Zhebunev, Leonid

Zhebunev, Leonid [Жебунев, Леонід; Žebunev], b 1851 in Oleksandrivske county, Katerynoslav gubernia, d 1919 near Katerynoslav. Revolutionary and civic figure. For his populist involvement he was imprisoned in Katerynoslav (August 1874 to January 1875) and Odesa (December 1881 to April 1883) and then banished to eastern Siberia for five years. After returning to Ukraine he was involved briefly in the Kharkiv Literacy Society. Around 1900 he became a radical Ukrainophile in Kharkiv (influenced by Petro S. Yefymenko). From 1903 he was active in the Hromada organizations, the Ukrainian Democratic party and the Ukrainian Democratic Radical party in Poltava and Kyiv. He became a member of the Society of Ukrainian Progressives in 1908 and contributed to Literaturno-naukovyi vistnyk, Ukrainskaia zhizn’, and Rada (Kyiv).

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 5 (1993).]