Sofia Fedak-Melnyk

Sofia Fedak was born on 30 October 1901 in Lviv. Her father Stepan Fedak was a well-known lawyer, who would later head the city's Ukrainian community.^[1] Sofia's brother Stepan, a veteran of Ukrainian Sich Riflemen, Ukrainian Galician Army and Ukrainian People's Army, became known as an attempted assassin of Polish leader Józef Piłsudski during the latter's visit to Lviv in 1921.^[2]

Following the Polish occupation of Galicia in the aftermath of Polish-Ukrainian War, Sofia moved to Vienna, where she studed economics at the local Trade Academy. As a student, she co-founded the first Plast organization in the Austrian capital. After returning to Lviv, she worked at the Union of Ukrainian Cooperatives and entered a relationship with Andriy Melnyk, who was over a decade older than her. Melnyk served as chief of general staff of the army of Ukrainian People's Republic and de-facto headed the Ukrainian Military Organization in the region. In 1924 he was sentenced to 4 years of imprisonment by Polish authorities. After Melnyk release from prison, on 28 February 1929 Sofia married him in Lviv.^[1]

In 1938, after the assassination of Yevhen Konovalets, head of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, Melnyk became his successor on that post, and moved abroad together with Sofia. In 1944 both were interned by German authorities in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. Following the end of the war, the couple moved to Luxembourg together with Sofia's mother, who died there in 1954. In Luxembourg Sofia worked in a bank and served as a secretary for her husband. After Melnyk's death in 1964, she paid for his burial. Sofia died in retirement on 31 July 1990.^[1]

In May 2026 the remains of Sofia Fedak-Melnyk and Andriy Melnyk were transported from Luxembourg to Ukraine and solemnly reburied at the National Memorial Cemetery near Kyiv.^[3]