Milena Rudnytska
| Milena Rudnytska | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
15 July 1892 Zboriv, Galicia, Austro-Hungarian Empire |
| Died | 29 March 1979 (aged 86) Munich, Germany |
| Nationality | Ukrainian |
| Other names | Milena Rudnycka |
| Occupation | educator, politician, women's activist, writer |
| Years active | 1918-1971 |
Milena Rudnytska (Ukrainian: Мілена Рудницька: 15 July 1892 – 29 March 1979) was a Ukrainian educator, women's activist, politician and writer. One of the most influential voices in the interwar period of the Galician women's movement leadership, she published articles in various periodicals. As a member of the Polish Sejm between 1928 and 1935, she brought issues of suppression by government authorities to the world stage, including the Polish regime's efforts to repress the culture of minority Ukrainians and the Soviet regime's denial of starvation in Ukraine during the famine of 1932-1933. With the Soviet and Nazi occupations of Ukraine, Rudnytska fled the country and remained an exile for the remainder of her days, publishing books and articles as she moved throughout Europe and the United States.
Milena Rudnytska was born on 15 July 1892 in Zboriv, Galicia in the Austro-Hungarian Empire to Olga (née Ida Spiegel) and Ivan Rudnytsky. The third child and only daughter in the family of intellectuals. Rudnytska's father descended from the Ukrainian gentry and after finishing a law degree at Lviv University, worked as a notary in western Ukraine. Her mother, was from a Galician Jewish family of merchants. Their union had been opposed by both of their families and the couple delayed marrying for almost a decade, because one could not marry before age twenty-four without parental consent. When Ida left home, converted to Christianity and changed her name to Olga, the two finally married and subsequently had five children: Myhailo (1889–1975), a philologist; Volodymyr (1891–1975), a lawyer; Milena; Ivan (1896–1995) a publicist and essayist; and Antin (1902–1975) composer and conductor of the Kiev opera.
Rudnytska's family spoke Polish at home and her mother never gained a proficiency with Ukrainian, though she raised her children as Ukraininan nationals. Close to her father, Rudnytska was profoundly affected by his death in 1906, which precipitated the family move to Lviv. She undertook her primary lessons at home, but then attended the Classical Gymnasium of Lviv and then in 1910 entered Lviv University to study philosophy, later graduating with a teaching degree in philosophy and mathematics. During World War I the family lived in Vienna, where Rudnytska studied at the University of Vienna until 1917 receiving a degree in pedagogy and though she began work on a doctoral program, she did not complete it.
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