4.02.2024
Historians have yet to write the life story of the brilliant Ukrainian scientist Bohdan Hnatyuk – today its details have to be obtained bit by bit. This is due, first of all, to the fact that his activities – and even his personal life – were deeply classified. Therefore, even in his native Ternopil region, almost nothing is known about Gnatyuk, although at least an exposition in one of the halls of the regional history museum should be dedicated to him.
A native of “warm Podolia”
Bogdan-Taras Gnatyuk was born on July 25, 1915 in the picturesque town of Zaleshchyky, which today is located in the Chertkovsky district of the Ternopil region, and during the scientist’s childhood and youth was part of the Kingdom of Galicia and Vladimir. Zalishchyky, which was called “warm Podolia,” was a real resort, where a comfortable train brought vacationers from Lviv every weekend. Grapes and melons were grown here, apricot trees bloomed and there was a state teachers’ seminary named after Józef Pilsudski, from which Hnatiuk graduated, receiving a diploma in teaching.
Fleeing from war
After graduating from the seminary, Yuri decided to continue his studies at the Gdansk Polytechnic Institute. The Second World War found Gnatyuk at the student’s bench, but, despite the hostilities, he was able not only to graduate from this university, enter the University of Danzing and defend his doctoral dissertation. Depending on the hostilities, the scientist moved from city to city and from country to country: he worked as a design engineer in Gdansk and at the Dornier Werke aviation enterprise, and studied high-speed aeronautics and turbojet engines at the University of Vienna.
After the end of the war, he was appointed to the post of expert of the French Air Force Ministry in the zone under the control of the German allies, for which the scientist was subsequently accused in the Soviet Union of collaborating with the Nazis. At the same time, he taught at a mechanics school under the patronage of the United Nations administration. Subsequently, Gnatyuk admitted that this time was perhaps the most joyless in his life. And the point is not even a lack of prospects and confidence in the future – many experienced them then, but the fact that every step moved the scientist further and further away from his native Ukraine. He seemed to understand that he would never return home again.
Life overseas
In 1949, Gnatyuk moved overseas, where he was surprised to discover that no one was waiting for him there, and he had to start all over again. For two years, the scientist could not find a job at all, then he became an assistant professor at Indiana University, which was a clear downgrade in status. Later he moved to West Virginia, where his career finally took off: he worked as a teacher at Drexel – first at the Institute of Technology, and then at the university of this city. He also became the first Ukrainian to collaborate with NASA – Gnatyuk worked as a consultant for this agency for many years.
A special page in Gnatyuk’s scientific work was his collaboration with an American scientist of German origin, “the father of the American space program,” rocket and space technology designer Wernher von Braun. Gnatyuk participated in his development of intercontinental ballistic missiles with a maximum flight range of more than 5 thousand kilometers.
Trident (“Trident”).
But the main work of Bohdan Gnatyuk’s life was the creation of an intercontinental three-stage ballistic missile Trident (“Trident”). It was intended to be launched from submarines, and its range was 11,300 kilometers. The American company that produced missiles has become a world leader in the creation of weapons of this type. Bohdan Gnatiuk, who took part in their development, kept the fact of his work in the deepest secret, not mentioning it in the lectures he gave to students. However, he never said that many of the topics on ballistic missiles, heat transfer, gas dynamics and scientific works written in English, German and Ukrainian (!) were his authorship. In the 90s of the twentieth century, Trident was adopted by the US and British Navy.
Hnatyuk himself was a member of authoritative scientific communities in the United States – he was a member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the US Air Force Association, the American Union of University Professors, the Fellowship of Ukrainian Engineers of America, the Taras Shevchenko Scientific Fellowship, the Ukrainian-American Union of University Professors, the Ukrainian-American Coordinating Council, was a member of the initiative group of the World Congress of Free Ukrainians.
Supported the national liberation movement in Ukraine
Despite the fact that Bohdan Hnatyuk was abroad most of his life, he remained a patriot of Ukraine. He was a member of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, which he and his younger brother Miroslav-Vladimir joined while still studying at the seminary – then they participated in protests against the Polish authorities, and ideologically closely related to it, the Organization of State Revival of Ukraine, founded in 1964, the second included Ukrainian emigrants from the United States – at their congresses they supported the national liberation movement in Ukraine.
Gnatyuk spent the last years of his life in the commune of Merion in Pennsylvania, where more than wealthy residents lived in grandiose mansions. Gnatyuk died on November 28, 1998 in his own home. He was buried there – at St. Mary’s Ukrainian Catholic Cemetery in Elkins Park, Montgomery County. A gymnasium in his hometown of Zalishchiky was named after him. Irina Mikhailovna survived her husband by 17 years; she died in 2018 at the age of 91 in her own Spring Township residence.
The history of many such Ukrainians who made great contributions to the world are hidden by bullshit historians of the Soviet Union. It will take generations to undo the harm created by the Moskali and the Soviet Union.
How right you are, Sir Cap!