Fedak, Stepan

Fedak, Stepan [Федак, Степан], b 9 January 1861 in Peremyshl, d 6 January 1937 in Lviv. A prominent community leader in Galicia; father of Stepan S. Fedak and Olena Fedak-Sheparovych, father-in-law of Yevhen Konovalets. Fedak worked as a lawyer in Lviv from 1890. He cofounded and was active in many economic institutions, including the Dnister Insurance Company (Fedak was its executive director from 1909 to 1920), Tsentrobank central co-operative bank, Audit Union of Ukrainian Co-operatives, Land Mortgage Bank, Karpatiia Life-Insurance Company, and Ukrainian Savings Bank in Peremyshl. From 1913 to 1918 Fedak was vice-president of the Provincial Bank of Lviv. In 1915 he was deported by the Russians to Kyiv, where he organized aid for Ukrainians from Galicia. He returned to Lviv in 1916. Fedak was the state secretary for food administration in the government of the Western Ukrainian National Republic. In December 1918, after the occupation of Lviv by Poland, Fedak organized the Ukrainian Citizens' Committee to represent Ukrainian interests before the Polish authorities and to aid prisoners of war and political prisoners under Polish occupation. He headed the committee until its dissolution in September 1921. Thereafter Fedak founded an aid committee in defense of Ukrainian political prisoners and headed it until his death.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 1 (1984).]