Illia Vytanovych (1899-1973), a Ukrainian historian, economist and civil activist, was born in the town of Burshtyn, Rohatyn country (currently, Ivano-Frankivs’k region). He attended school in Burshtyn for seven years and then continued his studies at the gymnasium in Rohatyn. In 1917, Vytanovych was conscripted into Austrian army and sent to the eastern front. In 1918, he was dismissed due to the serious illness. During 1917-1918, he was a member of Ukrainian Galician Army and Ukrainian People’s Republic Army.

In L'viv, Vytanovych attended the Ukrains’kyi Taiemnyi Universytet. In 1929, he received his PhD in social and economical sciences. Afterward, he taught at the middle schools in Galicia.

In 1937-1940, Vytanovych was a director of the Kooperatyvnyi Litsei in Lviv. He founded the committees on economics, statistics and sociology with the Shevchenko Scientific Society in L'viv. He collaborated with the Institute of Social and Economical History affiliated to L'viv University.

In 1940-1941, Vytanovych lived in Krakow. In 1944, he moved to Germany. He was a professor of modern history at Ukrainian Free University, professor of history of modern national economy, cooperation and history of social and economical ideas at Ukrains’kyi Tekhnichno-hospodars’kyi instytut and Ukrains’ka Vysoka Ekonomichna Shkola in Hehenberg and Munich. After 1949, Vytanovych lived in Chicago and later in life moved to Berkley Heights, New Jersey. He was a full member of the Shevchenko Scientific Society (since 1933) and UVAN.

Vytanovych is an author of many works and studies in the field of economical history and sociology, for example: “Monohrafiia robitnychoi liudyny” (1926, written in Poland), “Torhivel’ni i voienni shliakhy cherez karp. provaly v seredniovichchi,” “Istoriia i suchasnyi stan zakhidno-ukrains’koho sela” (1935), “Istoriia narodnoho hospodarstva” (1947), “Istoriia ukrains’koho kooperatyvnoho rukhu” (1964). In 1959, his monograph “Suspil’no-ekonomichni tendentii v derzhavnomu budivnytstvi Ivana Mazepy” was published with a help of the Shevchenko Scientific Society in Chicago and his study “Agrarna polityka ukrains’kykh uriadiv, 1917-1920” was published by Ukrainian Historical Society. Vytanovych died in 1973 in Berkley Heights, New Jersey and was buried at St. Andrew cemetery in South Bound Brook, New Jersey.