Vasyl Mudryj, Vasyl" Mudryj, Ukrainian politician, member of Ukrainian parliamentary representation, (1930s) | Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust
Vasyl Mudryj (Polish: Wasyl Mudryj Ukrainian: Василь Мудрий, was a Ukrainian journalist and politician who led the Ukrainian National Democratic Alliance, the largest Ukrainian political party in interwar Poland, and who served as a vice-speaker of the Polish parliament.
From 1921 to 1933 he was part of the head committee of the Prosvita, an organization dedicated to preserving Ukrainian culture and spreading Ukrainian literacy. From 1927 until 1935 he was chief editor of Dilo, the largest Ukrainian newspaper in interwar Poland. Mudryj was a member of the Ukrainian National Democratic Alliance (UNDO), the largest Ukrainian political party in interwar Poland. In 1935 UNDO experienced an internal conflict due to its policy of cooperation with the Polish government. UNDO's leader, Dmytro Levytsky, resigned his position in protest against such cooperation. Mudryj then became UNDO's new leader and as part of a compromise between UNDO and the Polish government he became vice speaker of the Polish parliament. Despite UNDO's cooperation with the Polish government, key demands such as Ukrainian autonomy or the establishment of a Ukrainian-language university for Poland's 4.4 million Ukrainians were not met, and in 1938 Mudryj declared that attempts at compromising with Poland failed. After German-controlled Czechoslovakia granted that country's Carpatho-Ukraine autonomy and articles in the German press began supporting the idea of a Ukrainian state including Polish territories, Mudryj met with the German ambassador in Warsaw, stated that there was no hope for Polish-Ukrainian cooperation, and expressed hope for German support. This pro-German approach ended when Germany's ally Hungary conquered Carpatho-Ukraine and when the Polish government renewed its stated commitment to Ukrainian autonomy.
When Germany invaded Poland in 1939, UNDO under Mudryj declared its loyalty to the Polish state. Fleeing the Soviets who annexed Eastern Poland and who arrested most of the Ukrainian political figures who had not escaped (including Mudry's predecessor Dmytro Levytsky), Vasyl Mudry settled in Krakow where he became secretary of the Ukrainian CentralCommittee.
After the war, Vasyl Mudryj emigrated to America where from 1957 until his death in 1966 he was a member of the directorship of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America. He died in 19 March 1966 in Yonkers, New York.