Yuri Velykanovych

Yuri Velykanovych was born in a family of teachers, Emilia and Dmytro Velykanovych, in the village of Ilnyk (Austria-Hungary, nowadays Stryi Raion, Lviv Oblast, Ukraine), where he graduated from school. In 1920 he studied in the Ukrainian grammar school in Lviv. Then he entered the Faculty of Philology at the Jan Kazimierz University (nowadays Ivan Franko National University of Lviv). As a student he joined the Communist Party of Western Ukraine.[2]

In the summer of 1936, he was a fighter of the International Brigades in Spain during the Civil War.[3]

In July 1937, he was a member of the company named after Taras Shevchenko (a part of the XIII Dabrowski Brigade) composed of Ukrainian communists from Galicia and Volhynia.[4] In the interbrigadist press Velykanovych published his articles and correspondence in Polish, Spanish and Ukrainian about Taras Shevchenko's life and creativity, about the battle way of the company ("Taras Shevchenko", "The Ukrainians in the International Brigades", "Taras Shevchenko in the Aragon Front" and others).

On September 4, 1938, he was mortally wounded in the battle of the Ebro river.[2]

During the Soviet era, in 1982, a monument to Velykanovych was erected in Lviv. In addition a street was named Velykanovych (renamed by the authorities in 1991 after gaining independence). On that street there was a school with deep learning of Spanish.[4]

In May 2015, the vandals cut off the head of the statue. The monument was dismantled for restoration, and then returned to its place.

At night on December 2, 2017, members of the neo-Nazi group C14 threw the sculpture to the ground, drew the slogan "Down with the communist!" on the pedestal, and left the signature of their gang.[5]

• Anger as statue of Spanish civil war hero vandalised - the International Brigade Memorial Trust condemned the desecration of the monument to a Ukrainian who died in (Morning Star)