A reburial has taken place in Lviv of Mariia Fedak, an activist of the Ukrainian women’s movement, wife of Galician lawyer and patron Stepan Fedak, and mother-in-law of OUN leaders Yevhen Konovalets and Andrii Melnyk. Her great-grandchildren, Yurii Kuzmovych and his sister Khrystyna, came to the city for the ceremony.
During their visit to Lviv, the descendants met with Mayor Andrii Sadovyi at Lviv City Hall, where they shared family memories of pre-war Lviv and the life of the Fedak family. According to Yurii Kuzmovych, part of the family was forced to leave the city in 1944 because of the involvement of its members in the Ukrainian national movement. At that time, they left their family villa on what is now Chuprynky Street.
After Ukraine regained its independence, the family was able to return to Lviv. In 1992, Yurii Kuzmovych’s mother came to the former house with the keys she had taken with her almost half a century earlier, and she was able to open the door with them. However, it proved impossible to return the villa to the family’s ownership, so it was handed over for use by the Shevchenko Scientific Society, with which the Fedak family had maintained long-standing cooperation in New York.
During their current visit to Lviv, Yurii Kuzmovych and Khrystyna visited the family villa at 21 Chuprynky Street. In their view, the building needs ongoing care and conservation. Some repair work has already been carried out, but the property still requires restoration, particularly roof repairs. Discussions are under way regarding the future use of the villa. For the descendants, it is important that this house be preserved as part of Lviv’s history and become a space for cultural, educational or other socially beneficial initiatives.
“It is an architectural landmark of Lviv, perhaps not officially, but it is an architectural landmark of Lviv. People are researching the history of that house, who the owners were before our grandmother bought it. They are actively researching it, but it is now empty and slowly falling apart,” said Khrystyna, great-granddaughter of Mariia Fedak.
Mayor Andrii Sadovyi emphasised the importance of preserving the history of Lviv families whose lives were interrupted by forced emigration. He noted that it is an honour for the city to host the reburial of Mariia Fedak and that every visit of her descendants to Lviv is a return to their native city.
On 18 September, Mariia Fedak was reinterred at Lychakiv Cemetery in Lviv (33 Mechnykova Street). The funeral service was held at the Garrison Church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul at 11 Teatralna Street. The activist’s memory was also honoured during a citywide farewell ceremony on Rynok Square. Earlier, on 10 September, her remains had been exhumed in Luxembourg.
Background on Mariia Fedak
Mariia Fedak was born in 1874 in Ternopil region into a priest’s family. She was an active participant in the women’s educational movement in Galicia, sat on the leadership of the Trud (“Labour”) association, engaged in charitable work and supported arrested students. Together with her husband, she raised eight children in a patriotic spirit, creating a reliable support base for the Ukrainian underground.
During the Second World War, fleeing Soviet repressions, the family emigrated to the West together with their younger daughter Sofiia and son-in-law Andrii Melnyk. Mariia Fedak died in Luxembourg and was buried in the city’s Bonnevoie cemetery, where Andrii and Sofiia Melnyk were later also laid to rest.