Oleksandr Kolessa
Oleksandr Kolessa (12 April 1867, Khodovychi, now Stryi district, Lviv region — 23 May 1945, Prague) was a Ukrainian literary scholar, linguist and civic and political figure, a full member of the Shevchenko Scientific Society (from 1899). He was the brother of Filaret and Ivan Kolessa and the father of the pianist Lubka Kolessa. He studied at the Drohobych and Stryi gymnasiums and in 1894 defended a doctoral dissertation in Slavic studies at the University of Vienna. He was a docent (from 1895) and professor (1898–1918) at Lviv University and in 1907–1918 a deputy of the Austrian parliament. From 1921 until his death he lived in Prague. As the first rector of the Ukrainian Free University in Prague, on 23 October 1921 he gave the inaugural lecture on Ukrainian-Czech relations from the 10th to the 20th century. He was a member of the Slavonic Institute in Prague. He died in Prague.Collection5