Ukrainian national government (1941)

Ukrainian National Government Українське Державне Правління (УДП) Ukrainske Derzhavne Pravlinnia (UDP)
1941
Flag Seal
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Status	Unrecognized state
Capital	Lviv
Official languages	Ukrainian
Government	Republic, dictatorship
Prime Minister
• 1941	Yaroslav Stetsko
Historical era	World War II
• Declared	30 June 1941
• Disestablished	11-12 July 1941
Preceded by Succeeded by Nazi-occupied Ukraine Reichskommissariat Ukraine General Government Government-in-exile
Today part of	Ukraine

The Ukrainian national government (Ukrainian: Українське Державне Правління (УДП), Ukrainske Derzhavne Pravlinnia (UDP); Ukrainian State Board) of 1941 was a brief self-proclaimed Ukrainian government established on the Ukrainian territories occupied by Nazi Germany. The government was established by the 30 June 1941 Act of restoration of the Ukrainian state. It was led by the Stepan Bandera's faction of OUN.

History

Nazi Germany launched Operation Barbarossa, its assault on the Soviet Union, on 22 June. That day, leaders of the OUN met in Kraków, occupied Poland, and established a Ukrainian National Committee (UNK), as step towards a Ukrainian state. General Vsevolod Petriv was elected head of the committee in absentia with Volodymyr Horbovy chosen as acting leader and Viktor Andriievsky as second deputy. It sent a memorandum to Adolf Hitler affirming the Ukrainian people's aspirations for independence, readiness to fight the USSR and hope that Germany would respect Ukrainian sovereignty. On 5 July, the German security police arrested the organizers of the committee, bringing its existence to an end.

The Germans occupied Lviv on 30 June. Henryk Szyper reported that "German and Ukrainian flags were hung out everywhere" to welcome German troops, and the population "expected that a Ukrainian state of fascist kind would be established". Many thought that they found a new ally in Nazi Germany.

On the first day of the German occupation of the city, one of the wings of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) declared restoration of the independent Ukrainian state. Yaroslav Stetsko proclaimed in Lviv the Government of an independent Ukraine that "will work closely with the National-Socialist Greater Germany, under the leadership of its leader Adolf Hitler, which is forming a new order in Europe and the world" – as stated in the text of the "Act of Proclamation of Ukrainian Statehood". This was done without pre-approval from the Germans and after 15 September 1941 the organisers were arrested. Stepan Bandera, Stetsko and others, were arrested by Nazi Einsatzgruppe and sent to Nazi concentration camps, where both of Bandera's brothers were executed. The policy of the occupying power turned quickly harsh towards Ukrainians as well. Some of the Ukrainian nationalists were driven underground, and from that time forward, they fought against the Nazis, but continued also to fight against Poles and Soviet forces (see Ukrainian Insurgent Army).

During the morning of 30 June, an ad hoc Ukrainian People's Militia was being formed in the city. It included OUN activists who had moved in from Krakow with the Germans, OUN members who lived in Lviv, and former Soviet policemen who had either decided to switch sides or who were OUN members that had infiltrated the Soviet police. It initiated the first of two violent pogromsthe following day.

The leader of the government was Yaroslav Stetsko. Many members were former government officials and military leaders of the Ukrainian People's Republic. However, Germany did not recognise the government; it arrested and imprisoned its members within a matter of weeks.

Government structure

The government of 1941 was an attempt to include as many political parties in Ukraine as possible. The structure and nomenclature of the government functionaries were quite extensive. They included:

The Prime Minister was Yaroslav Stetsko

1. Deputy Prime Minister and Secretary of the Ministry of Health – Marian Panchyshyn – no political affiliation
2. Deputy Prime Minister – Lev Rebet (OUN)
3. Minister of the Interior – Volodymyr Lysy (Socialist Radical Party)
4. Minister of External Affairs – Volodymyr Stakhiv
5. Minister of Defence – Vsevolod Petriv (Social Revolution Party)
6. Minister of State Security – Mykola Lebed (OUN)
7. Minister of Justice – Yulian Fedusevych
8. Minister of Agriculture – Yevhen Khraplyvy
9. Minister of Health Marian Panchyshyn (no political affiliation)
10. Minister of Education Volodymyr Radzykevych (no political affiliation)
11. Minister of Communication N. Moroz (no political affiliation)
12. Minister of Information Oleksandr Hai-Holovko (no political affiliation)
13. Minister of Political Coordination Ivan Klymiv-Lehenda (OUN)
14. Deputy Minister of Interior Konstantyn Pankivsky (Socialist Radical Party)
15. Deputy Minister of External Affairs Oleksandr Maritchak (Ukrainian National-Democratic Party)
16. Deputy Minister of Defense Roman Shukhevych (OUN)
17. Deputy Minister of Defense Oleksandr Hasyn (OUN)
18. Deputy Minister of Justice Bohdan Dzerovych (no political affiliation)
19. Deputy Minister of Agriculture Andriy Piasetsky (Front of National Unity)
20. Deputy Minister of Health Roman Osinchuk

The government also featured a Council of Seniors, which was headed by Kost Levytsky.