Volodymyr Chekhivsky

Volodymyr Musiiovych Chekhivskyi (; 19 July 1876 – 3 November 1937) was a Ukrainian activist and politician who served as Chairman of the Council of People's Ministers of the Ukrainian People's Republic from December 1918 to February 1919. Previously, he was a member of the Russian State Duma and Russian Constituent Assembly. Chekhivskyi was also among the founders of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, and the brother of conductor and singer . Early life and career Chekhivskyi was born on 19 July 1876, to the family of a clergyman in the village of , in the Kievsky Uyezd of Kiev Governorate, Russian Empire (today in Obukhiv Raion). In 1900 he graduated from the Kyiv Theological Academy and the Odesa University, from 1905 he was a Doctor of Theology. From 1897 he was a member of the student club of Mykhailo Drahomanov's Socialist-Democrats. From 1901 to 1905 Cherkhivsky worked as Deputy Inspector of the seminaries of Kyiv and Kamianets-Podilskyi. Because of his activity and interest in Ukrainian nationalism at the seminaries, Chekhivskyi was dismissed and transferred to the Cherkasy Oblast. From 1905 to 1906 he was a teacher of Russian language as well as of the History of Literature and the Theory of Philology at the Cherkassy Theology College. Between 1902 and 1904 Chekhivskyi was a member of the Revolutionary Ukrainian Party, after which he switched to the Ukrainian Social Democratic Labour Party (USDLP) until 1919. In 1906, he was elected to the Imperial Duma, however the Russian government exiled him, as a Ukrainian to Vologda in Russia. However, through the efforts of his electors to the Imperial Duma, he was returned from exile after one year.