THE WORK OF DMYTRO VITOVSKY AT THE HEAD OF THE STATE SECRETARIAT OF MILITARY AFFAIRS OF THE WEST UKRAINIAN PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC (ZUNR)

The work of Dmytro Vitovsky at the head of the State Secretariat for Military Affairs of the Western Ukrainian People’s Republic (ZUNR) is studied. It is asserted that on November 9, 1918, the Lviv UNRada delegation transferred executive power to the Provisional State Secretariat (government), which was headed by Kost Levitskyi, and Colonel Dmytro Vitovskyi was appointed Secretary of Military Affairs in this government. The next day, November 10, he, together with other 11 new ministers, took an oath before the UNRada, promising to faithfully serve his native people. It is noted that, occupying such a high position from November 1918 to February 1919, Dmytro Vitovsky showed himself as a talented and courageous statesman, a skillful organizer and leader, an inspiration and ideological leader of the Ukrainian Galician Army. His main merit during this period of activity was the prompt formation of a powerful one-hundred-thousand-strong army of the West Ukrainian People's Republic, which appeared to win the independence of its people in the fight against a better equipped and numerically superior enemy - the army of the Polish state, supported by the Entente countries.