FOCUS ON PHILATELY
A Ukrainian patriot, philatelist and numismatist
by George V. Kedrowsky and Ingert J. Kuzych
Few people could hope to achieve half of what Volodymyr Kedrowsky accomplished during his busy 80-year life-span, yet it's difficult to put a label as to what exactly he considered himself. Was he a diplomat? A military officer? A statistician? A journalist? A film producer? Or a farmer? In reality, he was all of the above and more, but even while he wore numerous hats and juggled many professions, he consistently remained a collector: both of stamps and of banknotes.
Kedrowsky was born into a family of Ukrainian landholders in the Kherson region on August 13, 1890. The Kedrowsky family lands were located on the Inhul River, across from today's community of Pisky. The lands of his mother's family (the Lipskys) were located on the Inhulets River, north of Vysunske and west of Bereznehuvate (roughly 75 kilometers or 45 miles north of Kherson).
The Kedrowsky clan originally came from Prussia; in the ninth century the family was granted the arms of Ostoja. During the Polish-Lithuanian domination of Ukraine the Kedrowsky family received vast land grants. These areas were farmed, primarily for wheat. The noble lineage of the family was subsequently recognized by the tsar.
Volodymyr and his two younger brothers were educated at home, where they learned Greek, German and various Slavic languages. Their father passed away from pneumonia at the age of 32, so he and his two brothers left the Kedrowsky family estate and lived with their mother and her father (Mikola Onufry Lipsky) on his estate. It was as a youth that Volodymyr Kedrowsky developed his interest in philately. Initially he collected the stamps of imperial Russia.
Since Kherson is located on the Black Sea, it is not surprising that Kedrowsky grew up with an interest in pursuing a naval career. He attended and graduated from the Real Gymnasium in Kherson, specializing in naval architecture. He then attended the Odesa Imperial University from 1907 to 1911, graduating with a degree in statistics and economics.
During the summer months, when he was not attending class, he served as the first mate on a passenger ship. It was on a return voyage from the United States on one of these summer excursions that a worldwide mariner strike occurred and an order went out to disable all ships at sea. Kedrowsky happened to be at the helm of the ship when the message was received. In order not to endanger any of the passengers or antagonize the seamen, he deliberately ran the ship aground in the English Channel. Because of this event, it was unlikely that he would ever obtain a captain's license or his own command.
His chances of obtaining a position in the ship building industry were also in jeopardy because of his revolutionary reputation. Since his teenage years, Volodymyr had belonged to the Central Committee of the Ukrainian Party of Socialist Revolutionaries as well as being a member of Hromadas (clandestine student organizations) that promoted Ukrainian culture.
From 1911 to July 19, 1914, he worked at the Kherson Zemstvo (district office), serving as statistician and then as head of the Bureau of School Statistics. In this position he gained experience in the administrative field that he later was able to draw upon during the creation of the newborn Ukrainian Republic. After graduating from the university, Kedrowsky married Martha Palka Odarik, whose family was from the Kherson area also.
On July 19, 1914, he was mobilized (conscripted for a year's service) into the Russian Imperial Army as an infantry machine gunner. From August 1914 to January 1915 he served in battle against the German army in East Prussia. In January 1915, after being promoted to master sergeant, he was assigned to a Machine Gun Company of the 253rd Infantry Regiment. There he was awarded the Order of St. George for valor in battle and, after recovering from wounds, he received orders transferring him to the 44th Training Regiment as a candidate for military school.
From July 1 to November 1, 1915, he was a cadet at the Odesa Military Academy, graduating as a second lieutenant with honors. (He was No. 1 in his graduation class.) When asked what assignment he wished, his reply was: "Whatever you wish me to have." He was assigned to the staff of the academy, where he was appointed a machine gun instructor. On May 1, 1916, he was promoted to first lieutenant and transferred to the Odesa Machine Gun Training Regiment in command of the Sergeant's School.
One year later, on November 1, 1916, he was promoted to major (shtabs-captain) and transferred to the Caucasian Native Cavalry Division that fought on the Turkish and Austrian fronts. From December 1, 1916, to June 15, 1917, he was in command of the Machine Gun Company of Ossetian Brigade in the Caucasian Cavalry Division, which saw action on the Galician and Romanian fronts against Austrian, German and Turkish armies.
When the Russian Revolution broke out in 1917, Volodymyr Kedrowsky immediately became involved in the Ukrainianization of military units of the army. At the second all Ukrainian Military Congress in Kyiv during June of 1917, he was elected a member of the Ukrainian Military General Committee, whose president was Symon Petliura (Petliura had also been an officer in the tsar's army). Kedrowsky was the vice-president of this committee.
He was also a member of the Ukrainian Central Rada (from June of 1917). On September 1, 1917, he was appointed under -secretary of war in the newly formed government and promoted to lieutenant colonel of the Ukrainian National Republic Army (Petliura was minister of war). He was also minister of war for a short period and a member of the General Staff in 1918. On March 13, 1918, in protest against the German occupation of Ukraine, he resigned from active service. From April 1, 1918 to October 15, 1918, he was in charge of the Statistical Bureau of Education and Libraries for the Kherson provincial government.
On October 17, 1918, he was appointed to the position of second quartermaster of General Headquarters (in charge of the entire army's supplies and mobilization), and promoted to colonel in the Army. This army went into battle against the German occupation of Ukraine and then later against in the newly formed Russian Communist (Red) Army. He is noted in history as the man who sent the first army into battle against the Communists. Under his command, the Communists in the Kyiv district were disarmed.
