The First Wreath

The women’s almanac The First Wreath, published in Lviv in 1887, became the first collection in which women of different social backgrounds, ages and regions of a politically divided Ukraine united “under the banner of literature.” Not all of the 17 authors later became well-known writers, like Nataliia Kobrynska, Lesia Ukrainka, Olena Pchilka, Uliana Kravchenko, Liudmyla Starytska or Dniprova Chaika. However, the fact that women spoke out together in the literary field for the first time gives this almanac an important place in the history of literature, Ukrainian press and the women’s movement.

Under one cover the almanac brought together 17 writers (11 from Galicia and 6 from Dnieper Ukraine), who contributed a total of 49 works across genres (poetry, prose, scholarly texts). As Uliana Kravchenko put it, the almanac became a “document of the life of Ukrainian women.” The works reflect the most pressing issues of women’s lives: relationships with men, women’s hardship, bodily experience, the emergence of a new women’s movement, different female types and psychological characters, as well as the economic and social condition of Ukrainian women at the time.