Bezpalko, Yosyp

Bezpalko, Yosyp [Bezpal'ko, Josyp], b 1881 in Chernivtsi, d 1950 in Kazakhstan. Political figure and publicist in Bukovyna. From 1906 to 1918 Bezpalko was leader of the Ukrainian Social Democratic party in Bukovyna and editor of its newspaper, Bor'ba, in Chernivtsi (1908–14). In 1918 he became a member of the Ukrainian National Council of Bukovyna and, in the same year, served as mayor of Chernivtsi. He was a member of the Ukrainian National Rada of the Western Ukrainian National Republic and of the Labor Congress in 1919; in 1919–20 he served as Ukrainian National Republic minister of labor in Isaak Mazepa's cabinet. As an émigré Bezpalko lectured at the Ukrainian Husbandry Academy in Poděbrady, Czechoslovakia, and became head of the Union of Ukrainian Sich Societies (1938) (see Sich societies). Bezpalko wrote many political articles and studies on German-Slavic relations in the early 19th century. He was exiled by the Soviet authorities in 1947.