IN LIFE AND STRUGGLE - TOGETHER (FOUR SHORT STORIES ABOUT SPECIAL WOMEN OF UKRAINE)

Abstract

In the history of Ukraine, the part of a woman is special. She must not only continue generation and educate one in the national-Christian spirit but also protect it even with arms in her hands. In this aspect, the Ukrainian woman's mission is special as in domestic history and the world's one. If we look at the retrospective fate of a woman, then we could see several specific types: 1) the mistress and stateswoman (for example – the great Kyiv princess Olga-Helena); 2) the lady of foreign lands (for example – Regine: Anna Yaroslavna, wife of king Henrich I of France: Nastia Lisovska which we know as Roxolana); 3) the lady of a word (Marko Vovchok, Lesia Ukrainka, Olha Kobylianska, etc.); 4) the public figure and Samaritan; 5) the woman-warrior. Time of state struggle educated such type. Here we can see «the beautiful part» in two roles: the woman as a soldier (Olena Stepanivna, Sofiia Halechko, Handzia Dmyterko) and the woman as a participant in the underground movement (Olha Basarab, Dariia Hnatkivska, Kateryna Zarytska, etc.) In the time of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UIA), this difference disappeared: women were members in the underground movement and soldiers, and writers, and Samaritans at the same time (Marta Hai, Bohdana Svitlyk). This publication aims to show the most characteristic and bright heroic and sacrifice acts of Ukrainian women (and men). This publication has four short chapters about our women, who, together with men, struggled for Ukraine's independence. They supported men; they were long and hard terms in prison – GULAG. Many such women were killed, but they did not stop their struggle and showed many examples of fidelity and strength. Now such women are bright examples, especially for heroic women who fight nowadays in Eastern Ukraine. Keywords: Mykhailo Soroka, Kateryna Zarytska, Mykola Rudenko, Raisa Rudenko, Mykola Sarma-Sokolovskyi, Varvara Klymko, Nataliia Shukhevych, Mutalif Hehraiev, Kharytia Kononenko, Ulas Samchuk, «Protses of 59», Oleksandra Pidhirska, Nadiia Surovtsova, Olha Duchyminska, Iryna Senyk.