Ivan Babii
{{Short description|Ukrainian educator (1893–1934)}}
{{Expand Ukrainian|topic=bio|date=March 2015}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Ivan Babii
| image = Iwan Babij.jpg
| caption =
| birth_date = March 5, 1893
| birth_place = Dobromirka, Austria–Hungary
| death_date = July 25, 1934 (aged 41)
| death_place = Lwów, Second Polish Republic
| death_cause = Assassination by gunshot
| nationality = Ukrainian
| occupation = Educator, military officer
| known_for = Organizing the "Ukrainian Youth for Christ" festival
}}
Ivan Babii ({{langx|uk|Іван Бабій}}; March 5, 1893 – July 25, 1934) was a Ukrainian educator and military officer. He was one of the main organizers of the "Ukrainian Youth for Christ" festival and a proponent of peaceful coexistence between Ukrainians and Poles in Galicia as an integral part of Poland. Babii was assassinated on the orders of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN).
Biography
Ivan Babii was born on March 5, 1893, in the village of Dobromirka (now in Zbarazh district of Ternopil region, Ukraine) into a peasant family.
Babii graduated in 1911 from a high school in Tarnopol,{{Cite web |title=Zvit Direkcii C. K. Gimnazii Franc-Josifa I v Ternopoli za rik skilnyj 1910/11 - Podkrapacka Digital Library |url=https://www.pbc.rzeszow.pl/dlibra/show-content/publication/edition/4135?id=4135 |access-date=2023-07-03 |website=www.pbc.rzeszow.pl}} then studied classical philology at the Jan Kazimierz University in Lwów. Following the start of World War I in 1914, he was called into the Austro-Hungarian Army, where he served in the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen. In 1918–1919, Babii fought against Poland in the Ukrainian Galician Army and in 1920 participated as an officer of the Ukrainian People's Army in the Kiev offensive of the joint Polish-Ukrainian forces.
Later, Babii became a principal of a high school in Brzeżany, then, in 1931, took the post of principal of a Ukrainian high school in Lwów. He organized the Youth for Christ festival in western Ukraine.Myroslav Shkandri. (2015). Ukrainian Nationalism: Politics, Ideology, and Literature, 1929-1956. New Haven: Yale University Press. pg. 30 Babii openly criticized the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists.{{Cite web |date=2015-04-02 |title=Смерть директора гімназії Івана Бабія |url=http://bandera.lviv.ua/?p=3043 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402154847/http://bandera.lviv.ua/?p=3043 |archive-date=2015-04-02 |access-date=2024-03-25 |website=bandera.lviv.ua}} He prevented his students from distributing OUN leaflets.{{Cite book |last=Shkandrij |first=Myroslav |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-WjwBQAAQBAJ&dq=%22in+Lviv%2C+who+had+prevented+his+students+from+distributing+Nationalist+leaflets%22&pg=PA30 |title=Ukrainian Nationalism: Politics, Ideology, and Literature, 1929-1956 |date=2015-01-28 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-21074-3 |pages=30 |language=en}}
The revolutionary tribunal of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists sentenced Babii to death for collaborating with Polish authorities. On July 27, 1934, an OUN militant murdered him in Lviv.{{citation |mode=cs1 |first=Petro|last=Mirchik|language=uk|author-link=Petro Murchuk|script-section=uk:Нарис історії ОУН |trans-section=History of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army |script-title=uk:НАРИС ІСТОРІЇ ОУН|section-url=http://lib.oun-upa.org.ua/narys_oun/r_505.html |publisher=Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists |access-date=2014-06-16|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090310021159/http://lib.oun-upa.org.ua/narys_oun/r_505.html|archive-date=2009-03-10}} As it turned out, Babii was assigned police protection, and when the attacker realized that he would not be able to escape, he tried to shoot himself. In the hospital, the militant regained consciousness and confessed that he was a member of the OUN and his name was Mykhailo Tsar, originally from Pozdymyr. On August 17, the killer died of his wound.Петро Мірчук. Нарис історії ОУН. [http://lib.oun-upa.org.ua/narys_oun/r_505.html Том 1. V частина. Розділ 5.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090310021159/http://lib.oun-upa.org.ua/narys_oun/r_505.html|date=10 березня 2009}} Вбивство Івана Бабія. The assassination was publicly condemned by the Ukrainian Archbishop Andrey Sheptytsky.
References
{{Reflist}}
Bibliography
- Andrzej Chojnowski, Jan Bruski − Ukraina, Warsaw 2006, {{ISBN|978-83-7436-039-5}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Babij, Ivan}}
Category:Assassinated Ukrainian people
Category:Austro-Hungarian military personnel of World War I
Category:People from the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria
Category:People from Ternopil Oblast
Category:People killed by the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists
Category:Ukrainian Austro-Hungarians
Category:Deaths by firearm in Poland
Category:Ukrainian Galician Army people
Category:20th-century Ukrainian educators
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