Nina Ilnytzkyj

Nina Ilnytzkyj died on March 14, 2016. She was a very energetic, strong, decisive and self-assured woman who unselfishly devoted her life to family and community. Forced to leave her homeland as a teenager during the Second World War, Nina linked her fate with people who were in the same predicament as she and dedicated her life toward the good of Ukraine. Nina Ilnytzkyj, ne Kozak, was born on 16 Aug. 1924 in the Volyn region of Ukraine in the town of Zdovbuniv, then under Polish rule. Her father, Panteleimon Kozak, was born in 1889 in Bessarabia and raised in Odesa. Before the end of the First World War he ended up in Volyn; he died in December 1949 in Ellwangen, Germany. Nina's mother, Marta Yefymivna Yarmak, was also a Volynian; she was born in 1901 and died in Augsburg, Germany, in 1951. Interestingly, Marta's grandfather came from the eastern Ukrainian city of Poltava. Nina Ilnytzkyj had a brother, Veniamyn (Benjamin), who was a year and a half younger and was nicknamed Vinya in the family. Nina was also very close to her aunt, Nina Yarmak, a nurse by profession, as well as her uncle, Yuriy Yarmak. The three continued to have a very warm relationship in the USA, when all of them came over from Germany. In 1934 Nina, her parents and brother moved to the city of Lviv. There she and Veniamyn entered a Polish gymnasium (high school). Naturally, both had a good command of their native Ukrainian. Nina also knew Russian, and later learned German and English. She was an avid reader in all her acquired languages. Later she would often translate on the fly for her children. Her aunt Nina Yarmak married Hryhoriy (Hryts) Andriyiv (born in Kamianets-Podilsk), a former member of the UNR (Ukrainian People's Army) under Symon Petliura. He was interned by the Poles in Kalush. After being released, he opened a print shop in Cracow (Buchdruckerei 'Drukarnia Pospieszna'). When WWII began, the whole family was in Lviv. With the arrival of the Bolsheviks, interrogations began. Nina and Hryhoriy Andriyiv decided to escape to Cracow. The Germans executed Hryhoriy Andriyiv in Kyiv in 1942. Nina's brother, Veniamyn, volunteered for the Second Ukrainian Division and died in 1945. This was the first great tragedy in Nina's life. At the end of 1944, after many ordeals (moving from Lviv through cities like Konstanz, Radolfzell, etc.), Nina arrived with her sick parents in Germany, where she took care of them Nina Ilnytzkyj 2 until their death. From 1945 to 1947 she worked for the League of Political Prisoners in Munich. In November 1947, in Frth, she married Roman Ilnytzkyj, and then worked with him at his publishing house "Time." Their children were born in Germany: Oleh in Frth (1949) and Ulana in Augsburg (1952). For Nina, the upbringing and education of her children became a primary goal in life. In the 1950s, when Nina and Roman settled permanently in Munich, Nina worked at the Ukrainian Charitable Medical Service, as a consultant on social care. In 1957 she moved with her family to the United States. At first she worked in a sewing factory in Philadelphia, next in various small business, and then as a dental assistant in New York City, and, finally, from 1965 to 1990 in the Prolog Research and Publishing Corporation (Prolog/Proloh). At home from 1990 to 2000, she cared for her ailing husband, Roman, who suffered from Alzheimer's. Throughout her life, Nina was actively involved in community work, especially in youth organizations. In the US, she worked closely with Lydia Krushelnytska, who directed the Creative Word Studio. Nina prepared texts and programs, and also sewed costumes for the Studio. She dedicated many years of her life to Plast, the Ukrainian Scouting organization. She edited a collection of essays to mark the 20th anniversary of Plast in New York, which was published in 1969. In "Prolog" she performed a wide range of duties, from administering the journal Suchasnist, to secretarial work, translations, proofreading and editing. It was in "Prolog" that she published the memoirs of Ivan Dmytryk, a veteran of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), titled In the forests of the Lemko Region. In her own words: "In 1973 Dmytryk told me that in 1949, two years after bringing an UPA commando party westward, he wrote his memoirs, which continued to gather dust because people had told him they were not fit for print." Nina rewrote the text as a "ghost writer." "The author," she wrote about Dmytryk, "showed innate intelligence and talent; above all, I was touched by his idealism, sincerity and modesty." These memoirs came out in 1976 and had great success among readers. She also edited and adapted the memoirs of another soldier, A. Plechen', Nine Years in a Bunker (1987), a book that later appeared in Polish translation (1991). Nina's work was positively assessed in a review that appeared in Harvard Ukrainian Studies (December 1991). Nina's responsibilities in "Prolog" included keeping track of Soviet Ukrainian and other publications; typing articles that were destined for journals and books; transcribing and rewriting samvydav (samizdat) materials; translations; she also participated in preparing mailings of "newsletters" and other informational materials to Ukraine. In Anatol Kaminsky's book about "Prolog" (2009), Nina described her job in these words: "When I started working in 'Prolog,' some friends inquired what I was doing there. I jokingly replied that I was Mdchen fr alles (a Jill of all trades), but jokes aside, the phrase contained a lot of truth. Initially, my main task was the administration of Suchasnist. I compiled a network of subscribers in Canada and later the US, conducted correspondence with subscribers, collected receivables, mailed invoices, solicited new subscriptions, kept a card index, engaged in the sale of books, produced catalogs of our publications...." About the samvydav materials, she wrote: "Often these were little 'epistles,' written in a hand as small as poppy seeds, frequently on cigarette paper, hence I had to strain over them with a magnifying glass...." And about the "newsletters": "We made them look like private personal letters and chose addresses from the Nina Ilnytzkyj 3 Soviet press and other publications. We were aware that most of them would not arrive at their destination, but, for example, when I started mailing them from my own address (mailbox), we began receiving repeated feedback." About her translations, she recalled: "Many times I had to do translations into Ukrainian. Mirko (Myroslav Prokop) would throw a translation on my desk and ask me to 'rewrite and polish the language a little.' Often it was easier to do the Ukrainian translation myself...." Nina Ilnytzkyj was blessed with a nimble mind and ceaseless curiosity. Within the family she was warm, hospitable, cheerful, known for her "golden hands" that prepared delicious food and superb Austro-Hungarian torts. She played good chess (taught the game to her son), passionately loved her little cats, and showered even more affection on her granddaughters, to whom she devoted many happy years. She also wrote humorous poems and satires for friends, like Emma Andiyevska and Ivan Koshelivets. In public life, she was businesslike, smart, at times impatient when it came to waiting for results from others. In her declining years, she admitted to her "sharp tongue" and tried to atone for it. Her brave demeanor tended to conceal the pain and injustice that she suffered sometimes at the hands of loved ones and outsiders. The course of her life reflected the general progress and liberation of women in the twentieth century, and, it can be truly said, that she contributed to this evolution in her own way. Generosity, responsibility, understanding, kindness these features will remain in the memory of those who knew and loved Nina. And there are many such people. Oleh S. Ilnytzkyj