Ukrainian State Administration
Ukrainian State Administration (Українське державне правління; Ukrainske derzhavne pravlinnia). A provisional regional administration set up by Stepan Bandera in Lviv in 1941. At a public meeting of Lviv’s Ukrainian residents at the Prosvita hall on 30 June 1941 (later referred to as the National Assembly), Yaroslav Stetsko proclaimed Bandera’s decree on the creation of the Ukrainian state in the western territories of Ukraine (the 1941 Proclamation of Ukrainian statehood) and the creation of a regional administration headed by Stetsko. On 4 July the German police prohibited publication of the act. Nevertheless, people held spontaneous meetings in outlying areas, at which representatives of the OUN (Bandera faction) proclaimed the restoration of Ukrainian statehood. A few similar demonstrations also took place in Volhynia, which was cleared of the Soviet Army. At the same time local administrations, which recognized the State Administration, sprang up in Galicia and were tolerated for a period by the German and Hungarian military authorities.
The composition of the government was set on 5 July: Yaroslav Stetsko, president; Mariian Panchyshyn, first vice-president and minister of health; Lev Rebet, second vice-president; Gen Vsevolod Petriv, defense; Volodymyr Lysy, internal affairs; Mykola Lebed, state security; Volodymyr Stakhiv, foreign affairs; Yu. Fedusevych, justice; Yevhen Khraplyvy, agriculture; Ilarii Olkhovy, finance; Andrii Piasetsky, forestry; Volodymyr Radzykevych, education and religion; Oleksa Hai-Holovko, information and propaganda; Ivan Klymiv, political co-ordination; N. Moroz, post and telegraph; and M. Rosliak, state chancery. Deputy ministers and secretaries were appointed also. Some of those who had been appointed without consultation turned down their appointments. Metropolitan Andrei Sheptytsky agreed to become the honorary patron of the new body. The State Administration sat several times (although attendance was never full), published several declarations, and sent a memorandum to the German government. At its sitting of 11 July some members pressed the need to clarify the nature of the relationship between the German command and the administration. The matter was to be settled by a delegation made up of Stetsko, Rebet, Kost K. Pankivsky, and Lysy.
On 12 July Yaroslav Stetsko and Roman Ilnytsky were arrested in Lviv and Volodymyr Stakhiv in Berlin by the German political police. Thereupon the Ukrainian State Administration ceased to function. The Council of Seniors headed by Kost Levytsky, which had been set up as a consultative body by the Bandera faction of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists at a public meeting on 6 July, assumed the role of a temporary Ukrainian representation. Eventually it was reorganized into the 1941 Ukrainian National Council in Lviv.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Pan'kivs'kyi, Kost'. Vid derzhavy do komitetu (lito 1941 roku u L'vovi) (New York–Toronto 1957)
Stets'ko, Iaroslav. 30-oho chervnia 1941: Proholoshennia vidnovlennia derzhavnosty Ukraïny (Toronto–New York–London 1967)
[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 5 (1993).]