User:Obolonska56/Myroslav Vasyliovych Boliukh

Myroslav Vasyliovych Boliukh (January 12, 1921, Kutkivtsi village, now within the city of Ternopil — August 10, 2012, Melbourne) was a long-time member of the OUN, the Foreign Office of the Ukrainian Central Liberation Council, and a member of the National Science Society.

Biography
He was born on January 12, 1921, in the village of Kutkivtsi, now within the city of Ternopil (Ukraine). His father, Vasyl Boliukh, was a centurion of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, and in 1935-1939 he was an ambassador to the Polish Sejm and the head of Ukrainbank.

In 1931-1937, he studied at the Ternopil Gymnasium of the Native School Society, joined the OUN, and was a leader of OUN youth at the gymnasium. In 1937, he was arrested in the "Case of Vasyl Okhrymovych and Comrades" and was forced to leave the gymnasium. In 1939, he moved to Kholm, where he joined the Ukrainian underground, and in 1940 he began his studies in Vienna.

In 1941, he joined the Roland DUN together with Achil Hreptovsky, Yevhen Harabach, and Jan Shukhevych. He fought his way to Novovorontsovka, near Kryvyi Rih, and came into contact with the OUN network[1] - Vasyl Stych.

After the disbandment of Roland, he joined the OUN in Ternopil as a combatant of Yulian Okhrymovych. On the instructions of the OUN, he worked in Vienna, Prague, and Kraków.

In 1945, he graduated from the Technical and Economic Institute in Munich with a degree in agricultural engineering. In the same year, he and his family moved to Austria, where he was the chairman of the Ukrainian Central Committee of Austria.

In 1949, the family emigrated to Australia. In 1951-1952, he was the first chairman of the Association of Ukrainians in Australia and chairman of the UGVR. In 1959-1971, he was again the chairman of the Australian Federation of Ukrainian Organizations, and from 1967 to 1972, he was the deputy president of the secretariat of the World Congress of Free Ukrainians.

In 1972, he headed the Committee for the Defense of National and Human Rights in Ukraine, and in 1989 became the organizer and trustee of the Ukraine Assistance Fund. He headed the directorate of the Ukrainian Credit Cooperative Dnister and the Odesa Building Cooperative. He was among the founders of funds in Australia for the publication of the Encyclopedia of Ukrainian Studies. He financed the activities of the Ukrainian National House and Ukrainian studies at Monash University.

He was the editor of:


 * monthly "Cooperative Word", weekly "Church and Life",
 * the English-language collection of the UOA "Human Courage and Dignity" — 1968,
 * collection of documents of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group "For the Rights of the People" — 1980,
 * co-editor of the book Ukrainians in Australia — 1966.

After Ukraine gained independence, he was able to visit Ukraine with his wife Maria.

He is a donor and one of the authors of the Jubilee Book of the Ukrainian Gymnasium in Ternopil.

In 2004, his book of memoirs Myroslav Boliukh "Looking Back in Time..." with a foreword by O. Panchenko was published.