Opilsky, Yuliian

Opilsky, Yuliian [Опільський, Юліян; Opil's'kyj, Julijan; pseudonym of Юрій Рудницький; Yurii Rudnytsky], b 8 December 1884 in Ternopil, Galicia, d 9 February 1937 in Lviv. Teacher and writer; brother of Stepan Rudnytsky. He studied at Lviv University and graduated from Graz University (1907). He taught at the Academic Gymnasium of Lviv, was on the district school council (from 1917), and edited the journal Ukraïns’ka shkola and various German textbooks for schools. His first literary attempts in lyrical poetry remained unpublished. Opilsky’s novels on Ukraine’s historical past include Idu na vas (Beware! We Shall Attack! 1918), V tsarstvi zolotoï svobody (In the Kingdom of Golden Freedom, 1920), Zolotyi lev (The Golden Lion, 1926), and Idoly padut' (The Idols Are Falling, 1928). Opilsky is also the author of novelettes dealing with various subjects from world history, among them Tanechnytsia z Pibastu (A Dancer from Pibast, 1921), Potsilunok Ishtary (The Kiss of Ishtar, 1923), and Shkoliar z Memfisu (The Schoolboy from Memphis, 1927).

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 3 (1993).]