Oleksii Balabas Archival Collection
Dublin Core
Title
Oleksii Balabas Archival Collection
Description
Oleksij Balabas was born in 1890 in Kuban', Russia. He was conscripted into the Russian Army upon the outbreak of World War I and fought on the Western and Turkish fronts. After the 1917 Revolution he joined the government of the Kuban' People's Republic, associating closely with many of the top government leaders. After the takeover of the government by the monarchist "Black Hundreds" counter-revolutionaries he was arrested and exiled in 1919 to Istanbul. In 1920, he moved with his family to Prauge.
Fleeing ahead of the Red Army in World War II, he spent time in the Karlsfeld, Füssen, and Mittenwald DP camps. He served as teacher and director of the Mittenwald camp Gymnasium. In 1950 he emigrated with his daughter Liudmyla and grandson Petro to Chicago. He moved to New Jersey after prostate surgury and died on June 23, 1960.
The Oleksii Balabas Papers contain material relating to his life in Russia, Prague, as a Displaced Person in Germany, and in Chicago. Of particular importance are three volumes of diaries in which he describes his life in Germany and Chicago and his attempts to deal with his grief over the death of his wife. In addition, the collection has official and legal documents from pre-Revolutionary Russia and his immigration into the USA, family and personal correspondence, writings on Kuban' history, and photographs from Prague, Germany and the USA.
Fleeing ahead of the Red Army in World War II, he spent time in the Karlsfeld, Füssen, and Mittenwald DP camps. He served as teacher and director of the Mittenwald camp Gymnasium. In 1950 he emigrated with his daughter Liudmyla and grandson Petro to Chicago. He moved to New Jersey after prostate surgury and died on June 23, 1960.
The Oleksii Balabas Papers contain material relating to his life in Russia, Prague, as a Displaced Person in Germany, and in Chicago. Of particular importance are three volumes of diaries in which he describes his life in Germany and Chicago and his attempts to deal with his grief over the death of his wife. In addition, the collection has official and legal documents from pre-Revolutionary Russia and his immigration into the USA, family and personal correspondence, writings on Kuban' history, and photographs from Prague, Germany and the USA.
Collection Items
The Iemets' Bandura School in Prague
Group photograph of the bandura school led by Vasyl' Iemets' in Prague in the 1920s. The woman second from the left in the front row (marked by the "x") may be Oleksii Balabas' wife Ievhenia.
