Fedenko, Panas

Fedenko, Panas [Феденко, Панас], b 13 December 1893 in Veseli Terny, Verkhniodniprovsk county, Katerynoslav gubernia, d 10 September 1981 in Munich, West Germany. Socialist leader, historian, writer, and publicist. Before the Revolution of 1917 Fedenko studied in Saint Petersburg, where he was active in the Ukrainian Student Hromada in Saint Petersburg and joined the Ukrainian Social Democratic Workers' party (USDRP). He was a member of the Central Rada in 1917–18, a delegate to the Labor Congress in 1919, a member of the Central Committee of the USDRP, co-editor of the paper Robitnycha hazeta (1917–19) in 1919, and a USDRP representative to the Socialist International. After the failure of the Ukrainian struggle for independence (1917–20) Fedenko emigrated to Prague, where he taught at the Ukrainian Higher Pedagogical Institute from 1926 and the Ukrainian Free University from 1934. He served as a member of the Executive Committee of the Labor and Socialist International. After the Second World War he moved to Munich, taught at the Ukrainian Free University there, and led the USDRP (later the Ukrainian Socialist party) abroad. In 1950–67 he represented the Ukrainian Socialist party in the Ukrainian National Council.

Fedenko is the author of Natsional'na i sotsiial'na borot'ba ukraïns'koho narodu (The National and Social Struggle of the Ukrainian People, 1923), Z dyplomatychnoï diial'nosty Danyla Hreka (The Diplomatic Activity of Daniel the Greek, 1929), Istoriia sotsiial'noï i politychnoï borot'by na Ukraïni (History of the Social and Political Struggle in Ukraine, 2 vols, 1936), Mykhailo Drahomanov i P.-Zh. Prudon (Mykhailo Drahomanov and P.J. Proudhon, 1930), Ukraïns'kyi hromads'kyi rukh u XX stolitti (The Ukrainian Movement in the 20th Century, 1934, 2nd edn 1959), Nationalitüatenfrage in der Sowjetunion (1937), Ukraine: Her Struggle for Freedom (1951), Marksysts'ki i bol'shevyts'ki teoriï natsional'noho pytannia (Marxist and Bolshevik Theories of the National Question, 1960), Novaia ‘Istoriia KPSS’ (The New ‘History of the CPSU,’ 1960), and Sotsiializm davnii i novochasnyi (Socialism Past and Present, 1968). Fedenko also wrote short historical novels—Homonila Ukraïna (Ukraine Echoed, 1942), Het'maniv kum (The Hetman’s Godfather, 1943), Nesmertel'na slava (Immortal Glory, 1953), and Amor patriae (Liubov do bat'kivshchyny) (Love of One’s Country, 1962). He published many articles on historical and political themes. He was highly critical of both communism and Ukrainian nationalism.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 2 (1988).]