Uliana Kravchenko is the pen name of Julia Maria Schneider-Niementowska (April 18, 1860 – March 31, 1947), was a Ukrainian educator, writer[1] and the first Western Ukrainian woman to publish a book of poetry.[2]
She was born in Mykolaiv, currently in Stryi Raion of Lviv Oblast, grew up in Lviv and studied at a teaching seminary. Her father was Julian Schneider an employee of the district office, while her mother was Julia Łopuszańska.[3]
She made her first poetry attempts in Polish and Ukrainian under the guidance of her tutor Antonina Machczyńska [pl].[4] After graduating from the seminary, Ulyana Kravchenko began teaching in the town of Bóbrka.[4] Her first published work was a story that appeared in the journal Zoria. Kravchenko was active in the Ukrainian women's movement in Galicia. Women's liberation was a major theme in her poetry; she was considered to be the bard of the women's movement. She was also one of the first women teachers in Galicia.[1][2] In 1885, thanks to the efforts of Ivan Franko, she gets a job in Lviv, but in the same year she is fired for promoting socialist ideas. From then until 1900, she works as a teacher in various villages in Galicia.[4] In 1920 Kravchenko moves permanently to Przemyśl as a retired teacher.[4] In 1941, she takes up creative work in the Union of Soviet Writers and social work as a councilor of the Przemyśl City National Council.[4]
Kravchenko died in Przemyśl at the age of 86.[1] On November 22, 1886, she married Jan Ambroży Niementowski, head of the village school in Dolishnia Luzhok. They had three children: son Jerzy and daughters Teodora and Julia.[3]Jerzy was a painter and poet who wrote in Polish, and was murdered at the age of 29 by Ukrainians in Yavoriv on November 28, 1918, during the Polish-Ukrainian war, while organising Polish militia.[5]
Schubert, Jan (2012). Inspekcja grobów żołnierskich w Przemyślu. Powstanie i działalność w Galicji Środkowej 1915–1918 (in Polish). Kraków.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
