Yevhen Konovalets
| Yevhen Konovalets Євген Олексійович Коновалець |
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| Born | June 14, 1891 Zashkiv, Galiсia, Austria-Hungary |
| Died | May 23, 1938 (aged 46) Rotterdam, Netherlands |
| Allegiance | Ukrainian National Republic |
| Service/branch | Army |
| Years of service | 1914-1915, 1917-1919 |
| Rank | Colonel |
| Unit | Lemberg District Defense, Sich Riflemen |
| Commands held | Sich Riflemen |
| Battles/wars | Communist Uprising, Ukrainian–Soviet War |
| Other work | Politician, creator of the UVO |
Yevhen Konovalets (Ukrainian:Євген Олексійович Коновалець) (June 14, 1891 – May 23, 1938) was a military commander of the UNR army and political leader of the Ukrainian nationalist movement. He is best known as the leader of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists between 1929 and 1938.
Konovalets was born June 14, 1891 in the village of Zashkiv in the Austro-Hungarian Galicia; today it is in Zhovkva Raion, Lviv Oblast, Ukraine. In his youth he studied in Lviv and in 1909 enrolled in the University of Lviv, where he studied law. In 1910 he participated in the protest to accommodate Ukrainians with their own university in Lviv. During this protest at least one person was killed. He became an active member of the Prosvita, the Ukrainian educational association, and a representative in the Executive Committee of the National-Democratic Party. He became the secretary of the Lviv department of the Prosvita organization in 1912. In 1913 he became one of the leaders of the local student movement. He was greatly influenced by the nationalist ideology and rhetoric of such prominent Ukrainians as Ivan Bobersky, Myroslav Sichynsky, Dmytro Dontsov, and others.
In the summer of 1914, Konovalets was mobilized into the Austro-Hungarian Army and during the First World War rose to the rank of a second lieutenant serving in the 19th Regiment of the Lviv Regional Defense. In 1915 he was taken prisoner of war by the Russians during the battles near the mountain Makivka (Carpathian Mountains) and interned in a POW camp near Tsaritsyn, Chornyi Yar. In 1916 he was transferred into the concentration camp near Dubovka. While in captivity he joined a group of former Galician officers (such as Andrii Melnyk, Roman Sushko, and Fed Chernyk among others) who fled to Kyiv together. In November 1917, together with the Galician-Bucovina Committee, he organized the Halytsko-Bukovynsky Kurin of the Sich Riflemen as part of the Doroshenko Regiment. Two months later he assumed its command and helped suppress the Communist uprising in Kyiv as well as resisting the Antonov-Ovseenko offensive. In March 1918 his riflemen, together with the Zaporizhia Corps of the Ukrainian People's Republic and the reformed Haydamaky Kish of the Sloboda Ukraine, liberated Kyiv from the Soviets. In May 1918 his military unit was disbanded due to its political views.
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