skirt) that belonged to Lesia’s mother Olena Pchilka, and two photos from Lesia’s personal archive. One of them shows her with Olha Kobylianska, the other is Lesia’s last lifetime picture taken by her cousin when she visited her family in late May on the way back from Egypt where she had received medical treatment. As is known, this courageous and talented lady departed this life in early August.
Yurii SAVCHUK, chairman, State Service for Controlling the Movement of Cultural Valuables across the State Border:
“It is extremely important that these photos were in Lesia Ukrainka’s personal use: they carry the historical memory and aura of this person. There are also some interesting reminiscences of Natalia Doroshenko about Lesia’s funeral. What is important is not only the fact that these documents will be the object of research but also the fact that a wide circle of researchers will have an opportunity to study them. Undoubtedly, they will be also used in nationwide Lesia Ukrainka research projects.”
Mykola ZHULYNSKY, Chairman, Supervisory Board, Volyn National University; Director, Taras Shevchenko Institute of Literature, National Academy of Sciences, Ukraine:
“Unfortunately, we can still hear the echoes of Soviet propaganda, which we cannot reject once and for all. I mean that they take one clich? and add to it certain works of a writer, while the rest, which may be more valuable and important for spirituality and culture, remains in the shadow. It is very difficult to shatter this stereotype.
“We have copy-book images of Taras Shevchenko, Ivan Franko, Lesia Ukrainka, etc. Some people only know that she was gravely ill… But she left the world a unique creative legacy, and her oeuvres are still striking us with their prophetic nature. For this reason I think that we should not only hold memorial events but also develop new approaches to researching Lesia Ukrainka.
“These days Volyn University is also hosting the all-Ukrainian academic hearings ‘Lesia Ukrainka and the Present Day’ aimed at rallying all the national Lesia Ukrainka researchers around this university and its calling card — the Lesia Ukrainka Institute. We still have very much to do to produce a truly complete collection of her legacy and begin at last to write a personal encyclopedia of Lesia Ukrainka.”
