Kaminsky, Yosyf

Kaminsky, Yosyf [Камінський, Йосиф; Kamins'kyj, Josyf], b 17 November 1878 in Rakovec nad Odnavou, Zemplén komitat, Hungary, d 1944 in Uzhhorod, Transcarpathia. Priest, editor, lawyer; pro-Hungarian (Magyarone) political leader. In 1920 he helped found the opposition Autonomous Agricultural Union, but in 1923 went over to the pro-government Agrarian party and won a seat in parliament (1924–5). Turning against the regime, he returned to the Autonomous Agricultural Union and published his own paper, Karpatorusskii golos (1932–4), and edited calendars for the Dukhnovych Society. In 1939, upon Hungary’s occupation of Transcarpathia, he was appointed to the Upper House of the Hungarian Parliament. He disappeared when the Red Army entered Hungary in 1944. Besides some brief studies on local history, his publications include Natsional'noe samosoznanie nashego naroda (The National Self-consciousness of Our People, 1925) and Istoriia Tsentral'noi russkoi narodnoi rady (A History of the Central Ruthenian People's Council, 1927).

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