The Life of Alexandra Mamonka (Stashkevich) in the Interwar Prague (1921–1929)

Abstract

The Life of Alexandra Mamonka (Stashkevich) in the Interwar Prague (1921–1929)

The study of the biography of a particular person contributes to clarifying the idea of an emigrant, an emigrant hero, who, on the one hand, acts as an initiator of social changes, and on the other hand, is a hostage of historical events. From this point of view, the everyday life of Aleksandra Stanislavovna Mamonka (Stashkevich) (1899–?) – the wife of the famous Belarusian public and political figure Yazep Alekseevich Mamonka (1889–1937) is difficult in itself (a short life together with her husband, household unsettlement and vain hopes for a career and recognition) and difficult to research due to insufficient source base. Most of the information about the woman dates back to the 1920s. It is about the arrival of the Mamonka family to Prague; studies of Aleksandra Mamonka as a free listener at the music and pedagogical faculty of the Ukrainian Higher Pedagogical Institute named after M. Dragomanov in Prague; the political activity of Yazep and his expulsion from the ranks of students of the Ukrainian Agricultural Academy in Podebrady; Alexandra Stanislavovna's friendship with Sophia Fyodorovna Rusova's daughter (1856–1940) – Lyubov Lindfors (1886–1962); Alexandra Stanislavovna's attempts to find herself in opera singing.