Mariya Andriivna Orlyk (Ukrainian: Марія Андріївна Орлик; 15 May 1930 – 2 December 2022) was a Ukrainian teacher and Communist Party of the Soviet Union politician. She began teaching in the village called Zolotnyky in the Ternopil Oblast following her graduation from the Faculty of History of the Volodymyr Vynnychenko Central Ukrainian State Pedagogical University [ar; be; ru; uk]. in 1953. Orlyk taught history and was headmaster of the rural Zolotnikovskaya Secondary School. She served as a Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR between 1975 and 1989 and was deputy chair of the Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR from April 1978 to 1990.

Mariya Orlyk
Марія Орлик
Born
Mariya Andriivna Orlyk

(1930-03-15)March 15, 1930
DiedDecember 2, 2022(2022-12-02) (aged 92)
Occupation(s)Teacher, politician
Years active1953–2022
SpousePetro Ivanovich Orlyk
Children1

Orlyk was a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine from 1981 and was an elected deputy of the Congress of People's Deputies of the Soviet Union from women's councils united by the Committee of Soviet Women between 1989 and 1991. She has been decorated with the Order of the Badge of Honour, the Order of the Red Banner of Labour, the Honored Worker of Culture of the Ukrainian SSR, all three classes of the Order of Princess Olga and the Recipients of the Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise, 5th class.

Early life edit

Orlyk was born in the village of Kosishchevo in the Monastyrshchinsky District,[1] (today in the Smolensk Oblast) in Russia on 15 March 1930.[2][3] She was the daughter of Russian working-class parents Andrii Mykytovych Isakov and Yevgenia Trifonovna,[3][4][5] and has one elder brother.[5] Orlyk and her family relocated to the Kirovohrad Oblast in 1933,[2] in Nechayivka [ce; de; hy; ro; ru; uk], which was where her maternal uncle resided.[6] They fled from hunger that came as a result of the Soviet famine of 1930–1933.[7] Both her parents found employment in their new place of residence of Kirovograd where they settled in 1935.[4][8] She completed three classes at the school ZOSH No. 3 named after Olena Zhurliva prior to the Great Patrotic War.[6] From 1949 to 1953, she attended the Faculty of History of the Volodymyr Vynnychenko Central Ukrainian State Pedagogical University [ar; be; ru; uk].[3][9]

Career edit

Following her graduation in 1953,[5] having mastered Ukrainian and the only one fluent in the language,[4] Orlyk was sent to the village of Zolotnyky in the Ternopil Oblast.[7] She began to teach history and later became headmaster of the local rural school called the Zolotnikovskaya Secondary School.[7][9] Orlyk served as a history educator at Volodarskaya Evening School for working youth in the Kyiv Oblast from 1956 to 1957. She was also head of the Cabinet of Political Education at Volodar District Committee. From 1960, Orlyk became the deputy head of the Department of Kyiv's OK KPU and was appointed deputy head of the Kyiv City's executive committee in 1971.[3][1]

She became a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1955 and was a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine (CPU) from 1981, having been a candidate member for the preceding five years.[1] From 1975 to 1989, Orlyk served as a Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR, serving three four-term terms in its ninth to eleventh convocations after being selected to stand by the CPU. She was the elected chair of the Presidium of Ukrainian Friendship and Cultures between 1975 and 1978, which worked in cooperation with other friendship societies in more than 100 countries.[2][4][5] Orlyk was, for 12 years, deputy chair of the Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR from April 1978 to 1990.[1][10] Her duties entailed the activities of the education ministries, culture, health care, social security, all humanitarian state committees, creative unions and multiple organisational committees.[5] In 1990, she became the first member of government in Ukrainian history to tender her resignation voluntarily because of her long tenure in the post and her husband having a stroke.[7] Orlyk was an elected deputy of the Congress of People's Deputies of the Soviet Union from women's councils united by the Committee of Soviet Women between 1989 and 1991.[3][11] She served on the USSR Supreme Soviet Committee for Women, Family Protection, Motherhood and Childhood.[11] In 2002, Orlyk was shortlisted by the second congress of the nationwide Ukrainian political association Women for the Future as a candidate for election to the Verkhovna Rada in the 2002 Ukrainian parliamentary election.[12]

Orlyk accompanied Pat Nixon, the First Lady of the United States, when she and her husband, Richard Nixon, the President of the United States, visited Kyiv in 1972.[7] Orlyk later went to the 25th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, United States of America as part of a Ukrainian delegation.[2][7] She was the head of the Ukrainian delegation to the second World Conference on Women in Copenhagen in 1980 and the third World Conference on Women in Nairobi in 1985.[2][3] On 3 May 1986, Orlyk became responsible or the socio-cultural sphere, the safety of children and schoolchildren in the aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster.[7][8] She became head of the Women's Union of Ukraine [uk], an association of citizens, in 1991, promoting the preservation of peace, harmony in society, Ukraine's independence and the social protection of women in market relations conditions.[9][5] In 1995, Orlyk was head of the delegation of Ukrainian non-governmental women's organisations at the World Conference on Women in Beijing.[3] She was the head of a Ukrainian government commission to seek traces of the library of Yaroslav the Wise in Mezhyhirya,[9] and took part in the building of the Ukrainian State Museum of the History of the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945" memorial complex.[5] In 2001, Orlyk was editor of the encyclopedia Women in Ukraine.[2] She published the photo book Незабутнє at her friend's insistence in 2010.[5]

