ОЛЕНА СТЕПАНІВ – ОФІЦЕР УСС ТА УГА, УКРАЇНСЬКИЙ ДИПЛОМАТ, ГЕОГРАФ, ГЕОЛОГІСТ

Abstract

Peculiarities of life, military, the diplomatic activity of O. I. Stepaniv, PhD in Geography, as well as her scientific achievements as a Ukrainian geographer and geologist, are revealed. The biography of O. I. Stepaniv (1892–1963) absorbed all the complexities of the twentieth century. A woman who aspired to comprehend science and entered the Faculty of Philosophy of Lviv University devoted her youth to the struggle for independence of Ukraine. As an extraordinary person, she achieved success in military affairs even in these difficult times – she became an officer in the armies of the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen and the Ukrainian Galician Army; carried out significant public work to establish the Republic of Western Ukraine and became its diplomatic representative. At the same time, she continued her studies, was able to write and defend a dissertation in Vienna and obtain a doctor degree (PhD) in history and geography. From 1921 until her arrest for “anti-Soviet” activities in 1949, O. I. Stepaniv taught and conducted scientific work, in particular, on economic and social geography. It is noted that her works on the geography of transport can be considered as “forerunners” of geologistics, which emerged as a direction of geographical research only at the beginning of the XXI century. It is proved that O.I. Stepaniv views on the geopolitical, transport-geographical position of the Ukrainian lands were much ahead of the current level of comprehension of geographical material and still need their study. The authors emphasize that her transport and geographical works, in particular, dedicated to the city of Lviv (1943), are geologistical in their approach and in many respects “resonate” with the modern vision of the geopolitical and geologistical potential of Ukraine as an independent Europian state. The authors give an example of a modern EU project in the field of transport logistics “Three Seas Initiative”, aimed at developing the transport network of the Baltic-Adriatic-Black Seas region, to which Ukraine is invited as a strategically important partner (although it is not yet a full member of the EU).