Olena Ochrymovych

Olena "Halia" Okhrymovych was born in Senechil, Ukraine, where her father was a parish priest. Metrical information on her birth and christening shows that she was born on January 27, 1887, but this date is incorrect. She was born on March 21, 1886. Her father had christened her, and though he had registered the birth of his children immediately after the christening in the parish register, he had not registered his own daughter Olena. He noticed this omission only after he had begun preparing the annual report to the consistory - that his daughter was not registered! And since the metrical registers could not be altered by adding a name, he had to register her in the next available entry in 1887. On her school report cards the January date is given, but the encyclopedia correctly notes that her date of birth was 1886. And that is how she became a year younger, though in later years her children would celebrate the birthday of their mother in March.

As a child, Olena grew up in the village of "boarded up with plywood" Senechil, in the Carpathian mountains on the border of Zakarpattia, that at that time belonged to the Hungarian Kingdom (while Halychyna was part of the Austrian empire). In this mountain village, the houses were scattered over the mountains, several kilometres away from the "centre" where the church was located. It was virtually impossible for the children to walk to school, especially in the winter, and that is why the village had no school. Halia was home-schooled primarily by her mother, because her father did not have the patience for this. Beyond that, she played with the village girls, and already from a young age she became interested in Boyko traditions, songs, oral traditions and national costumes.

In 1896, Olena's parents took her to Stryi, to school, for further studying. It is true that her father did not think highly of urban schools, because at that time in Halychyna (under Austria) the upper echelons were run by the Poles, and the language of instruction in schools was Polish - but, nevertheless, he still wanted her to become educated. In Stryi, Olena lived at her father's aunt, Horalevych, a widower (her husband had been a priest). She supported "at the station" the children of priests from the locality of Stryi. Here, Olena made many friends that she kept in contact with for the rest of her life. And when the fathers of the other girls would come to the city to do business, Olena would listen in to their conversations with great interest - and from this was borne her interest in national and social issues.

A big concern for the young girl were the elections to the Galician Sejm in 1897, when for the first time Ukrainians were allowed to be candidates for the elections. Her oldest brother Volodymyr was one of those that led an intensive pre-election campaign, and she, a young girl, would walk on the street and stand before the building where the voting was taking place, and watched for whom the Ukrainians were voting for...

Another episode from her stay in Stryi is worth mentioning. The majority in Olena's class at school were Polish girls (there were few Ukrainian girls attending school at that time), and she felt out of place, being a girl from a mountain village, and as a result she was quiet and introverted. But when a Polish girlfriend insulted that what she held dear: "I am the daughter of a insurrectionist, and you are a peasant girl, because you are the daughter of a father from the village", she hit her with her fist between the eyes. The Polish girl went to the classroom teacher to complain, but did not win the arguement, becaouse the teacher, fairly, replied: "Your are the first one to have insulted, do not do that!" From then on, no one had the courage to make fun of the girl from the far-away mountain village.

Completing the elementary and the "divisional" school in Stryi, Olena left Stryi in 1899 and continued with her high school education. But because her father Rev. Julian was supporting three sons in university and in high school, she at first studied at home (she was taught by her father, her older brothers and instructors). Twice a year she travelled to Lviv to do her exams in the required subjects, and that is how she finished her high school in 1905. In 1906 she entered university and studied the Ukrainian language and literature. She was one of the first Ukrainian women (and there were not many at that time) to attain a higher university education in Galicia, and took on, still as a student, one of the prominent places in community work. She not only graduated with a Masters in Philosophy, but also passed a special exam that gave her the right to teach at the high school level. Olena was for a time a teacher at a girl's high school of th Sisters Vasylianok and at the teachers' seminary of the Ukrainian Pedagogic Society in Lviv. She was active in Ukrainian student organizations, mainly in women ones. In 1908, she was a co-editor of the first women's journal "Meta", a member of the executive of the Ukrainian Girls' Circle and an organizing representative of the Women's Community, where she worked under the leadership of Konstantyna Malytsky. She worked untiringly at the professional women's kravets school "Trud" and taught at the first state girls' high school of the Sisters Wasylianok in Lviv.

Upon emigrating from Ukraine, Olena became the head of the "Ukrainian Womens' Union" in Vienna, and from 1957 she took over the leadership of the World Federation of Ukrainian Womens' Organizations which was headquartered in Philadelphia. She took part in international womens' congresses and maintained close contact with foreign womens' organizations. It is primarily through her efforts that the Ukrainian emigrant community can thank her for elevating the Ukrainian woman as an equal partner on the international front.

She was married to Dr. Mykola Zalizniak, a well known Ukrainian writer and politician, and author of numerous works and articles. He was arrested by the Bolsheviks during the Soviet occupation of Vienna in 1945 and shortly after died in prison in Odessa. From the marriage of Mykola and Olena Zalizniak, they had two children: son Julian and daughter Olena.

Олена Охримович народилася у березні 1886 р. в Сенечолі, нині Долинського району ІваноФранківської області, померла 12 червня 1969 р. у м. Монреаль (Канада). Це громадська і політична діячка, журналістка, дружина Миколи Залізняка (1910)— політичного діяча, дипломата родом з Мелітополя, який з 1908 р. мешкав у Львові, навчався у Львівському університеті.

У 1905 р. О. Охримович закінчила академічну гімназію у Львові, а в 1906 р. вступила до Львівського університету, де студіювала українську мову й латинь. Учителювала в гімназії сестер василіанок, семінарії. Упродовж 1914—1925 рр. жила у Відні, працювала у Товаристві допомоги пораненим і полоненим воякам. 1927 р. О. Охримович-Залізняк повернулася до Львова, а 1939 р. виїхала до Австрії, потім до Канади, де продовжила активну громадську, літературну та журналістську діяльність.

Коли О. Охримович була ще студенткою Львівського університету філософського факультету (такий підпис стоїть під її нарисом про голосіння 1910 року), вона навідувалася у Волосянку до родини Реваковичів; тоді ж збирала матеріали про голосільну традицію села. Молода дослідниця описала способи сповіщення про смерть, звернула увагу на одяг померлих. Згідно з останнім, чоловіків «убирают… красно, у чім за житя май любив ходити». Жінкам «дают усьо по білу, або лиш чорним вишите», «чипець и хустку шальову, білу або жовту». Дівчатам — «вишиване рубатя, коло голови малу шальову платину, або партицю, на тото вінець з барвінку з косицями, а коси розплетут». На особливу увагу заслуговують ігри при покійнику («забави»): 1) «лопатки»; 2) «гусака печут»; 3) «Бога і чорта»; 4) «бирки»; 5) «кучі»; 6) «коваля»; 7) «дохторя»; 8) «сало тягнут»; 9) «булі красти»; 10) «діда і баби». О. Охримович зафіксувала у Волосянці також два голосіння — «за матір’ю» та «за донькою», опубліковані у збірнику І. Свєнціцького: перше під № 153, друге під номером 35. Загалом етнографічний опис похоронних звичаїв та обрядів, голосіння, що виконувалося при померлому, зайняли помітне місце не тільки в похоронно-поминальній традиції села початку ХХст., а й регіональному та загальноукраїнському контексті. До речі, звичай голосити за покійником у Волосянці зберігся і до сьогодні.