Євген Петрушевич (1863–1940)

Description

The book Євген Петрушевич (1863–1940): Ілюстрований біографічний нарис is a richly illustrated biography of Yevhen Petrushevych: a lawyer, prominent political leader, and president of the Western Ukrainian National Republic. An executive member of the National Democratic Party, Petrushevych was elected to the Austrian parliament (1907, 1911) and to the Galician Diet (1910, 1913). In 1917 he was elected chairman of the Ukrainian Parliamentary Representation in the Austrian parliament and was recognized as the leading Ukrainian politician of his day. On 18 October 1918 the Ukrainian National Rada in Lviv chose Petrushevych as its president and proclaimed an independent Ukrainian state: the Western Ukrainian National Republic (ZUNR). With the merging of the Western Ukrainian National Republic with the Ukrainian National Republic in January 1919, Petrushevych became the sixth member of the Directory of the Ukrainian National Republic. Following the military defeat of the Ukrainian forces, Petrushevych left Ukraine to pursue the struggle for independence abroad by diplomatic means. In 1920 he formed the ZUNR government-in-exile in Vienna and lobbied for international recognition of Western Ukrainian statehood. His campaign collapsed after March 1923, however, when the Conference of Ambassadors recognized Galicia as part of the new Polish state.

Oleh Pavlyshyn’s meticulously researched book draws upon numerous documents from the archives of Lviv, Kyiv, Warsaw, Munich, and Ottawa, and sheds light on previously unknown or little know aspects of Petrushevych’s life and his professional and political activities. In particular, this book contains the first detailed description of the activities of Petrushevych’s External Representation Centre in Berlin in 1923–32. Yevhen Petrushevych’s biography is presented within a broad context of the Ukrainian struggle for independence and the political situation in east-central Europe in the early 20^th century.

Oleh Pavlyshyn’s Євген Петрушевич (1863–1940): Ілюстрований біографічний нарис was co-published by the Institute of Historical Research at Lviv University and the Petro Jacyk Program for the Study of Modern Ukrainian History (at the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies.