Brashchaiko, Mykhailo

Brashchaiko, Mykhailo [Бращайко, Михайло; Braščajko, Myxajlo], b 14 October 1883 in the village of Blazhiievo, Bereg komitat, Transcarpathia, d 5 January 1969 in Uzhhorod, Transcarpathia oblast. Political and cultural leader in Transcarpathia, lawyer, brother of Yulii Brashchaiko. In 1918–19 Brashchaiko promoted the movement for the unification of Transcarpathia with Ukraine. He was head of the national councils in Syhit Marmaroskyi and Khust (January 1919) and the delegate of the Khust council to the government of the Western Ukrainian National Republic in Stanyslaviv. In Subcarpathian Ruthenia under Czechoslovak rule he was a founder of the Ruthenian Agrarian party, editor of its paper, Rus’ka nyva (1920–4), and later vice-president of the Christian People's party (1923–38). He cofounded (with his brother Yulii) and edited from 1932 to 1938 Ukraïns’ke slovo (Uzhhorod), one of the first newspapers in Transcarpathia to appear from the outset in Standard Ukrainian. In 1939 he was elected to the Diet of Carpatho-Ukraine. He wrote a pamphlet on Czech-Ukrainian relations (1923) and co-authored a Hungarian-Ukrainian dictionary (1928).

[This article was updated in 2022.]