Vyrovy, Yevhen

Vyrovy, Yevhen [Вировий, Євген; Vyrovyj, Jevhen], b 26 February 1889 in Smila, Cherkasy county, Kyiv gubernia, d 17 May 1945 in Prague. Educator and civic activist. After graduating from a teachers' institute in Hlukhiv he taught in a commercial school in Katerynoslav (1910–19). He presided over the local Prosvita society, belonged to the Society of Ukrainian Progressives, and contributed to the newspaper Dniprova khvylia. In 1919 he chaired the cultural-educational commission of the Labor Congress in Kyiv. He was the founder and director of Ukrainske Vydavnytstvo in Katerynoslav, and he continued to publish books even after he had left for Kamianets-Podilskyi and emigrated to Berlin and then Prague. He also directed the Ukrainian Civic Publishing Fund in Prague. He contributed articles to Knyholiub and edited several stamp albums. His collection of Ukrainian stamps was displayed at international exhibitions and became widely known. As NKVD agents arrived at his apartment to arrest him, Vyrovy committed suicide.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 5 (1993).]