Kulchytsky, Oleksander (Les)

Kulchytsky, Oleksander (Les) [Kul’čyc’kyj], b 26 November 1859 in Kolomyia, d 21 November 1938 in Lviv. Economist and community leader in the Kolomyia region. He studied law at Chernivtsi University and worked in local government in Kolomyia. There he was the organizer and first director of the Pokutia Credit Union, and a founder of the local Prosvita society branch and People's Home. He also helped found the weekly Postup (Kolomyia) (1903) and headed the Kolomyia branch of the National Democratic party. In Lviv Kulchytsky was a founding member of the newspaper Dilo and the first director (1910–30) of the Land Mortgage Bank, a general credit joint-stock company. He was also a member of the governing board of the Provincial Audit Union (1920) and a leading member of the control commission of Tsentrobank.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 2 (1989).]