Kossak, Ivan

Kossak, Ivan [Коссак, Іван], b 11 September 1876 in Drohobych, Galicia, d 15 January 1927 in Kyiv. Military and civic leader; brother of Hryhorii Kossak. He was a teacher at the teacher's seminary in Chortkiv and was active in the Prosvita, Silskyi Hospodar, and Sokil societies. During the First World War he served as a captain in the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen and saw action in the Carpathian Mountains. In 1919, during the 1918–19 Ukrainian-Polish War in Galicia, Kossak was the commander of the Zhovkva sector and was wounded in combat. In 1920 he served as a Ukrainian National Republic’s military attaché in Rome. Then, in Vienna, he was active in the Western Ukrainian Association of the League of Nations. In 1925 he immigrated to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, where he worked in co-operative banking.

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