The Rt Rev. Avgustyn Ivanovych

Monsignor Monsignor (; ) is a form of address or title for certain members of the clergy in the Catholic Church. Monsignor is the apocopic form of the Italian ''monsignore'', meaning "my lord". "Monsignor" can be abbreviated as Mons.... or Msgr. In some ...

Voloshyn (, , 17 March 1874 – 19 July 1945), also known as Augustin Voloshyn, was a Carpatho-Ukrainian

politician A politician is a person who participates in Public policy, policy-making processes, usually holding an elective position in government. Politicians represent the people, make decisions, and influence the formulation of public policy. The roles ...

teacher A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. w ...

, essayist, and

Greek Catholic Greek Catholic Church or Byzantine-Catholic Church may refer to: * The Catholic Church in Greece * The Eastern Catholic Churches The Eastern Catholic Churches or Oriental Catholic Churches, also known as the Eastern-Rite Catholic Churches, Ea ...

priest of the Mukacheve eparchy in

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

. He was president of independent Carpatho-Ukraine during its single day's existence (15 March 1939).

Life

Voloshyn was born 17 March 1874 in Kelecsény,

Carpathian Ruthenia Transcarpathia (, ) is a historical region on the border between Central and Eastern Europe, mostly located in western Ukraine's Zakarpattia Oblast. From the Hungarian Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin, conquest of the Carpathian Basin ...

, Máramaros County,

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe#Before World War I, Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military ...

(now Kelechyn,

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

). He studied at the Ungvár (now

Uzhhorod Uzhhorod (, ; , ; , ) is a List of cities in Ukraine, city and List of hromadas of Ukraine, municipality on the Uzh, Uzh River in western Ukraine, at the border with Slovakia and near the border with Hungary. The city is approximately equidistan ...

) School of Theology and at Budapest University. He became a

priest and in 1924 was appointed a papal chamberlain (thus gaining the title of

). From 1900 to 1917 he was a professor of mathematics at Uzhhorod Teacher Institute. In 1918 he became head of the Subcarpathian National Council, which in 1919 asked

to confederate Carpathian Ruthenia into Czechoslovakia; this came about in autumn 1919. In 1925 he was elected an MP to Parliament in

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

, as leader of the Ruthenian National Christian Party. On 26 October 1938 Czechoslovak President Hácha named Voloshyn head of the government of the Subcarpathian Autonomous Region. Following the breakup of Czechoslovakia in March 1939, Voloshyn tried to proclaim Carpatho-Ukraine's independence and, with the help of local units of the Czechoslovak Army, on 15 March 1939 for a few hours became president of Carpatho-Ukraine. He proposed, to the

Kingdom of Romania The Kingdom of Romania () was a constitutional monarchy that existed from with the crowning of prince Karl of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen as King of Romania, King Carol I of Romania, Carol I (thus beginning the Romanian royal family), until 1947 wit ...

, Carpatho-Ukraine's unification with Romania, but the proposal was rejected and one day later the region was occupied by, and annexed to, Hungary. On 19 March 1939 Voloshyn, under the protection of the last Czechoslovak troops, retreated to the border of Romania, an ally of Czechoslovakia. Voloshyn then fled to

, where he lived during the war and was a professor at the Ukrainian Free University. In October and November 1944 the

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

captured

, which was incorporated into the

Ukrainian SSR The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, abbreviated as the Ukrainian SSR, UkrSSR, and also known as Soviet Ukraine or just Ukraine, was one of the Republics of the Soviet Union, constituent republics of the Soviet Union from 1922 until 1991. ...

. (The government of Czechoslovakia subsequently, on 29 June 1945, agreed to the territory's cession.) The population of Carpathian Ruthenia thus became Soviet citizens. When the Soviet army took Prague in May 1945, Voloshyn was arrested by the

NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (, ), abbreviated as NKVD (; ), was the interior ministry and secret police of the Soviet Union from 1934 to 1946. The agency was formed to succeed the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) se ...

and taken to

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

.Presidential hunt
Ukrayinska Pravda (19 July 2021) Though he had never been a Soviet citizen, he was accused of being a " Ukrainian nationalist and hostile to the Soviet Union." He died 19 July 1945 in Moscow's Butyrka prison; the official cause of death was given as heart failure. The burial place is unknown, there are only two cenotaphs. One is located at the Olšany Cemetery in

together with his niece Olga Dutko and her husband, the other is in Uzhgorod, next to his wife's grave. In 2002, by decree of then Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma, Voloshyn was recognized as a Hero of Ukraine, with the civilian decoration of the Order of the State.

References

External links

Avhustyn Voloshyn
at the

Encyclopedia of Ukraine The ''Encyclopedia of Ukraine'' (), published from 1984 to 2001, is a fundamental work of Ukrainian Studies. Development The work was created under the auspices of the Shevchenko Scientific Society in Europe (Sarcelles, near Paris). As the ...

Deportation of Voloshyn
(in Czech) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Voloshyn, Avgustyn 1874 births 1945 deaths People from Zakarpattia Oblast People from the Kingdom of Hungary Ruthenian Peasants Party politicians Members of the Chamber of Deputies of Czechoslovakia (1925–1929) Ukrainian people of World War II Recipients of the title of Hero of Ukraine Ukrainian people who died in Soviet detention Carpatho-Ukraine Ukrainian independence activists Heads of state of former countries 20th-century Ukrainian politicians

Life

See also

References

Further reading

External links