Klochurak, Stepan [Klocurak], born 27 February 1895 in Yasinia, Maramaros county, Transcarpathia, died 1980 in Prague. Political activist and journalist. In 1918-19 he organized local Ukrainian national councils and a Hutsul army, with which he defended the short-lived Hutsul Republic from the Hungarians. After the war he helped found the Subcarpathian Social Democratic party, and edited its newspapers Narod (1920-1) and Vpered (1922-34). Joining the Ukrainian branch of the pro-government Czechoslovak Agrarian party in 1934, he edited its organ Zemlia i volia (1934-8). He sat on the presidium of the Prosvita society and organized rural branches of the society. In the autonomous Carpatho-Ukrainian state within Czechoslovakia, Klochurak served as secretary to the prime minister and delegate to the Vienna Arbitration. In the independent republic of Carpatho-Ukraine, he briefly held the office of defense minister (15 March 1939). In 1945 he was arrested by Soviet authorities in Prague; he returned there after serving 11 years in prison. His memoirs Do voli (To Freedom, 1978) were published in the West.

Volume II, page 565

Belz. City (1968 pop. 3,000) on the Solokiia River in Sokal raion, Lviv Oblast. Belz was first mentioned in the chronicles under 1030, when it was an appanage of the principality of Galicia-Volhynia. As a fortified town, Belz withstood several Polish sieges. In 1388 it was captured by the Poles, and in 1462-1772 it was a voivodeship center. With the first partition of Poland Belz came under Austrian rule in 1772. In the first half of 1919 the Western Ukrainian and Polish armies fought several battles there. In 1919-39 it was a town belonging to Poland. In 1939 it was occupied by the German army and became part of the Generalgouvernement. In 1944 Belz was taken by the Soviet army and belonged to Poland until 1951 when, according to a treaty between Poland and the Soviet Union, it was incorporated into the Ukrainian SSR.

Volume I, page 201

Jewish Battalion of the Ukrainian Galician Army (Zhydivskyi kurin UHA). The battalion was formed from Jewish militia units in the city of Ternopil during June 1919 as part of the Ukrainian Galician Army (UHA). It was commanded by Lieutenant S. Leimberg and initially was under direct operational control of 1 Corps Headquarters. The battalion reached a total strength of 1,200 soldiers, who were organized into four infantry companies, one machine-gun company, one engineer company, and other units. After basic training in Ostapie, Skalat county, the battalion was sent to the Polish front and was in combat from 14 July 1919. During the withdrawal of the UHA to the east, the battalion initially had responsibility for rearguard security and later participated in combat against Bolshevik forces in Proskuriv (Khmelnytskyi) and captured the town of Mykhalpil (Mykhailivka). In Vinnytsia the battalion's mission was to secure the city and the headquarters of 1 Corps. In the march on Kiev in late August 1919 the battalion was attached to the 6th Brigade with the mission of gaining and securing the rail station at Sviatoshyne. In September 1919 the battalion was temporarily stationed in Berdychiv, where its actions in securing the town gained wide support among the local people. After transfer to Vinnytsia in late autumn 1919, the battalion was so decimated by the typhus epidemic that it was disbanded and its surviving soldiers were reassigned to other UHA units.

Volume II, page 385