Kapustiansky, Mykola

Kapustiansky, Mykola [Капустянський, Микола; Kapustjans'kyj], b 1 February 1879 in Chumaky, Katerynoslav gubernia, d 19 February 1969 in Munich. Senior officer of the UNR army during the Ukrainian struggle for independence (1917–20) and member of the OUN Leadership. A graduate of the General Staff Academy in Saint Petersburg (1912), he fought in the Russian-Japanese War and the First World War, and by 1917 reached the rank of colonel. After the Revolution of 1917 he joined the Ukrainian units of the Russian army and served as their delegate to the Second Ukrainian Military Congress (see All-Ukrainian military congresses). In August 1917 he was appointed chief of staff of the First Division of the First Ukrainian Corps, and in early 1918 chief of staff of the southwestern front. Under the Directory of the Ukrainian National Republic, he served as operations chief and then as general quartermaster of the Army of the Ukrainian National Republic. In 1920 he was promoted to brigadier general. After the war he emigrated to Poland and then France, where in 1924–9 he headed the Ukrainian Hromada in France. Later he organized and headed (in 1932–8) the Ukrainian National Union in France. Kapustiansky was a founder of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and a member of its Leadership (1929–69). In 1935–6 he visited Ukrainian communities in the United States and Canada to gain support for the OUN. During the Second World War he served as vice-president of the Ukrainian National Council (Kyiv), and was imprisoned by the Germans. After the war he was the first chief of the military section of the Government-in-exile of the Ukrainian National Republic. He wrote Pokhid ukraïns’kykh armii na Kyïv–Odesu v 1919 rotsi (The March of Ukrainian Armies on Kyiv–Odesa in 1919; 1922, 2nd edn 1946) and numerous articles on military affairs.

Petro Sodol

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