Knysh, Zynovii

Knysh, Zynovii [Книш, Зиновій; Knyš, Zynovij], b 16 June 1906 in Kolomyia, Galicia, d 14 November 1999 in Toronto. Political and community activist, author, and publisher (pen name: B. Mykhailiuk); husband of Irena Knysh. A graduate of Lviv University (PH D 1930), in the late 1920s he was a leading member of the Ukrainian Military Organization (UVO). In 1930 he was put in charge of the ‘combat’ activities of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationaists (OUN) but was soon arrested and imprisoned by the Polish authorities until 1936. He then worked as a secretary of the Tsentrosoiuz co-operative union in Lviv (1936–9), director of the office of the Ukrainian Central Committee in Cracow (1940–1), secretary of the Narodna Torhovlia consumer co-operative in Lviv (1941–2), the mayor of Kalush (1942), and director of the Zolochiv circle administration (1943–4). From 1940 to 1978 he was a member of the Leadership of the OUN (Melnyk faction). A refugee and displaced person in Austria in 1944–6, he was secretary of the Greek Catholic Mission for Ukrainians in Western Europe in Paris (1946–8) before emigrating to Canada. In 1949–52 he was secretary of the National Executive of the Ukrainian National Federation in Winnipeg. He is the author of over 60 brochures, books, and memoirs, mostly about the UVO and OUN, including Bunt Bandery (Bandera’s Revolt, 1950), Dukh, shcho tilo rve do boiu (The Spirit That Spurs the Body on to Battle, 1951), Dryzhyt' pidzemnyi huk (The Underground Din Resounds, 1953), Pered pokhodom na Skhid (Before the March to the East, 2 vols, 1959), Sribna surma (The Silver Bugle, 5 vols, 1962–7), and Na povni vitryla! (At Full Sail! 1970). Among his publicistic works are Istoriia ukraïns'koï politychnoï dumky do kintsia XVIII st. (A History of Ukrainian Political Thought to the End of the 18th Century, 1952), U trystarichchia Pereiaslavs'koho dohovoru (On the Occasion of the Tricentennial of the Pereiaslav Treaty of 1654, 1954), and Pip Hapon (The Priest Gapon, 1977).

Roman Senkus, Arkadii Zhukovsky

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