The past century has turned out to be a tumultuous and eventful. Wars, famines and economic cataclysms changed the map of Europe, the old ones disappeared and new states emerged, choosing their own independence. Those stormy times left a memory – sometimes scary, and often heroic. Many prominent personalities were born, lived and worked in Zhytomyr region, but we know of only a few. This story is about the famous Zhytomyr woman, Tamara Viktrovska, who devoted her entire life to the struggle for independence of Ukraine
In 1896 in the family of Zhytomyr teacher Vasyl Viktorovsky a girl was born. Teachers at the time, although not too rich, were respected by people. Vasily Viktorovsky, the girl’s father, taught at several Zhytomyr educational institutions, and her mother was from a family of priests.
It is understandable that in such a family much attention was paid to education, and Tamara received her secondary education in Zhytomyr – first in the women’s high school of Machiyansk and then in the private women’s gymnasium of Ovsyannikov. Further training of the girl was held in Kiev at the natural science department of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of higher women’s courses. It should be noted that these courses provided education that was in line with the university program. She also was very fortunate with her teachers: she was taught pedagogy and methodology by Timothy Lubenets, known as the author of the first Ukrainian «Chitanka», published in 1883 under the pseudonym Khutorny (reprinted in 1917).
What is interesting to us is the fact that he lived for a while in Zhytomyr, in a house on Pushkinska Street. This house remembers many prominent people who visited Zhytomyr: Doctor of Medicine Vladymyr Podvisotsky, architect Andrey Belogrud. Student life is always eventful. Studying at the highest female courses, Tamara Viktorovska sang in the student choir, organized by the famous choirmaster Alexander Koshits, and also visited the Ukrainian club «Family».
Here she had the opportunity to talk with famous poets Mykola Voron and Alexander Oles (father of prominent Zhytomyr citizen Oleg Olzhych), scholar – literary critic Serhiy Efremov, linguist Andrei Nikovsky and other prominent Ukrainian intellectuals. The girl loved the theater and attended the performances with pleasure.
However, revolutionary times came, the old empire began to fall apart, and many people’s lives changed forever. The formation of the Ukrainian Central Council in March 1917, Tamara Viktorovska received with great exaltation. A girl from the family of Zhytomyr intellectuals, a representative of a progressive student body, wrote in her memoirs about those times: «Where did the measured student life go: lectures, conceptions, exams, work in the laboratory, parties, theater? It’s all so interesting now and completely unimportant. From the first days of the revolution I somehow became completely invisible to myself, I joined the group of Ukrainian active youth, who was always ready to perform a variety of tasks…».
But caring parents did not share the optimism of the daughter and insisted that she return to Zhytomyr. She found a job in her hometown – got a job at the Information Office of the Provincial Department of the General Secretariat, and at the same time worked as a secretary of the Extracurricular Education Department at the Provincial Board of Education. However, her active PTO from nature sought a more active life. Volodymyr Hnatyuk, Vasyl Kravchenko, Mykola Khomichevsky (later known as Boris Ten translator) the girl participated in the work of the restored society «Prosvita». Her father also took part in the work of the organization. Together with Volodymyr Hnatyuk, Vasyl Kravchenko and Yevgen Nenadkevich, they worked on the compilation of the «Short Russian-Ukrainian Dictionary».
One of the special facts in Viktorovska’s biography is that shortly after her own initiative the Union of Ukrainian Women was founded in Zhytomyr. At that time, progressive youth were united by their love for Ukraine, their desire to serve the Ukrainian people. When a military youth school was established in Zhytomyr in early 1919, Tamara met her founder, Colonel Vsevolod Petriv, whom she married in the spring of 1920.
But then, to live a quiet family life was extremely difficult then – a fierce military-political struggle prevailed in the country. At the end of 1920 Tamara Petriv (Viktorovska) together with her husband first went to Poland, and in 1923 – to Prague, where a large number of Ukrainian creative and scientific intelligentsia rallied. There, with the support of the Czech government, Ukrainian higher education institutions were created. In one of them – the Pedagogical Institute named after Mykhailo Drahomanov – Tamara Vasylivna’s husband, Vsevolod Petriv, began teaching the subject «History of the Ukrainian Army».
Tamara Viktorovska at this time received another higher education at the Ukrainian Academy of Economics, obtaining a degree in Economics. And of course, took an active part in social activities: joined the board of the Union of Ukrainian women, supported the activities of Plast, took care of the youth group of girls «Chervona Kalyna», sang in the choir that created Platonida Shchurovska-Rosinevich.
In 1938, Tamara Viktorovska’s husband was offered to teach at the Khust High School. It is likely that this was combined with his desire to help the Carpathian Ukraine in its formation. However, with the arrival of the Hungarian troops Vsevolod Petriv was arrested and thrown into prison. Tamara Petriv (Viktorovska) made a lot of efforts to free her husband. And she succeeded. Even in the most difficult times the couple continued to uphold the ideals of a free and independent Ukraine. In the postwar period, the couple actively participated in the activities of the Ukrainian National Council, supporting the UNR government in exile. When the Ukrainian National-State Union was formed, Tamara Petriv became its secretary. During this difficult time, the family lived in a camp for displaced persons who were in poor living conditions, often starving. It was Vsevolod Petriv who died of starvation in 1948 in Regensburg.
After his death, with the help of Yevgen Bachynsky, a Ukrainian politician and church activist, journalist, diplomat, Tamara Petriv (Viktorovska), together with her son Sviatoslav, moved to the United States. In her letter to Bachinsky, written shortly after the loss of a loved one, she wrote: «I am 52 years old, though, but besides my non-life engineer-economist specialty, I know quite a few practical skills, such as tailoring and sewing, typing, and completed the course in fostering rabbit poultry and mourning sisters. We had a lot of work to do during our difficult immigrant life, and I was not afraid of any work or not.» In America, she continued her active work – in 1950 she headed the department of the Ukrainian National-State Union in Boston, paying much attention to youth work.
Mykola Livitsky, whose wife is also a native of Zhytomyr region, became the head of this union at that time. Far beyond the ocean, the life of Tamara Petriv (Victorovska), the famous Zhytomyr, the great patriot of Ukraine, ended in 1968.
On one of the pages of the Ukrainian daily «Svoboda» a small obituary was published, in which relatives and friends expressed their grief.