Revai, Yuliian

Revai, Yuliian [Ревай, Юліян; Revaj, Julijan], b 26 June 1899 in Mircha, Ung komitat, Transcarpathia, d 30 April 1979 in New York. Educator and noted Transcarpathian political leader; brother of Fedir Revai. He was a founder and president of the Teachers' Hromada of Subcarpathian Ruthenia, secretary of the Pedagogical Society of Subcarpathian Ruthenia, chief leader of the Plast Ukrainian Youth Association for Transcarpathia, editor of Uchytel’ (Uzhhorod) (1924–35) and publisher of Do peremohy (1935–8), and an executive member of the Prosvita society in Uzhhorod. A member of the Transcarpathian branch of the Czechoslovak Social Democratic party, he was elected to parliament (1935–9) and was one of the authors of the bill granting autonomy to Carpatho-Ukraine. As vice-president of the Central Ruthenian People's Council he was also a founder of the Ukrainian National Alliance (Transcarpathia) and was elected on its slate to the Diet of Carpatho-Ukraine, where he was appointed minister of communications and public works (October 1938) and minister of health and social welfare (November 1938 to March 1939). With the declaration of an independent Carpatho-Ukrainian state on 15 March 1939, Revai was appointed prime minister and minister of foreign affairs. After fleeing the subsequent Hungarian invasion he sought support in Vienna, Berlin, and Bratislava for ending Hungarian repressions in Carpatho-Ukraine, and aiding Ukrainian refugees. In 1945 he was arrested by the Soviets in Prague but managed to escape to the American zone of Germany, where he served on the executive of the Central Representation of the Ukrainian Emigration in Germany. After emigrating to the United States of America in 1948, he served as executive director of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America (1949–57), president of the Self-Reliance Association of American Ukrainians and the Self-Reliance Federal Credit Union, president of the Carpatho-Ukrainian Research Center, and director of the Ukrainian Institute of America. He was one of the founders and an executive member of the World Congress of Free Ukrainians.

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