OBITUARIES

Natalia Shukhevych, 92, wife of UPA's supreme commander

LVIV - Natalia Shukhevych, who as wife of Roman Shukhevych (1907-1950), supreme commander of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), suffered persecution at the hands of German and Soviet authorities, died in Lviv on February 28 at the age of 92.

Mrs. Shukhevych (née Berezynska) was born March 13, 1910, in the village of Lytsivtsi, western Ukraine, into a priest's family. She completed her studies at the Lviv gymnasium in 1928 and in 1930 married Roman Shukhevych.

In 1941, with the German invasion of Ukraine, she was held by the Germans for two months in a Lviv prison, in an attempt to ascertain the whereabouts of her husband.

In 1945 she, along with her mother, Osypa and her two children, son Yuri and daughter Maria, were arrested by the Soviet authorities and held in solitary confinement in a prison in Lviv. Mrs. Shukhevych's mother succumbed and died in prison in 1946. During the time of her imprisonment, Mrs. Shukhevych was taken to Kyiv for interrogation by the NKVD (1947). That year she was sentenced to 10 years in labor camps in the Mordovian ASSR, followed by exile to Novosibirsk.

Mrs. Shukhevych's children were initially sent to orphanages in Chornobyl and then Staline (now Donetsk). Yuri Shukhevych was subjected to 35 years of incarceration and exile for refusing to denounce his father and the Ukrainian liberation movement.

Mrs. Shukhevych returned to Lviv in 1956, only to be arrested for residing in the city without the requisite permit. She was sentenced to three years' imprisonment in Chernihiv, followed by exile in Karaganda. She was allowed to return to Lviv in 1958, where she lived for the rest of her life, eventually reunited with her children and grandchildren.

In 1992 Mrs. Shukhevych, accompanied by her daughter, came to the United States on a short visit where she was warmly welcomed by Ukrainian communities.

Funeral services for Mrs. Shukhevych were held March 2, marked by mass participation of the residents of Lviv who came to pay their final respects. There was an honor guard of the armed forces and the Plast Ukrainian Scouting Organization. Among the numerous eulogies delivered was that of Lviv Mayor Vasyl Kuybida.

Mrs. Shukhevych was laid to rest in Lviv's historic Lychakiv Cemetery.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, April 21, 2002, No. 16, Vol. LXX

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