Richard Franz Marian Yary (also: Riko Yary, , , ; pseudonyms: "Yaryga", "Karpat", "Riko") (1898–1969) was a Ukrainian nationalist journalist, politician and military figure. Born in

Rzeszów Rzeszów ( , ) is the largest city in southeastern Poland. It is located on both sides of the Wisłok River in the heartland of the Sandomierz Basin. Rzeszów is the capital of the Subcarpathian Voivodeship and the county seat, seat of Rzeszów C ...

, Galicia (then part of

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe#Before World War I, Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military ...

) in present-day Poland, he became one of the highest functionaries of the

Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists The Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN; ) was a Ukrainian nationalist organization established on February 2, 1929 in Vienna, uniting the Ukrainian Military Organization with smaller, mainly youth, radical nationalist right-wing groups. ...

(OUN) and a close associate of and advisor to

Stepan Bandera Stepan Andriyovych Bandera (, ; ; 1 January 1909 – 15 October 1959) was a Ukrainian far-right leader of the radical militant wing of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, the OUN-B. Bandera was born in Austria-Hungary, in Galicia (Eas ...

Origin

According to the Yary family legend the Yarys descended from a Ukrainian Cossack wounded during the Siege of Vienna in 1685. According to historians O. Kucheruk and Z. Knysh, Yary was of patrilineal Czech and matrilineal Hungarian-Jewish descent(Polish rather than Hungarian (maiden name "Pollack") according to Patrylyak).. Yary's Jewish descent was affirmed by the historian Z. Knysh, but denied by P. Mirchuk who affirmed that Yary was not Jewish, but was denounced as such by his enemies in OUN-M, and Knysh himself was Yary's personal enemy.

Family

Yary married Olga Rosalie Spielvogel, a Jewish woman from

Peremyshliany Peremyshliany (, ; ; , ''Premishlan'') is a small city in Lviv Raion, Lviv Oblast (region) of Ukraine. It hosts the administration of Peremyshliany urban hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine. Population: Przemyślany, as the town is called i ...

in 1923.

In the military

In 1912, he completed his studies in the Military Academy in

Wiener Neustadt Wiener Neustadt (; Lower_Austria.html" ;"title=".e. Lower Austria">.e. Lower Austria , ) is a city located south of Vienna, in the state of Lower Austria, in northeast Austria. It is a self-governed city and the seat of the district administr ...

, and commanded a sapper battalion after graduation. In the years of World War I (1914–18), he was an officer in the 9th Dragoons Legion of the Austrian Army. In 1918, he went over to the side of the

Ukrainian Galician Army The Ukrainian Galician Army ( UGA; ), was the combined military of the West Ukrainian People's Republic during and after the Polish-Ukrainian War. It was called the "Galician army" initially. Dissatisfied with the alliance of Ukraine and Polan ...

(UHA) and commanded a sniper division and later the 2nd cavalry. In 1919, he fought with the 5th Kherson battalion of the Ukrainian National Republic. In 1920, as part of the battalion he was interned in

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

and was held at an internment camp in

Uzhhorod Uzhhorod (, ; , ; , ) is a List of cities in Ukraine, city and List of hromadas of Ukraine, municipality on the Uzh, Uzh River in western Ukraine, at the border with Slovakia and near the border with Hungary. The city is approximately equidistan ...

In the OUN

From 1921-29, he was an active member of the

Ukrainian Military Organization The Ukrainian Military Organization (), was a Ukrainian paramilitary body, engaged in terrorism (especially in Poland) during the interwar period. It was formed after the occupation of Ukraine by Soviet Russia following the Ukrainian–Soviet ...

(UVO), one of the closest advisers to

Yevhen Konovalets Yevhen Mykhailovych Konovalets (; 14 June 1891 – 23 May 1938) was a Ukrainian military commander and political leader of the Ukrainian nationalist movement. A veteran of the First World War and the Ukrainian War of Independence, he is best kn ...

