Yevhen Konovalets

Yevhen Konovalets Євген Олексійович[1] Коновалець
June 14, 1891 - May 23, 1938 (aged 46)
Place of birth	Zashkiv, Galiсia, Austria-Hungary
Place of death	Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Allegiance	Ukrainian National Republic
Service/branch	Army
Rank	Commander
Other work	Politician

Yevhen Konovalets (Ukrainian:Євген Олексійович^{[citation needed][1]} Коновалець, June 14, 1891 – May 23, 1938) was a military commander of the UNR army and political leader of the Ukrainian nationalist movement. He is best known as the leader of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists between 1929 and 1938.

Biography

Early ages

Konovalets was born June 14, 1891 in the village of Zashkiv which today is in Zhovkva Raion, Lviv Oblast, Ukraine (then Austro-Hungarian Galicia). His mother, Katarzyna nee Wengrzynowska, was ethnicallyPolish. In his youth he studied in Lviv and in 1909 enrolled in the University of Lviv where he studied law. In 1910 participated in the protest to accommodate Ukrainians with their own university in the city of Lviv. During this protest at least one person was killed. He became an active member of the Prosvita, the Ukrainian educational association, and a representative in the Executive Committee of the National-Democratic Party. He became the secretary of the Lviv department of the Prosvita organization in 1912. In 1913 he became one of the leaders of the local student movement. He was greatly influenced by the nationalist ideology and rhetoric of such prominent Ukrainians as Ivan Bobersky, Myroslav Sichynsky, Dmytro Shelkoperov (better known as Dontsov), and others.

Military career

In the summer of 1914 Konovaletz was mobilized into the Austro-Hungarian Army and during the First World War rose to the rank of a Second Lieutenant serving in the 19th Regiment of the Lviv Regional Defense. In 1915 he was taken prisoner of war by the Russians during the battles near the mountain Makivka (Carpathian Mountains) and interned in POW camp near Tsaritsyn, Chornyi Yar. In 1916 he was transferred into the concentration camp near Dubovka. While in captivity he joined a group of former Galician officers (such as Andrii Melnyk, Roman Sushko, and Fed Chernyk among others) who fled to Kyiv together . In November 1917 together with the Galician-Bucovina Comittee organized the Halytsko-Bukovynsky Kurin of the Sich Riflemen as part of the Doroshenko Regiment. Two months later he assumed its command and helped suppress the Communist uprising in Kyiv as well as resisting the Antonov-Ovseenko offensive. In March 1918 his riflemen together with the Zaporizhia Corps of the Ukrainian People's Republic, and the reformed Haydamaky Kish of the Sloboda Ukraine liberated Kyiv from the Soviets. In May 1918 his military unit was disbanded due to its political views.

Political career

In the summer of 1918 he convinced the Pavlo Skoropadsky, Hetman of Ukraine, to create a Special Platoon of Sich Riflemen which was established in Bila Tserkva. In November 1918 he officially requested a void of the Federal Union with Russia from the Hetmanate and actively supported the forces of the Directoria in the Motovylivka battle in the ousting of Pavlo Skoropadsky. In December 6, 1919 by the Order of the Head Otoman he demobilized his military formations. The same year he was taken prisoner and interned in a Polish POW camp in Lutsk, although he was released and in the spring of 1920 and moved to Czecho-Slovakia. In 1920, as a result of the shattered struggle for Ukrainian independence, Konovalets set up a new organization capable of clandestene activities within the borders of the new "occupying powers", i.e. Poland, Bolshevik Russia, Romania and Czechoslovakia. Created in August of that year in Prague, the Ukrainian Military Organization (UVO) was aimed at armed resistance against Poland and Russia, and was involved in the military training of youth and the prevention of any form of cooperation between Ukrainian and Polish authorities.^{[citation needed]} The foundation of the organization became the leaders of the Ukrainian Halych Army. After the end of the Polish-Bolshevik War and the fights for Lwów, Konovalets became the leader of UVO in the city. However, after several acts of sabotage his organisation was broken by the police^{[citation needed]} and in December 1922 Konovalets fled the country.

Exile

During his exile years he lived in Czechoslovakia, Germany, Switzerland and Italy. In 1929 he took part in the first congress of Ukrainian nationalists in Vienna. During the congress it was decided to form the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and Konovalets was elected as its leader. Konovalets then actively promoted its influence among the Ukrainian emigres throughout Europe and America while establishing contacts with intelligence offices of Lithuania, Germany, Italy, Great Britain, and others. With his direct help were formed the Societies of Sich Rifelemen in North America, hromady. The goal of the OUN was to revive an independent Ukraine through armed struggle.

Konovalets' activities raised fear in Kremlin because of penetration of the OUN into the Soviet Union. On May 23, 1938 he was killed by a bomb rigged in a box of chocolates. This booby-trap was masked as a "present" from his "true friend" who turned out to be the NKVD agent, Melitopol-native, Pavlo Sudoplatov in Rotterdam.

Today's fate

In late 2006 the Lviv city administration announced the future transference of the tombs of Yevhen Konovalets, Stepan Bandera, Andriy Melnyk and other key leaders of OUN/UPA to a new area of Lychakivskiy Cemetery specifically dedicated to Ukrainian national liberation struggle^[2].

Sources

• Foreign Affairs

References

• Volodymyr Kubijovyč, Encyclopedia of Ukraine, Toronto: University of Toronto Press 1984 - 2001.
• encyclopediaofukraine.com
• Dovidnyk z istorii Ukrainy, Kyiv: Heneza 2002.
• Vladislav Moulis, Běsové ruské revoluce, Praha: Dokořán, 2002.