Avhustyn Voloshyn

Avhustyn Voloshyn (1874–1945) was a Greek Catholic priest, teacher, writer and political leader of Transcarpathia, and the president of Carpatho-Ukraine. He was born on 17 March 1874 in the village of Kelechyn in the Maramorosh area. For many years he headed the teachers' seminary in Uzhhorod, wrote school textbooks and supported Ukrainian education in the region. In 1938–1939 he was prime minister of the autonomous government of Subcarpathian Rus — Carpatho-Ukraine within Czecho-Slovakia. On 15 March 1939 the diet proclaimed the independence of Carpatho-Ukraine and elected Voloshyn president. After the Hungarian occupation he settled in Prague and worked at the Ukrainian Free University, and later headed its Prague branch. In May 1945 SMERSH arrested him in Prague. He died in Butyrka prison in Moscow on 19 July 1945. In 2002 he was posthumously named Hero of Ukraine.

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