Slyvynsky, Oleksander

Slyvynsky, Oleksander [Сливинський, Олександер; Slyvyns'kyj], b 29 August 1886 in Poltava gubernia, d 21 December 1956 in Montreal, Quebec. Senior officer of the Army of the Ukrainian National Republic. During the First World War he served as chief of staff of a division and a cavalry corps in the Russian army, and received the highest decoration for bravery in combat. In June 1917 he became a member of the General Military Committee of the Central Rada, and in November he was appointed deputy chief and then chief of the General Staff of the UNR Army. During the Hetman government he continued to serve, at the rank of colonel, as chief of the General Staff. He drafted a comprehensive organizational plan for a regular Ukrainian army. In the interwar period he lived in Germany and then emigrated to Canada.

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