The life story of Fedir Vovk (in emigration — Ivan Vovchuk), Righteous Among the Nations, is now presented in Oleh Protsenko’s book “National Tribune”
“Bolshevism started building its empire by starting war against Ukraine. This empire will end its existence with a victorious war of Ukraine against Moscow,” these words belong to Fedir Vovk (Ivan Vovchuk).
In 2019, in Nikopol within the framework of the project of the Jewish Confederation of Ukraine “The Righteous People of My City” one of the streets was named in his honor. Shortly before the start of the full-scale Russian invasion, the story of rescue of the Jewish Bakst family by Vovk was already included in the book “Righteous Among the Nations. Ukraine”.
Yad Vashem — The World Holocaust Remembrance Center awarded the title of Righteous Among the Nations to Vovk himself, his wife Yelizaveta Shkandel and their fellow teacher Maria Mizina for this heroic deed. What is also significant in this story is that all three were members of the Ukrainian nationalist underground in Nikopol.
The detailed life story of Fedir Vovk (in emigration — Ivan Vovchuk), inscribed in the history of the Ukrainian national liberation movement, is now presented in Oleh Protsenko’s book “National Tribune. The Life and Ideas of Ivan Vovchuk”, published by the Phronesis Publishing House.
Its presentation was held simultaneously in Kyiv and Washington, D.C., with the participation of Ukrainian Ambassador to the United States Oksana Markarova, Senators Shelley Moore Capito, Roger Wicker, and Ivan Vovchuk’s grandchildren — Yurij, Borys, and Zenovy Wowczuk.
I am grateful to Oleh Protsenko and the Vovk Foundation for this work. It is especially important today, when Ukraine is fighting against the empire, one of the main types of weapons of which are anti-Ukrainian myths.
