Gregory Zatkovich

Gregory Zhatkovich
Memorial in Svaliava, Ukraine
Land Governor of Subcarpathian Ruthenia
In office 26 April 1920 – March 1921
President	Tomáš Masaryk
Preceded by	post created
Succeeded by	Peter Erenfeld
Personal details
Born	December 2, 1886 Holubyne, Bereg County, Austria-Hungary (now Ukraine)
Died	March 26, 1967(1967-03-26) (aged 80) Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
Resting place	Calvary Cemetery, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Parents	Paul Zhatkovich
Education	University of Pennsylvania
Occupation	lawyer
Known for	Rusyn political activist

Gregory Ignatius Zhatkovich (Rusyn: Ґріґорій Жатковіч) (December 2, 1886 – March 26, 1967) was an American lawyer and political activist for Rusyns in the United States and Europe.

He was the first governor of Carpathian Ruthenia, the Rusyn autonomous province of Czechoslovakia and the only American who was a governor of any territory that was or became part of the Soviet Union.

He was born in the village of Holubyne, Bereg County, Austria-Hungary (now Svaliava Raion, Zakarpattia Oblast, Ukraine) and emigrated to Pennsylvania with his parents at age five.

His father, Paul Zhatkovich, was the founding editor of the leading Rusyn-American newspaper, Amerikansky Russky Viestnik.

Zhatkovich graduated from high school in Pittsburgh, earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1907, and his LL.D. from the law school at Penn in 1910.

Following his father's involvement in Rusyn affairs, Zhatkovich was drawn in 1918 into the role of a spokesman for the American National Council of Uhro-Rusyns, at the time when the dissolution of Austro-Hungary placed their future - as that of many other peoples - on the international diplomatic agenda.

In July 1918, Rusyn-Americans convened and called for complete independence of Carpathian Ruthenia. Failing that, they would try to unite with Galicia and Bukovyna; and failing that, they would demand , though they did not specify under which state.