Sydir Holubovych

Holubovych was born on 6 March 1873 in Tovstenke, which was then part of the Chortkiv Bezirk within the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, Austria-Hungary.^[1] In 1897, he completed his core studies of law at Lviv University.^[1] During these years, he first became politically active, joining the student society "Akademichna Hromada", which he eventually headed, and publishing for a series entitled Svitova Biblioteka.^[1] He then returned to his alma mater, and achieved his Doctor of Law from the university in 1902.^[1]

Upon graduating, he worked as a lawyer. He first worked within Ternopil, before in 1905 opened his own law office in Ternopil.^[1] He was part of the defense council for Myroslav Sichynsky, who in 1908 assassinated the Governor of the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, Andrzej Kazimierz Potocki, in retaliation for the killing of Ukrainian peasants in Galicia.^[1] He also, in 1911, represented Ukrainian students who protested against the authorities refusal to establish a Ukrainian university.^[1] Simultaneously, he also participated in local societies. From 1904 to 1914 he headed the Ternopil branch of Prosvita in conjunction with leading the county-level Sokol society, and also the association Podilska Rada and the Ukrainian newspaper Podilskyi Holos.^[1]

He became a member of Austrian parliament from 1911 to 1918, and the Diet of Galicia in 1913.^[1] In the Galician Diet he represented the Ukrainian National Democratic Party. In 1916, in the midst of World War I, he served as Head of the Central Bank for Lviv, and he was involved in the reconstruction of the region.^[1] In October 1918 he became a deputy to the Ukrainian National Council to the newly-formed West Ukrainian People's Republic (ZUNR), and in 9 November 1918 he became State Secretary of Justice.^[1] In December 1918, he was appointed to be the next Head of the Council of State Secretaries after Kost Levytsky resigned, and he formally took power on 4 January 1919 alongside being State Secretary of Finance, Trade, and Industry.v He took part in preparing the Unification Act, which nominally united the Ukrainian People's Republic (UNR) and ZUNR, but in practice the ZUNR government under Holubovych still continued to function independently.^[1] During his tenure, the council established constitutional order and strengthened the army, but at the same time had inconsistent handling of land reform and still widespread social tensions persisted.^[1]

On 9 June 1919, all state authority was transferred to Yevhen Petrushevych, who was granted the title of authorized dictator.^[1] Holubovych served as the dictator's plenipotentiary for internal affairs.^[1] In November 1919, he left for Vienna, and declined to participate in the ZUNR's Government-in-exile.^[1] In 1922, he moved to Lviv, where in 1924 he became head of the Ukrainian People's Labour Party, where he negotiated to merge the party into the Ukrainian National Democratic Alliance (UNDO).^[1] Following this, he retired from politics, and in 1931 he returned to working as a lawyer in Zalozhtsi.^[1] He died in Lviv on January 12, 1938.^[2]