With the Soviet and Nazi occupations of Ukraine, Rudnytska fled the country and remained an exile for the remainder of her days, publishing books and articles as she moved throughout Europe and the United States.

Milena Rudnytska was born on 15 July 1892 in Zboriv, Galicia in the Austro-Hungarian Empire to Olga (née Ida Spiegel) and Ivan Rudnytsky.

Rudnytska's father descended from the Ukrainian gentry[1] and after finishing a law degree at Lviv University, worked as a notary in western Ukraine.

[5][6] By the end of the year, the couple had their only child, Ivan and their home quickly became a gathering place for leaders of the Ukrainian intellectual community living in Vienna.

[2] Back home in Galicia the Polish–Ukrainian War had resulted in a territorial transfer to the Polish state and adoption of policies to suppress minority populations.

[2] Rudnytska became one of the leading activists of the Ukrainian Women's Union (Ukrainian: Союз українок), which she helped found in 1920 and along with other members of the leadership, including Olena Fedak Sheparovych [uk], Iryna Sichynska, Olga Tsipanovska [uk] and others, organized women's journals, conferences, and cooperatives.

[7][4] In Parliament, Rudnytska was a staunch advocate for Ukraine and criticized the Polish authorities for suppressing Ukrainian culture including their schools and religious institutions.

In 1931, she was one of three delegates from Ukraine to present the case against the Polish officials to the League of Nations, calling the suppression a "pacification campaign" to silence the Ukrainian minority population.

[3] On 29 September 1933, in Geneva 14 countries met and Rudnytska along with the other members of the Ukrainian delegation presented their findings about the famine and the need for international assistance.

At a time when Ukrainian women had developed a premise that the ideal woman was one committed to political awareness and social enterprise, who made a conscious choice when or if motherhood should occur, the German view caused serious reservations and attempts to organize motherhood schools in German-occupied territories were resisted.

[10] During the late 1930s, the Polish government closely watched members of the Women's Union, arresting some of the leadership and trying to ban the organization entirely.

Letters, documents) were edited by Martha Bohachevsky-Chomiak, Miroslava Dyadyuk and Jaroslaw Pelenski and published with the support of the Union of Ukrainian Americans.