Sometime during this period he was given the title of otaman and in 1919 he was appointed military attaché of the Ukrainian National Republic to the Ottoman Empire. Documents dated January 21, 1919, identify him with this title (Figure 1). Thereafter, from May to December of 1919, he was chief inspector of the Ukrainian Army.
In 1920 he was sent to Riga as the Ukrainian National Republic's minister-extraordinary (ambassador) to the Baltic states with a staff of eight people (Latvia and Lithuania, 1919-1920, Estonia, 1920-1921, and Finland, 1921; see Figure 2). He also served as vice-president of the Ukrainian delegation to the conference in Beldiringshoff, in which Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Ukraine took part. He served as a member of the Ambassadors Council for these six republics in Riga, Latvia (Figure 3).
In 1921, after the complete takeover of Ukraine by the Bolsheviks and recognizing that he was now a wanted person, Kedrowsky and his spouse did not return to Ukraine. Instead, they chose to go to Austria and moved to Baden, some 20 kilometers (12 miles) south of Vienna. There, Kedrowsky served as president of the Ukrainian League of Nations Association. He also served on the Congress of the Parliament of Ukraine. In addition, he was an active member, serving as vice-president, of the Association of Ukrainian Journalists in Europe, also referred to as the Ukraine Society of Journalists and Writers, (see Figure 4).
At about this time he did sneak back to his family home, where he found the main building burned to the ground and all of the family possessions destroyed or pilfered. The only item he was able to salvage was the key to the library door, which is presently in the possession of his son George (co-author of this article). Fortunately, most of his extensive library was saved, since portions were moved to Riga when he was appointed ambassador and other sections had been transferred to his residence in the Kherson region.
During the period while he served as ambassador to the Baltic States and while living in Austria, Kedrowsky's four sons lived with his in-laws in the Kherson region. In 1923 he was notified of their starvation at the hands of the Soviets.
It was while he was in Austria that Kedrowsky prepared his memoirs, covering the period from 1917 through 1920. In December of 1923, he and Martha immigrated to the United States. Their sponsor was Volodymyr's uncle, Bishop John Kedrovsky, who had lived in America since 1902. Bishop John became Metropolitan Archbishop John of the Russian Orthodox Church in 1924.
Kedrowsky's memoirs were published in installments in the Ukrainian newspapers Svoboda, Ukrainskyi Holos, Narodna Volia, Narodne Slovo and others. In his book "Obrysy Mynuloho" (Essays on Bygone Days, 1966), he wrote about members of the Old Hromada (community) in Kherson and other prominent figures of the Ukrainian movement. In 1969, his book "1917-yi Rik," (The Year 1917, Volume 1) was published; it covered the period from February to September 1917. His memoirs give many details of the events in which he participated or witnessed. Of great interest are the numerous documents he cites. Many authors dealing with Ukraine and the revolutionary years have relied on these writings.
Kedrowsky donated valuable materials to the Ukrainian Academy of Arts and Science archives in New York City, including Petliura's original unpublished letters that the academy released in book form as "Symon Petliura: Statti, Lysty, Dokumenty" (Symon Petliura: Articles, Letters and Documents) in 1956. His extensive and unique library was purchased by his son George, who has donated many further books and documents pertaining to Ukrainian history and culture to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church's library in South Bound Brook, N.J. Earlier, Kedrowsky had donated portions of his library to the Library of Congress and to various universities.
Volodymyr Kedrowsky's first employment upon arriving in the United States was in the building construction industry. He quickly became active in Ukrainian American organizations and from 1926 to 1933 was co-editor of the Ukrainian daily newspaper Svoboda. This position involved many extra duties in Ukrainian American political and cultural organizations.
In subsequent years, he owned a farm in New Jersey, was a motion picture producer, a U.S. representative for the Ukrainian Canadian Motion Picture Co., and a live-performance stage director, all the while continuing as a freelance correspondent. The economic depression eventually ended the film enterprises.
In March of 1932, Kedrowsky's wife, Martha, passed away, never having fully recovered from the trauma of earlier years when she learned how horribly her family had perished in Ukraine. In October of 1932, Kedrowsky married Katherine Schutock (sometimes spelled Shattuck), a graduate of City College, N.Y., and the owner of the Echo Stamps Co. store in New York City. Katherine was involved in many Ukrainian organizations and was a charter member and first treasurer of the Ukrainian National Women's League of America. Their son George was born in 1936.
Economic conditions forced the closing of the philatelic business in the mid-1930s. Portions of the holdings were sold throughout the rest of the decade and up to World War II. From 1941 to 1955, Kedrowsky worked for the General Cable Corp. in Perth Amboy, N.J.
Kedrowsky served as secretary in the Ukraine Colonization Board in America and the United Ukrainian Organizations of U.S.A. (Obiednania). He was also president of the Board of Alliance of the Association of Ukrainian National Councils, president of the Pan Ukrainian Society, and a member of the synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the U.S.A. He established the Ukrainian School in New York City, and was involved in the establishment of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in New York City and St. Andrew's Ukrainian Orthodox Church in South Bound Brook, N.J.
From 1955 to 1963 he worked in the State Department and was chief of the Ukrainian Service of the Voice of America, United States Information Agency. He retired in 1963 and continued to write and contribute to many publications. Some of the pen names he used throughout the years were: Mykola Shram, Khersonets, Petro Chevliy, Did Buchar and Batuninets (after the nearby village of his home). Volodymyr Kedrowsky passed away after a short illness on March 13, 1970.
Ingert Kuzych may be contacted at P.O. Box 3, Springfield, VA 22150 or at his e-mail address: ingert@starpower.net.
Additional information on Kedrowsky
Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, April 6, 2003, No. 14, Vol. LXXI
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