Viktor Iosifovich Kurmanovich ( Ukrainian: Viktor Yosipovich Kurmanovich ; November 26, 1876 , the village of Velikaya Olshanitsa , Galicia , Austria-Hungary - October 18, 1945 , Odessa , USSR , USSR ) - an Austro-Hungarian and Ukrainian military, statesman and public figure was associated with the UPR , ZUNR and the Carpathian Ukraine . General of the Ukrainian Galician Army .
| Victor Iosifovich Kurmanovich | |
|---|---|
| Ukrainian Viktor Yosipovich Kurmanovich | |
 | |
| Date of Birth | November 26, 1876 |
| Place of Birth | from. Great Olshanitsa , Galicia , Austria-Hungary now Zolochevsky district , Lviv region |
| Date of death | October 18, 1945 (68 years old) |
| A place of death | Odessa , USSR , USSR |
| Affiliation |  Austria-Hungary UNR ZUNR Carpathian Ukraine |
| Type of army | infantry |
| Rank | the general |
| Commanded |
|
| Battles / wars | World War I
|
Biography
Born in the Kholm region in the village of Velikaya Olshanitsa. He was the last of the seven children of the Greek Catholic priest Joseph Kurmanovich and his wife. Shortly after the birth of Victor, his father was arrested in connection with the refusal to accept Orthodoxy , which was imposed by the Russian authorities in the Kholmshchina, and spent more than six months in a Brest prison. His wife and children moved to Sokal , to Galicia . Having managed to free himself from prison, Kurmanovich’s father later arrived here. Having left the clerical service, a few years later he got a private teacher in the village of Olshanitsa near Zolochev , but later he received a Russian parish in the village of Novosyolki .
Kurmanovich was educated at the gymnasium. After finishing the fifth grade, he entered the cadet school in Lviv , and then entered the military academy. By the beginning of World War I, he was in the Austrian General Staff with the rank of captain . He was one of the few Austrian senior officers who openly spoke about his Ukrainian nationality during the period of the greatest persecution of Ukrainians in Austria-Hungary. The beginning of the war found him in the Russian Empire , where Kurmanovich served as a military observer.
As part of the Austro-Hungarian forces, Kurmanovich participated in the battles on Bukovina and was captured by Russia, but was soon released in exchange for the release of the captured Russian officer from Austria-Hungary and transferred to the Italian front , where he successfully launched offensive operations against the Italians. Executive and sociable, he was popular not only among officers and generals, but also ordinary soldiers, including Ukrainians. Often, soldiers addressed complaints to lower officers immediately to Kurmanovich, and he always defended their interests.
After the end of the First World War and the collapse of Austria-Hungary, Kurmanovich arrived in Ternopil , where at that time the headquarters of the Minister of War of the Western Ukrainian People’s Republic , which was at war with Poland, was located . Here he was appointed commander of the Ukrainian Galician Army , which participated in battles in the southern part of the Polish-Ukrainian front. February 13, 1919 Kurmanovich was appointed to the post of head of the headquarters of the armed forces of ZUNR .
After the UGA ceased to exist in 1920 , Kurmanovich settled in Transcarpathia . Until the end of World War II, he maintained active cooperation with the OUN (b) - UPA and the SS division "Galicia" . In 1939 , when the short-lived republic of Carpathian Ukraine was proclaimed in Transcarpathia, Kurmanovich was directly involved in its organization.
After the accession of Transcarpathia to the USSR, Kurmanovich was arrested by members of the Soviet special services and transferred to Odessa prison, where he died on October 18, 1945.