Personal life edit

For 37 years,[7] she was married to the professor Petro Ivanovich Orlyk.[5] They are the parents of one child.[3]

Awards edit

Orlyk received the Order of the Badge of Honour in 1971.[3] She was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labour in 1980.[3][1] The following year, Orlyk was made an Honored Worker of Culture of the Ukrainian SSR,[1] and received a Diploma of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR [ru; uk].[3] She has received all three classes of the Order of Princess Olga from 1997 to 2005.[2] She was appointed to the Order's Third degree in 1997, was upgraded to the Second Degree in 2000,[3] and finally the First Degree on 3 March 2005.[13] On 16 January 2009, Orlyk became a recipient of the Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise, 5th class.[14]

References edit

  1. ^ a b c d e f "Орлик Марія Андріївна" [Orlik Maria Andreevna]. Ukrainian Soviet Encyclopedia (in Ukrainian). Archived from the original on 20 November 2016. Retrieved 30 November 2022.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Savchenko, I. V. (2022). "Орлик Марія Андріївна" [Orlyk Maria Andriivna]. Encyclopedia of Modern Ukraine (in Ukrainian). Vol. 24. Archived from the original on 3 December 2022. Retrieved 30 November 2022.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Орлик Марія Андріївна [Orlyk Maria Andriivna] (in Ukrainian). Archived from the original on 3 July 2013. Retrieved 30 November 2022. {{cite encyclopedia}}: |work= ignored (help)
  4. ^ a b c d Girak, Galina (13 September 2012). "Слуга народа: как работали народные депутаты в советское время" [Servant of the people: how people's deputies worked in Soviet times]. Argumenty i Fakty (in Russian). Archived from the original on 18 April 2014. Retrieved 30 November 2022.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Gavrylishyn, Ivan (14 March 2015). "Жіноче серце сповнене любові…" [A woman's heart is full of love...]. Holos Ukrayiny (in Ukrainian). Archived from the original on 29 June 2022. Retrieved 30 November 2022.
  6. ^ a b Polulakh, Serhii (5 January 2020). "Михайло Горбачов: "Шо це в тебе за Орлик?"" [Mykhailo Gorbachev: "What kind of Orlyk do you have?"]. Ukraine-Center [uk] (in Ukrainian). Archived from the original on 14 January 2020. Retrieved 30 November 2022.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h "Мария орлик: "долгое время мы с мамой жили в такой бедности, что приходилось самой шить себе обувь — верх был из сукна, а подошва — из брезента"" [Maria Orlyk: "For a long time, my mother and I lived in such poverty that we had to sew our own shoes – the top was made of cloth, and the sole was made of tarpaulin"]. Fakty i Kommentarii (in Ukrainian). 14 April 2005. Archived from the original on 26 February 2014. Retrieved 30 November 2022.
  8. ^ a b "Мария Орлик: "В ночь перед открытием музея наши художники дорисовывали на портрете Брежнева еще одну звезду"" [Maria Orlik: "On the night before the opening of the museum, our artists were painting another star on Brezhnev's portrait"]. Fakty i Kommentarii (in Ukrainian). 5 May 2011. Archived from the original on 25 October 2011. Retrieved 30 November 2022.
  9. ^ a b c d Musafirova, Olga (15 April 2010). ""Библиотека Ярослава Мудрого спрятана в Межигорье"" ["The library of Yaroslav the Wise is hidden in Mezhyhirya"]. KP (in Russian). Archived from the original on 9 September 2014. Retrieved 30 November 2022.
  10. ^ Tatarenko, Volodymyr (24 April 2012). "Досвід, що працює на майбутнє держави" [Experience that works for the future of the state]. Uryadovy Kuryer (in Ukrainian). Archived from the original on 23 February 2014. Retrieved 30 November 2022.
  11. ^ a b "Орлик Мария Андреевна" [Orlik Maria Andreevna] (in Russian). The last deputies of the last Supreme Soviet of the USSR. Archived from the original on 3 December 2022. Retrieved 30 November 2022.
  12. ^ "Ukraine: Women for the Future association announces candidates for parliament". BBC Monitoring Former Soviet Union – Political. Ukrainian Independent Information Agency. 12 January 2002. p. 1. ProQuest 454951158.
  13. ^ "Указ Президента України №409/2005" [Decree of the President of Ukraine No. 409/2005] (in Ukrainian). President of Ukraine. 3 March 2005. Archived from the original on 30 November 2022. Retrieved 30 November 2022.
  14. ^ "Указ Президента України №26/2009" [Decree of the President of Ukraine No. 26/2009] (in Ukrainian). President of Ukraine. 16 January 2009. Archived from the original on 17 September 2016. Retrieved 30 November 2022.