A memorial plaque to Olha Duchyminska appears in Ivano-Frankivsk

In Ivano-Frankivsk, at the initiative of the Ivano-Frankivsk branch of the Union of Ukrainian Women, headed by Maria Vuyanko, and with the support of the mayor Ruslan Martsinkiv and MP Oksana Savchuk, a memorial plaque to Olga Duchyminska, a writer and organizer of the women's movement in Galicia, was unveiled.

The opening ceremony was attended by the head of the NGO Union of Ukrainian Women Oryslava Sydorchuk and the head of the NGO Secretariat Iryna Chernega, who presented letters of gratitude to the mayor Ruslan Martsinkiv, MP Oksana Savchuk, the head of the Ivano-Frankivsk regional organization of the Union of Ukrainian Women Maria Vuyanko, an ally of the Union Oksana Kovalchuk, a musician and teacher at the Ivano-Frankivsk Professional Music College named after D. Sichynsky Olena Antonovych, and the head of the Secretariat of the City Council Stanislav Kozlov, who made great efforts to honor the outstanding woman. Olena Antonovych, head of the City Council Secretariat, and Stanislav Kozlov, a musician and teacher at the D. Sichynsky Ivano-Frankivsk Professional Music College, who made great efforts to honor the outstanding figure in this way.

"On her 140th birthday, we honor the figure of a Ukrainian writer, literary critic, translator, journalist, public school teacher, cultural and educational activist, researcher of folklore, ethnography, and artistic monuments of the Hutsul and Boikivshchyna regions, and an active organizer of the women's movement in Galicia. All of these titles testify to Olga Duchyminska's strong spirit and character. She spent more than 10 years in camps, suffered abuse, but never lost her dignity. She actively promoted the ideas of education, and she owns the words: "Only an independent woman will give her nation a personality with a burning desire for freedom and independence." She conducted extensive educational work among rural women, helped the military, and often visited the front. She is a great Ukrainian woman who inspires our visitors from the Ukrainian Women's Union today. We thank the entire honorable community for honoring her," said Ms. Orystlava.

After the ceremony, the Ivano-Frankivsk regional organization of the Union of Ukrainian Women hosted an evening of memories and readings of Olha Duchymynska's works, viewing photo documents about the author, and excerpts from her works.

Olha Duchyminska spoke six languages: Ukrainian, Polish, German, Russian, Czech, and French (in this order the writer herself presented her knowledge of languages) and translated from Czech, German, and Russian. 

On November 23, 1949, 66-year-old O. Duchyminska was arrested, allegedly in the case of an assassination attempt on Yaroslav Halan. She was imprisoned for two years during the investigation, then tried by a military tribunal, which sentenced her to 25 years in camps. The abuse in the Siberian special camps did not break Olga Duchiminska. A piece of paper and a pencil were punished with punishment in the punishment cell. Therefore, the poems she composed in the camp were learned by heart, and together with the liberated prisoners, they were released to freedom, to their homeland.

You can read more about the work and life of Olha Duchyminska in an interesting article by the Galychyna newspaper..