The Portrait of the UNR Activist Ilarion Kosenko in Official Documents and His Friends Memoirs

Abstract

The article analyses the activity of Ilarion Kosenko who was one of the key Ukrainian politicians in 1920–1940. He was born on October 19, 1888 in Zin’kiv, Poltava region. He held different state positions during the Ukrainian Revolution. He was a comrade of the Minister of Press and Propaganda; the Head of Kyiv District Post-Telegraph Department; and the Minister of Post and Telegraph. During the Directory period in January 1919, Kosenko was elected as a delegate of the Ukrainian Labour Congress. Moreover, Ilarion Kosenko was the editor of a Kamianets-Podilskyi daily non-party newspaper Our Road (Nash Shliakh) from the middle of 1919 till May of 1920. In the end of 1920 he moved to Tarnov, then to Warsaw, and in 1924 he settled in France, where he lived till his death in 1950. From 1925 till 1940 he was an administrator of the journal Tryzub. Furthermore, Ilarion Kosenko founded the Union of Ukrainian Emigrant Organisations in France and was the member of its council. Finally, he was one of the founders as well as the deputy head and treasurer of the Association of the Symon Petliura Ukrainian Library in Paris.