PROFESSOR IRENA KNYSH

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PROFESSOR IRENA KNYSH April 20, 1909 - May 11, 2006 Irena was born on 20 April 1909 in Lviv, Ukraine. She was the daughter and only child of Dmytro and Anastasia Shkwarok, descendants of a Cossack family, which had arrived in Galicia from Eastern Ukraine in the 18th century. Irena and her parents temporarily left Lviv in the summer of 1914, to escape Russian occupation, and lived in Cracow, Poland, until 1919, when they returned to Lviv. Irena was educated by the Basilian Sisters, and eventually at the University of Lviv, where she obtained her Master's degree in philology (1933). She was quite proficient in languages, and spoke fluent Polish, French, German, and English, as well as her native Ukrainian. She also had a good reading knowledge of Latin and Greek. She was an excellent stage actress in her youth. After her graduation, Irena became a professor of linguistics at various educational establishments, including two years at the Peremyshl' Institute for Girls in 1938-1939. In the 1930's Irena collaborated with patriotic Ukrainian organizations like UVO and OUN, and in September 1939 married Zynowy Knysh, a hero of the Ukrainian resistance. During the Second World War, Irena resided at Cracow, Lviv, and Melk on the Danube, many times outwitting the Gestapo, which had a particular interest in her husband, and saving the life of a Jewish friend by helping her to escape from the Lviv ghetto in 1941. In 1946 she emigrated to Paris, France, where she became the Head of the Ukrainian Women's Alliance. She moved to Winnipeg, Canada in 1950, and became a Canadian citizen five years later. She continued to be very active in various causes connected to the Ukrainian women's movement. A prolific author and incisive journalist, Irena was the editor of the Women's Section of the Canadian Farmer for nearly twenty years, and a constant contributor to Ukrainian language journals and newspapers in North America and Western Europe. Her books were very popular both in Canada and overseas. Some became minor classics in the genre of feminine biography, such as Torch in the darkness (on Natalia Kobrynska), Ivan Franko and the equality of women (which is to be republished in Ukraine this year on the 150th anniversary of Franko's birth), and Three contemporaries (which contains the best short biography of the famous painter Maria Bashkirtseff). Irena also wrote many notable articles on general aspects of Ukrainian history. Her study on Cyril and Methodius, written at Miami Beach, where she spent many winters in her later life, and published in 1985, became instrumental in the creation of a plaque honouring these Saints from a Ukrainian perspective in the Basilica of St Clement's in Rome (they were subsequently named all-European Saints by the late Pope John Paul II). Irena was the first Ukrainian woman in the diaspora to be honoured by inclusion in the Ukrainian Literary Encyclopaedia (Kyiv, 1990). She visited the old country a number of times after its declaration of independence in 1991. She was elected a member of the Ukrainian Women's Alliance in her native city of Lviv in 2005, and a scientific conference honouring her life and work was held there in the summer of that same year. Professor Irena Knysh was predeceased by her parents, Dmytro and Anastasia, and by her husband of many years Zynowy. She is survived by her son, Dr. George Knysh, of the Department of Political Studies at the University of Manitoba. She will be buried in Lviv, as was her wish, next to her parents. A private family service will be held. CROPO FUNERAL CHAPEL 586-8044

As published in Winnipeg Free Press on May 13, 2006