Bohatirchuk, F. P., 1892-1984 : Fedor Bohatirchuk [Bogatyrchuk] was born in 1892 in Kiev, Russia. He graduated from the University of Kiev in 1917 with a medical degree and practiced as a physician until 1923. From 1923 to 1925, he studied radiology in Berlin and Vienna, and subsequently worked as a radiologist and then as head of the x-ray department of the First Workers Hospital in Kiev. In 1937, Bohatirchuk was appointed Professor of Radiology at the Second Medical Institute in Kiev, and was awarded his doctorate in radiology there in 1940. He also worked at the Institute of Experimental Biology and Pathology of the Ukrainian Academy of Science. During the German occupation of Kiev, from 1941 to 1943, Bohatirchuk was Director of the Institute of Experimental Medicine and Head of the Ukrainian Red Cross. He was evacuated by the Germans to Krakow in 1943 and to Berlin in 1944. In Krakow, he was head of an x-ray laboratory; while in Berlin, he worked for the x-ray department at the Hygiene Institute. After the collapse of Nazi Germany, Bohatirchuk was employed as head of the x-ray department at St. Georgen Hospital, run by the International Refugees Organization in Bayreuth, Germany. In March 1949, he joined his daughter, Tamara Jeletzky, and her family in Canada, where they had immigrated in 1948. Bohatirchuk was employed as Professor of Radiology at the University of Ottawa and worked there for twenty-one years until his retirement.
Fedor Bohatirchuk was also an active participant in politics. In 1944, while in Berlin, he joined the Vlasov Army (Vlasov Movement), which was created from former Soviet citizens of different nationalities, who agreed to collaborate with the Germans to fight the Soviets. He was elected as a member of the Presidium of the Committee of the Liberation of People of Russia, the governing body of the Vlasov Army. When the Vlasov Army was surrounded by Americans and most of its members were passed to the Soviet military authorities, he managed to escape and joined the International Refugees Organization. While working in the American zone of occupation, he was able to establish contacts with the American political organizations such as the American Anti-Bolshevik Committee.
After moving to Canada in 1949, Bohatirchuk renewed his American contacts in Washington and with their support, became one of the leaders of the anti-Bolshevik movement in North America. With help from the American Anti-Bolshevik Committee, he organized the Ukrainian Federalist Movement and launched the newspaper "Federalist-Democrat," printed in Ottawa. The Ukrainian Federalist Movement supported the idea of a federalist Ukraine within Russia, which was ardently opposed by the nationally-oriented Ukrainian political elite abroad.
Bohatirchuk was also a well-known chess player. He participated in international tournaments, held a championship title in Kiev, and was twice the chess champion of Ukraine. In Canada he organized a series of tournaments in order to promote the game of chess. In 1982, the Canadian Chess Federation organized a tournament in honor of Fedor Bohatirchuk.
Bohatirchuk published two books, "Medicine, Politics, and Chess" and "My Path to General Vlasov and the Prague Manifest", which are both autobiographical. They are also eye-witness testimonies of historical events occurring in Russia over the last century: the 1917 Revolution, the Civil War, the New Economic Politics, World War II, the organized anti-Bolshevik movement in Russia and abroad, and the role of Russian immigrants in the Cold War.
Bohatirchuk died on 4 September 1984 in Ottawa.
