Pidhirsky, Samiilo

Pidhirsky, Samiilo [Підгірський, Самійло; Pidhirs'kyj, Samijlo], b 20 September 1888 in Liublyntsi, Kovel county, Volhynia gubernia, d 1945 in Kyiv. Lawyer and civic and political leader. After graduating from Saint Petersburg University (1914) he practiced law in Kyiv and founded a society of Ukrainian lawyers. A year later he moved to Zhytomyr, where he was active in local government and was elected president of the gubernial zemstvo and the Volhynian Prosvita society. In 1917 he edited Hromadianyn, the first Ukrainian newspaper in Volhynia, and then Volyns'ka hazeta (1918–19) and Hromada (Lutsk) (1920) in Lutsk. A radical populist by conviction, he was a member of the Central Rada and of the Labor Congress in Kyiv. In 1922 he was elected to the Polish Sejm, where he served as chairman of the Ukrainian Parliamentary Representation. From 1924 he served on the executive of the Ukrainian Party of National Work. He also acted as defense counsel in many political trials. At the end of the Second World War Pidhirsky was arrested and executed by the Soviets.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 4 (1993).]