Hekhter, Maksym

Hekhter, Maksym [Гехтер, Максим; Hexter; real name Мендель Гецкович-Беркович; Mendel Hetskovych-Berkovych], b 1885 in the Kyiv region, d 25 December 1947 in Prague. Publicist and political activist of Jewish descent. Hekhter was a member of the Revolutionary Ukrainian party and the Bund. In 1905 he was arrested for propagating Ukrainian autonomy among workers and briefly imprisoned. He worked for the periodicals Rada (Kyiv), Literaturno-naukovyi vistnyk, Ekonomist (1904–14), Dilo, and others, contributing mostly articles on socioeconomic subjects. The Directory of the Ukrainian National Republic appointed him a member of its diplomatic mission to the United States in 1919, but he was unable to take up his position. In the interwar period he settled in Prague. He wrote prolifically on cultural and political life in Ukraine for the Western press, particularly for such journals as Prager Presse (1921–38) and Slavische Rundschau (1929–39).

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