Agrarianist content of P. Skoropadskyi’s agrarian reform

Abstract

The aim of the research – the authors of the article aim to gain new knowledge about the agrarianist content of the agrarian policy of Ukrainian State. The research method- ology is based on the principles of objectivity, historicism, and systematicity. The authors used universal scientifi c research methods: analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction. In the study of the topic, the authors used such special-historical and interdisciplinary methods as historical- comparative, historical-genetic. Th e scientifi c novelty is that it is substantiated that there are suffi cient reasons to consider the hetman’s agrarian policy as having an agrarianist character and corresponding to the principles of Eastern European agrarianism at that time. Conclusions. Th e agrarian policy of Ukrainian State had an agrarianist character, given that it corresponded to the basic principles of agrarianism. Firstly, the hetman and the political parties that supported him understood the peasantry as an active subject of history, as the social basis of the state. Th ey also had a corresponding attitude towards the peasantry, which is refl ected in legislation and agrarian policy. Secondly, agrarian policy was widely understood by the head of Ukrainian State and the political parties that supported him, as a component of domestic economic policy, containing socio-economic and socio-political components. Th e socio-economic part is the im- plementation of land reform and the settlement of current agricultural issues: improvement of land management, improvement of agrotechnical cultivation of land, provision of peasant farms with agricultural equipment, seed stock, working cattle, etc. Socio-political aspect – forms and methods of cooperation between authorities and the peasantry, subjectivization of the peasantry in the current political and legal model of the state. Th irdly, P. Skoropadskyi was looking for an alternative path, not a monarchical one, not a socialist one, he was a supporter of an innova- tive model of agricultural development. In his understanding – highly cultured peasant farms. Fourthly, for him, the instrument of subjectivization of the peasantry – the social basis of the state – was private peasant ownership of land. Th e latter was considered the foundation of cul- ture and civilization, the inviolable principle of the state’s existence. Entitlement of peasants to private ownership of land and signifi cant limitation of large land ownership is the cornerstone of P. Skoropadskyi’s agrarian reform.