Ukrainian National Council in Lviv, 1941

Ukrainian National Council in Lviv, 1941 (Ukrainska natsionalna rada, or UNC). A body formed in Lviv out of the Council of Seniors on 30 July 1941 to represent the interests of the Ukrainian population of Galicia, Volhynia, and the Kholm region before the German authorities. The Council of Seniors, convened on 6 July 1941 by the OUN (Bandera faction), consisted of 16 members (30 by the end of July). The OUN (Melnyk faction) did not participate in the UNC, although the council tried to embrace all political camps and professions. Its membership eventually rose to 45. The president of the council was Kost Levytsky; his deputies were Rev Yuliian Dzerovych and L. Turchyn; the secretary was Ya. Bilenky (later Hryhorii Myketei). The other members included Archbishop Yosyf Slipy, Rev Havryil Kostelnyk, Mariian Panchyshyn, Vasyl Simovych, Yuliian Pavlykovsky, Andrii Palii, Mykhailo Stefanivsky, Mykhailo Voloshyn, Volodymyr Zahaikevych, Kost K. Pankivsky, Borys Kozubsky, and Serhii Khrutsky, most of whom were members or supporters of the Ukrainian National Democratic Alliance. The patron and honorary president was Metropolitan Andrei Sheptytsky. The UNC recognized the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) as the leading force in Ukrainian political life and supported the Ukrainian State Administration, but it was critical of the strife between the two OUN factions. On 30 July the UNC protested to the German government the annexation of eastern Galicia by the Generalgouvernement. At the beginning of September it sent a memorandum to the governor general, Hans Frank, defending the interests of Ukrainians in Galicia.

On 31 July the UNC set up a General Secretariat, headed by Kost K. Pankivsky, to serve as its executive branch and to cultivate contacts with the German authorities. But after Kost Levytsky's death (12 November) the German government made it increasingly difficult for the UNC to function. Finally, Metropolitan Andrei Sheptytsky's letter to Heinrich Himmler (February 1942) protesting the genocide policy with respect to Jews (see Holocaust) provided the authorities with a pretext for banning the council (3 March). The job of maintaining contacts with the German government was assumed by the Ukrainian Regional Committee.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 5 (1993).]