Western Ukrainian National Republic

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Western Ukrainian National Republic

(Західно-Українська Народня Республіка;
Zakhidno-Ukrainska Narodnia Respublika, or
ЗУНР; ZUNR). A nation-state established on

the Ukrainian ethnic territory of former

Austria-Hungary on 9 November 1918 by the
Ukrainian National Rada in Lviv. The
Constitution of 13 November 1918 determined
its name and defined the territory of the

ZUNR as that which encompassed the Ukrainian regions of the Austrian

crown lands of Galicia and Bukovyna and the Transcarpathian Szepes
komitat, Sŕos komitat, Zemplén komitat, Ung komitat, Bereg komitat, Ugocsa
komitat, and Máramaros komitat (see Maramureş region). A Ukrainian
government took power on 1 November 1918 in Galicia (see November
Uprising in Lviv, 1918), on 6 November in Bukovyna, and on 19 November in
Transcarpathia. The governments in the last two territories were short-lived.
In spite of the Ukrainian-Polish War in Galicia, 1918–19 the government of
the ZUNR held out longest in eastern Galicia.

The Ukrainian National Rada, a legislative council, was the state's ruling body before the
calling of the Constituent Assembly of the ZUNR. The State Secretariat of the Western
Ukrainian National Republic was its executive branch. Its power was eventually transferred
to the Dictatorship of the Western Province of the Ukrainian National Republic.

On 1 December 1918 the State Secretariat of the Western Ukrainian National Republic
concluded a preliminary agreement with the Directory of the Ukrainian National Republic
on the union of the two Ukrainian states. The agreement was approved by the Ukrainian
National Rada on 3 January 1919 and by the Directory on 22 January. The union was
proclaimed in a special proclamation of 22 January. Thenceforth the ZUNR assumed the
name Western Province of the Ukrainian National Republic. But the union was not fully
implemented: the government bodies of the ZUNR continued to operate separately (see

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Western Ukrainian National Republic

Dictatorship of the Western Province of the Ukrainian National Republic). When the
government of the Ukrainian National Republic recognized Polish rule in Ukrainian territory
west of the Zbruch River, the ZUNR government rejected its policies completely.

In July 1919 Poland occupied most of the territory of the ZUNR and tried to get Entente
recognition for its rule in Galicia. Although the Supreme Council of the Paris Peace
Conference representing the Entente instructed Poland on 25 June to occupy Ukrainian
Galicia temporarily, it recognized Galicia's special status. On 20 November it drafted a treaty
with Poland on the autonomy of eastern Galicia under the higher administration of Poland
for 25 years, but the Poles rejected that treaty. The Conference of Ambassadors of the great
powers of the Entente finally recognized (12 March 1923) the Polish occupation, albeit with
the provision that eastern Galicia was to remain autonomous.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Lozyns’kyi, M. Halychyna na myrovii konferentsiï v Paryzhi (Kamianets 1919)
—Halychyna v rr. 1918–1920 (Vienna 1922; repr, New York 1970)
Levyts’kyi, K. Velykyi zryv (Lviv 1931)
Kuchabsky, V. Western Ukraine in Conflict with Poland and Bolshevism, 1918–1923
(Edmonton–Toronto 2009)

Vasyl Markus, Matvii Stakhiv

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

List of related links from Encyclopedia of Ukraine pointing to Western Ukrainian National
Republic entry:

1 Army of the Ukrainian National Republic

2 Austria-Hungary
3 Autonomy
4 Bachynsky, Lev

5 Bezpalko, Yosyp
6 Bohemia
7 Bukovyna
8 Central State Historical Archive in Lviv

9 Coat of arms
10 Conference of Ambassadors
11 Conservatism
12 Contract
13 Czechoslovakia

14 Dumka, Pavlo
15 Education
16 Expropriation
17 Federalism
18 First World War

19 Galicia
20 Germans

+ 20 Records >>

A referral to this page is found in 92 entries.

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Western Ukrainian National Republic

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