Zalizniak, Olena

Zalizniak, Olena [Залізняк Олена; Zaliznjak; née Охримович; Okhrymovych], b March 1886 in Senechiv, Dolyna county, Galicia, d 12 June 1969 in Montreal, Quebec. Educator and civic leader; sister of Yuliian Okhrymovych and wife of Mykola Zalizniak. While studying at Lviv University she was active in the student movement and the Circle of Ukrainian Women. Upon graduating in 1913, she taught at the girls’ gymnasium of the Basilian order of nuns and the teachers' seminary of the Ukrainian Pedagogical Society. During the First World War she made her way to Vienna, where she was active in the Society for Aiding Wounded and Imprisoned Soldiers and then was one of the founders of the Union of Ukrainian Women (in 1920–2). After returning to Lviv in 1926, she was appointed director of the trade school at the Trud women’s co-operative. At the beginning of the Second World War she fled to Vienna, and in 1950 she emigrated to Canada, where she was active in the Ukrainian Women's Organization of Canada. In 1956–69 she served as president of the World Federation of Ukrainian Women's Organizations. Her articles appeared in women’s periodicals, such as Nova khata, Zhinka, Zhinochyi svit, and Nashe zhyttia/Our Life.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 5 (1993).]