Today marks the 86th anniversary of the death of the colonel of the UPR Army, head of the Leadership of Ukrainian Nationalists.
The memory of the UPR Army colonel, head of the Leadership of Ukrainian Nationalists Yevhen Konovalets was honoured by the first deputy head of the Lviv Regional Military Administration, Andriy Godyk. He laid flowers at the monument to the famous Ukrainian in his native village of Zashkiv.
“Today, we honour the memory of Yevhen Konovalets, a prominent Ukrainian military leader, politician and founder of the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists. Yevhen Konovalets dedicated his life to the struggle for Ukraine’s independence. His leadership and dedication to the cause were crucial for the Ukrainian national liberation movement. Yevhen Konovalets left behind an enduring legacy that continues to inspire generations of Ukrainians on their path to freedom and self-determination. By honouring his memory, we reaffirm our commitment to the ideals for which he fought and strive to make his dream of an independent and prosperous Ukraine come true,” said Andriy Godik.
For reference:
Yevhen Mykhailovych Konovalets (1891-1938) was a Ukrainian military and political figure, colonel of the Army of the Ukrainian National Republic, commander of the Sich Riflemen, the first head of the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists (from 1929), and one of the ideologists of Ukrainian nationalism.
With the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, he was mobilised into the Austrian army and held in captivity. In 1918, he was elected commander of the Sich Riflemen. In the same year, he received permission from the Ukrainian Hetman Pavlo Skoropadskyi to form a separate detachment of the Sich Riflemen, and later joined the troops of the UPR Directory.
In 1929, he founded the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) in Vienna, a revolutionary political organisation based on nationalist ideology.
In the late 1920s and early 1930s, Konovalets, having organisationally strengthened the UVO and the OUN, established contacts with political circles in Germany, Great Britain, Lithuania, Spain, Italy, and organised Ukrainian political information services in many political centres in Europe, and involved wide circles of Ukrainian emigration in cooperation with the OUN. He carried out a number of activities that resulted in the creation of OUN cells or related organisations in France, Belgium, Canada, and Manchuria. With his direct involvement, communities of Ukrainian riflemen were founded in America, which laid the foundation for the Organisation for the State Revival of Ukraine in the United States and the Ukrainian National Association in Canada. In order to prepare for the upcoming armed struggle for Ukraine’s independence, Konovalets instructed the formation of a military headquarters and staffed schools for training officers for the Ukrainian army in Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Austria
He was assassinated in Rotterdam in 1938 by an agent of the Soviet KGB on Stalin’s orders.