On 18 September in Lviv, the remains of Mariia Fedak (Sichynska) – a figure of the Ukrainian women’s movement, wife of Galician lawyer and patron Stepan Fedak, and mother of the wives of two OUN leaders, Yevhen Konovalets and Andrii Melnyk – will be reinterred. Her remains were exhumed on 10 September at the Bonnevoie cemetery in Luxembourg and are being returned to Ukraine as part of President Volodymyr Zelenskyi’s initiative to bring back and honour prominent Ukrainians buried abroad.
In Lviv, the remains of Mariia Fedak will rest in plot No. 49 of Lychakiv Cemetery, next to the grave of her husband, Stepan Fedak.
“The Russian Empire, and later the Soviet regime, did everything to ensure that Ukrainians lost not only their state, but also their own historical memory. So that those who fought for Ukraine would remain in exile even after death. We are changing this” — Maksym Kozytskyi
The programme to commemorate Mariia Fedak on 18 September in Lviv includes several events. At 14:00 the cortege will be received at the Garrison Church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul at 11 Teatralna Street, where the farewell service will take place. At 14:40 a citywide commemoration ceremony is planned near Lviv City Hall at 1 Rynok Square. At 15:00 the reinterment ceremony will begin at Lychakiv Cemetery at 33 Mechnykova Street.
Mariia Fedak was born in 1874 in Ternopil region. She was an active participant in the women’s educational and enlightenment movement in Galicia, was part of the leadership of the Trud association, and was engaged in charity work and support for arrested students. To avoid Soviet repressions, the family emigrated abroad. Mariia spent the last years of her life in Luxembourg, where she was buried until the present reinterment.