Avgustyn Voloshyn

Avgustyn Ivanovych Voloshyn
President of Carpatho-Ukraine
In office
March 15, 1939 – March 18, 1939
Preceded by post created
Succeeded by post dissolved
Personal details
Born (1874-03-17)March 17, 1874
Kelecsény, Máramaros County, Carpathian Ruthenia, Kingdom of Hungary
Died 19 July, 1945 (aged 70–71)
Butyrka prison in Moscow, Soviet Union
Nationality Ukrainian
Political party Ukrainian National Alliance (UNO, 1939)[1]
Other political
affiliations		 Christian People's Party (1924-38)[2]
Ruthenian Agrarian Party (1920-24)[3]
Awards

Rev. Avgustyn Ivanovych Voloshyn (Ukrainian: о.Авґустин Волошин, Августин Волошин, Czech: Augustin Vološin, 17 March 1874 – 19 July 1945) was a Ukrainian (Czechoslovak) politician, teacher, essayist, priest of the Mukacheve eparchy of the Greek-Catholic Church. He was president of the independent Carpatho-Ukraine, which existed for one day on March 15, 1939.

Biography

Voloshyn was born on March 17, 1874 in Kelechyn in Carpathian Ruthenia, in the Máramaros County of the Kingdom of Hungary. He studied at Uzhhorod School of Theology and at Budapest University. He became a Greek Catholic priest, from 1924 a Papal chamberer. He was professor of mathematics at Uzhhorod Teacher Institute from 1900 to 1917. In 1918, he became head of the Subcarpathian National Council, which in 1919 asked Czechoslovakia to confederate Carpathian Ruthenia into Czechoslovakia. This was realised in Autumn 1919. In 1925, he was voted as MP in Houses of Parliament in Prague (as a leader of Ruthenian National Christian Party).

On 26 October 1938, president Hácha named Voloshyn to the head of the government of Subcarpathian Autonomous Region.[4] During the total destruction of Czechoslovakia by Hitler's Germany in March 1939, he tried to proclaim the Carpatho-Ukraine independence and became president of Carpatho-Ukraine for a few hours (March 15, 1939) with the help of the rest of the Czechoslovak army and made to the Kingdom of Romania a proposal for unification, but he was refused and one day later the region was invaded by the Hungarians. On March 19, 1939, Voloshyn under the protection of last Czechoslovak troops retreated to the Romanian border, which was Czechoslovakia's ally. Carpathian Ruthenia was occupied by Hungary.

Voloshyn then fled to Prague, where he lived during the war as a professor of the Ukrainian Free University. In October and November 1944, the Soviet Red Army took the whole of Carpathian Ruthenia, and incorporated it into the Ukrainian SSR. The government of Czechoslovakia later agreed to cede the territory. The population of Carpathian Ruthenia became Soviet citizens. When Soviet troops took Prague in May 1945, Avgustyn Voloshyn was arrested by the NKVD and taken to Moscow. He died in 19 July 1945 in Moscow's Butyrka prison.

In 2002, by the decree of the then Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma, Avhustyn Voloshyn was awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine and given the Order of State posthumously.

See also

Further reading

  • Tomeš, Josef. Biografický slovník Vol. III.

References

  1. ↑ Ukrainian National Alliance at the Encyclopedia of Ukraine
  2. ↑ Christian People's Party at the Encyclopedia of Ukraine
  3. ↑ Ruthenian Agrarian Party at the Encyclopedia of Ukraine
  4. ↑ "Autonomní vlády Podkarpatské Rusi 1938-1939 (přehled)". E-dejiny.cz (in Czech). 1 December 2008. Retrieved 20 August 2018.
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