Belarusians on the service of UNR: Oleksandr Maksymovych Zhykhovych (1900-1973). Post scriptum: November’s interrogation in 1953 and the last years of life
DOI::
https://doi.org/10.31861/hj2019.49.67-76Keywords:
Oleksandr Maksymovych Zhykhovych, Ukrainian People’s Republic, intermilitary emigration, Second World War, publishing houses «UNIO» and «Proboiem», postwar years, Czechoslovak Socialist RepublicAbstract
This article contains the material about one of the eleven Belarusian soldiers of the UNR Army, the student of the Ukrainian Economic Academy in Podebrady (CHSR). After surviving the Second World War in Czechoslovakia, Oleksandr Zhykhovych, in 1953 was summoned for questioning by the Czechoslovak-Soviet Committee of State Security, due to his ties to the Ukrainian political emigration of the interwar years. Among the questions, which were interested to the KDB agents, were: the emigration political organizations at the Academy of Economics and their anti-Soviet activities during 1921-1939; employment of Zhykhovych in Khustov Bank and his contacts with the bank employees; the presence of Belarusian political organizations in the environment of the Ukrainian emigration students of the CHSR; personal Zhykhovych’s contribution (as the chief accountant) in the activities of Transcarpathian publishing houses «UNIO» and «Proboiem». This last question was interested to the KDB agents, mostly, since, in the 1950s a brutal war continued between the Soviets and the Ukrainian nationalists. We must note that the first victim of the Soviet-nationalist confrontation personally for Oleksandr Maksymovych Zhykhovych was the arrest (on the eve of his interrogation) of his stepson – Zdenek Nekhanitskyi (10.08.1928). In 1953, he was the head’s assistant of the power plant station named after May 1 in Trshebonitsi (district of Ostrava), a member of the Communist Party of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic of 1945. It was Zdenek Nekhanitskyi, who suffered a forced arrest, the interrogation of his stepfather and investigation, and handed over to Serhii Knyrevych the interrogation protocol. And today, despite a respectable age, Zdenek Nekhanitskyi is trying to find the most precise answer to the question: how did it happen and why his stepfather, an ethnic Belarusian, spent almost his entire life in the Ukrainian political emigration, both interwar and post-war, and left a remarkable footprint there?
Keywords: Oleksandr Maksymovych Zhykhovych, Ukrainian People’s Republic, intermilitary emigration, Second World War, publishing houses «UNIO» and «Proboiem», postwar years, Czechoslovak Socialist Republic
References
O. Zubko, «Malen’kie» lichnosti belorusskoj prazhskoj jemigracii 1920-h [«Small» personalities of the Belarusian Prague emigration of the 1920s], in «Vestnik Polockogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta». Serija A. Gumanitarnye nauki, 2018, vip. 9, s. 31-41.
R. Koval, V. Morenets, «Podebradskyi polk» Armii UNR: Do istorii Ukrainskykh sichovykh striltsiv, Bohdanivskoho ta Hordiievskoho polkiv viisk Tsentralnoi Rady, 1-yi Siroi, 1-yi Zaporizkoi, 2-yi Volynskoi, 3-yi Zaliznoi, 4-yi Kyivskoi, 5-yi Khersonskoi ta 1-yi Kulemetnoi dyvizii Armii UNR, Halytskoi armii, Vilnoho kozatstva, povstansko-partyzanskoho rukhu, Zaporozkoi Sichi Yukhyma Bozhka, Okremoho chornomorskoho kosha viisk Dyrektorii, Lehii ukrainskykh natsionalistiv. UVO. OUN ta dyvizii «Halychyna». T. 1 /Biblioteka Istorychnoho klubu «Kholodnyi Yar». [«Podebrady regiment »Army of the UPR: In the history of the Ukrainian
Sich Riflemen, Bogdanovsky and Gordievsky regiments of the Central Rada troops, 1st Gray, 1 st Zaporozhye, 2nd Volyn, 3rd Iron, 4th Kiev, 5th Kherson and 1st Artillery Division of the UPR, Galician Army, Free Cossacks, Rebellion-Partisan Movement, Zaporozhian Sich Ehim Bochka, Separate Black Sea Fleet of the Directorate of Troops, Legions of Ukrainian Nationalists. UV OUN and Halychyna Division. T. 1 / Library of the Historical Club «Holodnyi Yar»], Kyiv, Istorychnyi klub «Kholodnyi Yar», «Oriientyr», 2016. s. 234.
TsDAVOVU. [Central State Archive of the Supreme Power and Administration of Ukraine in Kyiv], f. 3795. op.1. spr. 1070 Osobova sprava Zhykhovycha Oleksandra Maksymovycha, ark. 30-31.
Tsentralnyi derzhavnyi arkhiv vyshchykh orhaniv vlady ta upravlinnia Ukrainy v m. Kyievi (TsDAVOVU). [Central State Archive of the Supreme Power and Administration of Ukraine in Kyiv], f. 3795. op.1. spr. 1070 Osobova sprava Zhykhovycha Oleksandra Maksymovycha, ark. 11.
V Prage otkryli memorial’nuju plitu na mogile konsula BNR Mikoly Vershinina. URL: https:// nn.by/?c=ar&i=206912&lang=ru (data dostupa: 25.03.2018); «Simeon Rus iz Polocka, v to vremja sadovnik». URL: https://www.sb.by/articles/simeon-rus-iz-polotska-na-to-vremya-sadovnik.html (data dostupa: 19.09.2017).
Yu. Cherchenko, Proboiem [Proboyem], in Entsyklopediia istorii Ukrainy: u 10 t. / redkol.: V. A. Smolii (holova) ta in. ; Instytut istorii Ukrainy NAN Ukrainy. K.: Naukova dumka, 2012, t. 9: pryl. s. 17.
