Archduke Wilhelm Franz of Austria, later known as Wilhelm Franz von Habsburg-Lothringen (10 February 1895 – 18 August 1948), and also referred to as Vasyl Vyshyvanyi (), was an Austrian archduke, a colonel in the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen, a poet, and a member of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine.
Biography
Background and early life Archduke Wilhelm was the youngest son of Archduke Karl Stephan and Archduchess Maria Theresia, Princess of Tuscany. He was born on the family estate on the island of Lošinj in the Austrian Littoral (present-day Croatia). During his arrest by Soviet authorities, he stated that his place of birth was the city of Pola (then in Italy, now Pula, Croatia).Eduard Andriushchenko. Archduke in the Kiev jail. The case of Vasyl Vyshyvanyi and KGB (Эрцгерцог в киевской тюрьме. Дело Василия Вышиваного и КГБ). Argumentua. 31 December 2019 He also declared his social status as a "landowner" (pomeshchik) and stated that he was unemployed. However, this was inaccurate, as he was in fact a businessman and entrepreneur at the time of his arrest.
Wilhelm was raised on his family's estate in the city of Saybusch, in the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria (present-day Żywiec, Poland). His father was a Polish patriot who regarded the Ukrainian population as inferior. In line with the rise of 19th-century nationalism, Karl Stephan decided that his branch of the Habsburg family would adopt a Polish identity, combining loyalty to the Habsburg dynasty with loyalty to Poland. He ensured that his children learned Polish from an early age and sought to instil in them a sense of Polish patriotism. His eldest son, Karl-Albrecht, became a Polish officer and refused to renounce his Polish allegiance. Karl Stephan's two younger daughters married into the Polish noble families of Radziwiłł and Czartoryski.
Wilhelm, the youngest child, rebelled and came to identify with the Poles' rivals, the Ukrainians. As a boy, he was taught that Ukrainians were bandits and a tribe of robbers. In 1912, at the age of 17, Wilhelm decided to see this "mysterious" people firsthand. He travelled incognito by train to Worochta (now Vorokhta), and visited a number of Hutsul villages. Finding no evidence of banditry, he developed a deep fascination with Ukrainian culture, which he retained for the rest of his life.
His interest in the relatively impoverished Ukrainian people earned him the nickname "the Red Prince". Eventually, his family came to accept and even support this interest. According to historian Timothy D. Snyder, Wilhelm was groomed by the Habsburgs to assume a leadership role among the Ukrainian people, in a manner akin to the role his father and elder brother were expected to play among the Habsburgs' Polish subjects.Timothy Snyder (2008). Red Prince: the Secret Lives of a Habsburg Archduke. New York: Basic Books
World War I
At the outbreak of World War I, Wilhelm was studying at the Vienna War College. Upon graduating in 1915, he began his military service on the front lines as part of a company in the 13th Galicia Lancer (Ulan) Regiment. The regiment, based around Solotschiw, was largely composed of Ukrainian soldiers. While serving, Wilhelm began reading works by Ukrainian authors such as Mykhailo Hrushevsky, Ivan Franko, and Taras Shevchenko. His soldiers gifted him a traditional Ukrainian embroidered shirt, or vyshyvanka, which he wore beneath his uniform. He asked his men to address him as "Vasyl", and the embroidered shirt earned him the nickname "Vyshyvanyi".
During this period, Wilhelm often defended Galician Ukrainians from suspicion and arrest by the predominantly Polish local administration, which questioned their loyalty to Austria-Hungary.
In 1916, Wilhelm returned from the front upon turning 21, the age at which male members of the House of Habsburg automatically became deputies in the upper house of the Austrian Parliament. In Parliament, he collaborated closely with Ukrainian deputies and with Metropolitan Archbishop Andrey Sheptytsky. He also acted as a liaison between Ukrainian community leaders and Emperor Charles I, a personal acquaintance from childhood, and was able to make an official visit to the Emperor in early 1917.
Wilhelm supported the idea of resolving the "Ukrainian question" through the creation of an autonomous Grand Duchy of Ukraine within the Habsburg monarchy (see United States of Greater Austria). This proposed duchy would include Eastern Galicia and Bukovina, as well as Ukrainian territories then part of the Russian Empire, which would need to be reconquered.
According to some historians, including Timothy D. Snyder, Wilhelm saw himself as a suitable candidate to lead such a duchy, as he was a member of the ruling dynasty, had learned the language, and had gained respect among Ukrainians. This mirrored the situation in 1916 when Wilhelm's father, Archduke Karl Stephan, was considered for the Polish throne following the restoration of the Kingdom of Poland. However, other historians argue that Wilhelm, or "Vasyl Vyshyvanyi", did not personally aspire to a throne and later stated that he would only accept a leadership role in Ukraine if it were the will of the majority of the population.
Ukrainian–Soviet War Following the collapse of the Russian Empire, the Ukrainian People's Republic was established. After the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, Austria-Hungary and the German Empire provided military support to Ukraine in its fight against the Bolsheviks. Promoted to the rank of captain, Vasyl Vyshyvanyi was appointed to lead the "Battle Group Archduke Wilhelm", a unit created by Emperor Charles I, composed of approximately 4,000 Ukrainian soldiers and officers drawn from the Austrian Legion of Sich Riflemen.
