Ivan Lysiak-Rudnytsky: materials to the biography in the context of environment and time

The study focuses on the biographical world of O. Chernenko-Rudnytska –the wife of I. Lysiak-Rudnytsky, who played a major role in the canadian periodof the scientist's life. The poetess, a literary critic, a strong, charming, ambitiouswoman, she became for I. Lysiak-Rudnytsky the embodiment of his dream andstability which he had been striving for throughout his previous life.The biographical worlds of the couple of intellectuals, complementing and enrichingeach other, have become one. Shared scientific interests, literary preferences,the circle of communication, travel, as well as the common past through which theyhad to go, formed the basis for spiritual unity. Survival in emigration for them wasnot just about getting a job that would provide a material existence. One of the mostimportant factors in staying abroad was the preservation of one's intellectual potential,national identity. For I. Lysiak-Rudnytsky and O. Chernenko Slavic studies becamea way of life, a space for the realization of scientific interests, the intersectionsof career ambitions, communications, a “place of memory”, a “meeting place”, a“territory” of personal happiness. Therefore, the integral component of the reconstructionof the biographical world of I. Lysiak-Rudnytsky is the world of his wife.The facts, observations, considerations contained in the biographical sketchand interview of Oksana Dexter, presenting O. Chernenko-Rudnytska, diversify,extend and correct the biographical reconstruction of I. Lysiak-Rudnytsky in thecontext of environment and time. A kaleidoscope of plots in the diversity of every-day life, behavioral reflections, character traits, psycho-emotional reactions, relationshipswithin the family circle make up the multicolored palette of the biographicalworld of one of the prominent Ukrainian intellectuals of the XX-th century.