Pylypchuk, Pylyp

Pylypchuk, Pylyp [Пилипчук, Пилип; Pylypčuk], b 1869 in Volhynia, d 30 August 1940 in Kholm. Engineer and civic and political leader. In the 1900s he was active in the Ukrainian community in Saint Petersburg. In 1917–18 he lectured on theoretical mechanics at the Kyiv Polytechnical Institute, and in 1919 he was in charge of the Dnipro River route system. At the same time, as one of the leaders of the Ukrainian People's Republican party, he served as Ukrainian National Republic communications minister in Volodymyr Chekhivsky’s and Serhii Ostapenko’s cabinets. In mid-1919 he was appointed chief of the UNR negotiations mission to Warsaw. He remained there and served briefly as prime minister of the Government-in-exile of the Ukrainian National Republic (1921–2). He was appointed a professor at the Lviv (Underground) Ukrainian Higher Polytechnical School (1922–5). From 1927 he worked in Lutsk as a municipal engineer. There he founded and headed the Lesia Ukrainka Society.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 4 (1993).]