Ivan Babiy (March 5, 1893 – July 25, 1934) was a Ukrainian educator and military officer. He was one of the main organizers of the "Ukrainian Youth for Christ" festival and a proponent of coexistence between Ukrainians and Poles in Galicia as an integral part of

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

. Babiy was killed on the orders of the Organization of

Ukrainian Nationalists Ukrainian nationalism refers to the promotion of the unity of Ukrainians as a people and it also refers to the promotion of the identity of Ukraine as a nation state. The nation building that arose as nationalism grew following the French Revol ...

(OUN). He was assassinated by decision of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN)

Biography

He was born on March 5, 1893, in the village of Dobromirka (now in Zbarazh district of Ternopil region, Ukraine) into a peasant family. Babij graduated from a high school in

Tarnopol Ternópil ( uk, Тернопіль, Ternopil' ; pl, Tarnopol; yi, טאַרנאָפּל, Tarnopl, or ; he, טארנופול (טַרְנוֹפּוֹל), Tarnopol; german: Tarnopol) is a city in the west of Ukraine. Administratively, Ternopi ...

, then studied classical philology at the Jan Kazimierz University in Lwów. Following the start of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

in 1914 he was called into the Austro-Hungarian Army, where he served in the

Ukrainian Sich Riflemen Legion of Ukrainian Sich Riflemen (german: Ukrainische Sitschower Schützen; uk, Українські cічові стрільці (УСС), translit=Ukraïnski sichovi stril’tsi (USS)) was a Ukrainian unit within the Austro-Hungarian Army d ...

. In 1918-1919 he fought against Poland in the

Ukrainian Galician Army Ukrainian Galician Army ( uk, Українська Галицька Армія, translit=Ukrayins’ka Halyts’ka Armiya, UHA), was the Ukrainian military of the West Ukrainian National Republic during and after the Polish-Ukrainian War. It wa ...

and in 1920 participated as an officer of the

Ukrainian People's Army The Ukrainian People's Army ( uk, Армія Української Народної Республіки), also known as the Ukrainian National Army (UNA) or as a derogatory term of Russian and Soviet historiography Petliurovtsy ( uk, Пет� ...

in the Kyiv Offensive of the joint Polish-Ukrainian forces. Later, he became a principal of a high school in

Brzeżany Berezhany ( uk, Бережани, ; pl, Brzeżany; yi, ברעזשאַן, Brezhan; he, בּז'יז'אני/בּז'ז'ני ''Bzhezhani''/''Bzhizhani'') is a city in Ternopil Raion, Ternopil Oblast (province) of western Ukraine. It lies about fr ...

, then, in 1931, took the post of principal of a Ukrainian high school in Lwów. He organized the Youth for Christ festival in western Ukraine.Myroslav Shkandri. (2015). Ukrainian Nationalism: Politics, Ideology, and Literature, 1929-1956. New Haven: Yale University Press. pg. 30 Babij openly criticized the

Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists ( uk, Організація українських націоналістів, Orhanizatsiya ukrayins'kykh natsionalistiv, abbreviated OUN) was a Ukrainian ultranationalist political organization estab ...

, which resulted in death sentence, passed by the Revolutionary Tribunal of the OUN. He was murdered by OUN's activist Mykhaylo Car. The assassination was publicly condemned by the Ukrainian Archbishop

Andrey Sheptytsky Andrey Sheptytsky, OSBM (; uk, Митрополит Андрей Шептицький; 29 July 1865 – 1 November 1944) was the Metropolitan Archbishop of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church from 1901 until his death in 1944. His tenure spann ...

. The revolutionary tribunal of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists sentenced him to death. In this regard, on July 27, 1934, an OUN militant killed Babiy in Lviv. As it turned out, Babiy was assigned police protection, and when the attacker realized that he would not be able to escape, he tried to shoot himself. In the hospital, the militant regained consciousness and confessed that he was a member of the OUN and his name was Mykhailo Tsar, originally from Pozdymyr. On August 17, the killer died of his wound. Петро Мірчук. Нарис історії ОУН
Том 1. V частина. Розділ 5.
Вбивство Івана Бабія.

Sources

* Andrzej Chojnowski, Jan Bruski - "Ukraina", Warszawa 2006,

References

1893 births 1934 deaths People from Ternopil Oblast People from the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria Ukrainian Austro-Hungarians Ukrainian educators Ukrainian military personnel Austro-Hungarian military personnel of World War I Ukrainian Galician Army people 20th-century Ukrainian educators Victims of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists {{ukraine-bio-stub