Kurmanovych, Viktor

Kurmanovych, Viktor [Kurmanovyč], b 26 November 1876 in Vilshanytsia, Zolochiv county, Galicia, d 18 October 1945 in Odesa. (Photo: Victor Kurmanovych.) General of the Ukrainian Galician Army (UHA). A graduate of the Austrian Military Academy in Vienna (1912), he served in the intelligence division of the Austrian General Staff. In 1914 he was captured by the Russians and imprisoned for spying. Exchanged for a Russian officer in 1915, he commanded Austrian troops on the Bukovynian and Italian fronts until 1918. After the collapse of the Austrian Empire, Kurmanovych enlisted in the UHA. He was appointed commander of the Zhovkva Group and then the Southern Group at the front. Subsequently he was assigned to the Supreme Command of the UHA, promoted to colonel and appointed chief of staff (13 February–7 June 1919). For a few months he served also as state secretary for military affairs. After the UHA retreated to the territory of the Ukrainian National Republic, Kurmanovych was promoted to brigadier general and appointed (11 August) general quartermaster on the Staff of the Supreme otaman, which directed the operations of the unified Ukrainian armies. Because of disagreements over strategy and illness, he left the army and in September 1919 immigrated to Austria. He lived in Vienna until April 1945, when he was arrested by Soviet authorities and deported to Odesa. He died there in a prison hospital.

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