Olesnytsky, Yulii

Olesnytsky, Yulii [Олесницький, Юлій; Olesnyc'kyj, Julij], b 3 June 1878 in Stanyslaviv, Galicia, d June 1941 in Sverdlovsk oblast, RSFSR. Lawyer and civic and political leader of the Stanyslaviv region; brother of Yevhen Olesnytsky. A student at Lviv University and the University of Vienna (LL D, 1902), he opened his own law office in Stanyslaviv in 1911. During the First World War he served as a lieutenant in the Austrian army and in the Ukrainian Galician Army. He was active in Ukrainian civic organizations in Stanyslaviv and served as president of the local branch of Prosvita and the Union of Ukrainian Lawyers. In politics he was a strong supporter of the Ukrainian National Democratic Alliance until it adopted the Normalization policy. In September 1939 he was arrested by the Soviets. He was kept in Lubianka prison in Moscow until his deportation to Sama, Ivdel raion, Sverdlovsk oblast, and was last heard from in June 1941.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 3 (1993).]