Olena Pchilka

Olha Petrivna Kosach Ольга Петрівна Косач
Born	(1849-06-29)June 29, 1849 Hadiach, Poltava Governorate, Russian Empire
Died	October 4, 1930(1930-10-04) (aged 81) Kiev, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union
Pen name	Olena Pchilka
Occupation	writer, civil activist
Language	Ukrainian
Citizenship	Russian Empire Soviet Union
Alma mater	Exemplary Boarding School of Noble Maidens (Kiev)
Spouse	Petro Antonovych Kosach
Children	Lesia Ukrainka

Olha Petrivna Kosach (29 June 1849 – 4 October 1930), better known by her pen name Olena Pchilka (Ukrainian: Олена Пчілка), was a Ukrainian publisher, writer, ethnographer, interpreter, and civil activist. She was the sister of Mykhailo Drahomanov and the mother of Lesya Ukrainka, Olga Kosach-Kryvyniuk, , , , and .^[1]

Early years[]

Pchilka was born in Hadiach, into the family of a local landowner Petro Yakymovych Drahomanov. She received a basic education at home and completed her education at the Exemplary Boarding School of Noble Maidens (Kiev) in 1866. She married Petro Antonovych Kosach sometime in 1868 and soon moved to Novohrad-Volynsky, where he worked. Her daughters Lesya Ukrainka was born there. Pchilka is, perhaps, the most well-known Ukrainian female poet. She died in Kiev, aged 81.^[2]

Pchilka recorded folk songs, folk customs and rites, and collected folk embroidery in Volhynia, later publishing her research.

She published numerous works, and was active in the feminist movement, particularly in cooperation with Natalia Kobrynska with whom she published an almanac in Lemberg "Pershyi Vinok".

Olena Pchilka with Lesya Ukrainka

Interpreter[]

Pchilka also was an interpreter and translated into the Ukrainian language many famous works, such as those of Nikolai Gogol, Adam Mickiewicz, Aleksandr Pushkin and others.

Works[]

Among the most prominent of her works are the following:

• "Tovaryshky" (Comradesses, 1887),
• "Svitlo dobra i lyubovi"(The light of goodness and love, 1888),
• "Soloviovyi spiv" (Nightingale singing, 1889),
• "Za pravdoyu" (For a truth, 1889),
• "Artyshok" (Artichoke, 1907),
• "Pivtora oseledsya" (One and a half herring, 1908),
• a play "Suzhena ne ohuzhena" (1881),
• a play "Svitova rich" (World thing, 1908) and others.

References[]

External links[]

• Works by or about Olena Pchilka in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Olena Pchilka at the Encyclopedia of Ukraine