Соціалістична і консервативна течії українського державотворення у 1918 р.: боротьба за владу і зовнішньополітичні впливи

Abstract

The work aims to investigate the forms and ways of political struggle for power in Ukraine in 1918 between different ideological movements of the Ukrainian direction. The research methodology is based on the principles of historicism, objectivity and comparative-historical, historical-chronological methods. The scientific novelty lies in the systematic analysis of the struggle for power in Ukraine of socialistic and conservative movements of the Ukrainian state formation in 1918. The political strife for power in Ukraine in 1918 was characterized by the coincidence of oppositely directed trends in the socio-political development of the Ukrainian community. Conclusions. The coming to power of UNU(Ukrainian National Union) in Ukraine by using a weapon, testified at least two important moments in the history of the national liberation struggle of Ukrainians in 1917-1920. Firstly, the era of Hetmanate of P. Skoropadskyi, who undoubtedly made a significant contribution to the development of Ukrainian statehood, was revealed to be disastrous for the latter. This could not but cause the mass opposition of the Hetmanate, which failed to solve the urgent, extremely painful problems of political, economic and social life. Instead of practical search of real unity within the country, P. Skoropadskyi resorted to punitive actions against socialist-oppositionists and even worse against his own people to satisfy the “political appetites” of the German-Austrian occupiers and anti-Ukrainian chauvinistic circles, which redeeming from the Bolsheviks, had found asylum in Ukraine. Secondly, the cleavage in Ukrainian society had reached a critical point, beyond which it was hardly worth looking for effective ways to reconcile, and any struggle for power had inevitably evolved into open civil war. Under such circumstances, the Directory came to power. Having been formed quickly by the members of UNU to organize the uprising against P. Skoropadskyi, it did not have a distinct program of state formation. With the victory of the Directory and proclamation of the Ukrainian State of the UPR, there was a process of restoration by the national democratic forces that once formed the Central Rada and were responsible for its policies, a pro-socialist, as opposed to the abolished conservative, course of Ukrainian statehood.