1889–1924
Olha Basarab
UVO courier, Sich Riflemen veteran
“I refuse to make any statement” is all the Polish police wrote down when they questioned her. Olha Basarab, a member of the first women’s platoon of the Sich Riflemen and Yevhen Konovalets’s courier, gave away no names and died in a Lviv jail in 1924.
Key accomplishments
- Member of the first women’s platoon of the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen
- Co-founder of the first girls’ Plast scout groups
- Secretary of the Ukrainian People’s Republic embassy in Finland; official of the West Ukrainian government in Vienna
- Member of the Ukrainian Military Organization (UVO) and personal courier of Yevhen Konovalets
The girl who never cried
Olha Levytska was born in 1889 in the village of Pidhoroddia near Rohatyn, the daughter of a priest (sources give 24 July or 1 September). She lost her parents early and earned her keep by giving lessons. Small, reserved and stubborn, she finished a lyceum in Przemyśl and a business course in Vienna, and worked at a bank in Lviv. She also helped found the first girls’ groups of Plast, the Ukrainian scouts.
A woman in a rifleman’s uniform
When the First World War began in 1914, Olha joined the first women’s platoon of the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen, together with Olena Stepaniv. That same year she married Dmytro Basarab. The next summer he was killed on the Italian front. In Vienna Olha cared for wounded soldiers and for civilians, and the Red Cross honoured her for that work.
Diplomat and courier
Under the Ukrainian People’s Republic, Basarab served as secretary of the Ukrainian embassy in Finland and travelled to Sweden and Norway. She then worked for the government of the West Ukrainian People’s Republic, which Yevhen Petrushevych led from Vienna. In 1920 she joined the underground Ukrainian Military Organization (UVO) and became the personal courier of its leader, Yevhen Konovalets.
In 1923 Olha returned to Lviv. By day she worked in the office of an oil company and gave private language lessons; in secret she gathered information for UVO intelligence.
The arrest
On the night of 9 February 1924 the Polish police searched her flat and found UVO documents. Olha was arrested. Under interrogation she named no one. On the morning of 13 February she was found dead in her cell. She was 34.
Debates and assessments
The Polish police announced that Basarab had taken her own life. Ukrainians in Lviv did not believe it: she is believed to have died under torture. After protests an investigation was opened, but it found nothing. How she died has never been fully established. The Polish authorities regarded Basarab as a spy, accusing her of gathering information on the Polish army.
Why it matters today
Olha Basarab showed that the fight for Ukraine was never men’s work alone: a woman could be a soldier, a diplomat and an intelligence agent. Her silence under interrogation shows the strength of someone who will not betray her own. Her fate left a mark on a whole generation of Galician Ukrainians, and Ukrainian women’s organizations abroad took her as their patron. For every woman who serves or volunteers in Ukraine today, her path is a reminder that this road was opened more than a century ago.
