Zhuk, Semen

Zhuk, Semen [Жук, Семен; Žuk], b 16 May 1893 in Bolozhivka, Kremianets county, Volhynia gubernia, d 23 June 1941 in Chaikovychi, Sambir county, Galicia. Civic and political leader, journalist, and co-operative organizer. A former member of the Ukrainian Party of Socialist Revolutionaries, he was vice-president of the Ukrainian Socialist Radical party and its deputy to the Polish Sejm (1928–30). After serving a prison term for his political activities (1931–3), he was director of the Ukrainian Co-operative Bank in Pochaiv. At the beginning of the German invasion of Ukraine he was shot by the retreating Soviet NKVD secret police.

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