The unit was deployed to southern Ukraine to fight Bolshevik forces. Initially, Austrian troops entered the already-liberated city of Kherson and later remained in Aleksandrovsk (present-day Zaporizhzhia) for two months. During this time, Wilhelm undertook a range of initiatives: fostering connections between the Galician riflemen and local Ukrainians, cooperating with the cultural organisation Prosvita, and working to boost morale by visiting sites of Cossack heritage with his troops.
His forces occupied a small area near the historical site of the Zaporozhian Sich, and promoted the Ukrainian national cause through a variety of measures, including vetting officials by ethnicity, launching a newspaper, and organising cultural activities for local peasants. Wilhelm integrated easily with the rural population, gaining admiration for his modest lifestyle. Within his occupation zone, peasants retained lands seized in 1917, and Wilhelm blocked the requisitioning of grain by Habsburg forces. He also offered refuge to Ukrainians who had resisted German or Austrian requisitions elsewhere.
During this time, Wilhelm's forces developed close ties with local fighters, including the Skhidniaky ("Easterners"), especially the Zaporizhzhia Corps of the Ukrainian Army. Although these actions drew criticism from German and Austrian officials in Kyiv, they increased Wilhelm's popularity among Ukrainians, who affectionately referred to him as Kniaz Vasyl (Prince Vasyl).
In April 1918, a coup in Ukraine replaced the republican government with the regime of Hetman Pavlo Skoropadskyi, a former Imperial Russian general. During this period, German authorities feared that Wilhelm might attempt a coup of his own to overthrow the Hetman. Skoropadskyi was unpopular among soldiers of the Zaporizhzhia Corps and the Legion of Sich Riflemen. Officers in the Zaporizhzhia Division even discussed plans to install Archduke Wilhelm as the sovereign of Ukraine. One of the leading advocates was Colonel Petro Bolbochan, who was later executed on orders from Symon Petliura.
Wilhelm was hesitant and consulted Emperor Charles I, who rejected the plan on the grounds that it would jeopardise relations with Germany. According to some scholars, the Habsburgs hoped to establish a politically autonomous Ukraine as a counterbalance to German influence in the region.Snyder (2008). pg. 100 - In the words of Austria's military intelligence officer responsible for Ukraine - "We, as the creators of the first Ukrainian military unit, are called upon to enter Ukraine as leaders - against Germany!"
Wilhelm and his troops were ultimately recalled from Ukraine in October 1918 amid revolutionary upheaval and redeployed to the Duchy of Bukovina.Snyder (2008). pp.101-116 In Czernowitz (present-day Chernivtsi), he was hospitalised with tuberculosis. At his urging, two regiments consisting mostly of Ukrainian troops were stationed in Lemberg (modern-day Lviv) in October 1918.Snyder (2008). pg. 117 This deployment helped set the stage for the proclamation of the West Ukrainian People's Republic on 1 November.
While Wilhelm was in hospital, the First World War ended, the Austro-Hungarian Empire collapsed, and the Habsburg dynasty was dethroned. In Eastern Galicia, the West Ukrainian National Republic was declared, and Ukrainians in Bukovina sought, unsuccessfully, to unite with it. Romanian forces occupied Bukovina, prompting Wilhelm to flee to Lviv to avoid arrest. When Lviv fell under Polish control, he moved to the Carpathian region, where he hid in monasteries for nearly six months.
Meanwhile, German troops withdrew from Ukraine, and the regime of Hetman Skoropadskyi was overthrown by the Directorate, led by Volodymyr Vynnychenko and Symon Petliura. As the Ukrainian independence movement sought support from the Allies, the presence of a Habsburg figure like Wilhelm became politically inconvenient, as Polish authorities portrayed Ukrainian aspirations as an Austrian conspiracy.Snyder (2008). pg. 122
In June 1919, Wilhelm was arrested by Romanian troops while crossing the Carpathians. He was detained for three months but was released after a petition by the Ukrainian People's Republic. He travelled to Kamianets-Podilskyi, then the Ukrainian capital, where he pledged loyalty to the Ukrainian People's Republic and was appointed a colonel, heading the international relations section of the General Staff Main Department within the Ukrainian People's Army. However, he resigned in 1920 in protest against Petliura's peace treaty with Poland, which he regarded as a betrayal, and went into exile in Vienna.
Interwar period In an interview published in a Viennese newspaper in January 1921, Wilhelm publicly criticised Poland, condemning the pogroms in Lwów as actions unthinkable in a civilised country, and referring to Poland and Poles as dishonourable. This statement resulted in a permanent public estrangement between Wilhelm and his father, Archduke Karl Stephan. Formally, Wilhelm remained on the payroll of the Ukrainian Army as a colonel for a short period, until the Austrian press reported his anti-Polish remarks. Following this, the Ukrainian government-in-exile, then temporarily based in Poland, officially dismissed him from his post.
In the same year, Wilhelm published a volume of poetry in Ukrainian titled Mynayut Dni (Минають дні, The Days Pass).
Among Ukrainian political émigrés, there remained a belief that the Soviet regime could still be overthrown. In Vienna, Wilhelm became involved with pro-Ukrainian monarchist circles who viewed him as a potential figurehead, though no concrete outcomes resulted from these efforts.