Osetsky, Oleksander

Osetsky, Oleksander [Осецький, Олександер; Osec’kyj], b 24 June 1873 in Kremenets, Volhynia gubernia, d 26 February 1937 in Paris. Senior officer of the Army of the Ukrainian National Republic. In the First World War he commanded a regiment in the Russian army and reached the rank of brigadier general. In 1917 he joined the UNR Army, and he served as corps commander in the Poltava region, commander of the Railroad Guard Corps under the Hetman government, and commander of the Kholm Group on the Polish front in 1919. He was briefly (December 1918–January 1919) minister of defense of the Ukrainian National Republic (UNR), and then acting UNR Army otaman. In 1920 he headed a UNR military-diplomatic mission to Belgium.

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