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	July, 1945 Butyrka prison in Moscow, Soviet Union
Nationality	Ukrainian
Political party	Ukrainian National Alliance (UNO, 1939)
Other political affiliations	Christian People's Party (1924-38) Ruthenian Agrarian Party (1920-24)
Awards

Rev. Avgustyn Ivanovych Voloshyn (Ukrainian: о.Авґустин Волошин, Августин Волошин, Czech: Augustin Vološin, 1874–1945) was a Ukrainian (Czechoslovakian) politician, teacher, essayist, bishop of the Mukacheve eparchy of the Ukrainian 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). In October 1938, he was the head of the Subcarpathian Autonomous Region. During the total destruction of Czechoslovakia by Hitler's Germany, he tried to preserve Carpatho-Ukraine independence and became president of Carpatho-Ukraine for a few hours (March 15, 1939) with the help of the rest of the Czechoslovakian 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 Czechoslovakian troops retreated to the Romanian Kingdom's 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 whole Carpathian Ruthenia, and annexed 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 July 1945 in the Butyrka prison of Moscow.

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

See also

• Military history of Carpathian Ruthenia during World War II
• First Vienna Arbitration
• Vienna Awards
• Carpatho-Ukraine

Further reading

• Tomeš, Josef. Biografický slovník Vol. III.

External links

• Avhustyn Voloshyn at the Encyclopedia of Ukraine
• Deportation of Voloshyn (in Czech)