Yevhen Petrushevych

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
In this name that follows East Slavic naming customs, the patronymic is Omelianovych and the family name is Petrushevych.

Yevhen Petrushevych
Євген Петрушевич
President of the West Ukrainian People's Republic
In office
18 October 1918 – November 1919
Preceded byPosition established
Succeeded byPosition abolished
Volodymyr Vynnychenko as head of the Directorate of Ukraine
Personal details
Born(1863-06-03)3 June 1863
Busk, Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, Austrian Empire (now Busk, Zolochiv Raion, Lviv Oblast, Ukraine)
Died29 August 1940(1940-08-29) (aged 77)
Berlin, Nazi Germany
Resting placeLychakiv Cemetery, Lviv

Yevhen Omelianovych Petrushevych (

Austro-Hungarian Empire
in 1918.

Early life and education

He was born on 3 June 1863, in the town of

doctorate in law, he started a practice in Sokal. He was regarded with favor by the people because of his professionalism in defending them from the self-will of powers. At the same time he headed the district Prosvita educational society and was an organizer of the cultural and educational life. He became an active member of Ukrainian National Democratic Party
formed in 1899.

Political career

In 1907, Yevhen Petrushevych was elected to the

Galician Sejm in Lviv from the Stryi district. Being a leading figure of the Ukrainian Sejm Club
, he headed the determined fight for a new election law and achieved the increase of the quota of Ukrainian mandates in the Sejm from 12 to 34, and then to 62.

During

right of peoples to self-determination
.

On 19 October, the representative Ukrainian Constituent in Lviv approved the resolution on formation of the independent Ukrainian State in the western ethnic territory. To implement the resolution they elected the

Ukrainian National Rada (Council); Yevhen Petrushevych became its president. Being an adherent of the peaceful power transfer to Ukrainians he carried out negotiations with officials in Vienna. But in connection with the threat on the part of Poles, Lviv delegation of the National Council headed by Kost Levytsky seized power under arms and on 1 November proclaimed the formation of the West Ukrainian People's Republic
(WUPR). Levytsky's government was formed on 9 November and started the construction of the national state.

After the outbreak of the

Polish-Ukrainian War and a defeat at Lviv, the WUPR government remained in Stanislaviv (now Ivano-Frankivsk
). Being the president of the National Council, Petrushevych mainly performed representative functions, but owing to his political culture and parliamentary experience he had influence on making the most important decisions in the state. The National Council elaborated a number of necessary laws, which regulated the socio-political and economical life, laid the legal foundation of the state and guarded it from acute social conflicts and destructive manifestations.

On 9 June 1919 by decision of the top state authorities, Petrushevych was granted the title of authorized dictator (in

Council of Ambassadors in Paris
to review the Galician problem. With the aim to determine the aspirations of Ukrainians he elaborated a fundamental draft of the Constitution of Ukrainian Galician Republic. In 1922 Petrushevych headed Ukrainian delegation to Geneva where the international conference took place.

But on 15 March 1923, the Council of Ambassadors approved a resolution according to which the West Ukrainian lands were annexed by Poland without reservation.

After the liquidation of the exile government, Petrushevych continued diplomatic and patriotic actions in defense of the oppressed Ukrainian Galician people, spread notes and protests, and continued publishing the ZUNR organ, Ukrainsky prapor (Ukrainian Banner). As a result of his disappointment over the March decision he adopted an openly Sovietophile position. He maintained contacts with the Soviet representatives in Vienna and Berlin, where he had moved in 1923. In 1923 the Politburo of the All-Union Communist Party decided in favour of funding Petrushevych's activities, and two years later the Ukrainian Politburo made a similar decision. Petrushevych continued receiving financial support at least until the end of the 1920s.[3]

Later life, death and legacy

In spite of the emigrant's life difficulties, in old age he collaborated with the

Pavlo Skoropadsky
.

Petrushevych died on 29 August 1940 and was buried at Berlin cemetery of St. Hedwig's Cathedral.

On 1 November 2002, the remains of Yevhen Petrushevych were reburied at the Lychakiv Cemetery in Lviv on the initiative of Yuriy Ferentsevych.[4][5]

References

  1. ^ Social-Political Portrait of the Ukrainian Leadership of Galicia and Bukovina during the Revolutionary Years of 1918–1919 Oleh Pavlyshyn (2000). Modern Ukraine, volume 4–5
  2. Ukrayinska Pravda
    (17 September 2020)
  3. ^ Gilley, Christopher (March 2006). "A Simple Question of 'Pragmatism'? Sovietophilism in the West Ukrainian Emigration in the 1920s" (PDF). Koszalin Institute of Comparative European Studies (KICES) Working Papers. pp. 19–20. Archived from the original (PDF) on 30 September 2007. Retrieved 29 October 2006.
  4. ^ Відійшов на Вічну Ватру пл.сен. Юрій Ференцевич, ВБ. (… з його ініціативи прах міністра військових справ ЗУНР Д.Вітовського … привезено з Німеччини в Україну і перепоховано на Личаківському меморіальному цвинтарі.) (in Ukrainian)
  5. ^ Ференцевич Юрій (in Ukrainian)
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Yevhen Petrushevych.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Yevhen_Petrushevych&oldid=1261065769"