The Ukrainian People's Republic (UPR) was a short-lived state in Eastern Europe. Prior to its proclamation, the Central Council of Ukraine was elected in March 1917 as a result of the February Revolution, and in June declared Ukrainian autonomy within Russia, which was later recognized by the Russian Provisional Government. Following the October Revolution, the Central Council of Ukraine denounced the Bolshevik seizure of power and proclaimed the establishment of the Ukrainian People's Republic in the approximate territory Russian governorates of Kiev, Volhynia, Kharkov, Kherson, Yekaterinoslav, Poltava, Chernigov and Podolia. The republic formally declared its independence from Russia on 22 January 1918.
After the October Revolution, an alternative government known as the Ukrainian People's Republic of Soviets was established in Kharkiv and engaged in a war against the Ukrainian People's Republic, receiving support from Soviet Russia. In addition, both parties were opposed by the White movement, Poland, Green armies, and anarchists, leading to a protracted conflict known as the Ukrainian War of Independence, part of the wider Russian Civil War, and resulting in numerous victims among Ukrainians fighting on different sides of the front. As a result of the fighting, Soviet Russia managed to extend its control over what would ultimately become the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, which became a founding member of the Soviet Union in 1922.
During its short existence, the republic went through several political transformations – from the socialist-leaning republic headed by the Central Council of Ukraine with its general secretariat, to the socialist republic led by the Directorate and by Symon Petliura. Between April and December 1918, the socialist authority of the Ukrainian People's Republic was suspended, having been overthrown by the pro-German Ukrainian State of Pavlo Skoropadskyi, who was elected as the Hetman of Ukraine by a congress of landowners. After the collapse of the Ukrainian State, the Ukrainian People's Republic declared its unification with the West Ukrainian People's Republic in January 1919. After the Polish–Ukrainian War, it signed an alliance with the Second Polish Republic.
In course of the Polish-Soviet War, the state lost the remainder of its territory to the Bolsheviks. Following the Peace of Riga, signed on 18 March 1921 between Poland, Soviet Russia (acting also on behalf of Soviet Belarus), and Soviet Ukraine, the republic's government continued its activities in exile. Following the Declaration of Independence of Ukraine, the leadership of the Ukrainian People's Republic officially recognized Ukraine as its legal successor and transferred its symbols of power to the Ukrainian president.
History
Revolutionary wave
The February Revolution in the Russian Empire, which took place on 8-12 March 1917, ended in victory of the democratic forces. In Ukraine, which had been a theatre of the First World War for the previous three years, as well as in Ukrainian communities in other parts of the empire, the revolutionary process took a different path than in the imperial centre, adopting a distinctively national character. Many of the revolutionary soldiers and workers who had overthrown the monarchy in Petrograd belonged to the Ukrainian ethnicity, and some of them were members of a secret Social Democratic organization coordinated by Volodymyr Vynnychenko, who at the time resided in Moscow. Following the revolution, on 13 April a Ukrainian national committee was created in Petrograd, headed by Oleksander Lototsky, and a Ukrainian fraction was formed in the Petrograd Soviet under the leadership of Oleksander Shulhyn.
On 17 March 1917 the Ukrainian Central Council (Central Rada) was established in Kyiv on the base of the local branch of the Society of Ukrainian Progressists. It became the centre of Ukrainian political life under the leadership of professor Mykhailo Hrushevsky, who arrived to Kyiv following his liberation from exile on 9 April. Hrushevsky's program articles in the Nova Rada daily newspaper, which started publishing soon thereafter turned him into an undisputed leader of the Ukrainian national movement. On 13 April a major demonstration took place in the Sofiyska Square, involving around 100,000 participants, many of whom waved blue-and-yellow flags and sang the Ukrainian national anthem. During the event, Hrushevsky delivered a speech, proclaiming the liberation of Ukraine from centuries-old subjugation and accepted a pledge of allegiance from the people to their country.
In parallel, the Ukrainian movement started organizing itself institutionally. Starting from early April, Prosvita was reestablished, the Ukrainian Cooperative Committee was founded, and the Temporary Military Council was created. During the same time, Andrey Sheptytsky was liberated from Russian imprisonment and allowed to return to Galicia. On 10 April the Ukrainian Central Council supported the convocation of the Ukrainian National Congress, and on 11 April the Ukrainian Military Society of Hetman Polubotok headed by Mykola Mikhnovsky was established and started works on organization of the 1st Ukrainian Volunteer Regiment of Bohdan Khmelnytsky.
On 19-21 April the Ukrainian National Congress took place in Kyiv, involving about 900 delegates. The Congress confirmed the election of the Ukrainian Central Council of 150 members headed by Mykhailo Hrushevsky. On 17 May the commander of the Southwestern Front General Brusilov permitted the organization of the Bohdan Khmelnytsky Regiment which drafted 3,574 volunteers. Starting from 18 May, the Ukrainian Military Congress took place in Kyiv, attended by over 700 delegates. The Congress elected the Ukrainian General Military Committee of 18 members headed by Symon Petliura.
Major political Ukrainian parties which established themselves after the creation of the Central Rada were the Ukrainian Party of Socialist Federalists (headed by Serhiy Yefremov), Ukrainian Social-Democratic Labour Party (Vynnychenko), Ukrainian Socialist-Revolutionary Party (supported by Hrushevsky) and Spilka. Among less influential forces were the Ukrainian Party of Socialist Independists and the Ukrainian Democratic Agriculturalist Party (established in Lubny), both of whom proclaimed the goal of immediate independence of Ukraine, as well as the Ukrainian Federal Democratic Party (Volodymyr Naumenko), whose leadership opposed the separation of Ukraine and pursued a moderate social program.
Declaration of autonomy
The attempts of Central Rada to establish itself as the main political force in Ukraine were opposed both by a significant part of local workers and revolutionary soldiers, who viewed Ukrainian autonomism as a "stab in the back" against the Revolution, and by the Provisional Government. In March the Russian revolutionary cabinet headed by Georgy Lvov allowed the establishment of the post of representative in Ukrainian affairs, appointed Dmytro Doroshenko, Oleksander Lototsky and Ivan Kraskovsky as governors in Galicia and Bukovina, restored Ukrainians' rights in the occupied territories of Austria-Hungary and permitted the introduction of Ukrainian language in schools and administration of Ukrainian lands. However in May the Provisional Government refused to allow Ukrainian representatives to attend planned international conferences, declined the plan for establishment of a special commissariat of Ukrainian affairs and took a negative attitude to Ukrainization of the armed forces and liberation of arrested Galician Ukrainians. A hostile position against Ukrainian autonomy demands was also taken by the Petrograd Council.
On 10–15 June 1917 the 1st All-Ukrainian Peasant Congress took place in Kyiv with participation of 2,200 delegates. On 11 June an extraordinary congress of the council of Doroshenko Ukrainian Military Society in Simferopol took a decision to create a separate Ukrainian regiment. Between 18 and 24 June, ignoring the prohibition of the Russian Provisional Government, the 2nd Ukrainian Military Congress took place in Kyiv. The congress accepted the declaration of a detailed plan of Ukrainization of Russian Army units, leaving Symon Petliura as the head of the Ukrainian General Military Committee, and acted to regulate the issue of Free Cossacks. The congress showed its support to the Ukrainian Central Council. The council of Kharkov Governorate recognized the Ukrainian Central Council as a government authority in Ukraine.
On 24 June 1917, the Central Council of Ukraine declared its autonomy as part of the Russian Republic by its First Universal at the All-Ukrainian Military Congress. The highest governing body of the Ukrainian People's Republic became the General Secretariat headed by Volodymyr Vynnychenko, which was elected on 28 June. The non-Ukrainian revolutionary forces perceived the composition of the new government as usurpation of power by the Central Rada. However, the organ's power couldn't be ignored, and eventually both the Provisional Government and the Petrograd Council favoured negotiations with the Ukrainian side.
Attempts of compromise with the Provisional Government
On 11 July a delegation of the Russian Provisional Government composed of Prime Minister Alexander Kerensky, foreign minister Mikhail Tereshchenko, transport minister Nikolai Nekrasov and minister of the post Irakli Tsereteli arrived to Kyiv. As a result of talks with Hrushevsky, Vynnychenko and Petliura, the Provisional Government recognized the Secretariat, appointing it as the representative governing body of the Russian Provisional Government and limiting its powers to five governorates: Volyn, Kiev, Podolia, Chernigov, and Poltava. On 14 July the Ukrainian Central Council created the Petty Council consisting of 40 representatives from Ukrainians and 18 from national minorities. On 16 July that organ adopted the Second Universal of the Ukrainian Central Council, and on 29 July – the Statute of the Supreme Government of Ukraine.
The Second Universal declared Ukraine's course for autonomy inside of Russia, which was to be officially approved by the future Russian Constituent Assembly. In addition, it ordered the inclusion of at least 30% of ethnic minority representatives into the Central Council, making it a full-fledged Ukrainian parliament. The General Secretariat was reformed as well, including four members from the Russian, Polish and Jewish minorities and turning into an institution of the Provisional Government, which removed its subordination to the Central Rada. At first Vynnychenko protested against that decision and left his post as the Secretariat's leader, but eventually returned to reassemble the organ after the Central Rada issued the Second Universal. According to the 17 August Instruktsiya (Temporary Instruction) of the Russian Provisional Government, it recognized the competency of the General Secretariat over five Governorates: Kiev, Volyn, Poltava, Chernihiv, and Podillia. Other territories could recognize the Secretariat's rule in their territories according to decisions of their local governments. At the same time, the Provisional Government was forced to formally recognize Ukraine as an administrative unit of its own.
Breakdown of relations with Petrograd