Sofia Rusova

Sofia Fedorivna Rusova (; ; 18 February 1856 – 5 February 1940) was a Ukrainian educator, writer, women's rights advocate, and political activist. A member of the Central Rada, Rusova was head of the Ministry of Education Department of Preschool and Adult Education. The everyday languages in the Lindfors household were Russian and French. Rusova was a child when her ten-year-old sister, Natalia, and six-year-old brother, Volodymyr, died. Her mother contracted tuberculosis and died soon after. Rusova's older sister, Maria, barely a teenager, stepped in to fill the role of mother. The family moved to Kyiv when Rusova was ten years old, and there Rusova completed the Fundukleiev Gymnasium.

Educator In 1871 Rusova's father died, leaving Rusova, her 27-year-old sister Maria and 31-year-old brother Oleksander orphaned. Soon after, Rusova and her sister Maria moved in together. There were no existing kindergartens in Kyiv, and the sisters set out to study early childhood education and to eventually open a kindergarten. In 1872, they opened Kyiv's first kindergarten. The imperial regime under Tsar Alexander II issued the Ems Ukaz, in two volumes, including the parts of the text that had been censored and were virtually unknown in Ukraine. Rusova and her husband spent time in Prague preparing the text for publication. Fedir Vovk, an anthropologist and archeologist, furnished Shevchenko's manuscripts that he had purchased from Shevchenko's brothers with money donated by wealthy Ukrainians. At great personal risk, the couple brought the complete, published Kobzar back to Ukraine. Their success was achieved at cost of a personal tragedy, as during their stay in Prague, Rusovs lost their three-month old daughter Liudmyla. On Rusov's advice Sofia visited her native village in order to collect Ukrainian folk songs. The couple's wedding was attended by Mykhailo Drahomanov and Mykola Lysenko, who wrote a rhapsody for the bride. Oleksandr was a convinced narodnik, and after their marriage he and Sofia engaged in civic, intellectual and revolutionary activities, travelling around the country and discussing the development of the national movement with fellow supporters of Ukrainian national cause.

Legacy Rusova promoted daycare, continuing education, human rights, and the political organization of the peasants. She escaped from Soviet Ukraine in 1922 and settled in Prague, where she taught at the Ukrainian Higher Pedagogical Institute between 1924 and 1939. She died in Prague at the age of 84 and was buried at the Olsanske Cemetery.

In 2016 a commemorative coin was minted in Ukraine in honor of the 160th anniversary of Rusova's birth. A monument was installed on the school grounds in the town of Ripky. The Sofia Rusova School in Oleshnia, where Rusova was born, houses a modest museum and hosts scholarly workshops dedicated to Rusova.

In June 2023, the Vladimir Korolenko Rusov Chernihiv Regional Universal Scientific Library was renamed the Sofia and Oleksandr Rusov Chernihiv Regional Universal Scientific Library.