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'{{Short description|Ukrainian independence activist}} '''Stepan Smok Fedak''' (6 May 1901 in [[Lviv]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages%5CF%5CE%5CFedakStepanS.htm|title=Fedak, Stepan S.|publisher=encyclopediaofukraine.com|date=1 June 2001|access-date=6 October 2021}}</ref> &ndash; 1945 in [[Berlin]]; [[pseudonym|aka]] ''Smok'', "Dragon") was a Ukrainian independence activist who, on September 25, 1921, attempted to [[assassinate]] [[Poland]]'s [[Naczelnik Państwa|Chief of State]], Marshal [[Józef Piłsudski]], as the latter visited Lwów (now [[Lviv]], [[Ukraine]]) for the opening of that city's first [[Targi Wschodnie|Eastern Trade Fair]]. ==Early life== Stepan Fedak was the son of a prominent Lwów attorney and Ukrainian activist, Dr. Stepan Fedak. The younger Fedak was a graduate of the [[Austro-Hungarian]] Military Academy at [[Wiener Neustadt]]. He served in the Legion of [[Ukrainian Sich Rifles]], then in the [[Ukrainian Galician Army]] and the Army of the [[Ukrainian People's Republic]]. In 1920 he joined the clandestine [[Ukrainian Military Organization]]. Fedak was also a member of the secret Committee of Ukrainian Youth and of ''Volia'', an underground militant organization of Ukrainian students and ex-officers of the [[Ukrainian Galician Army]] whose purpose was to fight for an independent [[Ukraine]]. It was steered from abroad by Colonel [[Yevhen Konovalets]]' [[Ukrainian Military Organization]], acting in [[Czechoslovakia]] and [[Germany]]. The [[Ukrainian Military Organization]] planned to organize underground attacks and [[sabotage]] in southeastern Poland, with its majority-Ukrainian population, to be followed by open warfare conducted by the Ukrainians against Poland and the Soviet Union until an independent Ukrainian state was reestablished in southeastern Poland and [[Dnieper Ukraine]] (Great Ukraine). ==Assassination plot== A meeting of Lwów ''Volia'' members decided to assassinate Polish [[Naczelnik Państwa|Chief of State]] Marshal [[Józef Piłsudski]] during his planned visit to Lwów on September 25, 1921, to help open the first [[Eastern Trade Fair]]. The conspirators had detailed information about his visit to the city. ''Volia'' divided itself into five-man groups, one of which was to carry out the assassination. The actual assassin, chosen by lot, was Stepan Fedak. Furnished with a false [[passport]] and [[Germany|German]] [[Visa (document)|visa]], immediately after the operation he was to escape to [[Berlin]]. He was to be assisted by the remaining members of his group. Paliyiv, a law student, was to stand beside Fedak and, after Fedak had fired, overpower him and summon [[police]]. Another conspirator, disguised as a [[Polish Army]] [[major]], would hasten to assist. The two would conduct Fedak out of the crowd, get into a rented automobile with him, and ostensibly drive him off to [[jail]], but actually out of town. ==The attack== Having earlier that day participated in the opening of the Trade Fair and then met with bankers, journalists and civic leaders, about 8 p.m. Piłsudski left the [[city hall]], accompanied by [[Lwów Voivodeship|Lwów Province]] [[Voivode#Poland|Governor]] Kazimierz Grabowski. They got into an open [[limousine]], with Piłsudski seated on the left. Stepan Fedak pushed his way toward them through the crowd. The car was moving very slowly, when a loud noise rang out. The Governor, sure that it was a [[back-fire]], continued sitting upright; Piłsudski, however, immediately recognized it for a [[pistol]] [[Gunshot|shot]] and reflexively ducked. The bullet had just missed him by a hair and struck the [[windshield]]. Two more shots rang out. One struck the Governor's right shoulder, the other—his left arm. The Governor slipped off his seat, and was supported by Piłsudski. Police senior [[constable]] Jakub Skweres threw himself at Fedak and seized him by the throat. Fedak, as he fell, fired a fourth round, wounding himself in the chest. The crowd pounced on him; he was saved from certain death by policemen and soldiers of the guard standing before the city hall, who knocked the would-be [[lynching|lyncher]]s aside with their [[rifle]] butts. ==Aftermath== The Governor was treated by physicians and went home, while Piłsudski, as planned, proceeded to Lwów's Great Theater, where he received an [[ovation]] from the gathered public. The wounded and badly [[contusion|contused]] Fedak was taken under police escort to a [[hospital]]. Immediately interrogated by the police, he falsely stated that he had wanted to shoot only the Governor, who was an enemy of the Ukrainian people, and had planned to then hand his pistol over to Chief of State Piłsudski. After the performance at the Great Theater, a [[banquet]] was held at the provincial administrative offices, with the wounded Governor Grabowski in attendance. Fedak subsequently escaped abroad. Later he became a member of the [[Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists|OUN-M]], and he joined the ''[[Einsatzgruppen#Preparations for Operation Barbarossa|Einsatzgruppe&nbsp;C]]'' as a [[translator]] in the summer of 1941. His main duties were translating documents from Russian and Ukrainian into German and participating in arrests. It is known that Fedak was one of the interpreters of the ''[[Einsatzgruppen#Preparations for Operation Barbarossa|Sondercommando&nbsp;4A]]'' and participated in the massacre of [[Babyn Yar]]. He possibly redacted and/or translated the notice dated 28 September 1941 in Russian, Ukrainian and German ordering all Kyivan Jews to assemble for supposed resettlement. According to testimonies from post-war trials in Western Germany, during the shooting at Babyn Yar, he was patrolling the road which led to the massacre site.<ref>{{Cite web|author=Yuri Radchenko|title=Babyn Yar: A site of massacres, (dis)remembrance and instrumentalisation|url=https://neweasterneurope.eu/2016/10/11/babyn-yar-a-site-of-massacres-dis-remembrance-and-instrumentalisation/|date=2016-10-11|access-date=2022-06-01|website=neweasterneurope.eu}}</ref> Toward the end of [[World War II]] he disappeared without trace in [[Berlin]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Fedak, Stepan Stepanovich|url=https://clever-geek.imtqy.com/articles/4961396/index.html|access-date=2021-09-28|website=clever-geek.imtqy.com}}</ref> ==See also== * [[List of fugitives from justice who disappeared]] ==References== {{reflist}} ==Books== * Włodzimierz Kalicki, "''25 IX 1921. Kula w rękawie'' ("September 25, 1921: a Bullet in the Sleeve"), ''[[Gazeta Wyborcza]]'', September 26, 2005. (https://wyborcza.pl/duzyformat/7,127290,2932282.html) {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Fedak, Stepan}} [[Category:1901 births]] [[Category:1945 deaths]] [[Category:1921 crimes]] [[Category:Escapees from Polish detention]] [[Category:Failed assassins]] [[Category:Fugitives wanted by Germany]] [[Category:Military personnel from Lviv]] [[Category:Missing in action of World War II]] [[Category:People from the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria]] [[Category:Terrorist incidents in Second Polish Republic]] [[Category:Ukrainian independence activists]] [[Category:Ukrainian assassins]] [[Category:Ukrainian Austro-Hungarians]] [[Category:Civilians killed in World War II]]'