Andriy Melnyk (officer)
Andriy Melnyk | |
|---|---|
Official portrait, c. 1940 | |
| Native name | Андрій Мельник |
| Born | 12 December 1890 |
| Died | 1 November 1964 (aged 73) |
| Buried | |
| Allegiance | Austria-Hungary Ukraine |
| Branch | Austro-Hungarian Army Ukrainian People's Army |
| Service years | 1914–1916 1918–1920 |
| Rank | Colonel Major Lieutenant Standard-bearer |
| Unit | Legion of Ukrainian Sich Riflemen Sich Riflemen |
| Commands | Sich Riflemen |
| Conflicts | |
| Awards | Silver Military Merit Medal (Signum Laudis) |
| Spouse | Sofiya Fedak-Melnyk (b.1901) |
| Other work | Politician, co-creator of the UVO and OUN |
Andriy Atanasovych Melnyk (Ukrainian: Андрій Атанасович Мельник; 12 December 1890 – 1 November 1964) was a Ukrainian military and political leader best known for leading the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists from 1938 onwards and later the Melnykites (OUN-M) following a split with the more radical Banderite faction (OUN-B) in 1940.
A veteran of the First World War and a senior officer in the army of the Ukrainian People's Republic during the Ukrainian War of Independence, Melnyk went on to cofound the Ukrainian Military Organisation in 1920 that continued the armed struggle against Poland in Western Ukraine and which later formed the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) in 1929. Following his time in prison between 1924 and 1928 in connection with the Olha Basarab case, he largely stepped back from active engagement in the UVO–OUN underground.
Melnyk was selected to lead the OUN in 1938 after the assassination of Yevhen Konovalets by the NKVD and collaborated with Nazi intelligence to plan the largely aborted OUN Uprising of 1939 during the German invasion of Poland. Following the factional split, Melnyk continued to direct the OUN-M to collaborate with Nazi Germany during the German invasion of the Soviet Union on the Eastern Front. However, Melnyk was placed under house arrest in Berlin from mid-1941, though he would continue to advocate collaboration, and was arrested by the Gestapo in January 1944 after absconding from Berlin in late 1943. He was initially held as a Sonderhaftling in Hirschegg from March 1944, before being moved to Sachsenhausen concentration camp in July.
Melnyk was released in October and taken to Berlin in order to negotiate support for the retreating German Army, assuming a leading role in brokering a common stance between a broad spectrum of Ukrainian nationalist groups represented under the Ukrainian National Committee. However, with the war nearing its end and Nazi officials still rejecting demands for the recognition of an independent Ukrainian state, Melnyk and his supporters withdrew from the committee and travelled west in early 1945 to meet the Allied advance.
Melnyk continued to lead the OUN-M in exile until his death in 1964.