Olesnytsky, Yevhen

Olesnytsky, Yevhen [Олесницький, Євген; Olesnyc'kyj, Jevhen], b 5 March 1860 in Velykyi Hovyliv, Terebovlia circle, Galicia, d 26 October 1917 in Vienna. Lawyer, civic and political leader, economist, publicist, and translator; member of the Shevchenko Scientific Society from 1899; brother of Yulii Olesnytsky. A graduate of Lviv University, he opened a law office in Stryi (1891) and set up various institutions in Stryi and branches in the surrounding villages, such as a branch of the Prosvita society (1892), a savings and loan association (1894), the Union of Ruthenian Dairy Associations (a predecessor of Maslosoiuz Provincial Dairy Union, 1905), and the People's Home. After moving to Lviv in 1909, he reorganized the Silskyi Hospodar society into a strong province-wide institution and established the Provincial Union of Farming and Trading Associations, the paper Hospodars’ka chasopys’, and the Library of Silskyi Hospodar as adjuncts. He helped found important economic organizations, such as the Dnister Insurance Company, the Land Bank, and the Provincial Credit Society. He founded a number of magazines and newspapers, including Chasopys’ pravnycha. A strong opponent of the New Era policy of accommodation with the Poles, he worked to consolidate Ukrainian political organizations and played an important role in the founding of the National Democratic party in 1899 and served on the party’s Popular Committee until the end of his life. Having been elected to the Galician Diet in 1900–10 (where he headed the Ukrainian caucus) and the Austrian parliament in 1907–17, he fought for electoral reform, land reform, Ukrainian autonomy in eastern Galicia, and educational reform. In 1915 he became a member of the General Ukrainian Council. A lover of theater, he supported the Ruska Besida Theater and translated many plays for it. His memoirs, Storinky z moho zhyttia (Pages from My Life, 2 vols, 1935), were never completed, and end with the year 1897.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 3 (1993).]