I’m not sure if she adapted the name as I only have one “i “ in my name. But when I asked her about my name when I was younger she told me she had an aunt named Maria. Her aunt raised her so she was more of a mother to me.
Mariia Biletska, sometimes Maria Biletska (1864 – 30 December 1937) was a Ukrainian teacher. She ran a house in Lviv, where students could stay. She was a leader of the women's movement.
Biletska was born in 1864 in Ternopil.
In 1899, she and Hermina Shukhevych ran the Institute of St. Olga. The institute provided a place for girls to live while they attended education in Lviv. About half of these girls came from peasant families.
In 1912 she attended a meeting organised by Konstantyna Malytska for the "Women's Committee" in Lviv to prepare for war. Others at the meeting were Olena Zalizniak (1886-1969), Olena Stepaniv and Olha Basarab. The money raised from the "National Combat Fund", they recommended, was used to fund the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen. Stepaniv would serve in that group as a rifleman.
She became the Chair of the Ukrainian Women's Union in 1921 for a year. The following year, she left the St Olga Institute. From 1925 to 1926 she was caring for people with disabilities. Biletska died in Lviv in 1938.
