Yulian Bachynsky

Yulian Oleksandrovych Bachynsky was a Ukrainian diplomat. In 1919 he attempted to implement his idea of an independent Ukraine and went to Washington to obtain the US government's recognition of the Ukrainian People's Republic.

Early life

Yulian Bachynsky was born on 28 March 1870 in Novosilka, Galicia, Austria-Hungary to Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church priest Oleksandr Bachynsky and Yevhenia Fylypovska. Paternal family was of noble origin and belonged to Sas coat of arms.
He studied in lviv gymnasium where lessons were taught in German. Besides, he was graduated from academic gymnasium of Lviv in 1890. After Yulian Bachynsky graduated from Lviv University's Law School, he embarked on a political and journalistic career.

Bachynsky joined the Radical Party in 1890, where he led its social-democratic wing. As early as 1899 Bachynsky was one of the co-founders of the Ukrainian Social Democratic Party. After the failure of his mission in the US, he stayed in Austria and Germany until 1934 and then decided to move to the USSR. He lived in Kharkiv, editing the Ukrainian Soviet Encyclopedia until his arrest on the trumped-up charge of membership in the Union for the Liberation of Ukraine. Sentenced to a ten-year term, he died in a prison camp in 1940 in the Republic of Karelia.

Bachynsky is known as the author of "Ukraina Irredenta" - a book in which he called for Ukraine to become an independent state.