Oleksandr Kuzminskyi

Oleksandr Kuzminskyi was born on August 30, 1884. He came from the townspeople of Tulchyn, Podillia province. He graduated from Tulchyn Theological Seminary, Odesa Infantry Cadet School (1908), served as a Second Lieutenant in the 75 th Infantry Sevastopol Regiment (Haisyn), with which he took part in the First World War.

Since December 1917, he was the Chief of the Staff of the 64th  Ukrainian Division. Then, in 1918-1919, he held various positions – was in the reserve of senior officers of the General Staff of the Central Rada, a Junior Adjutant of the Staff of the 2 nd Podillia Corps of the UPR Army, Senior Lieutenant for orders of the Staff of the Serdiutska Division of the Army of the Ukrainian State, Staff Senior Officer of the Department of Operations of the Staff of the Directory’s Army, Assistant Chief of the Department of Operations of the Staff of the Acting Army of the UPR, Senior Officer of the 3rd Quartermaster-General Office of the General Staff of the UPR.

In 1919, O. Kuzminskyi was appointed Chief of the Intelligence Department of the General Staff of the UPR. After the surviving units of the Ukrainian Army crossed the River Zbruch in November 1920, the work on organizing the armed struggle for the restoration of the sovereign Ukrainian state continued in the new conditions of emigration. This was done by a special body of the State Center of the UPR in exile – the Partisan Insurgent Staff headed by Khorunzhyi General Yurko Tiutiunnyk. The structure of the central apparatus underwent certain changes during the existence of the Partisan Insurgent Staff, but one of the most important units in it remained the Intelligence Department, headed by Colonel O. Kuzminskyi (later – a Khorunzhyi General).

Under his leadership, intelligence activities in exile were aimed at collecting intelligence about the forces of the red army deployed in Ukraine, the state security agencies of the Ukrainian ssr, the state of protection of state borders, political and economic situation in the country. The territory of Ukraine was being studied as a future theater of armed insurgency.

In late 1921, O. Kuzminskyi was appointed Chief Representative of the Ukrainian Central Committee in Halychyna. In 1939 he left for Austria. In 1951 he emigrated to Canada. Oleksandr Kuzminskyi passed away in Toronto in 1975.