Levytsky, Yevhen

Levytsky, Yevhen [Левицький, Євген; Levyc'kyj, Jevhen], b 17 January 1870 in Sydoriv, Husiatyn county, Galicia, d 21 November 1925 in Vienna. Journalist, civic figure, and political leader. While studying at Lviv University he became critical of the populists and helped found the Ukrainian Radical party. He later helped establish the National Democratic party (1899) and was a coauthor of its program. Its unification under the command of the Popular Committee was largely his accomplishment. He also edited the party’s newspapers Buduchnist’ (1899), Svoboda (Lviv) (1902), and Dilo (1903–6). In 1907 and 1911 he was elected from the Stanyslaviv district as deputy to the Austrian parliament, where he played a leading role in the Ukrainian caucus. As a member of the Union for the Liberation of Ukraine, he went on lecture tours of Germany and Austria during the First World War and published German-language booklets in an effort to gain public support for Ukrainian independence. In 1919–20 he served as envoy of the Ukrainian National Rada in Berlin and Prague. Afterward he resumed his law practice in Vienna.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 3 (1993).]