Mariia Stepanivna Shtepa (, pseudonym Topolia;Тетяна Лякуш. Не схилилась Тополя під вітром епох, Голос народу, 02.09.2016, № 36, s. 2, (Обереги роду). 13 March 1925 — 1 June 2020, Chortkiv, Ternopil OblastПомерла легендарна зв'язкова УПА Марія Штепа, Чортків.City, 01.06.2020.) was a Ukrainian writer, participant in the national liberation struggle. Member of the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists (1942).
Biography Shtepa was born in Romashivka, Ternopil Oblast. In 1944—1946 she was a liaison of the armed underground in the Chortkiv Raion. In 1946, Mariia was arrested by the NKGB and sentenced to 10 years in prison. She served her sentence in a penal labor camp in Mordovia and Chelyabinsk Oblast (both now in the Russian Federation).
Since 1968, she was living in Ukraine.
Shtepa was the organizer of the church choir in the village of Bilobozhnytsia, which rehearsed at her home in the 1980s. She initiated the construction of the monument to the Victims of the Totalitarian Regime in the center of the village, as well as the restoration of the grave of the Sich Rifleman at the Bilobozhnytsia cemetery.
She was the founder of the Museum of Political Prisoners and Repressed in the Chortkiv District in the premises of the Buchach Diocesan Administration of the UGCC.
She died on 1 June 2020, in the shelter of the Chortkiv department of the Caritas Charitable Foundation.Зоряна Мурашка. Чортків у постатях. Марія Штепа, У круговерті часу (Сторінками історії Чорткова (1918—1991 рр.). Книга третя, П. С. Федоришин, Тернопіль : Підручники і посібники, 2022, s. 453, ISBN 978-966-07-4050-1.
She was buried in the village of Kalynivshchyna, Chortkiv Raion.
Works Books Ternysta doroha pamiati (2001) Nezradlyvyi dushi oberih (2001) Chotyry doli (2002) U nevianuchyi vinochok (2003) Khtos rozsypav chervoni korali (2003) Vid tiurmy chortkivskoi do sybirskoi (2005) Ternovyi vinok Romashivky (2006)Штепа, М. Терновий вінок Ромашівки [Текст], М. Штепа, Тернопіль : Збруч, 2006, 178 s. Pamiat klyche (2006)Пам'ять кличе [Текст] : [спогади], Марія Штепа, Чортків; Тернопіль : Терно-граф, 2008, 123 s. Pryimy ikh, Hospody Bozhe, v oseliakh svoikh... (2007) Vidletily yanholiata, z neba svitiat nam zirkamy (2009) Tsei mech zlomytsia, ale ne zihnetsia nikoly (2011) Pid moskovskoiu shynelliu bylosia ukrainske sertse (2012) Obkradene dytynstvo (2016)
Films In 2021, film director Mariia Yaremchuk and co-producer Volodymyr Khanas made the documentary Mariia from the series Zhyva UPA.Тетяна Лякуш. У Чорткові знову знімають кіно — стрічка про легендарну "Тополю", Чортків.City, 20.05.2021. On 8 April 2022, the film premiered in Lviv. On 20 October 2022, the film was screened in Kyiv.
Awards Order of Princess Olha, 3rd class (22 August 2018)Decree of the President of Ukraine from 22 August 2016 year № 338/2016 «Про відзначення державними нагородами України з нагоди 25-ї річниці незалежності України» (in Ukrainian)
References