A monument to Avhustyn Voloshyn, President of Carpatho- Ukraine was unveiled in Uzhhorod as a tribute to a distinguished pedagogue, scholar, journalist, enlightener, public, political, and religious figure, commemorating his 130th anniversary of birth. It is also a tribute to his associates proclaiming an independent state in Zakarpattia 65 years ago, under the name of Carpathian Ukraine.
At long last, Avhustyn Voloshyn emerged on the bank of the river Uzh, cast in bronze. The previous plaster of Paris statue was unveiled two years ago and did not look too well after the winter. Ivan Rizak, head of the regional state administration, made every effort to erect a new monument. He and others taking the floor during the unveiling ceremony expressed gratitude to the President of Ukraine for paying such attention to the figure of Avhustyn Voloshyn (posthumously awarded the title, Hero of Ukraine). There is a memorial museum at the Castle of Uzhhorod. Prior to 1945, the premises accommodated a theological seminary where Voloshyn worked for a long time. As a clergyman, he championed the Greek Catholic Church. The Rev. Yosyp Shtelykh was a boy, assisting the Rev. Voloshyn conducting divine services at the Cathedral of Uzhhorod. He says he prayed at the time for the Lord to bestow on him as much love of his fellow people as Voloshyn possessed.
Avhustyn Voloshyn and his wife Iryna could not have children, so they adopted 22 children, setting up a boarding home. Only three are still alive. One of them, 73-year-old Anastasia Khalan, attended the ceremony of unveiling the monument. She recalls, “For me and the other 22 adopted children, Father Avhustyn and Mother Iryna were saints. They did their utmost for us to feel being cared for and loved, and I don’t think we would have been loved so much by our own parents. They gave us their house and served us meals three times a day. I stayed there for five years, until 1939. I saw Avhustyn Voloshyn last on the night of March 16, 1939.”
It was then the Soim, elected by a regional assembly and convened in the town of Khust, resolved that Zakarpattia would no longer be part of the Czechoslovak Republic, but become an independent Carpathian Ukraine. Avhustyn Voloshyn cherished plans of making that small territory the beginning of a great free and independent Ukraine. Hungarian regular troops seized Carpathian Ukraine, destroying hundreds of Sichovi Striltsi [Sharpshooters of the Sich]. In 1945, Voloshyn was captured by the NKVD in Prague and then executed at a state penitentiary in Moscow. His surviving associates believe that Voloshyn’s remains will be found and transferred for interrment in his native land.
