The Austrian Archduke Wilhelm Franz von Habsburg-Lothringen was full of fervent Ukrainian patriotism. He served Ukraine as a soldier, politician, and diplomat, wrote poetry in Ukrainian, and proudly wore embroidered shirts given to him - for this our soldiers nicknamed him Vasyl Vyshyvany.
Wilhelm-Vasyl Vyshyvanyi. Photo before 1918
Wikimedia Commons
After graduating from the military academy, Wilhelm Habsburg joined the 13th Ulan cavalry regiment. In the spring of 1918, he headed a military group of the Austrian army, which included a kurin of Ukrainian Sich Riflemen, and since then he began to sign himself "Colonel U.S.R.".
For some time he was considered a rival of Pavlo Skoropadskyi. After the overthrow of the Hetmanate, he was promoted to the rank of colonel of the UPR army. Later, he headed the Ukrainian Free Cossack Society in Austria.
During the Second World War, while in Nazi-occupied Vienna, he was amember of the resistance movement, collaborating with British and French military intelligence.
Vyshyvanyi in Lukianivka prison. 1947
uinp.gov.ua
In 1947, 52-year-old Vyshyvanyi was arrested on charges of contact with the OUN and taken to prison in Kyiv. There, a year later, he died of untreated tuberculosis. He was secretly buried near the fence of the Lukianivske cemetery.
The declassified KGB file on Vyshyvanyi was recently made public by the archive of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine.
It was only after his rehabilitation in 1989 and the declassification of Soviet documents that Ukraine began to learn about the fate of its great friend and honor his memory.
Today, the streets of many of our cities are named after the Ukrainian patriot from the Habsburg dynasty, and scientific works, a fiction novel, and even an opera based on a libretto by Serhiy Zhadan are dedicated to him.
Vyshyvanyi on a postcard. Before 1921
violity.com
The bidding for the postcard "Colonel U.S.R. Vasyl Vyshyvanyi" issued in Vienna by the Ukrainian City Overlay took place in early July. Violity users valued it at UAH 4,500.
The lot was a charity auction, with all the proceeds going to help bring Ukraine's victory closer. The fight for which Vyshyvanyi gave his life continues.
