Day of Freedom as a Sign of Leaving the “Lost Time” Behind: Ukrainian Alternatives for March 1917

Abstract

The onset of the February Revolution in 1917 in the Russian Empire was the time when the organized structures of the Ukrainian movement in the Upper-Dnieper Ukraine were almost completely destroyed by the tsarist repressive apparatus. The outbreak of World War One ceased the legal release of the Ukrainian press; deactivated Ukrainian political, cooperative, educational establishments; sent a number of acting Ukrainian figures into exile, including M. Hrushevsky, the well-known leader of the then national movement. Due to the occupation of Galicia by the Russian Army and its explicit terror against the nationally conscious citizens, Ukrainians lost their “home front”, which had previously served as the base for the effective political, educational, and cultural activity in terms of the Austro-Hungarian Constitutional regime. That cluster of reasons led to the fact that in late February – early March 1917, in the general whirl of rapid transformations, Ukrainian demands were ignored by the new government which came to power after abdication of Nicholas II, as well as new bodies of revolutionary self-organization, formed of labor councils and soldier deputies. The situation in Kyiv seemed even more complex since the Russian administration paid special attention to controlling the city which had a potential to become the epicenter of national revival. Imperial colonizers were confident in the irreversibility of their preponderant position; thus, the formation of the Ukrainian Central Council on March 4, 1917, its initial demands being too cautious and conciliatory, did not raise any anxiety among Russian powers. The situation began to change after M. Hrushevsky had returned to the capital of the Upper-Dnieper Ukraine: on March 14 he had his first time chairing a meeting of the Ukrainian Central Council, rapidly transforming it thereafter into a lead Ukrainian revolutionary actor. This was well proved by the First Day of Ukrainian Freedom, which took place in Kyiv on March 19. A 100-thousand demonstration vividly testified Ukrainian power and gave impetus to the unfolding of the national liberation revolution, which naturally resulted in the declaration of the ultimate independence of Ukraine.