Greek Catholic priest who became president of Carpatho-Ukraine when it declared independence in March 1939
The son of a Greek Catholic priest in Carpathian Ruthenia, then part of Austria-Hungary, he studied at the Ungvár school of theology and at Budapest University and was ordained. In 1918 he became head of the Subcarpathian National Council, which in 1919 asked for the region to join Czechoslovakia. In 1925 he was elected to the parliament in Prague as leader of the Ruthenian National Christian Party, and in October 1938 he was appointed head of the government of the Subcarpathian Autonomous Region. On 15 March 1939 he became president of Carpatho-Ukraine, but the next day Hungary occupied and annexed the region; he fled to Prague and spent the war as a professor at the Ukrainian Free University. Arrested by the NKVD when the Soviet army took Prague in May 1945, he was taken to Moscow and died in Butyrka prison in July.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1900–1917Professor of mathematics, teachers’ institute
- 1918–1919Head, Subcarpathian National Council
- 1925Deputy in Prague (Ruthenian National Christian Party)
- 1938–1939Head of the Subcarpathian autonomous government
- 1939President of Carpatho-Ukraine
- 1939–1945Professor, Ukrainian Free University, Prague
- 1945Arrested by the NKVD; died in Butyrka prison