Pelekhaty, Kuzma

Pelekhaty, Kuzma [Пелехатий, Кузьма; Pelexatyj, Kuz'ma], b 11 November 1886 in Opory, Drohobych county, Galicia, d 28 March 1952 in Lviv. Journalist and political activist. After graduating from the Higher Institute of Journalism in Vienna he worked for the Galician Russophile newspapers Halychanyn (1893–1913) (in 1910–13) and Prikarpatskaia Rus’ (in 1913–15) and the Russian-language journal Novaia zhizn'. After the First World War he was the managing editor of the Sovietophile newspapers Volia naroda (1921–7) and Sel’-Rob (organ of Sel-Rob, 1927–8), to which he contributed feuilletons under the pen names Kuzma Bezrodny and Maksym Strikha. He adhered faithfully to Comintern policies and attacked the national-communist opposition in the Communist Party of Western Ukraine. Under the Soviet regime, in 1939–41 he worked on the staff of Vil’na Ukraïna (Lviv), and in 1949 he was appointed chairman of the Lviv Oblast Executive Committee. A collection of his articles was published in 1959.

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