It is February now, the month when the Russian empire came to an end 88 years ago, in what was called a democratic, bourgeois and even anti-monarchist revolution. The Romanovs had ruled for over 300 years, and Petrograd, modern-day St. Petersburg, had been their capital. In Ukraine, things were just beginning - again. This is was the start of the second phase of the formation of the Ukrainian state.
The first phase was the 17th century war of liberation from Poland, which was led by Cossack Hetman Bohdan Khmelnitsky. Shortly thereafter, Ukraine lost its sovereignty and was absorbed into the Russian Empire. The movement to gain autonomy for the territories inhabited by Ukrainians was to remain on hold until 1917. But all the while Ukrainians only sought limited independence, never daring to seek complete separation from Russia.
On March 20th, 1917, with World War One still raging on, various Ukrainian political organizations established the Central Rada. Nationalist history professor Mikhail Grushevsky, who was still living in exile in Russia at the time, was selected to head it. He arrived in Kyiv a week later. On April 1st, he delivered a speech on Sophia Square attended by 200,000. Witnesses reported that the people knelt for prayer on the square and took an oath of loyalty to the new Ukrainian autonomy. This seems puzzling if one takes into consideration that Kyiv (as well as other major Ukrainian cities) was totally Russian speaking at the time. Only 16% of the ancient capital's population was Ukrainian, and 85% of them were hired workers and petty clerks. The Central Rada immediately sent a telegram to the head of the Russian provisional government, headed by Prince Lvov, in which it requested the new democratic authorities to consider Ukrainian autonomy in a federative Russia. The letter was followed up by a Rada delegation, which the authorities in Petrograd were said to have received with warmth and hospitality. All the same, no agreement was reached on autonomy. The provisional government also refused to recognize the Rada as a state institution. Ukrainian socialists and other left-wing parties were surprised, because Russian democrats had declared support for national self-determination in Ukraine.
Later that same month, the Central Rada held a Ukrainian National Congress in Kyiv. Representatives from various social classes, parties, public organizations and ethnic groups took part, confirming the Rada as Ukraine's only legitimate state institution. Russians from across the political spectrum harshly criticized this initiative, although people in Finland, the Baltics and the Caucasus were later to be granted similar privileges and freedoms.
Having had its authority confirmed by the Congress, the Rada proceeded to publicly proclaim its first decree - a general statement of rights. Faced with such an open challenge, the Provisional Government began to negotiate relations between the autonomous regime and the Russian center. Negotiations were in the interest of the Rada as well, because the country's entire administrative system, including financial institutions, the army, the security services, the press and even the church remained Russian.
The Provisional Government set a number of demands, which were interpreted as an ultimatum in Ukraine. However, in order to gain legitimacy and at least part of the country's administrative and financial system, the Central Rada accepted the demands and proclaimed a second decree, which was in fact an agreement with Russia.
The agreement stipulated that Ukraine could have a sort of constitution but that it would have to be approved by the central authorities in Russia. So the Rada drafted a self styled charter and sent it to Petrograd. It also sent another delegation, which instead of receiving approval for limited autonomy was presented with a resolution on the rights of the General Secretariat (as the government of Ukraine was known).
The Rada itself was denied the status of a legislative body.
According to the resolution, Ukrainian institutions did not have any rights. Moreover, the central Russian authorities were not obliged to inform Ukrainian officials of Russian actions on Ukrainian territory. The head of the Ukrainian Rada later recalled that for several months following reception of the resolution, official communication with the Provisional Government came to a halt, as if the Russians were putting the impudent "khokhols" in their place. Such was the response by Russian democrats to Ukraine's attempt at self rule.
Those members of the General Secretariat who represented left-wing parties still hoped that their colleagues in Petrograd would live up to their slogans about the rights of nations to self-determination. Lenin's Bolsheviks had promised action if they came to power.
Ukrainians did not have to wait long. On November 7th, 1917, the Bolsheviks, backed by workers and soldiers, put an end to the Provisional Government and proclaimed the power of the soviets. The Central Rada in Ukraine was facing a dilemma: whether to recognize the new Petrograd government of People's Commissars or to declare independence. They chose the second option and condemned the Bolsheviks' monopoly on power.
The Bolsheviks went on to create the Russian Federation, designating Ukraine as one of several "free and equal" republics. Ukraine acknowledged its designation in a Third Decree on November 20, 1917. Influenced by the Bolshevik revolution in Petrograd, the Third Decree also declared a number of reforms that included land ownership, eight-hour working days, the annulment of capital punishment, wider authorities for local government, more rights for minorities and the beginning of negotiations of an armistice with the Axis powers.
The Bolsheviks formally recognized the Rada, but they never forgot the Rada's criticism of the Bolshevik coup d'etat. Ukrainian left-wing parties (allied with Bolsheviks) started a vigorous propaganda campaign against the Rada and its social reforms. Armed with populist slogans, which promised land to the peasants, factories to the workers, and peace without retribution payments, they gained the support of the masses. The proponents of quick and radical solutions looked more attractive than the advocates of slow, legal procedure - the national democrats, who also gave priority to the creation of a Ukrainian state.
In December, at a congress of Ukrainian soviets convened by the Central Rada, representatives of left-wing parties left early because they couldn't form a majority. Instead, they went to Kharkiv to hold their own congress, at which they established the Ukrainian Soviet Government. The Kharkiv government refused to recognize the Kyiv-based Ukrainian People's Republic or its Central Rada, which they called an institution of bourgeois power.
This was very convenient for the government of Soviet Russia. As they had promised, the Bolsheviks recognized the Republic and the Rada, but tacitly supported the Kharkiv government. Eventually, Soviet armies invaded Kyiv and killed everyone associated with Ukrainian culture. A person could be shot for speaking the Ukrainian language in the street, wearing a Ukrainian embroidered shirt or being a member of a cultural or scientific Ukrainian organization.
Even as Bolshevik armies approached Kyiv, the Ukrainian Central Rada naively continued to believe their promises to support Ukraine's self-determination. In a Fourth and final Decree, the Rada declared the unequivocal sovereignty of Ukraine. Thus, within the course of a single year, freedom minded Ukrainians had gone from timid demands for limited autonomy to complete independence.
Nevertheless, Bolshevik forces took the newborn country's ancient capital. In order to defeat the Soviet army, the Central Rada appealed for help from the German government, which had already signed a peace treaty with Ukraine. The plan was for Germany and Austro-Hungary to form two divisions from Russian prisoners of war. But the Germans sent in their own troops, which quickly routed the Russian army. However, the axis powers also considered the government of the Ukrainian People's Republic to be too independent, too Ukrainian and too 'naughty', so on April 28th, 1918 they established an alternative Ukrainian state headed by Hetman Skoropadsky.
The third Ukrainian state turned out to be just as fragile as its predecessors. In less than a year, it was replaced with a Ukrainian directory, which was then replaced by the Ukrainian Soviet Socialistic Republic. For three more years (until 1921) the armed struggle for an independent Ukraine would continue under the banners of the Republic.
The disappearance of the Republic signaled the end of the second phase of the rebirth of a Ukrainian state, which was a decisive feature in the historical advance of the Ukrainian nation.
The third phase started after the downfall of the Soviet Union. This time, complete independence was the driving force. But we have still not managed to build a truly sovereign state. Only now, after the victory of the democratic parties that composed the Orange Revolution has the third and hopefully final phase of rebuilding an independent Ukrainian state finally begun.
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