Olena Pchilka


Olha Petrivna Kosach, better known by her pen name Olena Pchilka, 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, Mykhajlo Kosach, Oxana Kosach-Shymanovska, Mykola Kosach, Izydora Kosach-Borysova and Yurij Kosach.

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 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.
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".

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: