100 YEARS OF STRUGGLE. THE UKRAINIAN REVOLUTION 1917-1921

YEARS OF STRUGGLE

THE UKRAINIAN REVOLUTION 1917-1921

ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF STRUGGLE

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On August 24, 1991, Verkhovna Rada, the Supreme Council of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, was preparing to adopt one of the most important decisions in its history. The decision had actually become the last one it would ever make, as it put an end to the existence of the USSR. The democratic minority made a proposal for its approval, but the fact that thousands of people on the streets were ready to support it, forced the uncompromising Communist majority in the parliament to adopt the Declaration of Independence of Ukraine.

Although under pressure, there were fiery discussions and extorted concessions from the Democrats. A long-term former political prisoner, Levko Lukyanenko, who had been entrusted with the preparation of the draft proposal, at the last minute had to change the name of the document. The draft of the Act on the Restoration of the Independent State of Ukraine, written by him, became known as the Act of the Declaration of Independence of Ukraine. It may seem that a concession to the Communists, agreed by their opponents, was insignificant but, in fact, it played a decisive role during the next two decades of the state’s development. In such a way, an independent Ukraine detracted from previous attempts to affirm its statehood and renounced the legacy of the Ukrainian liberation movement.

Thus, its appearance on the map of the world was caused, not due to the long-lasting struggle of Ukrainians, but to a unique international political situation, which led to the collapse of the USSR. The renunciation of the liberation movement’s legacy enabled the former Communists to preserve most Soviet ideas from the past, and keep them alive in the publics’ consciousness. This, in its turn, made it possible for them to remain the ruling elite of the newly proclaimed state. The actual existence of the Ukrainian SSR continued even after the proclamation of independence on August 24,

1991. The process of state-building continuity from the Ukrainian National Republic to independent Ukraine was completed by the symbolic transfer of power by the last president of the UNR in the exile to the first President of the independent Ukraine Leonid Kravchuk. Though it was a powerful symbolic act, it was quickly forgotten.

Twice after 1991, in 2004 and 2014, Ukrainians rose to unprecedented levels of protest to disallow the ruling party’s attempt to revert to the authoritarian rule of the past. Only after the second protest, which was paid in blood, did we begin to systematically overcome the totalitarian inheritance.

In 2015 the Ukrainian parliament passed the “decommunization laws”, which allowed for the removal of thousands of monuments and symbols linked to those who destroyed the state of Ukraine in 1917-1921 and its people for the next seven decades. Their names have finally disappeared from the map of our country. Among the new names that have appeared there are several related to the Ukrainian Revolution of 1917-1921. By the Law, which recognized the participants in the struggle for the independence of Ukraine, the present state has finally paid tribute to those who fought with arms in their hands, or with nonviolent methods and brought independence closer, especially to the soldiers of the armed formations of the era of the Ukrainian Revolution.

Ukrainian society gradually rids itself of the post-Soviet residue, and gradually returns to its state heritage, which was so inadvertently wasted a quarter of a century ago. The main task of the work to be carried out by the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance is to recall the events, which happened centuries ago and laid the foundation for modern governmental institutions: the Ukrainian parliament and government, the armed forces, diplomacy and the Academy of Sciences. The exhibition “The Ukrainian Revolution of 1917-1921: 100 years of struggle” which took place in November 2017 in Kyiv showed various aspects of the creation of Ukrainian statehood in 1917-1921.

This booklet has been prepared reflecting the exhibition materials as well as Information and educational activities of the Institute. It is crucial not only to tell Ukrainians, but the whole world about this continuity. We need to deny one of the key thrusts of Russian propaganda, that

Ukraine appeared on the world map as a geopolitical misunderstanding in the wake of the collapse of the USSR. We need to talk about Ukraine’s heritage of a hundred-year war for truth and freedom alongside its brutal lessons, which is exacerbated by the fact that Ukraine opposes Russia’s aggression. Our long war for freedom continues. Modern politicians must carefully learn the lessons from the Ukrainian Revolution of 19171921. One of the most important lessons is that here, in Ukraine, each of them can have friends, allies, competitors, rivals and opponents. The enemies we must uncompromisingly fight are outside the country; they are in Russia, which is waging war against us. Competitors, rivals and opponents can see Ukraine as a different country in the future. Ukraine’s enemies don’t see it as a country at all. They can pretend to be allies or even friends, formulate very tempting plans for the struggle with opponents, but we cannot forget that their main goal is to destroy our state. The participants of the Ukrainian Revolution of 1917-1921 understood this lesson too late. Therefore, they left the country by giving it up to their enemies, and wrote their instructive memoirs sitting in the cafes in Vienna, Paris or Berlin.

We have a rare chance to do everything for our descendants to read about our era without bromine. Let’s make the most of it. Let’s take advantage of this opportunity to the fullest.

Volodymyr Viatrovych, Director of the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance, historian.

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THE AWAKENING OF A NATION

Ukrainian soldiers of the Volyn regiment participating in the tens of thousands demonstration in Petrograd, March 25, 1917.

A solemn procession of the Ukrainian community in Tomsk, March 23, 1917.

Public mass demonstration of Ukrainians in Khabarovsk, May 1, 1917.

Fall of autocracy in Russia due to the February revolution triggered the unprecedented upsurge of the Ukrainian National Liberation Movement. After 200 years of statelessness and ferocious oppression on the territory of the former empire of the Romanovs, Ukrainians began to seek the rights of national-cultural autonomy. There were numerous rallies and demonstrations where a lot of different proclamations and resolutions were adopted. At the same time, cultural, educational institutions and civic organizations resumed their work. All this led to the beginning of the Ukrainian Revolution of 1917-1921.

In the very first days of the revolution, the Provisional Ukrainian Revolution Committee of Petrograd issued its first appeal “To Ukrainian citizens, students, workers and Ukrainian officers in Petrograd.”

On March 25, 1917, on the occasion of Taras Shevchenko holiday there was a demonstration in which 25 thousand of Ukrainians took part.

Its participants, mainly soldiers and students, marched under revolutionary and national blue-and-yellow flags. Several Ukrainian organizations in Moscow declared their demands that the new democratic government would recognize the autonomy of Ukraine and raised other issues: the use of the Ukrainian language in schools, local government and courts.

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“Overview Map of Ukrainian Lands”

by Stepan Rudnytsky.

Ukrainian demonstration in Vinnytsia. Spring in 1917.

The demobilized Russian soldiers return from the front, 1917.

The permit of Peter Stebnytsky, one of the leaders of the Ukrainian community in Petrograd, 1916.

The participants of the Ukrainian national demonstration on St. Sophia Square in Kyiv, April 1, 1917.

“Just after 10 o’clock in the morning people from all over the capital of Ukraine like big rivers and small streams were flooding to the main point - St. Volodymyr’s Cathedral where Kyiv’s highest clergy, that time from their own initiative, held a requiem service for Taras Shevchenko. In front of the Cathedral there were Ukrainian troops under the Cossack flag, numerous banners and flags of organized in different groups Ukrainians (workers, civil servants, students with their teachers, peasants and others) were fluttering in the wind. People snapped up the first issue of the paper “News from the Ukrainian Central Rada” and spread out printed Ukrainian songs, brochures, and appeals. A lot of them were falling down like rain from the balconies and roofs of the houses. “ The paper “News from the Ukrainian Central Rada” about the Ukrainian national demonstration on April 1, 1917.

The removal of the monument to the former Russian Prime minister, Peter Stolypin, in Kyiv. March in 1917.

Kyiv became the epicenter of Ukrainian national life. Here on March 17, on the initiative of the Society of Ukrainian Progressives with the participation of other political parties the Central Rada was founded. At first, it was a public organization. Later on, it became the governing body of the Ukrainian national movement and the Parliament of the UNR. There were dozens of gatherings, congresses, rallies and demonstrations in the city.

For instance, according to the newspapers, on March 29, almost 200 thousand people took part in a large-scale event “Holiday of Freedom”. In those days, a monument to the Tsarist Prime Minister, Peter Stolypin, was demolished on the Duma Square (now Maidan Nezalezhnosti, literally: the Independence Square). On April 1, on the initiative of the Central Rada, 100 thousand of Ukrainians took part in the national demonstration, which was held in Kyiv. It had become the turning point, which made the Russian revolutionary democrats take a fresh look at the aspirations of Ukrainians and reconsider their attitude towards the Ukrainian national identity. Mykhailo Hrushevsky said that this demonstration showed that “Ukrainian movement is not mere fiction in the minds of romantic circles or some intellectual maniacs, but a living force, inspiring and leading the masses.” In March, protest was the climax of the movement all over Ukraine. Mass rallies and demonstrations swept Kharkiv, Poltava, Mykolayiv, and Odesa.

Ukrainian soldiers at the demonstration in Chernivtsi.

May 1, 1917.

Ukrainian demonstration in Kharkiv. April 23, 1917.

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CREATION OF A NEW STATE: THE CENTRAL RADA

The building of the Ukrainian Central Rada where the General Secretariat worked as a Chief executive body where a number of Ukrainian congresses and assemblies took place.

The participants of the Ukrainian national demonstration on St. Sophia Square in Kyiv, April 1, 1917.

The demonstration in front of the building of the Ukrainian General Military Committee in Kyiv during the First All-Ukrainian Military Congress held in May in 1917.

Volodymyr Vynnychenko, a writer, a Vice-President of the Ukrainian Central Rada, the first President of the General Secretariat and General Secretary of Internal Affairs. Photo of the early 1920s.

The initial composition of the General Secretariat in 1917. Sitting (from left to right): Ivan Steshenko, the Central Rada’s General Secretary of Education, Krystophor Baranovsky, General Secretary of Finance, Volodymyr Vynnychenko, the President of the General Secretariat and General Secretary of Internal Affairs, Serhiy Yefremov, General Secretary of International Affairs, Symon Petliura, General Secretary of Military Affairs. Standing: Pavlo Khrystiuk, General Chancellor, Mykola Stasyuk, General Secretary of Food Supply, Borys Martos, General Secretary of Agrarian Affairs. In the picture of that time government, there was no Valentyn Sadovsky, General Secretary of Court Affairs.

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Brochure “Independent Ukraine”

by Mykola Mikhnovsky.

During the revolution of 1917-1921, Ukrainians created several forms of statehood, which changed or continued one another. The representatives of political parties and public organizations founded the Ukrainian Central Rada in Kyiv. Mykhailo Hrushevsky was chosen in absentia as the Chairman of the Rada. He was released from exile after the February Revolution of 1917 but still lived in Moscow.

After the All-Ukrainian Congress (April 17-21, 1917) which took place in the Merchants’ House (today the National Philharmonic Hall of Ukraine) the Central Rada gained legitimacy and the right to speak on behalf of the entire Ukrainian people. For incomplete six months of work, it had changed from a public organization into a representative body of the Ukrainian movement and eventually to the UNR parliament. Universals of the Central Rada reflected the evolution of the Ukrainian state from autonomy and federalism within Russia to independence. The Fourth Universal (January 22, 1918) proclaimed the Ukrainian National Republic an independent state.

Serhiy Yefremov, publicist and literary critic, Deputy Chairman of the Central Rada and General Secretary of International Affairs.

Mykhailo Hrushevsky, the Chairman of the Ukrainian Central Rada, Photo made on May 1, 1918.

The appeal “To the Ukrainian people”, the first official document of the Ukrainian Central Rada from March 22(9), 1917.

“The proclamation of the Ukrainian National Republic”. Photo from the newspaper “Le Miror” (Paris).

March 30, 1918.

The First Universal (June 23, 1917) which proclaimed Ukraine’s autonomy.

The Central Rada passed a series of important laws for setting up the life of the state establishing the eight-hour working day, a land reform, laws on the monetary system, citizenship in the Ukrainian National Republic, a national coat of arms and the army. They also created a system of higher governmental institutions of the Ukrainian National Republic: the Ukrainian Central Rada with a Small Rada (it consisted of members of the presidium, secretaries of the Rada and two representatives from each political party) and worked between the plenary sessions and the government. First, it was the General Secretariat and then it was renamed to the Council of National Ministers of the Ukrainian National Republic with general secretariats and ministries. There appeared the Ukrainian State Bank, the General Court and the Ukrainian Telegraph Agency. The Ukrainian National Republic established diplomatic relations with other countries and became a subject of international law.

Ukrainian demonstration in Kyiv on the Third Universal of the Central Rada, which proclaimed the creation of the Ukrainian National Republic. November 20, 1917.

The poster with the Fourth Universal of the Ukrainian Central Rada, which proclaimed the Ukrainian National Republic an independent state. January 22, 1918.

The Merchants’ House where on April 17-21, 1917 the AllUkrainian National Congress declared the Central Rada to be the highest national authority in Ukraine and elected Hrushevsky as its head.

The identification document of Isaac Baziak, a member of the Ukrainian Central Rada from the Ukrainian Party of Socialist Revolutionaries, issued on March 14, 1918.

“The Central Rada should be the center of Ukrainian political life; it must complete the organization of the territory and inform the broadest masses of Ukraine about political tasks, which thus is a national awareness” Mykhailo Hrushevsky, April 21, 1917

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CREATION OF A NEW STATE: HETMANATE On April 29, 1918, Pavlo Skoropadsky was proclaimed Hetman of All Ukraine by 6 thousand delegates at the Congress of Landowners. In a night, Hetman’s supporters captured the buildings of important state institutions. In place of the UNR, there appeared the Ukrainian State or Hetmanate as it is called in historiography. Less than a day after Congress, Hetman Pavlo Skoropadsky made public a “Letter to the entire Ukrainian people” and published “Laws on the interim government of Ukraine”. According to them, all legislative and executive powers were transferred to the Hetman who, at the same time, was proclaimed Commander in Chief, entrusted with absolute power. The government, the Council of Ministers were responsible for legislative functions and public administration. The highest judicial body was the General Court. One of the first steps of the Hetmanate government was the restoration of the right to private property “as the foundation of culture and civilization» and the free sale of land. He proposed to create the so-called “Independent Cossakhood”, the mighty militia that could carry out the functions of the army and the police.

His Highness, Almighty Hetman of All Ukraine, Pavlo Skoropadsky, 1918.

Peter Krutykov’s “Hippo-Palace” Circus in Kyiv where, Pavlo Skoropadsky was proclaimed Hetman of All Ukraine at the Congress of Breadmakers convened by the Union of Landowners.

In his first speech, Skoropadsky emphasized: “I do not take on the burden of temporary authority for my own good. You yourself know that anarchy is spreading everywhere and only power that rules with a firm hand can bring order. On you, farmers and wealthy people, I will rely and pray to God that He will give us strength and firmness to save Ukraine “.

The German military men disarmed the soldiers of the Sich Riflemen regiment who refused to serve Hetman Pavlo Skoropadsky, May 1, 1918.

The barracks of the Sich Riflemen in Kyiv were located in Kyiv, at L’vivska Street, 24(now Sichovych Stril’tsiv, 24).

Prayer Service on St. Sophia Square in Kyiv honoring the election of Pavlo Skoropadsky as Hetman of All Ukraine, April 29, 1918.

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Hetman Pavlo Skoropadsky accompanied by the Сommander of his own convoy, Mykola Ustymovych, General Chancellor, Ivan Poltavets and German officers at the door of the house on Katerynynska Street (now Lyps’ka Street, 16).

Fedir Lyzohub, Chairman of the Council of Ministers in May-November 1918.

Dmytro Doroshenko, a historian, a diplomat, Minister of Foreign Affairs in the government of the Ukrainian state.

The brief existence (7.5 months) of the Hetmanate was a fruitful stage of state-building. During this period, the Council of Ministers passed about 400 laws. Russian money was withdrawn from the circulation while the position of the national currency strengthened, the National Bank of Ukraine set up its work. The number of cooperative societies had tripled: from 4.9 thousand to 15 thousand. The total balance sheet of the credit union capital increased and the union “Central” even bought a factory of agricultural machines in Germany. Compared to the first revolutionary year, coal mining had almost doubled.

At the time of the Hetmanate, there were two customs wars - with Romania and the Crimea. As a result of the latter, the peninsula became the part of Ukraine on the rights of autonomy. Hetman’s plans included the construction of a gateway arterial transportation system from the Baltic to the Black Seas and the building of hydroelectric power stations on the Dniester, Bug and Dnieper. Significant results had been achieved in education and culture. The Ukrainian State Archive, the Ukrainian National Library, the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, the Ukrainian State Universities in Kyiv and Kamyanets-Podilskyi were created. However, the defeat in the First World War, the agrarian reform that farmers did not understand, “punitive expeditions” of the German-Austrian allies and anti-Hetman opposition activity became the main reasons for the fall of Hetman Pavlo Skoropadsky in late 1918.

A visit of Ukrainian officials to Berlin. From left to right: Chairman of the Council of Ministers, Fedir Lyzohub, Ambassador of the Ukrainian State in Berlin, Baron Theodor von Steinheil, a friend of Minister of Foreign Affairs, Olexander Paltov, September 1918.

The period of the Ukrainian Hetman State of 1918... with all its flaws and disappointments, was the period of the greatest discovery of Ukrainian creativity in the field of political, economic and cultural-and-educational development”.

Dmytro Doroshenko, “History of Ukraine, 1917-1923”.

Vyacheslav Lypynsky, a historian, a theoretician of Ukrainian conservatism, in 1918 - served as the Ukrainian ambassador to Austria-Hungary.

Hetman Pavlo Skoropadsky with the delegates of Volyn province at the Congress of Breadmakers, April 29-30, 1918.

The auto with Hetman Pavlo Skoropadsky on the porch of Hetman’s palace at Instytutska Street, 40 in Kyiv. The building is not preserved – it exploded during the retreat of the Polish troops from the city in May 1920.

The German patrol in Kyiv streets, August 1920.

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CREATION OF A NEW STATE: THE UNR DIRECTORATE

Volodymyr Vynnychenko, the Head of the UNR Directorate, and its member, Symon Petliura, at the military parade of the Ukrainian troops on St. Sophia Square on the occasion of the Directorate entry into Kyiv.

The picture of the movie. December 19, 1918.

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A large public meeting in support of the UNR Directorate.

December 1918.

In November-December, 1918, there was an anti-Hetman uprising, which forced Pavlo Skoropadsky to give up power. The Ukrainian National Republic was restored, the supreme power of which was embodied in the UNR Directorate. It consisted of five people: Volodymyr Vynnychenko (Head), Symon Petliura, Fedir Shvetsʹ, Opanas Andriyevsky and Andriy Makarenko. The idea of the Directorate as a collegiate governing body was borrowed from the history of the Great French Revolution of the late XVIII century. The policy of the UNR Directory was aimed at the consolidation of the Ukrainian nation. Its leaders tried to take into account public expectations and demands of political parties. Based on coalition formation, a new government – the Council of National Ministers of the Ukrainian National Republic – was established. The political system of the UNR had become a peculiar compromise based on the principle of labor councils when the representatives of the government could only delegate “working classes”. Concerning the national question, they took a course on the development of an independent state. On January 1, 1919, the Directorate approved the law on the state language in the UNR and the law on the highest church government of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church according to which the Orthodox Church in Ukraine should have become autocephalous. They also adopted the law on the national currency of Ukraine – Hryvnia. According to the law, the Russian money (“tzars’ki”, “kerenki”) was withdrawn from the circulation. Private ownership of land was abolished; it was declared “public property». At the time of the Directorate, there was a steady expansion of diplomatic relations with foreign countries; science and culture were rapidly developing. One of the most prominent achievements was the proclamation of the Act of Union – the reunification of the UNR and WUPR (Western Ukrainian People’s Republic) into one unified sovereign state.

Members of the UNR Directory, from left to right: Fedir Shvetsʹ (1st), Symon Petliura (3rd), Andriy Makarenko (5th), Kamyanets-Podilsky, 1919.

The appeal “About the Directory of the Ukrainian National Republic” with short biographies of its members.

November 1918.

The UNR Army Colonel Eugene Konovalets, the Сorps Сommander of Sich Riflemen who in November in 1918 supported the uprising against Hetman Pavlo Skoropadsky. Photo made in 1920.

The Head of the UNR Directorate and the Chief Otaman of the UNR Army, Symon Petliura with his colleagues.

Kamyanets-Podilsky, 1919.

However, in December 1918, Soviet Russia without declaring war started a military advance into Ukraine. Its troops quickly moved deep into the Ukrainian territory. On February 2, 1919, the Directorate and the state apparatus of the UNR were forced to evacuate from Kyiv to Vinnytsia.

Volodymyr Vynnychenko could not withstand pressure and weight of responsibility and on February 10, 1919, resigned. Symon Petliura became the Head of the UNR Directorate. He had to lead the Ukrainian state in the most dramatic period of its existence. Without any external support under extremely tough conditions, Ukraine continued the armed struggle against the “black” and “white” Russia. In November 1920, the remnants of the Ukrainian army and the state apparatus of the UNR, under the pressure of the prevailing Bolshevik army were forced to retreat to Poland.

Panorama of Kamyanets-Podilsky, the capital of the Ukrainian National Republic from June, 14 to November, 16 in 1919.

The Law “On the Form of Power in Ukraine” approved by the Labour Congress on January 28, 1919. The Chairman of the Congress Semen Vityk and the secretary, Serhii Bachynsky, signed the document.

Passport of the UNR citizen, Valentyn Atamanovsky, issued on September 5, 1919.

The Head of the UNR Directorate and the Chief Otaman of the UNR Army, Symon Petliura. KamyanetsPodilsky, 1919. After the retreat of the UNR Army from Kyiv and the emigration of Volodymyr Vynnychenko from Ukraine, Symon Petliura assumed command of the Directorate.

He remained in the Directorate from the first until the last day for 10 months fielding troops against both the Red Army and anti-communist White Guard forces in Ukraine.

The soldiers of the Sich Riflemen Corps, the structure that led the revolt against Hetman Skoropadsky. 1918.

Recruits’ oath-taking while training, held by the Sich Riflemen, in the presence of the Chief Otaman of the UNR Army, Symon Petliura. Starokostiantyniv. Summer 1919.

“Have we won anything fighting for Ukraine? Yes, our struggle in the history of the Ukrainian nation will be written in golden letters. We came forward on the historic arena at the moment when the whole world didn’t know what Ukraine was. Nobody wanted to recognize it as an independent state, nobody considered our people as a separate nation. Only through our struggle, stubborn and uncompromising, we showed the world that Ukraine exists, its people live and fight for their rights, for their freedom and state independence” Quote from Symon Petliura’s speech at the meeting of the Directorate in Starokostiantyniv.

November 26, 1919.

The Cossack soldiers and officers of the Third Iron Riflemen Division of the UNR Army. 1920.

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CREATION OF A NEW STATE: WUPR

Yevgen Petrushevych, President of the WUPR in 1918-1919.

Dmytro Vitovsky, Commander of the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen Legion, one of the organizers of “November Uprising”, later – State Secretary of Military Affairs of the WUPR. Photo made in 1916.

Kost Levytsky, a lawyer, Head of the State Secretariat, one of the most prominent political leaders in Galicia.

The revolutionary events in Great Ukraine, the end of the First World War and the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire intensified the Ukrainian national liberation movement in Western Ukraine. Halychyna (Galicia), the eastern part of the Austrian Crown lands, entered the arena of conflict between Poland and Ukraine. The Ukrainian National Council and Polish Liquidation Commission claimed their rights to govern it. The Ukrainians of Transcarpathia and Northern Bukovyna wanted to unite with their Galician brothers but their lands were also in danger due to encroaching neighbours. After a series of attempts by politicians to gain statehood, military leaders took the initiative.

In the early hours of November 1, one day ahead of the Poles, who had been preparing the uprising as well, the Riflemen units led by Dmytro Vitovsky, captured the most important governmental institutions in L’viv. “Expressing the will of Ukrainian people the Ukrainian state emerged on the Ukrainian lands of the former Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. The highest power of the Ukrainian State is the Ukrainian National Council. “In the present day Ukrainian National Council has embraced the power in the capital Lviv and the whole territory of the Ukrainian state”, said the announcements which were rapidly spread about the city. Those events came into history as “November Uprising” or “Lystopadovyi zryv”. Ukrainians quickly and decisively began to establish power in the provinces of the region.

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The building of the “People’s Hotel” in Lviv, the seat of the Central Military Committee which helped to prepare a Ukrainian uprising in Lviv. Photo before 1914.

The building of the “People’s House”, which became the uprising headquarters and the epicenter of the Ukrainian national liberation movement.

The memorial plaque in honour of raising a blueyellow flag over Lviv City Council, November 1, 1918.

A postage stamp of the Western Ukrainian People’s Republic, May 1919.

The basic temporary law on state independence of Ukrainian lands of ex Austro-Hungarian Monarchy.

November 13, 1918

On November 13, 1918, the Ukrainian National Council approved the “The basic temporary law on state independence of Ukrainian lands of ex Austro-Hungarian Empire”. The Ukrainian state was named the Western Ukrainian People’s Republic. By the time of the meeting of the Constituent Assembly, the functions of supreme power had been exercised by the Ukrainian National Council – the Parliament and the State Secretariat – the government headed by Kost Levytsky, a lawyer. The emblem of the WUPR was a golden lion on a blue background, and the blue-and-yellow flag was the state flag of the independent Ukrainian State. The territory of the WUPR, which united Eastern Galicia, Bukovyna and Transcarpathia, covered an area of 70 thousand square km with a population of 6 million people. It was divided into 40 provinces and 12 military districts. From the early days, the WUPR authorities started actively contribute to the development of the state. They adopted the laws on the establishment of the Ukrainian Galician Army, the temporary administration and the organization of legal proceedings, the state language and citizenship. They started a lot of new reforms, among them – a state monopoly on the sale of basic types of industrial products and foodstuffs, the eight-hour working day and others.

They actively participated in the development of foreign policy service and, as a result, opened a number of embassies and diplomatic missions in the countries of Western Europe and America. One of the greatest achievements of the WUPR was the proclamation of the Act of Union to form a single state, comprising all Ukrainian lands. The continued development of the WUPR was hampered by Poland’s Aggression. A full-scale Polish-Ukrainian war lasted from 1918 to 1919. Under the onslaught of prevailing Polish troops supported by the Entente, in July 1919 the Galician troops and the WUPR government were forced to cross the Zbruch to the Right Bank Ukraine. On March 14, 1923, the Conference of Ambassadors of the great powers of the Entente recognized the Polish occupation, although with the provision that eastern Halychyna (Galicia) was to remain autonomous.

“The entire ethnographic Ukrainian region in Austro-Hungary, in particular, the Eastern Galicia with the border line of the Syan including Lemkivshchyna, north-western Bukovyna with the cities of Chernivtsi, Storozhynets and Seret and the Ukrainian band of north-eastern Hungary compose a single, united Ukrainian territory. The Ukrainian national territory is confirmed by this as a Ukrainian state» Proclamation of the Ukrainian National Council, October 19, 1918

Olena Stepaniv, a legendary female officer (khorunzha) of the Legion of Ukrainian Sich Riflemen. One of the organisers of “November Uprising”.

The delegation representing the Western Province of the UNR at the Directorate’s building in Kamyanets-Podilsky. September 1919.

Resolution of the Ukrainian National Council of the WUPR that adopted the Unification Act between the WUPR and UNR. January 3, 1919.

A letter of the WUPR President, Yevgen Petrushevych, sent to the Headmaster of Stanislav gymnasium.

January 4, 1919.

Elder officers of the second Corps of the Ukrainian Galician Army.

Stryi, 1919.

A seal imprint of the State Secretariat of Military Affairs of WUPR.

The President of the WUPR, Yevgen Petrushevych, with the members of the government in exile in Vienna. 1920.

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THE ACT OF UNION For the Ukrainian people who were for centuries deprived of their own statehood and split between powerful empires, the idea of unity had always been decisive. Even in the middle of the 19th century, the first Ukrainian political organizations in the Western and Dnieper Ukraine emphasized the unity of 15 million Ukrainian people and the inseparability of its lands. At the end of the 19th century, the idea of unity became the cornerstone in the ideological declarations of the majority of Ukrainian political parties and public organizations. The First World War opened the possibilities of its implementation. The collapse of the Russian and Austro-Hungarian empires contributed to the emergence of new states. In January 1918, the Ukrainian National Republic proclaimed its independence, and in November 1918, an independent Western-Ukrainian People’s Republic was established. The leaders of the latter initiated the unification. The Western Ukrainian Republic’s delegation began official talks with Hetman Pavlo Skoropadsky and subsequently continThe Universal of the UNR Directorate ued them with the Directorate of the UNR. And on December 1, claimed that UNR and WUPR are 1918, the representatives of both governments signed a “pre-acunited in one independent state, cession agreement” in a passenger car at the station of Fastiv.

January 22, 1919.

In it, they pledged to conclude in the near future the unification of the UNR and WUPR “into a single state”. On January 22, 1919, the official Proclamation of the Act of Union between the UNR and WUPR took place on St. Sophia Square in Kyiv. The next day the Labour Congress of Ukraine officially approved the unification of western and eastern Ukrainian lands into one state.

The soldiers from Dnieper Ukraine celebrate the Union between the UNR and WUPR in Stryi. January 5, 1919.

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The UNR military formation representatives participating in the solemn celebration of the Union between the UNR and WUPR in Kolomyia.

January 1919.

The newspaper clipping from “Narodna Volya” about the establishment of an internal postal tariff with Galicia. January 7, 1919/

The Deputy Certificate of the Labour Congress of Ukraine, which approved the Act of Union between the UNR and WUPR. January 23, 1919.

“The Wagon-Museum of the Union between the UNR and WUPR” at the railway station of Fastiv, where the “pre-accession agreement” between the UNR and WUPR about “further unification” was signed.

Postcard “Let’s unite! Let’s fraternise!”1918.

The Head of the UNR Directorate, Volodymyr Vynnychenko, and the Member of the UNR Directorate, Symon Petliura, during a prayer service on the occasion of Proclamation of the Act of Union between the UNR and WUPR. January 22, 1919.

The WUPR changed its name to the Western Province of the Ukrainian National Republic. The Government of the UNR provided financial support to Western Ukraine for the purchase of food, the development of the transportation system, military construction and culture. In return, in the summer of 1919, the Ukrainian Galician Army supported the UNR Army in the fight against the “white” and “red” Russians and they even reached Kyiv by joint efforts. However, the war became the main reason why the Act of Unity failed to be realized. In February 1919, the governmental institutions of the UNR were forced to leave Kyiv because the Bolsheviks captured it. Subsequently, most of the Western Province of the UNR was occupied by the Polish troops, Northern Bukovyna by Rumania, Transcarpathia moved to Czechoslovakia. Despite this, the date of January 22, 1919, became the symbol of a democratic, civilized gathering of land in one sovereign state, and the idea of unification of Ukraine had become a decisive factor for future fighters for the independence of Ukraine. Celebrating the 71st anniversary of the Act of Unity, on January 21, 1990, millions of Ukrainians formed the “Live Chain” between L’viv and Kyiv, demonstrating the unity of the Ukrainian nation and its desire to live in an independent state.

The article in the newspaper “Nova Rada” with the appeal to volunteers to join the Ukrainian Galician army.

November 9, 1919.

People celebrate the unification of Ukrainian lands into a single state in Kalush. January 8, 1919.

The Kyiv City Theatre (now Ukrainian National Opera and Ballet House) where the meeting of the Labour Congress of Ukraine was held on January 23-28, 1919.

“Citizens!

Only then will we shout “Glory!” freely when we strengthen our power, when peace comes to our land. As one man, stand shoulder to shoulder to defend our homeland from enemies. I, as the Otaman of the entire Ukrainian army, tell you that enemies on all sides surround us. Not words but deeds, the Ukrainian National Republic is expecting from you. Prove your love for it by doing honest work, prove that you are worthy of this holiday. I I will shout with you “Glory!” when no enemy is in our territory. The Ukrainian Republican Army has passed by you. They spare neither their lives nor effort in the fight against enemies. Help them with clothes and food! Support the Republic which you glorify not in word, but indeed”.

Symon Petliura, January 22, 1919.

The solemn demonstration on the Proclamation of the Act of Union between the UNR and WUPR on St. Sophia Square in Kyiv. January 22, 1919.

The solemn Proclamation of the unification of the UNR and WUPR on St. Sophia Square in Kyiv. January 22, 1919.

Kyiv residents participate in the action holding hands and creating a “Live Chain”. January 21, 1990.

15

STATE SYMBOLS Flag Since the second half of the nineteenth century, blue-and-yellow flags became popular in the Ukrainian environment of Galicia, Bukovyna and Transcarpathia. In Dnieper Ukraine, people could use them only after the Revolution of 1905-1907. At the time of the February Revolution, which overthrew the Tsar, those colors were recognized and generally accepted elements of the Ukrainian national symbolism. On March 25, 1917, there was a demonstration of as many as 25 thousand Ukrainians.

Its participants, mainly soldiers and students, marched under revolutionary and national blue-and-yellow flags. And on April 1, 1917, Kyiv saw a 100-thousand people rally that carried over 320 national flags.Hence, blue-and-yellow flags became an obligatory attribute of all meetings of the Ukrainian public in different cities of Ukraine and the former empire. In the summer of 1917, the first Ukrainian division, the regiment named after Bohdan Khmelnytsky, was sent to the front under a blue-yellow flag. The flag was officially approved in the “Provisional Law on the Navy” on January 27, 1918. The flag of the merchant fleet was determined as “A cloth in two - blue and yellow colors”. The flag of the navy differed only in the presence of a blue Trident over a blue background. The colors of the WUPR state flag were also blue and yellow. During the spontaneous use of the national flag, the order of its colors had not been established. There were two variants of stripe placement. Instead, all documents approved by the Ukrainian governments in 1918 confirmed the blue-yellow (blue or light blue upper stripe) color order.

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The participants of the Ukrainian demonstration in Chernivtsi with blue-andyellow flags.

May 1917.

The design of the Ukrainian State seal by Heorhiy Narbut.

August 1918.

The blue-yellow flag of the Cold Ravine Haydamak Regiment. The inscriptions on the flag – “Long Live Free and Independent Ukrainian National Republic!” and “We would prefer to die but bring you glory and honor of our native land!” and trident images.

The Ukrainian national demonstration on St. Sophia Square in Kyiv, April 1, 1917.

The seal of the Ukrainian Central Rada. 1917.

The Ukrainian national demonstration on St. Sophia Square in Kyiv, April 1, 1917.

Postcards (with the image of the Ukrainian Trident) used by Ukrainian immigrants.

The UNR Army General Oleksandr Udovychenko passes the flag of the third Iron Division to the UNR Army Colonel Oleksandr Danylenko for its placement in the Ukrainian Museum in Ontario.

The Ukrainian anthem translation, published in the newspaper “The New York Times” on June 14, 1917.

State Anthem The poet Pavlo Chubynsky and the composer Mykhailo Verbytsky wrote a song “Ukraine has not yet died” that became popular in the Ukrainian national-liberation movement long before the events of the Ukrainian Revolution of 1917-1921. Alongside Taras Shevchenko’s poem “Testament”, it was performed as a national anthem at the Ukrainian meetings. At the beginning of the revolution, the anthem “Ukraine has not yet died” gained its popularity. It was recorded on the plates and its words and notes were printed on the postcards. Since the end of 1917, the words of the song had been changed into – “Ukraine has already resurrected ...” On June 17, 1918, the American newspaper “The New York Times” published an article which said that the song “Ukraine has not yet died” was adopted as an official state anthem of Ukraine and provided the translation of the lyrics into English. However, at the The postcard “Ukraine has time of the Ukrainian Revolution, the lenot yet died” printed on gal approval of the anthem did not take request of the Ukrainian place, as there were no laws protecting community in Petrograd. national anthems.

March 1917.

Emblem For the first time in the Ukrainian office administration, the princely sign of Volodymyr the Great – the Trident - was placed on the General Secretariat seal, which was used to affix the government acts and documents. The initiator of its creation was General Chancellor Pavlo Khrystiuk and a wellknown antiquity connoisseur Mykola Bilyashivsky who took part in its development. With the proclamation of the UNR, the issue of the state coat of arms had become very relevant and even considered by a special commission. The General Secretariat of Ukraine faced the problem of printing money. The first banknote with the value of 100 karbovanets was put into circulation on January 6, 1918. On the banknote designed by Heorhiy Narbut in the 8-corner frame there was a sign of Prince Volodymyr the Great – the Trident with a cross above the middle “tooth”. In such a way, this sign had become well known. Officially, the Trident became the state coat of arms of the UNR on February 25, 1918. Subsequently, it was decided to approve the sketches of the large and small coats of arms decorated with an olive wreath created by the graphic artist Vasyl Krychevsky.

“There was no time to convene a special historical commission that would produce a draft of such a seal, therefore, after consulting with a well-known antiquity connoisseur, the director of the Kyiv City Art-Industrial and Scientific Museum, Bilyashivsky; it was decided to make two seals – a large seal for particularly important acts and a small one - for current work. The Trident of Volodymyr the Great was stamped on both seals, herein there was a lively discussion about the cross on the Trident.

The opinions of our scholars were divided; many of them claimed that the cross had been added to the Trident at the end of Volodymyr’s reign that is why it was preserved predominantly without a cross. There were proposals that imposed the traditions of Zaporizhzhya Sich. It was suggested that the large seal should be with the Trident and a small one should follow the model of Zaporizhzhya Sich otamans’ seal (Cossack with a musket). However, that proposal was denied due to the narrower symbols of that Cossack seal. The majority agreed that theTrident itself, which was left to us by the sovereign princes of Kyivan Rus, must now be the national emblem of the Ukrainian state and a symbol of our struggle for freedom”.

Mykola Kovalevsky. “Near the sources of struggle for freedom”

Heorhiy Narbut, a Ukrainian graphic designer, illustrator, one of the founders of the art aesthetics of the Ukrainian State, the founder and Rector of the Ukrainian Academy of Arts.

The silver coin of Volodymyr the Great with the image of his prince’s mark. Weight 3.46 g, 27 mm in diameter.

Cover of the project of the large coat of arms of the Ukrainian State by Heorhiy Narbut. In it, on the left, there is a hetman, a scientist and Cossack Mamay on the background of a heraldic tree. And on the right, there is a worker holding a shield with a trident on it standing next to the obelisk. 1918.

The small coat of arms of the UNR created by Vasyl Krychevsky. March 1918.

Vasyl Krychevsky, a Ukrainian painter, architect, graphic artist one of the founders of the art aesthetics of the UNR and the designer of the Ukrainian coat of arms (the State Emblem).

The UNR Directorate taking an oath under blue-and-yellow flags in Kamyanets-Podilsky, August 1919.

Project of the coat of arms used as a basis for the State Emblem and Seal of the Ukrainian State created by Heorhiy Narbut. 1918.

The award certificate for the Iron Cross “For Winter Campaign” №1 given to the UNR Army General Yurko Tyutyunnyk.

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UKRAINIAN MONEY One of the first serious challenges for the Ukrainian Central Rada and the General Secretariat was the lack of its own money.

Taxes from Ukraine were sent to Petrograd and from there the Provisional Government distributed them to different organizations in Ukraine and the Ukrainian authorities. Those tranches, especially in the autumn of 1917, often became an instrument of political pressure on the Central Rada and the General Secretariat. For instance, in order to raise labor unrest among the workers of “Arsenal”, it was enough to hold up their wages. After the proclamation of the UNR, the Central Rada initiated the issue of the national currency. This question became one of the key topics at the meetings of the Ukrainian parliament and government.

In November-December, a number of important decisions were made: it was decided to turn the Kyiv office of the State Bank into the Central Bank of Ukraine, to design paper currency, to indicate the value of money on the banknotes in four languages and to negotiate with the publisher Kulzhenko. On January 1, 1918, the Small Council of the UNR adopted the law on the issue of Ukrainian money.

The monetary unit of the UNR was called “karbovanets”. Its value equaled 17,424 shares of pure gold (1 share =0,044 g of gold) and was divided into 200 “shahiv”. All individuals and institutions were obliged to exchange the Ukrainian money for Russian and vice versa without any benefit to themselves. There was a penalty envisaged by the law for counterfeit banknotes, namely deprivation of civil rights and hard labor. However, it was impossible to avoid excesses, abuses and speculation. The first Ukrainian banknote was a note of 100 karbovanets. On it, there was a year of its release - 1917, but in fact, it was put into circulation on January 18, 1918. It was created by Heorhiy Narbut, an outstanding Ukrainian graphic designer. It contained the image of Trident and inscriptions in Ukrainian. On March 1, 1918, the Ukrainian Central Rada adopted the Law “On the Monetary Unit, Сoinage and State Credit Note Printing”. It introduced a new currency - the hryvnia, which was divided into 100 shahiv and equaled 1/2 karbovanets. In 19171918, banknotes in denomination of 10, 25, 50, 100, 250, 1000 karbovanets were printed and later, in 1918-1919, the banknotes in denomination of 2, 5, 10, 100, 500, 1000 and 2000 hryvnias.

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The building of the Ukrainian State Bank, which was reorganized by the Small Council of the UNR. The former building of the Kyiv office of the State Bank of Russia, the present one - the National Bank of Ukraine. Photo of the early 20th century.

Mykhailo TuhanBaranovsky, an economist, from September to November 1917 served as General Secretary of Finance. During his term of office, the issue of Ukraine’s national currency became a reality.

The cover of Mykhailo Tuhan-Baranovsky’s book “Paper Money and Metal”. 1919.

The first money of the UNR. The banknote in denomination of 100 karbovanets. Obverse.

The banknote created by Heorhiy Narbut people called “horlynka” for its similarity to the Ukrainian embroidery.

Khrystofor Baranovsky - a financier and a leader of cooperative movement, Secretary of Finance in the first and second composition of the General Secretariat.

Kulzhenko’s prining house in Kyiv where in December 1917 the first Ukrainian money was printed using the lithographic technique.

There, they also printed post stamps of the Ukrainian State and the UNR. The average amount of the printed matter was 0.85-1.0 million each. After Ukraine was captured by the Bolsheviks, Stefan Kulzhenko’s printing house was nationalized.

Formal completion of the Ukrainian monetary system formation took place on April 18, 1918, when the Central Rada adopted a law “On giving the Minister of Finance the power to issue stamp money”. According to it, on July 8, 1918, divisional coins in the form of stamps were issued. In 1919, the Directorate announced the strengthening of Ukraine’s national currency. To do this, they began to collect all available gold and silver for the production of metal coins and to melt copper monuments of the Russian tsars for coining. It was planned to mint the bust of Taras Shevchenko on gold hryvnias and the house of the Ukrainian Central Rada on the silver ones. However, the start of minting and issue of coins failed due to the Bolsheviks’ attack.

Banknote in denomination of 100 hryvnias. Obverse and reverse. The issue of the Ukrainian Central Rada. 1918.

Printing clichés for production of banknotes in denomination of 1000 hryvnias. Probably 1919.

Postage stamp money in denomination of 10 shahiv, which was in circulation on the territory of the UNR in 1918-1919. The stamps were printed on carton, which was more convenient for long-term use.

Printing clichés used in the UNR for production of banknotes in denomination of 50 karbovanets.

“Despite all the unfavorable conditions, the Ukrainian money fulfilled its task quite well. During 1918 and 1919, and partly in 1920, the entire state apparatus, mail, railroads, which did not make any profit, and the army were maintained for that money. In 1918, the state used that money to pay for farm products which were imported to Germany and Austria; with that money the Ukrainian Central Rada bought billions of currency in the German and Austrian banks which allowed us to finance diplomatic missions in almost all European countries and in the United States for three years even after the loss of territory”.

Banknote in denomination of 1000 hryvnias. Obverse and reverse. Issue of the Ukrainian State in 1918. The sketch of the banknote was drawn by the Ukrainian graphic artist Ivan Mozalevsky. Put into circulation in October 1918.

Borys Martos «The Currency of the Ukrainian State in 1917-1920»

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UKRAINIAN ARMY Regular units of the Russian Imperial Army in which almost 4 million ethnic Ukrainians served began to be Ukrainized almost immediately after the February Revolution.

On the initiative of the Pavlo Polubotok Military Club, which was founded by a lieutenant, Mykola Mikhnovsky, the process of “Ukrainization” of the armed forces began. On May 1, 1917, Polubotok Club members announced the formation of the Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky First Ukrainian Cossack Regiment in Kyiv, it was the first Ukrainian military unit on a voluntary basis. Subsequently, in the cities of Ukraine, in garrisons and fronts appeared other Ukrainian units mostly named after the heroes of the Cossack era. National ideas were extremely popular, in August 1917, Ukrainization caught the army corps, for instance, the 34th Corps of General Pavlo Skoropadsky became the first Ukrainian corps. During the first Russian-Ukrainian war (December 1917 - April 1918), the Halytsko-Bukovynsky Kurin of the Sich Riflemen of Yevhen Konovalets, the Haidamaka Kish (Regiment) of Sloboda Ukraine led by Symon Petliura, regiment named after Otaman Kost Hordienko under the command of Vsevolod Petriv and others , stood up for the defense of Ukraine.

The flag of the first Ukrainian regiment named after Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky. It was embroidered and sent to the soldiers (Bohdanivtsi) by the Froliv Convent nuns. On one side of the golden-green cloth there was an embroidered silk portrait of Bohdan Khmelnytsky and on the other side, the flag was dark red, with four stars and the moon.

Trinity Square. At the back of it, there was the building of the former Trinity People’s House where in 1917 the Pavlo Polubotok Military Club was located. Now it is the Kyiv Academic Operetta Theatre. Postcard of the early 20th century.

Haidamaka Battalion (Kish) cossacks of Sloboda Ukraine near St. Michael’s Golden-Domed Cathedral in Kyiv (Symon Petliura is in the center). 1918.

The Ukrainian General Military Committee meeting.

Summer 1917. Symon Petliura, the head of the UGMC (the Ukrainian General Military Committee), the organizer of the Ukrainian army, is in the centre.

Mykola Mikhnovsky was an ideologue of independence and the formation of the national army. He organized the Ukrainian Military Club as well as the Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky Regiment.

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Symon Petliura’s Certificate as a deputy plenipotentiary of the All-Russian Union of Zemstvo aid committee at the headquarters of the fourth Army. June 1916.

Rally on St. Sophia Square in Kyiv on the opening of the Third All-Ukrainian Military Congress (in the centre - Symon Petliura, Mykhailo Hrushevsky and Volodymyr Vynnychenko). November 1917.

During the Hetmanate period plans for establishing a regular army continued to be pursued. For example, at that time two Ukrainian divisions of former prisoners of war, the Bluecoats and the Greycoats (named after the color of uniforms) were formed in the camps of Austro-Hungary and Germany. In July 1918, on the initiative of the Hetman government and following the model of the Imperial Russian Guard regiments, the Serdyutska Division which consisted of more affluent peasants of the Left Bank was formed.

The armed forces of WUPR were formed based on the existing Austrian spare military units of Galicia and the legion of the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen. At the beginning of 1919, they were reorganized into the Ukrainian Galician Army, which consisted of 13 brigades built into three corps. The eastern Ukrainians provided significant assistance to western Ukrainians, in particular, the generals Mуkhailo Omelyanovych-Pavlenko and Oleksandr Hrekiv were the commanders of the UGA.

In December 1918, the Directorate Army consisted of about 100 thousand fighters, mostly rebels. However, after the victory of the anti-Hetman uprising, under the influence of destructive Bolshevik agitation their number had rapidly decreased. During 1919-1920, there were several reorganizations of the Ukrainian armed forces and their structure changed. In May 1919, the UNR Army was reorganized into 11 divisions as part of five groups: the Volyn, Zaporizhzhya Corps, the Corps of Sich Riflemen, the rebels of Yuri Tyutyunnyk and the third Iron Division under the command of Oleksandr Udovychenko. The latter officially received the name “Iron” for its bravery and endurance. In the summer of 1919, during the campaign of the Dnieper and Galician Armies, Mykola Yunakiv was appointed as a Chief of joint staff for both Ukrainian armies during the counter advance onto Kyiv and the army was divided into three groups: Western, Middle and Eastern. In the spring of 1920 in Poland, the sixth Sich Division under the command of Marko Bezruchko was formed. He commanded the unit in the Kyiv Offensive of the Polish Army and later showed heroism by fighting for Zamosc. On the eve of its retreat to Poland and internment, the UNR Army had eight divisions under the command of General Mykhailo Omelianovych-Pavlenko and numbered 23 thousand people.

The third Iron Rifle Division Flag of the UNR Army.

The elder officers of the Sich Riflemen group. Shepetivka, September 1919. . First to the left: Yevhen Konovalets, Commander of the Sich Riflemen.

Military training of the first Bluecoat Division on the outskirts of Kyiv, 1918.

The delegation of the “Union for the Liberation of Ukraine” in the Ukrainian prisoners of war camp for elder officers who served in the Russian Imperial Army. Hann. Münden in AustriaHungary. Sitting in the first row: Hryhoriy Syrotenko with an envelope in his hands - the head of the Ukrainian camp community, Minister of Justice at the time of the Directorate of the UNR, later the head of the Military Court of the UNR Army. Second to the right - Colonel Vasyl Yavorsky with a commemorative award “Soborna Ukraine” – in the camp he was responsible for recruiting elder officers for the second and planned third Ukrainian divisions of the Central Rada armed forces. Spring 1918.

The commanders of the first Ukrainian (Syniozhupannyky Bluecoats) Division.

1918.

The badge of Andriy Melnyk, a member of the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen Combat Council.

The badge of the sixth Rifle Division. 1920.

The Flag of the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen.

Symon Petliura’s Military Cross.

1936.

The cockades of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in 1917-1921.

The original collar patches of the General in the First Winter Campaign. 1921.

The Iron Cross - the UNR award for military valor or patriotic service in the First Winter Campaign.

1921

“The whole burden of the liberation struggle fell on the young Ukrainian Army. It was supposed to maintain the inner peace, to protect and defend the external borders of the country. In spite of that extremely unfavorable situation, the Ukrainian Army began to fulfill its tasks, full of faith in victory, ready to make the highest level of its sacrifice for the sake of nation. Indeed, soon it had to go through a range of endurance and national consciousness tests. The Ukrainian Army entered a new stage in the struggle for independence. That unequal fight (on four fronts) was full of tragedy and heroism. In those incredibly difficult times, hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers sacrificed their lives for the freedom of Ukraine while European countries were either neutral or helped the enemies of Ukraine”.

Olexandr Udovychenko. “Ukraine in the War for the Statehood. History of the Ukrainian Armed Forces military organization and combat operations in 1917-1921”.

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IN THE VORTEX OF FIGHT

Soldiers of the first Ukrainian regiment named after Bohdan Khmelnytsky.

Spring 1917. While sending to the front on August 8, 1917, the echelon with soldiers of this regiment was fired by the Russian Cuirassiers and Don Cossacks at the Post-Volynskyi station. 16 soldiers were killed, later they were buried on Frolivska (Starokyivska) mountain.

The escort of the Commander Mykhailo Omeliano­ vych-Pavlenko in the First Winter Campaign.

Sich Riflemen listening to the kobzar Antin Mytyay from Medvyn, to the left of him – the chotar (junior officer) Mykhailo Turok. Kyiv. 1918.

Portrait of the UNR Army General, the Commander in the First Winter Campaign, Mykhailo Omelianovych-Pavlenko.

Haidamakas near Scheme of the battle of Kruty given in the the armoured car work of Averky Honcharenko.

“Shvydkyi” (“Fast”).

1918.

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The elder officers and soldiers of the first (4th) regiment of the Sich Riflemen. Kyiv, March 23, 1918.

Funeral service honoring the Bolsheviks’ victims in the Kyiv Bratsky Cemetery.

Revived after the revolution Ukraine faced a lot of risks and dangers. One of the important theatres of military operations on the Eastern Front in the First World War was the territory of Ukraine. There was a strong argument among several old and new states about where their borders would be. The situation was aggravated by the revolutionary chaos: there appeared hundreds of armed units of different political spectrum. Since its creation the UNR had to defend itself from numerous and powerful enemies.

The conflict with Soviet Russia began immediately after the October coup in Petrograd. In December 1917, after unsuccessful attempts to seize power in Kyiv through a rebellion and the congress of soviets, the Russian Bolsheviks unleashed war against the UNR. Ukrainians restrained the enemy in the battle of Kruty, fought on the streets of Odessa and Kyiv and defended the government, which had been evacuated to Volyn. After securing the unconditional support of their powerful allies, Germany and Austro-Hungary, the Ukrainian troops expelled the “red” occupiers from the country. On June 12, 1918, the Ukrainian State and the Bolshevik Russia signed a preliminary peace treaty.

The second Ukrainian-Soviet war began in December 1918.

Russian Bolshevik troops launched an offensive against the UNR without a declaration of war. The bitter defeats and retreats alternated with a swift counteroffensive defense. The unification of the Dnieper and Galician Army guaranteed the campaign to Kyiv and Odesa, which ended in the liberation of Kyiv from the Bolshevik occupation on August 31, 1919. The following year, the Ukrainians repeated the offensive on Kyiv together with the Polish army. Near Zamosc, the Ukrainian soldiers – the fourth Rifle Division under the command of Marko Bezruchko restrained the offensive of Budenny’s cavalry against Poland.

They also had to fight with the Whites who supported “one and indivisible” Russia, an idea that had little appeal to non-Russians. The leader of the White movement, Anton Denikin, did not recognize the national rights of the Ukrainians. Instead of concluding a military defensive alliance with the UNR to fight the Bolsheviks, in September 1919, Denikin’s army began war with it. Surrounded by enemies on all sides, the Ukrainian army did not surrender and went on the First Winter Campaign in the rear of the Bolsheviks and Denikin’s troops. The partisan raid lasted five months; the army passed 2.5 thousand km, won many battles and eventually joined the Polish allies in May 1920.

The Ukrainian-Polish relations were not cloudless either. The Ukrainian-Polish war broke out in Galicia and spilled over into Volyn. It lasted from November 1918 to July 1919. Before finally retreating eastward, in June 1919, the Galician Army carried out the successful Chortkiv offensive. Only lack of ammunition prevented them from liberating L’viv.

In the autumn of 1920, abandoned by all allies to the mercy of fate, the UNR Army for more than a month alone held the front against the Bolsheviks in Podillya. On November 21, 1920, under pressure of numerically stronger and better equipped enemy it retreated across the Zbruch River. That was the end of the armed struggle for independence of the UNR regular forces.

The elder officers of the third Iron Division of the UNR Army. 1920. The second row: the first from the left is the Chief of Staff of the seventh Brigade, Sotnyk (Centurion) Oleksandr Niziyenko, the second - the Commander of the 7th Brigade of the 3rd Division Pavlo Shandruk, the third – the Division Commander Oleksandr Udovychenko, the fourth - the adjutant of the Division Commander, Sotnyk (Centurion) Marko Kryzhanivsky.

The armored train “Haidamaka” of the 1st Zaporizhzhya detachment.

The elder officers and Cossacks of the 1st Zaporizhzhya Aviation Detachment pose in front of the Zeppelin-Staaken R.XIV 69/18 with Ukrainian marking, the aerodrome near Kamianets-Podilskyi, August 1919. This aircraft was used for providing an air bridge between the UNR and Western Europe.

The interned elder officers of the second Volyn Rifle Division of the UNR Army, 1920.

The Zeppelin-Staaken R.XIV aircraft in the service of the Ukrainian Army.

The presentation of the Flag to the sixth Sich Rifle Division of the UNR Army by the Chief Otaman Symon Petliura.

“The army soldiers felt that a lot of people regarded them as defense– except the name “Petlyurivtsi”, one could frequently hear “Ukrainians”, “Our Army”, after all, many Ukrainian families had at least one member on active military duty: some of them were struck down by an enemy bullet and died, others were wounded and stayed as invalids at home, there were a lot of missing in action soldiers, whose fate remained unknown, etc. Cossack and farmer opinion strengthened in blood and tears - curses and calls for revenge mingled with firing salutation volleys and singing the anthem “Ukraine has not died yet”. Finally, the Ukrainian language that was used in the army united it with the society”.

Mykhailo Omelianovych-Pavlenko. “Memoirs of the Commander (1917-1920)”.

The map of Ukraine entitled “World Peace in Ukraine” published in Vienna by Christoph Reisser & Sons in either 1919 or 1920. The artist was called “Verte”. The author of the idea was Yuriy Hasenko.

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UKRAINIAN FLEET After the February Revolution of 1917, the Ukrainianization stirred not only the Black Sea but also other fleets of the former Russian Empire where the Ukrainians accounted for a significant proportion of the personnel: the Black Sea Fleet - 65%, the Baltic Fleet - 15%. At the end of March in 1917, a mass meeting of Ukrainian seamen took place in Sevastopol, and on the second day after Easter thousands of people took part in the rally carrying blue-yellow and crimson flags and portraits of Taras Shevchenko. At the same time the Sevastopol Ukrainian Black Sea Society was formed, it set goals to prepare the ground for the development of the future Ukrainian navy.

At the end of April 1917, there were ship councils and Ukrainian circles on many vessels. According to midshipman Yakym Khrystych, their participants were 7 thousand people or 10% of the entire personnel of the Black Sea Fleet. The Ukrainian Black Sea Society used a large national flag and its military section Zaporizhzhya crimson flag with a white cross - the first modern naval flags.

A Ukrainian flag raising on the cruiser “The Memory of Mercury”. November 25, 1917.

From the official telegram of the “The Memory of Mercury” crew members to the Fleet Commander, November 24, 1917: “The ship committee of the cruiser “The Memory of Mercury” reports: tomorrow, November 12, at 8 am instead of the stern Andreevsky flag the Ukrainians decided to raise the Ukrainian national flag. It was done in view of the intransigence of the two sides that Velikorossy (the chauvinistic Russian people) and those who are not sympathetic to the rise of the Ukrainian flag in the number of 200 people to go ashore. Because of this, the ship committee urgently asks you to resolve the issue of manning the cruiser with the Ukrainians instead of the departed, the lists of them will be sent in addition”.

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The cruiser “The Memory of Mercury” was one of the first ships, where the Ukrainian Naval Council was created. The flag raising on the cruiser on November 25, 1917, became an example for other ships.

Speech of the Ukrainian sailor, the Baltic Fleet delegate, in front of the Ukrainianized units of the “Special Naval Landing Forces” on the Historical Boulevard in Sevastopol in the summer of 1917.

The Ukrainian flag on the gaff of the cruiser “The Memory of Mercury”. November 25, 1917.

The linear ship “Volya”, the most powerful of the Black Sea Fleet, raised the Ukrainian flag following the cruiser “The Memory of Mercury”. The magnificent flag waving on the dreadnought mast had an image of a woman - the allegorical symbol of Ukraine and the inscription: “Don’t cry, Mother, don’t be sad, your sons in the fleet are fighting for Your Freedom – smile!”

A rally organized by the Ukrainian Black Sea Society in Sevastopol. May 10, 1917.

The development of the Ukrainian fleet gained momentum in the summer of 1917, when the crews of a number of warships and separate naval units declared their native language to be Ukrainian. Ukrainian national flags were hoisted over ships. The Sevastopol Naval Sub-Depot headed by Lt. Colonel Volodymyr Savchenko-Bilsky was first Ukrainianized. On July 12, 1917, the destroyer “Zavydnyi” was the first to raise the blue-yellow flag.

The Ukrainian movement for national identity reached its peak when in November 1917 the Central Rada proclaimed the UNR. Officers and crew of large warships, including the cruiser “The Memory of Mercury” and the dreadnought battleship-“Volya” the most powerful ship of the Black Sea Fleet, announced that they would side with the Ukrainian government. By some accounts, Ukrainian flags began to be hoisted on most ships of the Black Sea Fleet. On 22 December 1917, Dmytro Antonovych, a noted public figure, was appointed Secretary General for Naval Affairs in the Central Rada. Soon It approved “A Temporary Law on the UNR’s Fleet” drafted by the General Secretariat for Naval Affairs. It proclaimed, among other things, that the entire Navy and the commercial Black Sea Fleet was Ukrainian.

One of the brightest pages in the history of the Ukrainian Navy was the events of April 29, 1918. A brigade of the Zaporizhzhian Division of the UNR’s Army led by Lt. Colonel Petro Bolbochan, supported by the German troops cleared the Crimea of the Bolsheviks. The Vice-Admiral Mуkhailo Sablin, Commander of the Black Sea Fleet, referring to the decision of the delegates of the ship crews and the mood of the Ukrainian sailors and officers, officially declared the entire Black Sea Fleet as the fleet of the UNR and ordered to raise Ukrainian flags. The decision was supported by a significant part of the ships. Those, influenced by the Bolsheviks hastily evacuated their ships from Ukrainian Sevastopol to Novorossiysk.

Naval Minister, Senior Lieutenant Mykhailo Bilynsky and his adjutant Sviatoslav Shramchenko. Both in the uniform of the Ukrainian Marine Corps. 1919.

An illustrated annex to Order № 192/44 of July 18, 1918, which approved the sketch of the Ukrainian Navy Flag.

“Raising the Ukrainian flag on the ship of the Black Sea Fleet. April 29, 1918” by Leonid Perfetsky (1901-1977).

The stamps of the Ukrainian Underground Post with the Ukrainian Naval Flag. Lyubomyr Rychtytsky issued them in 1950.

Ensign General, Commander of the Naval Forces of the UNR Volodymyr Savchenko-Bilsky

Ukrainian Navy Sailor caps. 1918.

Festively decorated ships in honor of Hetman Pavlo Skoropadsky birthday in Odessa harbor. 1918.

“This happened on April 29, 1918. It was a wonderful day. The Sevastopol raid was glittering like a mirror. At 4 pm, from the flagship of the Black Sea Fleet, battleship “Heorhiy Pobidonosets”, the Fleet Сommander sent a signal: “Fleet! Hoist the Ukrainian flag!” The red flags fell down. On most ships, the crew heard: “Get to board!”. Obeying this command as it used to be on the Black Sea Fleet, which had not yet been ruined by revolution, the sailors stood alongside the ship facing the middle of it. “To the colors! Haul up the Ukrainian flag!” The Ukrainian flag went up with bugle calls and whistling of sailors.

“Dismiss!” Together with this command, the buglers started playing. Large yellow-blue flags were fluttering in the wind on the significant part of the Black Sea Fleet ships.

For the history of the Ukrainian fleet, this day April 29, 1918, when the whole Ukrainian fleet showed its affiliation with the Motherland, became the most celebrated day of the Ukrainian State Fleet and the holiday of the Ukrainian Sea”

The “Kubanets” gunboat was officially renamed as “Zaporozhets” on September 17, 1918. It was the first renaming in the history of the Ukrainian fleet. “By order of the Board of the Supreme Rulers of the Ukrainian State, I announce that the “Kubanets” gunboat is officially renamed as “Zaporozhets”. Acting Marine Minister, Captain of the 1st rank Maxymiv”, was said in the order of the marine department.

Sviatoslav Shramchenko.

“The rise of the Ukrainian flag in the Black Sea Fleet”

25

THE UKRAINIAN CRIMEA Victory of the February Revolution intensified the Ukrainian national movement in the Crimea. In Simferopol, a provincial center, the Ukrainian Community and the Ukrainian Military Club named after Hetman Petro Doroshenko were founded. One of the most active participants in them was the warrant officer of the 32nd Reserve Regiment, later Ensign General of the UNR Army, Yuriy Tyutyunnyk. In May 1917, he participated in the creation of the first Hetman Petro Doroshenko Simferopol Regiment.

The Sevastopol Ukrainian Black Sea Society and its first chairman Professor Vyacheslav Lashchenko who worked as a teacher in the girls’ high state school, began the Ukrainianization of the Fleet. In total, the number of Ukrainian communities in the Crimea reached several thousand people.

Under these conditions, the main allies of the Crimean Tatars were Ukrainian organizations in the Crimea and in Ukraine itself.

On April 7, 1917, the All-Crimean Muslim Congress was held in Simferopol, they elected the Provisional Crimean-Muslim Executive Committee headed by Noman Chelebidzhikhan . Eventually it was turned into a national representation of the Crimean Tatars. On November 26, 1917, the First Qurultay of the Crimean Tatar people proclaimed the Crimea Democratic Republic, adopted the Constitution and created a national government the Directorate. At the same time, the Bolsheviks began to seize power in the Crimea. On January 26, 1918, they occupied the entire peninsula. A wave of bloody red terror swept across the Crimea. Several thousand Crimeans, including the leader of the Crimean Tatar movement Noman Chelebidzhikhan, became the victims of the “red terror” in two months.

Yuriy Tyutyunnyk, Ensign General of the UNR Army.

Photo of 1920. In May 1917, he organized the first Simferopol Regiment named after Hetman Petro Doroshenko; he was a representative of the Simferopol garrison at the Second All-Ukrainian Military Congress, member of the Central Rada.

Noman Chelebidzhikhan (Noman Çelebicihan), the first President of the short-lived independent Crimean People’s Republic, an accomplished poet and writer, one of his poems “Ant etkenmen!” (“I’ve Pledged!”) became the lyrics of the Crimean Tatar national anthem.

The Black Sea Fleet mariners participating in the demonstration after autocracy overthrow.

Sevastopol, March 1917.

Vasyl Vitynsky’s coffee house on Nakhimovsky Prospekt in Sevastopol - one of the Ukrainian movement centers in the Crimea. 1917.

The leaders of the Crimean Tatar national movement. From left to right: Seitdzhelil Khatat - Director (Minister) of Finance, Asan Sabri Ayvazov, the Head of the First Qurultay of the Crimean Tatar people (national parliament), Noman Chelebidzhikhan, the Head of the Directorate (government), Dzhafer Seidamet, Director of Military and Foreign Affairs. December 1917.

The participants of the First Qurultay of the Crimean Tatar people in the Khans palace in Bakhchysarai. The ninth to the left in the first row is Noman Chelebidzhihan. December 1917.

26

“The Ukrainian Catechism” published in 1917 by a member of the Black Sea Society, Vasyl Vitynsky in Sevastopol printing house “Energy”.

The delegates of the First Qurultay of the Crimean Tatar people pose for a group photo. December 1917.

Strengthening the enemy’s political regime on the peninsula threatened the southern borders of Ukraine, deprived of freedom in the waters of the Black and Azov Seas. The UNR Ministry of Defense ordered to form the Crimean Group from the Zaporizhzhya Corps. A brigade of the Zaporizhzhian Division of the UNR’s Army led by Lieut. Colonel Petro Bolbochan cleared Simferopol of the Bolsheviks on April 24, 1918. Afterwards, because of an effective economic blockade organized by Pavlo Skoropadsky’s government, the peninsula became a part of the Ukrainian state on the rights of autonomy. In 1919-1920, the Crimea became the scene of fierce battles between the Communist Bolsheviks (Reds) and their anti-Communist opponents (Whites) and passed from hand to hand. The UNR Directorate was in rather complicated military-political conditions and could not intervene in this struggle. Nevertheless, the Ukrainian governments kept the course on joining the peninsula; the Ukrainian delegation submitted the relevant proposals to the Paris Peace Conference.

Petro Bolbochan, Lieut. Colonel of the UNR Army, in April 1918 the Zaporizhzhya Corps of the UNR Army and its Crimean Group led by P. Bolbochan completely freed the Crimea from the Bolsheviks.

German battleship “Goeben” on the raid in Sevastopol. 1918.

The victims of the “red terror” whose bodies had been thrown into the sea and later returned to the shore by strong currents near Yevpatoria in the summer of 1918.

The Crimean Tatar newspaper “Holos Tatar” (“Crimean Tatar Voice”) from September 22 (9), 1917, printed body of the Crimean Muslim Revolutionary Committee.

The panorama of Sevastopol. German photo of 1918.

Mykola Nekliyevych, Captain 2nd rank, the Head of the military section of the Ukrainian Black Sea Community Council, the Head of the Shipbuilding Department in the Main Naval Technical Council of the Ukrainian Marine Ministry.

“There were several extremely popular manifestations and processions in Sevastopol which showed the power of the Ukrainian movement and were well arranged with a great number of yellow-blue flags, with participants dressed in national Ukrainian clothes. And in one manifestation, there was a Chumak wagon with crescent-horned oxen and a group of sailors from the battleship “St. Eustathius” dressed like Cossacks and riding the horses.”

Mykola Nekliyevych. ““On the Ukrainian Black Sea Fleet 20 years ago”

27

UKRAINIAN DIPLOMACY Diplomatic activity was an important aspect of state-building in 1917-1921. The first diplomatic experience of the Ukrainian Central Rada was the negotiations with the Russian Provisional Government on Ukraine’s autonomous status in May 1917.

They ended without any result and this disagreement gave the impetus to issue the Universal, which proclaimed the autonomy of Ukraine. The prototype of the foreign policy department – the General Secretariat of International Affairs was later reorganized into the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The first Secretary General of International Affairs of the UNR was a historian and a diplomat Oleksandr Shulhyn. During 1917, there were negotiations between the leaders of the Central Rada and the military missions of the Entente, which resulted in the recognition of the UNR de facto but not de jure. On February 9, a Ukrainian delegation headed by Olexandr Sevryuk signed a peace treaty with Germany and its allies in Brest. The Peace Treaty of Brest Lytovs’k was the first international act of the Ukrainian State recognition and the first peace treaty of the World War. The Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs headed by Dmytro Doroshenko achieved important diplomatic results, first, with Germany allies and neutral states. The Ambassador of Ukraine in Vienna, Viacheslav Lypynsky, defended the Ukrainian rights to Kholmshchyna, provided by the Brest Treaty. The delegation headed by Serhiy Shelukhin led the border negotiations with Soviet Russia. On September 4-18, 1918, Hetman Skoropadsky visited Berlin where he had fruitful talks with Emperor Wilhelm II and Reich Chancellor Georg von Hertling.

House of the UNR Ministry of Foreign Affairs at Tereshchenkivs’ka Street, 9 in Kyiv. Later there worked the Department of foreign affairs of the Hetmanate and the Directorate. Currently, it is the Museum of Russian Art. Photo of the early 20th century.

28

Oleksandr Shulhyn, - First General Secretary of Foreign Affairs, the Ambassador of Ukraine in Bulgaria, a member of the Ukrainian delegation at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, Head of the UNR Extraordinary Diplomatic Mission in Paris.

Photo of 1930s.

Signing of Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty between the representatives of the UNR and the countries of Quadruple Alliance, the first peace treaty of World War I. February 9, 1918.

The negotiations between the Ukrainian and the Russian Federation delegations in Kyiv. They lasted from May 23 to October 4, 1918, and ended without a result. In December 1918, Russia began a new aggression against the UNR. From left to right (sitting): a representative of the Ukrainian War Ministry, Oleksandr Slyvynsky, Head of the delegation, Serhiy Shelukhin, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Dmytro Doroshenko, Professor of International Law, Olexandr Eichelman, 1918.

The delegation of the UNR during negotiations in Brest standing on the railway platform. Among those present: Mykola Lyubynsky, Olexandr Sevryuk, Mykhailo Poloz, Mykola Levytsky. Brest, January 1918.

The house at Istiglaliyat St. 31 in Baku where the UNR’s diplomatic mission in the Caucasus headed by Ivan Kraskovsky stayed. In 2009 a memorial plaque was installed on the wall of this house on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Azerbaijan and Ukraine.

A diplomatic mission in Bulgaria. 1918.

The Code of Laws and Resolutions of the Ukrainian government on foreign institutions. 1919.

The Map of Ukraine presented by the Ukrainian delegation at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919.

The diplomatic process with other countries initiated by the UNR Directorate took place under the most unfavorable conditions because the victorious Entente favored Poland and White Russia. To reverse this negative tendency, in January 1919, it was decided to form the Ukrainian Delegation and send it to the Paris Peace Conference. The diplomatic mission headed by Hryhoriy Sydorenko sought to use this international assembly on the results of the First World War in order to gain the recognition of Ukraine and its borders and to receive military assistance in the fight against the Bolsheviks. The real breakthrough in international isolation culminated in the Treaty of Warsaw, signed in April 1920. At the price of territorial concessions, the Head of the Ukrainian delegation, Andriy Livytsky, won recognition and military support to the UNR by Poland. During 1917-1921, Ukraine developed an effective network of its own diplomatic and consular missions. Extraordinary diplomatic missions were sent abroad, foreign ambassadors and consuls accredited to Ukraine. The Ukrainian envoys were in Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bulgaria, Brazil, the Vatican, Great Britain, Greece, Georgia, Denmark, the Don, Estonia, Italy, Canada, the Kuban, Latvia, the Netherlands, Germany, the Ottoman Empire, Poland, Russia, the USA, Hungary, Finland, Czechoslovakia, Switzerland, Sweden, Yugoslavia and other countries.

“Many hostile sentiments exist in the world against the rise of a new state - it is not easy to find place among the old nations, therefore, these difficulties must be overcome. Moreover, even worse enemy than conservatism itself was, especially in 1919, ignorance of the world diplomacy about Ukrainian challenges. To make things worse, our enemy spread false information that outperformed facts. For 15 years working abroad we had to fight false, malicious information to teach and persuade foreigners that the Ukrainian people exist and want to be independent”.

From Oleksandr Shulhyn’s book “Without Territory”

Congress of diplomatic missions and embassies leaders of the UNR in Carlsbad. 1919.

The diplomatic staff of the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington, DC (the USA). In the center - the Head of the diplomatic mission Eugene Golitsynsky. 1919.

The Embassy of the UNR in Hungary. Sitting (from left to right): the second - Mykyta Shapoval (Ambassador), Mykola Halahan, and Mykola Shrag.

1918.

Congress of Ukrainian diplomatic missions and embassies leaders in Vienna Head of the UNR Directorate, Symon Petliura, (in the center), Head of the UNR diplomatic mission in Switzerland Mykola Vasyl’ko (left) and a staff member of the UNR diplomatic mission in Budapest, General Vasyl Sikevych. 1921.

29

NATIONAL MINORITIES At beginning of the revolution, the national minorities of Ukraine intensified their activities. All Ukrainian Governments conducted a democratic policy towards them, tried to come to a mutual understanding and involve them in the state-building.

Even in the first Ukrainian Government the initial composition of which included eight General Secretariats there was the General Secretariat of Interethnic Affairs, headed by Serhiy Yefremov.

In a short while, on its basis three separate Secretariats were formed – the Secretariat of Russian Affairs (Dmytro Odynets), the Secretariat of Jewish Affairs (Moishe Zylberfarb) and the Secretariat of Polish Affairs (Mieczysław Mickiewicz). After the adoption of the Second Universal, 30% of the seats in the Ukrainian Central Rada were delegated to the representatives of national minorities. The Law on National-Personal Autonomy of January 22, 1918 guaranteed all ethnic minorities within the UNR the broad rights. The special UNR Ministry of Jewish Affairs was functioning in the Directorate Governments. In accordance with the decision of the National Council, the positions of state secretaries of Polish, Jewish and German affairs were to be introduced in the governments of the WUPR. One of the most negative phenomena of the revolutionary era was the Jewish pogroms. Almost all military formations resorted to them – the Red and White Armies, the UNR Army, insurgent Otamans and the Polish Army. Most of all, the White Volunteer Army of Anton Denikin. The absolute majority of pogroms for which the Ukrainian national forces were to blame, were carried out by the uncontrolled detachments of rebels that acted in certain areas and often changed their political orientation depending on the needs of the moment. In historical literature, they are called the “dark mass of society”.

30

The transition of the second Polish Corps on the territory of Ukraine. Kaniv district, April 1918.

The military rally of the third Russian Army on the Western Front. Belarus, autumn 1917. Among the flags is the Ukrainian one with the slogan “Long live Free Ukraine!” and the Jewish with the slogan “In Unity, Strength!”

The elder officers who served in the first kurin of the sixth brigade of the Ukrainian Galician Army.

Third to the left, sitting in the first row is Solomon Leinberg, the former Commander of the Strike Battalion of the Galician Army, better known as “Zhydivsky kurin” (UGA’s Jewish Battalion).

November 17, 1919.

Streets in the Jewish quarter of L’viv.

1918.

The Lists of candidates for the Constituent Assembly of the Jewish Social Democratic Party (Poalei Zion) which, on the initiative of Solomon Goldelman, was the first among the non-Ukrainian parties who recognized the Ukrainian Central Rada.

The Jewish delegation meets the Chief Otaman Symon Petliura in Zhmerynka. August 1919.

Solomon Goldelman - a Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, a Deputy Minister of Labour in Volodymyr Chekhivsky’s and Isaak Mazepa’s cabinets. On December 10, 1918, on Goldelman’s proposal, the Directorate adopted a Resolution on the Restoration of National Personal Autonomy of the National Minorities. Photo of later time.

The Beit Chasidim Synagogue on the corner of the streets Lazneva and Bozhnycha in Lviv. It was burnt by the Poles to revenge the Jews for their active help to Ukrainians during November fighting in 1918.

Сливинський, голова делегації Сергій Шелухін, міністр іноземних справ Дмитро Дорошенко, професор міжнародного права Олександр Ейхельман. 1918 р.

Дмитром Дорошенком розвивало відносини передусім із союзними Німеччині та нейтральними державами. Посол у Відні В'ячеслав Липинський відстоював українські права на Холмщину, передбачені Берестейським договором. Делегація на чолі з Сергієм Шелухіним вела перемовини про кордони з радянською Росією.

4-18 вересня 1918 р. відбувся візит гетьIt is established that the Jewish pogroms occurred in more мана Скоропадського до Берліна, де пройшли плідні than 500 settlements of Ukraine. As a result, thousands of Jews переговори з імператором Вільгельмом ІІ та рейхсканцлером Георгом фон Гертлінгом. lost their lives in the violence. At the same time, many repre-

sentatives of national minorities became the participants of the Ukrainian national liberation movement. In particular, Semen Yakerson, a Jew, Sotnyk (Centurion) of the Border Guard Corps of the UNR, Oleksandr Porochovshchykov, a Belorussian, Ensign General of the UNR Army, Balatukiv Alibey, a Crimean Tatar, Sotnyk (Centurion) of the 6th Sich Rifle Division and hundreds of others. There were national military units which fought on the side of Ukraine, e.g. “Zhydivsky kurin” (UGA’s Jewish Battalion) numbering about one thousand people, under the command of Lieutenant, Solomon Leinberg, and the Polish-Ukrainian volunteer squad, under the command of Walery Jan Slawek.

Карта УНР, що була представлена на Паризькій мирній конференції. 1919 р.

Головного отамана Сим Петлюру в Жмер Старшини 1-го куреня 6-ї бригади Української Серпень 19 Галицької Армії. У першому ряду сидить третій ліворуч Соломон Ляйнберг - колишній командир Жидівського пробоєвого куреня. 17 листопада 1919 р.

Дипломатична діяльність Директорії УНР відбувалася у вкрай несприятливих умовах, адже переможна Антанта Walery Janнадавала Slawekперевагу – the Commander of theРосії. Щоб переПольщі та “білій” ломити цю негативну squad тенденцію, у січні 1919 р. сформо-вано Polish-Ukrainian volunteer in 1920, later Делегацію об'єднаної УНР на Мирову конференцію в the PrimeПарижі.

Minister of the Government, Її члени на Polish чолі з Григорієм Сидоренком прагнули Marshal ofвикористати the Sejm (Speaker of theасамблею Sejm). за підсумками цю міжнародну Першої світової війни, щоб домогтися визнання України та її Photo of 1930s. кордонів, отримати військову допомогу в боротьбі проти Посольство УНР в Болгарії. 1918 р. більшовиків. Проривом із міжнародної ізоляції стало укладення Варшавської угоди 21 квітня 1920 р. Ціною територіальних поступокmeeting голова української делегаціїatАндрій Лівицький People Symon Petliura the railway station домігся визнання та військової підтримки УНР Польщею. in Fastiv1917-1921 after clearing the city from the мережа Bolsheviks. Впродовж рр. була створена і діяла дипломатично-консульських установ За кордон August 29, 1919. Among those who України. meet him is a Jewish відряджали надзвичайні дипломатичні місії, вдома прийdelegation.

In the central part of the photo, one can мали послів і консулів. Українські посланці були в Австрії, seeАзербайджані, the canopy,Бельгії, whichБолгарії, is traditionally used inВеликій those rare Бразилії, Ватикані, Британії, на Дону, в Естонії, Італії, Канаді, cases whenГреції, the Грузії, scrollsДанії, of the Torah are taken out of the на Кубані, в Латвії, Нідерландах, Німеччині, Османській synagogue. імперії, Польщі, Росії, США, Угорщині, Фінляндії, З'їзд керівників українських Чехословаччині, Швейцарії, Швеції, Югославії та інших дипломатичних місій і посольств УНР у Карлсбаді. 1919 р. країнах.

«Багато ворожих настроїв мається у світі супроти повстання нової держави трудно віднайти собі місце поміж старихThe націй, отже ці труднощі UNR banknote of 100треба karbovanets поборювати. А ще гіршим нашим ворогом, ніж цей консерватизм, була, denomination.

“100 karbovanets” inscription особливо у 1919 році, повна неосвідомленість в українських справах світової was printed in the Ukrainian, Russian, Polish and дипломатії. Гірше того, вона була поінформована, але фальшиво з рук ворогів наших. Яку колосальну працю протягом Jewish 15 років(Hebrew) мусили миlanguages. за кордоном Reverse. Issued проробити, щоб поборювати неправду, злісні учити іноземців, Групаcalled співробітників inінформації, circulationщоб in January 1918, people it посольства УНР у Вашингтоні (США). В центрі - голова що український народ існує і хоче бути самостійним» дипломатичної місії Євген Голіцинський.

“Jewish money”.

1919 р.

Встановлено, що єврейські погроми сталися у понад 500 населених пунктах України. Внаслідок цього загинули десятки тисяч євреїв. Водночас багато представників національних меншин стали учасниками українського національно-визвольного руху. Зокрема, єврей, сотник Окремого корпусу кордонної охорони УНР Семен Якерсон; білорус, генерал-хорунжий Армії УНР Олександр Пороховщиков, кримський татарин, сотник 6-ї Січової стрілецької дивізії Балатуків Алі-бей і сотні інших. На боці українців воювали й цілі національні підрозділи, зокрема, Жидівський курінь Української Галицької Армії, що налічував близько тисячі осіб, під командуванням поручника Соломона Ляйнберґа, а також польсько-український добровольчий загін під командою Валери Яна Славека.

1917 року

НАЦІОНАЛЬНІ МЕНШИНИ

13%

становили близько

Посольство УНР в Угорщині. Сидять (зліва направо): другий Микита Шаповал (посол), Микола Галаган, Микола Шраг. 1918 р.

Із книги Олександра Шульгина «Без території»

ЄВРЕЇВ – 2, 463 млн НІМЦІВ – 565 тис. ПОЛЯКІВ – 445 тис. ТЮРКО-ТАТАР – 285 тис. МОЛДАВАН І РУМУНІВ – 755 тис. ЧЕХІВ – 44 тис. Волинська, Київська, Подільська губерні найбільше

Peteris Radzins – Colonel, Deputy Chief of Staff of the UNR Army, Commander of the National Armed Forces of Latvia from 1924 to 1928. Photo of 1929.

Голова Директорії УНР Симон Петлюра (у центрі), керівник дипломатичної місії УНР у Швейцарії Микола Василько (ліворуч) та співробітник дипломатичної місії УНР у Будапешті генерал Василь Сікевич.

1921 р.

населення України

праці в у та Ісаак Директ постанов персональ

Зустріч Симо залізничному звільнення мі 29 серпня 1919 єврейська дел фото видно б використову коли сувої Тор

«Ми хочем зрозуміют домагання національн молдаван представн і органами мінімум».

Чернігівська, Харківська Полтавська найменше губерні

АБСОЛЮТНА БІЛЬШІСТЬ УКРАЇНЦІВ ЖИЛИ У СЕЛАХ

(908 із 1000)

а серед національних меншин було багато міського населення:

371

727

260

росіян

євреїв

поляків

із 1000

З'їзд керівників українських дипломатичних місій і посольств у Відні. 1919 р. Збірник законів і

“We want to believe that the representatives of national minorities in Ukraine will understand their situation and will, for their own part, meet Ukrainian political demands and thereby strengthen the position of defending the national minorities’ rights which will be ensured. Byelorussians, Russians, Poles, Jews, Moldovans, Czechs and other Ukrainian nationalities will be provided with a proportional representation in our autonomous bodies and their language will be tolerated in relations with governments and self-government in those districts where these nations establish a complete national minimum. “ Mykhailo Hrushevsky “To the Peoples of Ukraine”. 1917.

постанов українського Sotnyk уряду(Centurion) щодо закордонних р. of theінституцій.

Border1919 Guard Corps of the UNR, Semen Yakerson, twice wounded fighting for Ukraine.

Книга Соломона Ґольдельмана «Листи жидівського соціял-демократа про Україну. Матеріали до історії українськожидівських відносин за часів революції». Відень, 1921 р.

Solomon Goldelman: Letters of a Jewish Social-Democrat on Ukraine.

Materials concerning History of the Ukrainian-Jewish Relations during the time of the Revolution. Vienna. 1921.

31

EDUCATION AND CULTURE

32

The beginning of the Ukrainian Revolution created favorable conditions for the development of education and culture.

In early March 1917, citizen participation and public initiative made it possible to form the Society of School Education.

Soon, on March 18, there was a grand opening of the First Ukrainian Gymnasium named after Taras Shevchenko. Its Headmaster was an outstanding scientist, chemist and teacher, Petro Kholodny. During 1917, there were two All-Ukrainian Teachers’ Conferences held in Kyiv at which the participants created a “road map” for further development of education in Ukraine. One of the main issues was Ukrainianization including support for the development of the Ukrainian language in schools and educational institutions, the introduction of lessons with the Ukrainian content while teaching Ukrainian literature, History and Geography, opening of Ukrainian educational institutions, departments and various training courses.

The process of Ukrainianization gained a new impulse with the establishment of the General Secretariat of Education with Ivan Steshenko, an outstanding Ukrainian pedagogue and literary critic, at its head. As a result, in 1918, there were about 5.4 thousand primary schools, 100 Ukrainian gymnasiums, pedagogical, technical, medical colleges and agronomic schools. Two Ukrainian universities - the Kyiv Ukrainian State University and the Kamyanets-Podilsky University were opened during the short period of Hetman Pavlo Skoropadsky’s rule. The processes of the Ukrainian school creation were especially active on the territory of the WUPR where there were 30 Ukrainian secondary schools. All of them were public and the teachers had the status of civil servants. Since the time of the Ukrainian Central Rada Mykola Vasylenko, a historian encouraged the formation and the establishment of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences. The grand opening of the Academy took place on November 14, 1918, and a wellknown philosopher and naturalist, Volodymyr Vernadsky, became its President. The reputation of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences was so high that it was recognized by all authorities that took power in Kyiv and subsequently on its basis, the Soviet All-Ukrainian Academy of Sciences emerged.

The repertory company of the Kyiv “Molodyi teatr” (“The Young Theater”) on their first “close season” day. 1918.

Petro Kholodny, a Ukrainian scientist (a chemist by profession) and a teacher; the Headmaster of the First Ukrainian Gymnasium named after Taras Shevchenko; later – Minister of Education in the UNR Government.

Ivan Steshenko, the first General Secretary of Education, directed the Ukrainization of the national school curriculum and pedagogical education. Photo of 1890.

Lyudmyla StarytskaChernyakhivska, a writer, a member of the Ukrainian Central Rada, worked in the UNR Ministry of Education, an active participant of the women’s rights movement.

Sofia Rusova, a prominent Ukrainian pedagogue, a public figure, a member of the Ukrainian Central Rada , an advocate for national education. Photo of the early 20th century.

The main building of Kamyanets-Podilsky State Ukrainian University opened on October 22, 1918.

The building of Bergonet Theater where on September 24, 1917, with the play “The Black Panther and the White Bear”, “The Young Theater” of Les Kurbas opened its first season.

The Ukrainian revolution unleashed a cultural renaissance.

There emerged new trends and tendencies in literature and art.

The book publishing industry achieved change at an unprecedented pace, there were more than 100 publishing houses specialized in Ukrainian literature, the largest of which were “Chas” (“Time”), “Dzvin” (“The Bell”), “Krynytsya” (“The Well”) and “Śajvo” (“Glow”). About 26 million books were published, in particular the unprecedented circulations had previously unpublished, best Ukrainian classics books written by Taras Shevchenko, Ivan Kotlyarevsky, Mykhailo Kotsiubynsky and the young writers - Oleksandr Oles’, Pavlo Tychyna, Volodymyr Vynnychenko and Maksym Rylsky. As the demand for the Ukrainian books grew, the number of libraries increased ten times over the period. For instance, the National Library of Ukraine, one of the largest in Europe, was officially opened to the public on August 15, 1918. The vast scope of musical art was at its peak. In 1918, only in Kyiv there were 4 professional Ukrainian theaters: the Second City Theatre headed by Mykola Sadovsky, the State Ukrainian Folk Theatre led by Panas Saksahansky, State Drama Theater with Borys Kryvets’kyi at its head and “Molodyi teatr” (“The Young Theater”) of Les Kurbas.

Les Kurbas and Valentyna Chystyakova (an actress and his wife), Favst Lopatynsky (a director, an actor and a teacher) among the members of the theater “Berezil” studio.

1922.

The foundation of the Ukrainian State Symphony Orchestra headed by Oleksandr Gorilyi and the triumphal European concert tour of the Ukrainian Republican Kapelle of Oleksandr Koshets became important national events. During the revolution, Kyrylo Stetsenko, Mykola Leontovych and Levko Revutsky created their masterpieces. The key art event was the grand opening of the Ukrainian State Academy of Arts founded by Vasyl Krychevsky and Heorhiy Narbut. At the same time, the Ukrainian films made their first steps in great cinematography. In the spring-summer of 1918, several newsreels were shot, the First Documentary Film Festival “Ukrainian Cinematic Performance” was held and the first film production company “Ukrainfilm” started its work. Within four short years, 320 cinema halls and 160 mobile cinemas were opened.

“A well-equipped and organized Ukrainian school can give immeasurably more to the political autonomy than hundreds of the best demagogic treatises.

Several generations who studied at their native schools will give such a strong and indomitable repulse to our political demagogues, which cannot be created by any sharp measures. The autonomy of a conscious national and educated people will come by itself - as naturally as a ripe fruit falls from a tree. Maybe it is going on not so quickly, but firmly, forever. For this purpose, within the framework of a free state, there is a sufficient moral influence and authority when it is impossible to influence through formal power”.

Serhiy Yefremov, August 6, 1917 Oleksandr Koshets, a composer, conductor and co-founder of the Ukrainian Republican Kapelle which at the beginning of 1920 toured European countries and had a significant impact in raising in the West an awareness of Ukraine and its music. 1919.

The founders of the Ukrainian Academy of Arts. Standing (from left to right): Heorhiy Narbut, Vasyl Krychevsky, and Mykhailo Boychuk.

Sitting: Abram Manevych, Oleksandr Murashko, Fedir Krychevsky, Mykhailo Hrushevsky, Ivan Steshenko and Mykola Burachek. 1917.

Mykola Leontovych, a composer, the author of the world famous melody “Shchedryk” (“Carol of the Bells”) with his family: Claudia Zhovtkevych, his wife, and their daughter Halyna. Photo of 1890.

The Ukrainian translation of the book written by the Italian author Edmond de Amicis “School Comrades”, issued by the “Час” (“Time”) Society in Kyiv in 1917.

The programme of the grand opening of the Kyiv Ukrainian State University. October 6, 1918.

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CHURCH MOVEMENT Before the revolution, the Ukrainian church was subordinated and integrated into the system of the Russian Orthodox Church. However, members of the Eparchial Clergy-Laity Congress held in Kyiv in April 1917, expressed the need for the revival of the Ukrainian church traditions, the democratization of church life and the election of priests. A few days after the proclamation of the UNR, the All-Ukrainian Orthodox Church Council was established. Archbishop Alexis Dorodnitsyn was at the head of it. He was well known as a compiler of the Ukrainian prayer book. The Council considered its main aim to proclaim autonomy or autocephaly of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. On January 8, 1918, in Kyiv, the All-Ukrainian Orthodox Church Council discussed autocephaly of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine, conducting worship services in the Ukrainian language and parity, participation of the laity in the management of the church. However, the Sobor (Council) ceased its work due to the Bolshevik advance. The meeting of the Council was resumed during the Hetman’s rule, however, the conservative Russian clergy, the impact of which had increased, rejected both autocephaly, and worship service in the Ukrainian language. During the time of the UNR Directorate, the issue of autocephaly was raised again. On January 1, 1919, the Law on Autocephaly of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church was adopted, and on May 22, the first worship service was held in Ukrainian. The First All-Ukrainian Church Council on October 14-30, 1921 approved the autocephaly of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine and elected Vasyl Lypkivsky as Metropolitan of Kyiv and all Ukraine.

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Ivan Ohienko (Metropolitan Ilarion), the Minister of Religion Affairs in the UNR, Metropolitan of the UAOC, in 1918 at the AllUkrainian Church Sobor (Council) he reasonably proved the right of the Ukrainian Church to independent existence.

Metropolitan Vasyl Lypkivsky with believers and priests of the UAOC near the St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv. 1923.

Mykil’sky Military Cathedral in Kyiv; built at the expense of Hetman Ivan Mazepa in the XVII century and destroyed by the Bolsheviks in 1934. In this cathedral, on May 22, 1919, Vasyl Lypkivsky accompanied by the choir under the guidance of Mykola Leontovych, served the first liturgy in Ukrainian.

The participants of the First All-Ukrainian Orthodox Church Cathedral of the UAOC in Kyiv (October 1430, 1921) where the Council ordained Vasyl Lypkivsky as Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine and formed the diocese of the UAOC.

The Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (among people “Halytska”) in Kyiv. This is the first Greek Catholic church in the modern history of the city, built in 1917 on the initiative of Andrei Sheptytsky. In 1935, the church was demolished, and later on this place the office of the regional committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine was built.

The St. Nicholas Roman Catholic Cathedral built in Kyiv by an architect Vladyslav Horodetsky in 1899-1909. The Bolshevik authorities closed the cathedral.

For some time the building was used as a warehouse.

Vasyl Lypkivsky – Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine for the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church.

The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church has always been a strong support for the national liberation movement in Western Ukraine. Its clergy supported the proclamation and development of the WUPR. Having returned to L’viv after a long absence, Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky became a member of the Ukrainian National Council. The priests were enthusiastic about organizing the reelection of authorities by Ukrainians in Zolochiv, Brody, Skole, Sambir and other districts. The Congress in Stanislav was a major event in the life of the Greek Catholic Church. It was held on May 7-8, 1919. More than 200 church leaders, priests and chaplains arrived to participate in it. The Congress approved a decision on the intensification of the church’s spiritual presence in the development of the Ukrainian state and consolidation of the laity “for strengthening Ukrainian statehood on the basis of Christianity “. During the struggle for independence of Ukraine, almost 100 priests served in the Galician Army. More than 40 of them died on the Polish and Denikin fronts and from typhoid fever when the epidemic broke out in the autumn of 1919.

Oleksandr Lototsky, Minister of Religious Affairs in the Hetman Government. Lototsky was instrumental in the declaration of autocephaly by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. He went to Constantinople as minister plenipotentiary to obtain the Patriarch’s recognition of that church’s new status.

“An independent state should also have an independent church. No government can agree that the center of the ecclesiastical power is in another country. The Ukrainian Church must be autocephalous under the chairmanship of the Kyiv Metropolitan and in a canonical connection with other independent Churches. We need not only the unity of Ukrainian Orthodoxy but also the unity of the nation”.

Oleksandr Lototsky “Pages of the Past”

Pavlo Pashchevsky, Chaplain of the First Ukrainian Reserve Regiment of the UNR Army, later – of the Third Serdyutsky Regiment named after Petro Doroshenko, participated in the First Winter Campaign.

The Episcopate of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church. 1921-1926.

Andrey Sheptytsky, Metropolitan Archbishop of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, after his return from the Russian exile. Vienna, August 1917.

Archbishop’s Cathedral of St. George standing on St. George Hill in Lviv. It is the mother church of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.

Kharkiv Metropolitan Anthony Khrapovytsky during the prayer service on the occasion of the proclamation of the Ukrainian State held on Cathedral Square in Kharkiv. April 1918.

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PRESS AND MEDIA In July 1914, the Russian government closed the newspaper “Rada” (“Council”), the last one published in Ukrainian. The Ukrainian Revolution quickened the revival of the Ukrainian press: state, party, military, and trade union, religious, cooperative and specialized newspapers began to come out regularly. The mouthpiece of Ukrainian governments were “Visti z Ukrayinskoyi Tsentral’noyi Rady” (“News from the Ukrainian Central Rada”), “Visnyk Heneral’noho Secretariatu” (“General Secretariat Bulletin”), “Visnyk Rady Narodnyh Ministriv” (“Bulletin of the Council of People’s Ministers”), “Derzhavnyi Visnyk” (State Bulletin”). The printed organs of political parties and public organizations were: “Vidrodzhennya” (“Revival”) and “Borot’ba” (“Fighting”) (Kyiv), “Vil’ne zhyttya” (“Free life”) (Odesa), “Vil’nyi holos” (“Free voice”) (Poltava), “Volynska Narodnya Hazeta” (“Volyn People’s Newspaper”) (Zhytomyr), “Zemlya i Volya” (“Land and Liberty”) (Kharkiv), “Nash Shlyah” (“Our Way”) (Kamyanets Podilsky) and others. The most influential political parties in Ukraine had their own newspapers: the Ukrainian Social-Democratic Labour Party published the daily “Robitnycha Hazeta” (“Workers’ Gazette”), the Ukrainian Socialist-Revolutionary Party published the newspapers “Narodna Volya” (“People’s Will”) and “Borot’ba” (“Fighting”) and the Ukrainian Party of Socialists-Federalists published “Nova Rada” (“New Council”). According to historians, in 1917-1921, almost 770 editions were published in 114 cities of Ukraine.

Isaak Mazepa, a public and political figure, an organizer of the Ukrainian liberation movement in Katerynoslav (Dnipropetrovshchyna (Dnipropetrovsk oblast), the UNR Prime Minister, the editor of the “Robitnycha Hazeta” (“Workers’ Gazette”). In 1920 he immigrated to Prague, conducted active social and political life, the author of memoirs “Ukraine in the Fire and Storm of Revolution”. Died on March 18, 1952 in Ausburg, West Germany.

“Robitnycha Hazeta” (“Workers’ Gazette”), the organ of the Ukrainian Social Democratic Labour Party, the first issue was published on March 30, 1917, the editors - Mykhailo Avdiyenko, Volodymyr Vynnychenko, Isaak Mazepa. At the beginning, the editorial board worked in Vasyl Kulzhenko’s printing house at Pushkin Street, 4 (the house was not preserved) and later moved to the house at Mykhailivsky Lane, 5.

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Eugene Chykalenko, a prominent public figure, a philanthropist, a publisher and a publicist.

Since the beginning of the XX century, he took over the role of the altruistic patron of the Ukrainian daily press and supported the publication of the first Ukrainian-language newspapers “Hromadska Dumka” (“Public Opinion”) and “Rada” (“Council”) which were banned by the government in 1914. In the early days of revolution, he made great efforts to restore the newspaper “Rada”, to obtain permission from authorities, to look for a place of a printing house, to raise funds and to select the editorial board.

The first issue of the restored newspaper “Nova Rada” (“New Council”) April 7 (March 25), 1917, contained the first official document of the Ukrainian Central Rada – the appeal “To the Ukrainian People!”, dated March 22, 1917. The newspaper editors were well-known journalists Andriy Nikovsky and Serhiy Yefremov.

Volodymyr Vynnychenko, a public and political figure, a well-known writer, during the revolution was the Deputy Head of the Central Rada, the Head of the General Secretariat, the Head of the UNR Directorate, the editor of the “Robitnycha Hazeta” (“Workers’ Gazette”). After immigration he devoted himself almost exclusively to his literary career, wrote 14 novels, a number of plays, scripts, hundreds of stories. Died on March 6, 1951 in Mougins, France.

The first issue of the daily “Narodna Volya” (“People’s Will”), a printed organ of the Central Ukrainian Co-operative Committee and the Ukrainian Peasant Union, was published on May 4, 1917. The Editor-in-chief - Mykola Kovalevsky, secretary of the editorial board - Pavlo Khrystyuk.

It was one of the most read newspapers which had a massive circulation of 200 000 copies.

One of the most famous journalists of the era of revolution was Serhiy Yefremov whose contemporaries called him “the conscience of the Ukrainian nation.” His articles provided a comprehensive overview of almost every significant event of social and political life. There were about 1,000 publications by Yefremov in 500 issues of the newspaper “Nova Rada” (“New Council”). The most significant voices of public opinion were Mykhailo Hrushevsky, Volodymyr Vynnychenko, Symon Petliura and Khrystofor Baranovsky. The absolute majority of publications in the press, in addition to the news and laws, were about the revival of the Ukrainian language, literature and art, the formation of primary, secondary, higher education and science, newspaper and publishing business. On March 26, 1918, the Council of People’s Ministers finally approved the statute of the Ukrainian Telegraph Agency, the historical predecessor of the modern “Ukrinform” and S. Sokolovsky was appointed a Chairman of the Administration. During a short period of Pavlo Skoropadsky’s rule, from May to November 1918, Dmytro Dontsov, a public figure, a philosopher, a journalist and a literary critic, directed the Ukrainian Telegraph Agency and the press bureau, which was organized to coordinate the publication activities.They both, were located in Kyiv at Khreshchatyk Street, 25. The Ukrainian Telegraph Agency worked at the time of the UNR Directorate as well. The WUPR also had information service. Its functions were performed by the editor of the newspaper “Strilets”.

Pavlo Khrystyuk, a political and state figure, a cooperative organizer and publicist. One of the leaders of the Ukrainian Party of Socialist Revolutionaries, General Chancellor in the first government of Ukraine, the UNR Minister of Internal Affairs. In 1919 he emigrated to Vienna. The author of “Comments and Materials on the History of the Ukrainian Revolution, 1917-1920”. Returned to the Ukrainian SSR, convicted in a fabricated case of the “Ukrainian National Center”, died in the Soviet labor camp, Sevvostlag.

The editorial of the cooperative weekly paper “The Komashnya” (“The Anthill”) published by Kyiv Soyuzbank and the Ukrainian Peasant Union, the editor - Pavlo Khrystiuk.

“The Ukrainian press soon became the daily need not only of an intellectual but also of an ill-educated worker or peasant. Instead of thick literary and scientific journals and professional publications, there are live political periodicals that cover public life from the national and party points of view. The new Ukrainian press is dedicated to the major tasks of the revolution and the construction of a new life in Ukraine. It captures readers with current issues and demands of the moment; it is alive, full of thoughts and hot discussions. Not knowing the censorship, it can freely express different opinions and therefore it is not surprising that many people aspire to have newspapers and magazines, and those who live in remote places worry about them, which is incredible. We can see passers-by holding them in their hands. In larger cities, the Ukrainian press finds access to all types of kiosks and outdoor stalls for small-scale sales”.

Zenon Kuzelya “On the cultural life of Ukraine”

Serhiy Yefremov, a public and political figure, a literary critic, the creator of modern Ukrainian journalism. During the revolution, he was the leader of the Ukrainian party of Socialist-Federalists, a Deputy Chairman of the Central Rada, the first General Secretary of International Affairs, the editor of the newspaper “Nova Rada” (“New Council”). After the revolution, he stayed in Ukraine, served as Vice President of the VUAN (National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine).

Repressed on the fabricated case of “SVU” (“Union for the Liberation of Ukraine”), died in one of the GULAG camps.

Dmytro Dontsov, a public figure, a philosopher, a literary critic and publicist, directed the press bureau and the Ukrainian Telegraph Agency in May-November 1918.

Yefym Fesenko printing house in Odessa. A considerable amount of Ukrainian literature was published there during the revolution. Photo of the 1890s.

Andriy Nikovsky, a public and political figure, a literary scholar and journalist, the editor of the newspaper “Nova Rada” (“New Council”).

After the defeat of the revolution, he emigrated and then returned to the Ukrainian SSR, worked in the All-Ukrainian Academy of Sciences.

Convicted in a fabricated case of the “Ukrainian National Center”, served his sentence in Yaroslavl Politizolator and on the Solovets Islands. Died in 1942 in the surrounded by Nazis Leningrad.

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THE REVOLUTION OF EVERYDAY LIFE Three years of war and revolutionary confrontation negatively affected the living standards of the population. Prices of all goods had grown tenfold. For instance, in Kyiv from July 1914 to October 1918, they had risen 26 times more. At the beginning of the war, a set of 88 essential goods cost 235 karbovanets, and in the end - 6314 karbovanets. In the summer of 1918, a pair of shoes in Kyiv cost 100 karbovanets, and two years later in Kamyanets - 25 thousand karbovanets. Inflation had outpaced salary growth. Сivil servants and workers suffered the most. During the four years of the revolution, there was various money: bank bills, receipts and coupons, in the circulation. There was not enough cash, which forced the cities, for example, Zhytomyr or Odesa, to print their own money. During 1918-1920, 69 towns, half of which - in Podillya and Volyn and more than 80 institutions, including local banks, city councils, and factories printed their own paper money. At the end of 1920, there were more than 20 currencies used in Ukraine and their exchange rates were constantly changing. In 1919, mainly in the cities the card system for essential goods was introduced. In the autumn-winter period, fuel shortages became more acute, prices for coal and firewood increased several times. The centers of urban life were bazaars, where thousands of people tried to buy, sell or exchange goods. In view of the sharp fluctuations in currencies, part of the population preferred barter: farmers exchanged everything they had grown for scarce industrial goods. For example, in 1918 one of the teachers’ cooperatives in the Kyiv region sold to farmers 13 titles of books with a circulation of 3,500 copies for 328 kg of flour, 164 kg of sugar, 164 kg of oatmeal and 5 kg of lard.

A revolutionary demonstration in Kharkiv, the protesters stand in the background of the popular Dierberg’s confectionary. 1917.

The burnt-out shell of Mykhailo Hrushevsky’s house at 9 Pan’kivs’ka Street in Kyiv. The six-storey building near the University Botanic Gardens - the highest in this neighborhood was a convenient target for the Bolshevik armored train, which was firing from the freight station. The fire destroyed a valuable library, a collection of furniture, antique glass and carpets.

Artistic collections of a painter and architect, Vasyl Krychevsky, were entirely burnt in the attic.

Iskra and Kochubey monument was funded and erected by the tsarist authorities in Kyiv in 1914 and dismantled by the UNR authorities in 1918. In its place, the monument to Hetman Ivan Mazepa was built and unveiled on April 25, 1918.

The meal center for the explosion victims in Zvirynets June 1918.

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A massive black smoke cloud from the military warehouse fire in Zvirynets covered Kyiv.

The explosions destroyed a completely residential area (more than 900 buildings) and killed 200 people under the ruins.

June 6, 1918.

The monument to Empress Catherine II wrapped in a cloth. This symbol of tsarism had been standing until it was demolished in 1919. Photo from the fully photo-illustrated weekly Le Miroir.

November 1917.

The revolution not only gave freedom, but also created a vacuum of power that any political force failed to fill. There was an increasing uncertainty among common people; it was hard to understand who was in power. For example, after the abdication of Pavlo Skoropadsky, Katerynoslav (now Dnipro) was under the control of all parties to the conflict: the Whites, German troops, the Reds, the Directorate Army and the local self-defense detachments. During the revolution, some towns, for example, Shepetivka in Khmelnytsky region, passed 20 times from hand to hand. The rhythm of a city and village life was significantly different: the population of villages remote from the railways and the main roads, with no telegraph and interruptions in press delivery, worried much less about the revolutionary events than the citizens of the capital. Part of the farmers remained indifferent to the revolutionary vicissitudes and kept on leading the traditional way of life. Their main and single interest was land. Therefore, they were ready to support the government, which would offer the most attractive way to solve the land issue.

German soldiers in one of the Kyiv bazaars. 1918.

Streets of the Jewish Quarter in Lviv. 1918.

Vendors in the Galician (Jewish) bazaar in Kyiv. April 29, 1918.

Problems that worried Vinnytsia citizens in 1917 presented by the local columnist.

Andriyivskyi Uzviz (Andrew’s Descent) in Kyiv during the Revolution.

Galician (Jewish) bazaar in Kyiv. April 29, 1918.

“20th of March. Kiev streets have changed a lot lately. They were always very lively and crowded, with the Hetman it was impossible to push through on Khreshchatyk Street. And the people were much more elegant. Now, on the contrary, the elegant and even neatly dressed passers-by are getting fewer, especially men. Most of them wear soldier trench coats or leather jackets and black caps. Many women do not wear hats. Everyone is trying “to look democratic”.

An excerpt from the diary of the Kyiv student about the establishment of Soviet power in the city. 1919

The spontaneous bazaar on the railway yard in Kyiv. 1918.

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LATEST CHORDS

Yuriy Tyutyunnyk, a rebel Otaman and Ensign General of the UNR Army, Head of the Partisanrebel headquarters, Commander of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army in the Second Winter Campaign.

Photo from criminal case, 1929.

In November 1920, the UNR Army under the onslaught of the Bolshevik Army left the territory of Ukraine. Cossacks and elder officers found themselves in Poland, in the internment camps. On the initiative of Symon Petliura, in February-March 1921, the Partizan-rebel headquarters headed by a famous rebel Otaman Yuriy Tyutyunnyk began their work in Tarnov. The staff had to prepare a nationwide anti-Bolshevik uprising in Ukraine. Representatives of the Ukrainian insurgent organizations and couriers of partizan detachments arrived at the headquarters. There they received propaganda literature, instructions and finances. To organize resistance Tyutyunnyk sent to Ukraine elder officers and soldiers from the Polish camps in Lancut, Kalisz and Aleksandrow Kujawski. The campaign was to begin in May-June; however, it was postponed several times, mainly due to the non-fulfillment of allies’ commitments by the Poles. The Cheka made use of the pause. In the summer of 1921, they revealed the All-Ukrainian Central Insurgent Committee and dozens of insurgent organizations throughout Ukraine and entered their agents to the underground organizations. For instance, the Kyiv Cheka member, Serhiy Karin-Danylenko. Neglecting messages from Ukraine, Yuriy Tyutyunnyk decided to start the campaign in the autumn of 1921.

Lukyanivska prison in Kyiv, where the otamans of Kholodny Yar (the Cold Ravine) raised a revolt. Photo 1900.

Larion Zahorodniy, Chief Otaman of Kholodny Yar (the Cold Ravine) in 1922.

Killed on February 9, 1923, during the uprising in Lukyanivska prison.

The scheme of an underground organization network in Ukraine developed by the Partisan-rebel headquarters 1921.

The participants of the Second Winter Campaign of the UNR Army, 1921.

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Ivan Hrysyuk (Hayovyi), a rebel Otaman of the Kyiv region. Killed on February 9, 1923, during the uprising in Lukyanivska Prison.

The elder officers of the Separate Cavalry Division of the UNR Army, Wadowice (Poland). September 12, 1921.

Podillya rebel group of Jacob HalchevskyOrel after crossing the Zbruch River to the Polish territory.

September 1922.

Denys Hupalo, Otaman of the Black Forest. Killed on February 9, 1923, during the uprising in Lukyanivska Prison.

The head of the Directorate and the Chief Otaman of the UNR Army Symon Petliura among the Ukrainian soldiers in the internment camp. Lancut (Poland) .Spring 1921.

The Military Commanders of the Ukrainian camp. Liberec (Czechoslovakia), 1921. In the center (in a leather jacket), Yuri Otmarstein, Colonel of the UNR Army, Chief of Staff of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army in the Second Winter Campaign.

In October-November, the Second Winter Campaign was launched by three main army groups. The Podillia Group under the command of Mykhailo Paliy Sydoryanskyi met with early success and destroyed several “red” cavalry units, reached Borodyanka in Kyiv region but without meeting the main forces, returned to Poland. The Volyn Group of Yuriy Tyutyunnyk liquidated a number of small Bolshevik detachments, won the city of Korosten’ but was unable to defend it. It was encircled and defeated by Kotovsky’s cavalry under the village of Mali Myn’ky in Zhytomyr region. 360 of its soldiers were shot in the village of Bazar, the other 62 were sent for additional interrogations to Kyiv. The Bessarabian Group of Andriy Huly-Hulenko was the last to join the military campaign. Crossing the Dniester, they took several border villages and even the part of Tyraspol’, but were forced to retreat to Romania. The Second Winter Campaign was the final page of the Ukrainian Revolution. The rebel movement gradually faded. Although some Otamans, such as Jacob Halchevsky-Orel, Ivan Treyko, Stepan Blazhevsky and Luka Klitka continued fighting the “red” occupiers until early 1930s. In the summer of 1922, the Volyn Insurgent Army under the command of Opanas Petryk remained active and fought against the “Reds” in Zhytomyr Region. On February 9, 1923, sentenced to death Kholodny Yar (the Cold Ravine) Otamans raised the revolt in the Lukyanivska prison in Kyiv.

They managed to capture 14 rifles with cartridges and other weapons. The battle lasted almost four hours. 36 people were killed, among them the Otamans: Larion Zahorodniy, Methodiy Holyk-Zaliznyak, Yuri Drobotkovsky, Denys Hupalo, Ivan Hrysyuk and others.

“Tell me, what kind of authority has ever collected chicken eggs in the village? Perhaps even the Tatars did not worry about this, did they? And here, he frightens me with the rifle as if I were an enemy and demands eggs saying, “You are a bourgeois and I am a worker!” My wife and I sit at home scared stiff that one day someone will come from Kaluga province and kill us. Shirts, eggs, chicken...they took everything!

We are being tortured so that we are not us but kind of a machine and must unconditionally obey our new masters – communists, worship them. Bolshevism unites all scoundrels together: thieves, pickpockets, robbers and those with dark soul. It became clear that Bolshevism does not bring people any order, but death. It kills people, livestock, farms, and everything alive”.

From the farmer’s letter to his fellow countryman, published in May 1921 by the Tribune magazine

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THE STATE CENTER OF THE UNR When the Bolsheviks came into power in Ukraine, the UNR government agencies had to move abroad. On their basis in 1921, in Warsaw, the UNR State Center in exile was formed. In the same year, it moved to the Polish town Tarnow, in 1924 – to Paris, in 1926 it returned to Warsaw, then again to France (1940-1944), to Germany (1944-1976), until it settled in Philadelphia, the USA. The UNR State Center in exile ceased to exist in 1992 when the last President of the UNR in exile, Mykola Plavyuk, formally ceded his mandate, along with the state attributes (a flag, a state seal, and presidential kleynods) and documents of the UNR, to the first President of independent Ukraine, Leonid Kravchuk declaring that the restored Ukrainian state is the lawful successor to the Ukrainian National Republic. This event took place at a specially convened session of the Ukrainian Parliament in Kyiv, on August 22, 1922, in the Mariinsky Palace, residence of the President of Ukraine. The UNR State Center in exile had executive and legislative branches of power. The executive power was exercised by the Chief Otaman (until 1944) and the President of the UNR, as well as the Council of Ministers - the government. Presidents of the UNR in exile were Symon Petliura (1921-1926), Andriy Livytskyi (1926-1954), Stepan Vytvytskyi (19541965), Mykola Livytskyi (1967-1989) and Mykola Plavyuk (1989-1992). The legislative power was performed by the Council of the Republic (1921) and the Ukrainian National Council (1948-1992). All that time, the State Center of the UNR in exile maintained the continuity and tradition of the UNR, the continuity of democratic traditions of the Ukrainian parliamentarism. The leaders of the UNR State Center strongly emphasized that in their activity they relied on the Fourth Universal of the Ukrainian Central Rada, the acts of the Labor Congress of Ukraine, the Directorate of the UNR and the Council of People’s Ministers of the UNR.

Head of the UNR Directorate and the Chief Otaman of the UNR Army, Symon Petliura. 1925.

One of the last photos.

Oleksandr Shulhyn, First Minister of Foreign Affairs of the UNR, the Ambassador of Ukraine in Bulgaria, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine in exile, Professor of the Ukrainian Free University in Prague, Chairman of the Main Emigration Council. Photo 1917.

The work of Olexandr Shulhyn “Without territory.

Ideology and work of the UNR government in exile.”

1934.

Symon Petliura’s Grave at Montparnasse Cemetery in Paris.

A memorial service for Symon Petliura.

A camp for the interned UNR Army soldiers in Poland. Kalisz. 1926.

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Andriy Livytskyi (second to the left) with his family. The UNR Prime Minister (1920, 1922, 1926) and President (1926-1954) in exile.

Warsaw, 1920.

Oleksandr Udovychenko, the UNR Colonel General, one of the most active figures of the Ukrainian military emigration in Poland, and later - in France, the Vice-President of the UNR in exile in 1954-1961.

The main functions of the UNR State Center in exile were to establish cooperation with the Western countries and international organizations, to inform them about the UNR and the “Ukrainian question”, to consolidate and support the Ukrainian migrants, to organize the anti-Bolshevik fight after the loss of the Ukrainian territory, especially to reveal the truth about the crimes of the Soviet totalitarian regime, the 1932-1933 Holodomor and political repressions in Ukraine.

“It is so hard to be involved in politics in exile. However, there is nothing to do about it: Ukraine was in shackles when under the Bolshevik boot everybody must keep silence, it was our duty to speak for it and support the slogan that we brought from Ukraine, the slogan of the UNR. It is our duty and we will not retreat from it. “ Oleksandr Shulhyn, 1931 The gate of the camp for the UNR Army soldiers interned in Poland.

Kalisz.

The ceremony of awarding the Symon Petliura Cross for bravery to the veterans of liberation movement in 1917-1921. Westin-Chalet, France, 1936.

Opening of the first session of the Ukrainian National Council. 1948.

General Mykhailo Omelyanovych-Pavlenko standing among the Cossacks in the Kalisz camp.

President of the UNR in exile Andriy Livytskyi (in the center) among the immigration public figures.

“Mr. President! I am putting into your hands this historical document, the Letter, approved by the Ukrainian National Council and wish you the best of success in consolidating and building an independent, democratic, united Ukraine. I wish all the people of Ukraine as a Sovereign state of their own, to stand guard over its independence so that it would never be a need that the President or the Government of Ukraine should be forced to act in exile but successfully and for the benefit of the Ukrainian people manage it in the capital of free Ukraine Kyiv! Good luck to you, God! Glory to Ukraine!”

The last UNR President in exile, Mykola Plavyuk officially hands over his presidential powers to the newly elected President of Ukraine Leonid Kravchuk 1992.

President of the UNR in exile Mykola Plavyuk passes the state attributes of the UNR to the first president of independent Ukraine, Leonid Kravchuk. August 22, 1992

From the speech of the UNR President in exile Mykola Plavyuk at a solemn meeting of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on August 22, 1992.

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CONTENTS

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ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF STRUGGLE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 THE AWAKENING OF A NATION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 CREATION OF A NEW STATE: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 THE CENTRAL RADA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 CREATION OF A NEW STATE: HETMANATE . . . . . . . . . . 8 CREATION OF A NEW STATE: THE UNR DIRECTORATE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 CREATION OF A NEW STATE: WUPR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 THE ACT OF UNION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 STATE SYMBOLS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 UKRAINIAN MONEY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 UKRAINIAN ARMY. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 IN THE VORTEX OF FIGHT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 UKRAINIAN FLEET. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 THE UKRAINIAN CRIMEA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26 UKRAINIAN DIPLOMACY. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 NATIONAL MINORITIES. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 EDUCATION AND CULTURE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 CHURCH MOVEMENT. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 PRESS AND MEDIA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 THE REVOLUTION OF EVERYDAY LIFE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 LATEST CHORDS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 THE STATE CENTER OF THE UNR. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42