State Secretariat of the Western Ukrainian National Republic

State Secretariat of the Western Ukrainian National Republic (Derzhavnyi Sekretariiat Zakhidno-Ukrainskoi Narodnoi Respubliky). The executive organ of the government of Western Ukraine (see Western Ukrainian National Republic), established on 9 November 1918 as a provisional secretariat by the Ukrainian National Rada. Its first members were Kost Levytsky, president and secretary of finance; Vasyl Paneiko, secretary of foreign affairs; Lonhyn Tsehelsky, internal affairs; Dmytro Vitovsky, the armed forces; Sydir Holubovych, justice; Oleksander Barvinsky, education and religious affairs; Stepan Baran, agrarian affairs; Ya. Lytvynovych, trade and industry; I. Myron, highways; O. Pisetsky, post and telegraph; Ivan Makukh, public works; Antin Chernetsky, labor and social welfare; Ivan Kurovets, public health; and Stepan Fedak, supplies. The first secretariat by its political composition was a coalition: all Galician parties were represented in it, although the National Democratic party was dominant. On 4 January 1919, after the reorganization of the Ukrainian National Rada in Stanyslaviv, a new secretariat was put together. Holubovych took over the presidency, finances, and trade and industry, and Paneiko, foreign affairs; Tsehelsky became acting secretary of foreign affairs (while Paneiko was at the Paris Peace Conference); Makukh took over internal affairs, Vitovsky, military affairs, O. Burachynsky, justice, Ahenor Artymovych, education and religion, Mykhailo Martynets, agrarian affairs, Myron, highways and post and telegraph, and M. Kozanevych, public works. Some of the secretaries were nonpartisan experts. In February 1919 Vitovsky and Tsehelsky left; Viktor Kurmanovych became secretary for military affairs, and P. Bubela became his deputy. Mykhailo Lozynsky was appointed deputy secretary of foreign affairs, and when he left for Paris in April 1919, the secretariat was directed by Stepan Vytvytsky. That secretariat functioned until June 1919, when the government of the Western Province of the Ukrainian National Republic was vested in the dictator Yevhen Petrushevych. The secretariat's functions were taken over by a government consisting of the dictator's plenipotentiaries.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Chubatyi, M. Derzhavnyi lad na Zakhidni i oblasti UNR (Lviv 1921)
Lozyns’kyi, M. Halychyna v rr. 1918–1920 (Vienna 1922; repr, New York 1970)

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