Khrystyna Alchevska

Khrystyna Danylivna Alchevska (1841 to 1920) was a Ukrainian pedagogue, organiser of public education, philanthropist and writer. Born in Borzna in the Chernigov Governorate of the Russian Empire, she founded the Kharkiv Women's Sunday School in 1862 at her own expense. It was officially accredited in 1870, was taught free of charge by more than a hundred teachers in subjects from law and geography to mathematics and chemistry, grew to 600 or 700 students by 1892 and 1893, and became a model for adult education in the Russian Empire before the Soviet authorities closed it in 1919. In 1879 she opened a second school in the village of Oleksiivka where lessons were given in Ukrainian. She compiled the guide What the People Should Read, which won a grand prize at the Paris International Exhibition, and the teaching manual Book for Adults. In 1889 she was elected vice-president of the International League of Education in Paris.