Oleh Olzhych

Oleh Oleksandrovych Kandyba (Олег Олександрович Кандиба; 8 July 1907 – 10 June 1944), better known his pen name of Oleh Olzhych (Олег Ольжич), was a Ukrainian poet and political activist. He was forced to emigrate from Ukraine in 1923 due to occupation by the Soviet Russia and lived in Prague, Czechoslovakia. He graduated in 1929 from Charles University with a degree in archaeology. In 1929 he joined the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and became head of their cultural and educational branch.

After the split in the OUN in 1938, Olzhych remained loyal to the Andriy Melnyk faction and represented OUN-M in Carpatho-Ukraine as Melnyk's deputy. Olzhych's poetry focused on themes of the Ukrainian struggle for independence. He moved to Kyiv in 1941 and was instrumental in the formation of the Ukrainian National Council.

From 1941 to 1944 he directed the activities of OUN-M in Ukraine. He was arrested by the Gestapo along with other political activists who were seeking of revival of Ukraine. He was tortured and then executed at Sachsenhausen concentration camp at 10 June 1944.

The Ukrainian diaspora and OUN veterans in exile financed and erected in Lehighton, Pennsylvania, USA in July 1977. Then head of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists in exile Oleh Z͡hdanovych flew from Europe to attend the opening ceremony.

A monument to Olzhych was unveiled in Zhytomyr in 2017.

Oleh Olzhych is the son of the famous Ukrainian writer Oleksandr Oles.