Formation and Transformation of Political Regime of the Ukrainian People’s Republic Directory at the End of 1918-1919

Abstract

The transformation of the political regime of the UPR Directory from the leading revolutionary insurgent body to the supreme state institution of the republic with special powers was analyzed. The transition process from the "labor principle" — the left-populist (bolshevik) model of the formation of central and local authorities — to the democratic principle of universal suffrage is studied. The transformation of the Ukrainian People's Republic Directory from a collective body with extraordinary powers to an exclusive body of the highest power with authoritarian features was examined. The influence of bolshevik ideology on domestic political relations in the Ukrainian People's Republic is shown. Relations between the Directory and political parties regarding the formation of government bodies are analysed. Significant qualitative changes in the essence of this form of Ukrainian statehood were considered. The way was passed from the de-facto bolshevik socio-economic slogans and "labor principle" to the implementation of liberal-democratic ideas: along with other forms of property private property was preserved, universal suffrage and guarantees for human rights were proclaimed. The cooperation between government institutions of the UPR and the nominally subordinated government of the West Ukrainian People’s Republic was described. The peculiarities of the first experience (often negative) (summer-autumn of 1919) of cooperation between the governments and armies of the Dnieper and the Dniestrer Ukraine were outlined. In this context, the attention was paid to the cooperation and confrontation between political parties of both parts of Ukraine. Taking into consideration the fact that the Directory did not reach its main goal — the strengthening and preservation of the independent Ukrainian state — it is possible to talk about the formal defeat of the Ukrainian liberation movements of 1917–1920. However, they were continued in exile (in emigration), where the traditions of the Ukrainian independent state were preserved in the form of the State Center of the Ukrainian People's Republic until 1992.