Kentrzhynsky, Bohdan

Kentrzhynsky, Bohdan [Кентжинський, Богдан; Kentržyns’kyj; aka Kentrschynskyj], b 22 February 1919 in Rivne, Volhynia gubernia, d 23 May 1969 in Stockholm, Sweden. Political figure, publicist, and historian. During the Second World War he was the official representative of the OUN (Melnyk faction) in Finland. From 1945 he headed the Ukrainian Information Bureau in Stockholm and acted as the Scandinavian representative of the Executive of the Ukrainian National Council. For many years he was a member of the Leadership of Ukrainian Nationalists (PUN). From 1957 he lectured on history at Stockholm University and served as research associate of the Swedish Royal Academy. Based on his research in Scandinavian archives, he wrote a number of important articles on Bohdan Khmelnytsky’s and Ivan Mazepa’s periods, which were published in Karolinska Förbundets Arsbok, and a monograph Mazepa (1962; its Ukrainian translation was published in Kyiv in 2013). He also wrote several popular histories of Ukraine: Kampen om Ukrainas självständighet (1942), Sanningen om Ukraina (1943), and Katajaisena kasvaa vapautemme (1944).

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 2 (1988).]