Oreletsky, Vasyl

Oreletsky, Vasyl [Орелецький, Василь; Orelec'kyj, Vasyl'], b 30 January 1895 in Luzhany, Chernivtsi county, Bukovyna, d 9 January 1976 in Munich, West Germany. Legal scholar. Interrupting his law studies at Chernivtsi University during the First World War, he served in the Austrian army and then in the Ukrainian Galician Army. After the war he completed his studies in Prague at Charles University and the Ukrainian Free University (LL D, 1932). As a student he was president of the Central Union of Ukrainian Students (1925–6, 1927–33). From 1939 he taught international law at the Ukrainian Free University, in Prague and then in Munich, and served as dean of the law faculty and as rector of the university (1963–4, 1965–8). He wrote articles on international law, politics, and the student movement. As a leading member of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (Bandera faction), Oreletsky edited or contributed to its publications ABN Correspondence, The Ukrainian Review, Vyzvol’nyi shliakh, and Shliakh peremohy. A festschrift in his honor was published by the Ukrainian Free University in 1982.

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