Olena Apanovich
Encyclopedia
Biography
Olena Apanovych was born in Melekes of Simbirsk Governorate (now DimitrovgradDimitrovgrad, Russia
Dimitrovgrad is a city in Ulyanovsk Oblast, Russia, located on the Bolshoy Cheremshan River. Population: -History:It was founded in the beginning of the 18th century as a village for workers of the local distillery, which was closed in 1848. As of 1897, its population was 8,500, and in 1919...
of Ulyanovsk Oblast
Ulyanovsk Oblast
Ulyanovsk Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . It is located in the Volga Federal District. Its administrative center is the city of Ulyanovsk...
), Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, in the family of the railroad clerk. By the memories of her relatives her mother gave birth to Olena in the railroad car. Her father was of Belarusian
Belarusians
Belarusians ; are an East Slavic ethnic group who populate the majority of the Republic of Belarus. Introduced to the world as a new state in the early 1990s, the Republic of Belarus brought with it the notion of a re-emerging Belarusian ethnicity, drawn upon the lines of the Old Belarusian...
peasants (hence the Belarusian last name Apanovich and her mother was of the small time Polish nobility ancestry. She spent all her childhood in Manchuria
Manchuria
Manchuria is a historical name given to a large geographic region in northeast Asia. Depending on the definition of its extent, Manchuria usually falls entirely within the People's Republic of China, or is sometimes divided between China and Russia. The region is commonly referred to as Northeast...
(the North-East of China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
) where her father worked. Her family was deported from China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
by the Japanese and settle in Kharkiv
Kharkiv
Kharkiv or Kharkov is the second-largest city in Ukraine.The city was founded in 1654 and was a major centre of Ukrainian culture in the Russian Empire. Kharkiv became the first city in Ukraine where the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic was proclaimed in December 1917 and Soviet government was...
in 1933, where Olena finished the high-school. Olena's mother soon died and father was repressed in 1939 by false accusations.
In 1937 she entered the All-Union Institute of Journalism in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
but the school was soon closed and Apanovych returned to Kharkiv
Kharkiv
Kharkiv or Kharkov is the second-largest city in Ukraine.The city was founded in 1654 and was a major centre of Ukrainian culture in the Russian Empire. Kharkiv became the first city in Ukraine where the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic was proclaimed in December 1917 and Soviet government was...
where she graduated from the Pedagogical Institute (Faculty of Russian language and literature) soon before the beginning of Second World War. After the onset of the German invasion
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that began on 22 June 1941. Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a front., the largest invasion in the history of warfare...
she was evacuated to Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the ninth largest country in the world, it is also the world's largest landlocked country; its territory of is greater than Western Europe...
and Bashkiria. From May, 1944, Olena worked in Central State Archive
Archive
An archive is a collection of historical records, or the physical place they are located. Archives contain primary source documents that have accumulated over the course of an individual or organization's lifetime, and are kept to show the function of an organization...
of Ukraine in Kiev
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
as researcher and took part in preparation of many historical documents for publishing.
In 1950 Olena Apanovich defended her dissertation for the Kandidat of Science degree (roughly a Ph. D. equivalent) on Zaporozhian Cossacks participation in Russo-Turkish war of 1768-1774 and joined the Institute of History of the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine as a leading expert on Cossack
Cossack
Cossacks are a group of predominantly East Slavic people who originally were members of democratic, semi-military communities in what is today Ukraine and Southern Russia inhabiting sparsely populated areas and islands in the lower Dnieper and Don basins and who played an important role in the...
dom. During the period of 1950 - 1972 she founded archaeological expeditions to the places, connected with Zaporozhian Cossackdom history, published many scientific works, made full register of Zaporozhian Cossacks memory places.
From 1972 after being fired for political reasons from the Institute of History, Apanovych worked in the Central Scientific Library of The Academy of Sciences of Ukraine
National Academy of Science of Ukraine
The National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine is the highest government research body in Ukraine and one of the six state academies. Its presidium is located at 57 Volodymyr Street, across the street from the Building of Pedagogical Museum where used to preside the Central Rada during the...
, making significant contribution in manuscript research. In early eighties the historian was often invited as consultant for documentary and fiction films on Ukrainian Cossackdom.
In 1991 Olena Apanovich became the member of the Writer's Union of Ukraine
Writer's Union of Ukraine
National Writer's Union of Ukraine is a voluntary social-creative association of professional writers, poets, prosaists, playwrighters, critics, and translators.-Organisation:...
, in 1994 was awarded the prize named after T.Shevchenko
Taras Shevchenko
Taras Hryhorovych Shevchenko -Life:Born into a serf family of Hryhoriy Ivanovych Shevchenko and Kateryna Yakymivna Shevchenko in the village of Moryntsi, of Kiev Governorate of the Russian Empire Shevchenko was orphaned at the age of eleven...
, in 1995 - Antonovich prize in USA.