Kuzemsky, Mykhailo

Kuzemsky, Mykhailo [Куземський, Михайло; Kuzems'kyj, Myxajlo], b 20 February 1809 in Shubalyn, Berezhany circle, Galicia, d 5 December 1879 in Liashki Horishni, Galicia. Religious and community leader, canon of Lviv eparchy. Kuzemsky was the most active member of the Supreme Ruthenian Council and later the main organizer of its branches in the provinces. He was a founder and the first head of the Halytsko-Ruska Matytsia educational-publishing society. For 15 years he was a leader and trustee of Ukrainian popular education in eastern Galicia, defending the use of the Ukrainian language in schools and the right to Ukrainian political and administrative independence in Galicia. From 1868 to 1871 he was the last Greek Catholic archbishop of the Kholm eparchy.

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