Historical Dictionary of the Russian Civil Wars, 1916-1926

When, following the end of the First World War, German forces withdrew from Kiev in November–December 1918, the UNR was restored by the Ukrainian National Republic Directory, and in an act of union (the Act of Zluka) of 22 January 1919, it merged (as the dominant partner) with the Western Ukrainian People’s Republic (WUPR). Historically, the UNR has been remembered for its association with the wave of pogroms that swept over Ukraine in 1919, but among the positive legislative achievements of the state were the creation of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences (26 November 1918); a law on national-individual autonomy (16 December 1918); and a land law, based on socialist principles (8 January 1919). Numerous institutes of higher and military education were also founded and promoted by the UNR. However, the existence of the state was never secure, and at all times priority was given to military affairs. Indeed, throughout 1919, the republic was hemmed in between the Red Army (which captured Kiev on 4–6 February 1919), the White armies of the Armed Forces of South Russia (which captured Kiev on 31 August 1919, one day after the forces of the UNR’s Ukrainian Army had entered the town), and the Poles, with whom the WUPR was fighting the Ukrainian–Polish War. Eventually, the directory was forced to concede to Polish claims to Western Ukraine (Eastern Galicia), at the Treaty of Warsaw (21–24 April 1920), in return for which the Poles proffered military assistance, helping the Ukrainian Army to drive the Bolsheviks from Kiev on 6–8 May 1920. However, the Red Army recaptured Kiev (10–12 June 1920) during the early stages of the ensuing Soviet-Polish War, and the Soviet government was confirmed in possession of Ukraine by the Treaty of Riga (18 March 1921) that brought that war to an end. Long before that, in November 1920, the leaders of the UNR had fled abroad, where a government-in-exile would exist first in Warsaw and from 1939 in Paris, until a formal transfer of authority to the government of the newly independent Ukraine in 1992.

UKRAINIAN NATIONAL REPUBLIC, COUNCIL OF PEOPLE’S MINISTERS OF THE. This was the body that, from 9 January 1918, succeeded the General Secretariat of the Ukrainian National Republic as the supreme executive branch of the Ukrainian National Republic (UNR). It operated until the overthrow of the republic by P. P. Skoropadskii on 29 April 1918, when it went underground, and became active again during the period of the Ukrainian National Republic Directory. The council (in Ukrainian, the Rada narodnykh ministriv) was formed from a coalition of Ukrainian political parties (notably the Ukrainian Social-Democratic Labor Party, the Ukrainian Party of Socialists-Federalists, and the Ukrainian Party of Socialists-Revolutionaries) and representatives of the national minorities (e.g., the Bund) and controlled all levels of state administration. It derived its authority from the mandate of the Ukrainian Central Rada, with its organization, membership, and jurisdiction defined by Articles 50–59 of the Constitution of the Republic (until 29 April 1918), the laws passed by the Ukrainian Labor Congress of January 1919, and Articles 15–19 of the laws “On the Provisional Supreme Administration and the Legislative Agenda in the Ukrainian National Republic” and “On the State People’s Council” (12 November 1920). The council operated as a government-in-exile from the end of 1920, with its members scattered around the principal émigré centers (such as Warsaw, Prague, Berlin, and Paris). In 1992, it formally transferred its authority to the government of the newly independent Ukraine.

The chairmen of the Council of People’s Ministers of the UNR were Volodymyr Vynnychenko (9–15 January 1918); V. I. Holubovych (18 January–29 April 1918); M. I. Sakhno-Ustymovych (29–30 April 1918); V. M. Chekhivsky (26 December 1918–13 February 1919); Serhiy Ostapenko (13 February–9 April 1919); B. M. Martos (9 April–27 August 1919); I. P. Mazepa (27 August 1919–20 May 1920); V. K. Prokopovich (26 May–14 October 1920); and A. M. Livytskii (20 October–18 November 1920).