Goruk, Semen

Goruk, Semen, b 13 September 1873 in Sniatyn, Galicia, d 1920 ? (Photo: Semen Goruk.) Senior officer of the Ukrainian Galician Army. Active in prewar paramilitary organizations in Galicia, Goruk became commander of a company (August 1914) and then of a battalion (March 1915) of the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen. On 30 September 1916, he was captured by the Russian army and spent the remainder of the war as a prisoner. On 5 November 1918 he became the chief of staff of the Ukrainian Galician Army, and on 10 December 1918 he was transferred to the Secretariat of Military Affairs, serving as its personnel officer until he returned to work in the General Staff. On 1 January 1919, Goruk was promoted to the rank of major. In April 1920, while commanding a unit of the Ukrainian Galician Army, he was captured by the Bolsheviks in Kyiv and incarcerated on the Solovets Islands.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 2 (1989).]