Andriy Atanasovych Melnyk
| Andrii Melnyk or Andrij Melnyk Андрій Мéльник |
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|---|---|
Young Melnyk in officer's uniform
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| Born |
December 12, 1890 Drohobych povit, Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, Austria-Hungary |
| Died | November 1, 1964 (aged 73) Clervaux, Luxembourg |
| Allegiance |
 Ukraine
|
| Service/branch |
 Ukraine Army |
| Years of service | 1914–1915 1917–1919 |
| Rank | General, Commandant, Chief of Staff |
| Unit | Sich Riflemen |
| Commands held | Sich Riflemen |
| Battles/wars |
World War I Ukrainian Civil War Ukrainian–Soviet War |
| Other work | Politician, co-creator of the UVO and OUN |
Andriy Melnyk (Ukrainian: Андрій Мéльник) (December 12, 1890 – November 1, 1964) was a Ukrainian military and political leader.
Melnyk was born near Drohobych, Halychyna, into a peasant family. Between 1912 and 1914 he studied at the Higher School of Agriculture in Vienna. With the outbreak of the First World War, Melnyk served as an officer in the Austro-Hungarian army as a volunteer with the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen for which he commanded a company. Due to his kind demeanor, he was referred to affectionately as "Lord Melnyk" by fellow Ukrainian and Austrian officers, who felt that he embodied the English concept of a gentleman, which at that time had been an ideal in Central Europe. Melnyk was taken prisoner by the Russians in 1916. In captivity, Melnyk became a close associate of Yevhen Konovalets and joined the Ukrainian independence movement.
During the Soviet-Ukrainian War Melnyk supported Symon Petliura and was promoted to the rank of colonel in the Ukrainian People's Republic army.
Together with Yevhen Konovalets Melnyk and several others founded the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) in 1929. Between 1924 and 1928 Melnyk was imprisoned for terrorist activities by the Polish government. During the 1930s, however, his career was much quieter than that of his colleagues. He basically retired from politics, refrained from terrorist activities and worked as an engineer and as the director of forests on the huge estates of the Metropolitan of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Andrey Sheptytsky. More friendly to the Church than any of his associates (the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists was generally anti-clerical), Melnyk even became the chairman of Orlo, the Galician Catholic youth organization that was regarded as anti-Nationalist by many OUN members.
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