Julian Ochrymovych, Jr.

Julian Jr. Okhrymovych, the youngest son of Rev. Julian Okhrymovych, was born in 1893 in Stryi, Ukraine. He completed his high school, and in 1911 he began to study concise philosophy at Lviv university. He took an active role in student life: he was a member of the Second section of the Ukrainian Students Union that at that time was the driving force for student life. He was also one of the initiators of the call for the Second Student Gathering that took place on October 3-5, 1913 in Lviv, where scores of speeches were made on theoretical, political and organizational themes. The gathering was attended by nearly 150 of the most active students. Present were also Ivan Franko and Mykhailo Pavlyk. Julian Ochrymovych presented a speech at this gathering on a cultural-ideological theme. Other speeches included Karlo Kobersky on the social-economic question, Rostyslav Zaklynsky about the professional movement, Mykola Balycky about the organization of radical youth, Volodymyr Lysyj on the land question, Olena Stepanivna on the women's question and many others. One of the main speakers at this congress was Dr. Dmytro Dontsov, who highlighted the anti-Russian political program and the continuing struggle and proclaimed the most important postulate of that era - the separation of Ukraine from Russia.

During the years 1913-1914, Julian Ochrymovych edited the students journal "Shliakhy". In the summer of 1914, his sister Olena decided to travel to Eastern Ukraine (Naddniprianshchyna), in order to get acquainted with the family of her husband, Mykola Zalizniak, who lived in Melitopol, and took her youngest brother with her. There they were caught by the outbreak of the First World War. Though Olena, through an exchange organized by the Red Cross was able to return to Halychyna, unfortunately for Julian, being of military age, not that he could not return home, but the Zalizniak family had to hide him away, so that the Russian authorities would not intern him. He took advantage of the war years to rekindle the national consciousness of Ukrainian youth under Russia.

He maintained ties with the Ukrainian underground students organizations in Kyiv and in Moscow. He compiled his letters and speeches in the work "Rozvytok ukrains'koi natsional'no-politchnoi dumky v XIX stolitti" (The Development of Ukrainian National-Political Thought in the 19th Century) that had as its objective to tear the young Ukrainian intelligentsia away from the influence of the Moscow socialist ideology, and to return it to the Ukrainian national direction, even if it was socialist. The first part of this work was printed in 1918 in Kyiv at the publishing house "Serp i molot" (Hammer and Sickle) and reprinted in 1922 in Lviv and 1965 in New York. The other two parts were never published.

During the revolution, Julian was chosen to be a student community representative to the Ukrainian Central Rada (Council), but soon after he removed himself from it, because the anti-Ukrainian Moscow press raised a ruckus that within the Central Rada there was an "Austrian". In the years 1917-18 he was the secretary of the Ukrainian Social-Revolutionary Party, and also the secretary of the Villagers' Association. He was also a co-worker with the daily newspaper "Narodna Volia" (National Freedom) and for the publishing house "Serp I molot" (Hammer and Sickle). In 1920 he was a co-worker with the publishing house "Rukh" (Movement) in Kharkiv.

When the Bolsheviks occupied Ukraine (1919 - 1921), he lived in Melitopol, where he was a teacher in a women's high school, and the director of the National Education Division ofr the Melitopol county. The Soviet authorities arrested and executed him on October 10, 1921 and Julian Ochrymovych became a victim of the ensuing Communist terror.

Excerpt from Encyclopedia of Ukraine: Yuliian Okhrymovych, born 1893 in Stryi, Galicia, died October 10, 1921 in Kyiv. Political and civic leader; brother of Volodymyr Okhrymovych. He was a Ukrainian community and political activist born in the village of Stryi (now the Lviv oblast) to a family of a priest. He was a radical influenced by Mykhailo Drahomanov's ideas, he studied philosophy and the social sciences at Lviv University from 1911 and was active in the Ukrainian Student Union and editor of its monthly "Shliakhy" (1913-1914). Before the war, he was one of the leaders of the Ukrainian student movement in Halychyna. At the outbreak of the First World War he (along with Wasyl Semets and Ivan Lyzanivskyj) crossed the border into Russian-ruled Ukraine to propagate national revolutionary ideas among students. As a result of their activities, the Ukrainian students of Kyiv in March 1914, during the Shevchenko festivities, demonstrated for the first time under blue and yellow flags. In 1917-18 he served as a secretary of the Central Committee of the Ukrainian Party of Socialist Revolutionaries and in April 1917 he was elected as a deputy of student organizations on the Ukrainian Central Rada. He was one of the leaders of the party's central faction and an influential contributor to its organ "Borot'ba". He refused to leave Ukraine with the UNR government and found work at the Rukh publishing house in Kharkiv. Yulian was arrested in 1921 along with his colleagues of the VCHK and he was executed on October 10, 1921 by the Bolsheviks for his connection with the Central Insurgent Committee in Kyiv. He completed only the first part (up to M. Drahomanov) of his "Rozvytok ukrains'koi natsional'no-politchnoi dumky" (The Development of Ukrainian National-Political Thought), 1918; (reprinted 1922 and 1965).