. In January 1929, he took part in the First Congress of Ukrainian Nationalists in Vienna, where the formation of the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) was announced. In 1933 Yary attempted to obtain a post at the Ukrainian Institute founded by hetman Skoropadsky in Berlin (on OUN's behalf), but he could not secure an appointment due to opposition from the Nazi authorities. This attempt led to a smear campaign in the Polish press that accused Yary and Konovalets of being German agents. From 1937-38, he became the liaison officer between Yevhen Konovalets and admiral

Wilhelm Canaris Wilhelm Franz Canaris (1 January 1887 – 9 April 1945) was a admiral (Germany), German admiral and the chief of the ''Abwehr'' (the German military intelligence, military-intelligence service) from 1935 to 1944. Initially a supporter of Ad ...

of the

Abwehr The (German language, German for ''resistance'' or ''defence'', though the word usually means ''counterintelligence'' in a military context) ) was the German military intelligence , military-intelligence service for the ''Reichswehr'' and the ...

, and directed espionage training courses of the UVO organized by the

. He became an agent of the Special services, and was an adviser during the discussions between Konovalets and the Japanese Military Attache. During the 1930s Yary was one of the members of the ''Provid'', or leadership council, of the

. He was the only member of the Provid to side with Bandera when the organizations split into Bandera and Melnyk factions. According to later claims by members of the Russian Social Democratic party in exile he was also a Soviet agent at the time.Petro Yarovy, Central Intelligence Agency, ''Stepan A. Bandera and the 1941 "Ukrainian State'', Sotsialistichaskiy Vestnik, No.6-.4; 1951
Yary's support for Bandera turned some Ukrainians against Bandera because it was considered suspicious that of all the members of the OUN's leadership council, only the one of not fully Ukrainian ethnicity chose to follow Bandera. Yary's influence on

was instrumental in the division of the OUN into its two factions. After the division, he stayed with the OUN-B (Bandera faction). In November 1940, he arranged contact between Bandera and the Abwehr and set up the Vienna Bureau of the OUN(b). On his initiative, the Nachtigall and Roland Battalion were formed. After the Proclamation of Ukrainian Independence he was given the portfolio of Ambassador to Japan. At the same time, there were reports by the

Einsatzgruppe B (, ; also 'task forces') were (SS) paramilitary death squads of Nazi Germany that were responsible for mass murder, primarily by shooting, during World War II (1939–1945) in German-occupied Europe. The had an integral role in the impl ...

that Yary and his wife were Jewish, and as such subject to persecution.Bundesarchiv (BA).- Koblenz. / R 58/214 f. 69. After the abrogation by the Nazis of the independent Ukrainian State, Yary left the

General Government The General Government (, ; ; ), formally the General Governorate for the Occupied Polish Region (), was a German zone of occupation established after the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, Slovak Republic (1939–1945), Slovakia and the Soviet ...

and from 1942 he lived in the Rumanian-occupied

Bukovina Bukovina or ; ; ; ; , ; see also other languages. is a historical region at the crossroads of Central and Eastern Europe. It is located on the northern slopes of the central Eastern Carpathians and the adjoining plains, today divided betwe ...

. In 1943, he was arrested by the

Gestapo The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...

and was sent to the

Sachsenhausen concentration camp Sachsenhausen () or Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg was a German Nazi concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany, used from 1936 until April 1945, shortly before the defeat of Nazi Germany in May later that year. It mainly held political prisoners t ...

After World War II

After the war, he returned to his own house in Austria in the Soviet occupational sector. The Soviet occupation forces made no attempt to arrest him, which has led to suspicions that he might have worked for the Soviet intelligence. However, after retiring in Austria, in order to avoid Soviet persecution, he moved to the British sector. After the war, he left political life entirely. According to another source, in the 1950s, Yary became active in OUNb again.

Notes

Sources

* (In Ukrainian) О.Кучерук "Рико Ярий - загадка ОУН" Львів, ЛА "ПІРАМІДА" 2005. * (In Russian) Chuyev, Sergei - Ukrainskyj Legion - Moscow, 2006 * І.К. Патриляк. Військова діяльність ОУН(Б) у 1940—1942 роках. — Університет імені Шевченко \Ін-т історії України НАН України Київ, 2004 p. 261-262 * "Енциклопедія українознавства" - Riko Yary {{DEFAULTSORT:Yary, Richard 1898 births 1969 deaths People from Rzeszów People from the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria Ukrainian Austro-Hungarians Austro-Hungarian military personnel of World War I Austrian people of Czech descent Ukrainian Galician Army people Ukrainian people of Czech descent Ukrainian people of Hungarian descent Ukrainian collaborators with Nazi Germany Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists members Sachsenhausen concentration camp survivors 20th-century Ukrainian politicians