Formation of modern Ukrainian state

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Drohobych Ivan Franko State Pedagogical University

FORMATION OF MODERN UKRAINIAN STATE

Ihor ROZLUTSKY PhD (Philology), Associate Professor of the

Department of Ukrainian Literature and Literary Theory, Director of the Library

Oksana MEDVID PhD (History), Associate Professor,

Department of History of Ukraine and Law

Drohobych

Review of the mogonraph: Chronicle of the Ukrainian Revolution of 1917 - 1921. Part One: 1917 - 1918. Scientific Reference Edition. Kyiv: Institute of the History of Ukraine of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, 2021. 532 p.

Ignorance or even deliberate neglect of facts of the past can often lead to irreparable consequences, first of all, in terms of the national existence. Sometimes it takes decades and even centuries to correct historical mistakes that occurred during previous ages. According to a famous scholar Mykola Yevshan, “History is something bigger and deeper, because it is able to penetrate into the present, and at the same time determine the future. This field is not only for the profile of historians or archaeologists, as the use of artifacts, such as filling museums or rare collections. History penetrates into our modern life directly as one of the final elements, gives it the soil, all the colour, pathos... That's why, we always have to look back, listen to the voice of ancient centuries, ancient people. In them we look for justification of our present life, we look for a way out into the future” (Yevshan M. Critique. Literature Studies. Aesthetics. Kyiv: Osnovy Publishing House, 1998. P. 30.).

The history of the beginning of the 20th century is in many ways similar to the current era of the revival of Ukraine, the era of the 21st century, restoration of the status of its independence and unity, preservation of language and culture, and historiosophical heritage.

The monograph “Chronicle of the Ukrainian Revolution of 1917 - 1921. Part One: 1917 - 1918”, Scientific Reference Edition, K.: Institute of the History of Ukraine of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, 2021. - 532 p., informs a reader of such issues. The publication was prepared by the authors' team of scholars: Vladyslav Verstyuk (the head), Halyna Basara-Tylishchak, Olena Boyko, Oleksandra Kudlai, Oleksiy Lupandin, Tetiana Ostashko, Roman Tymchenko, Vitaly Skalskyi.

The monograph focuses on the research of little-known facts, documents, and sources that form a slender architecture of the events of Ukraine's independence at the beginning of the previous century. The authors thoroughly interpret, and sometimes reinterpret, the concepts of that time, comparing this period with the era of the Cossack Revolution during the Hetmanship of Bohdan Khmelnytskyi. independence political military cultural

The array of processed information is also impressive: periodicals, documents, chronicles, historiographical, archeographical materials, monographs. As a result of such scrupulous work of scholars, a reader is presented with a detailed sequential overview of events, starting from January 12 (December 30, 1916) and ending with December of 1918 - January of 1919. The authors write about the political, military, and cultural events that took place during the period under analysis (in 1917 - 1918).

The genre of the monograph catches the eye immediately - the form of a chronicle. Such a phenomenon is classic for historical science and has significant advantages. The chronicle allows you to cover a large number of people, events, and a large-scale scope of the reality under research. In this case, time coordinates are reduced to daily events. In addition, the chronicle genre covers not one or several subjects of research, but focuses on the widest possible aspects of the era, its clearly expressed historical, religious, social, political, and cultural shifts. The following format of the monograph allows not only to present the course of events objectively, but also stimulates a reader to analyse. Having in front of him a significant arsenal of facts, the recipient can draw historical parallels, draw his own conclusions, conduct his own research. The scholars expanded the space for scientific research significantly.

Unfortunately, the format of the chronicle is not aimed at a clear division by headings. However, despite the genre of the monograph, it is still possible to structure the publication according to separate thematic sections, which are clearly visible in the descriptions of the event paradigm.

First of all, these are accents on the internal features of the Ukrainian political life. The authors analyse the reasons for the Ukrainian People's Republic defeat, including a low level of the national consciousness and a limited support of the army. The words of Yevhen Konovalets describing this period were quite telling in the preface: “We were very young and very inexperienced. All of it together: idealism, youth, inexperience and naivety - began to take revenge on us from our first steps on Kyiv soil. Mainly, we relied on our faith in the leaders of the then Ukrainian Revolutionary Movement. They used unattainable authority in our eyes. And no matter how painfully we felt their undesirability of our idea, a sovereign and independent Ukrainian State, we did not lose faith in it. But we were forced to take a more critical attitude towards the activities of the Central Council of Ukraine (Tsentralna Rada) officials, because we saw clearly that their policy was introducing greater and greater anarchy into the regions instead of order, which not only precluded the organization of the army, but also led the state to inevitable ruin” (pp. 6-7).

The authors of the monograph supplement the chronicle of events with internal quarrels among the military leaders. It makes possible to depict the studied era more clearly, as well as to bring an understanding of one of the reasons for the Ukrainian idea's defeat. For example, after the victory of the Ukrainian People's Republic over the Hetmanate troops, many soldiers resigned from the army. Not all commanders agreed on the understanding of the Ukrainian statehood. Some of them negotiated with the Bolsheviks, which soon became fatal for the young state. In the monograph there are mentioned the surnames of the ottamans, N. Hryhoriv, O. Volokh, D. Terpyla (Zelenyi), who declared their support for the Soviet government. Putting together such facts demonstrates a complete objective picture of the period of the Ukrainian People's Republic formation. The authors did not leave behind the rebellion under command of V Oskilko, who started an armed struggle against S. Petliura, etc. From the above mentioned there follows a completely logical conclusion - due to difference of views regarding the Ukrainian statehood, uncertainty regarding the political issue, all these aspects led to weakness of the governments in confrontation with the biggest enemy. From the pages of the publication, this thesis sounds not only as a statement of fact, but at the same time as a warning for the Ukrainians. In fact, this is one of the most important reasons for the historical defeats of our people during the centuries-old struggle for independence.

The second aspect is foreign policy, which was also not balanced and consistent. From the given descriptions, the reader can see a rather wide panorama of international relations. Let's say the researchers single out the policy vector focused on the German aid that didn't give the expected results. In addition, dependence on Berlin made cooperation with the Entente impossible. On January 18, 1919, the Peace Conference in Paris, where the post-war Europe was discussed, could be an important event for Ukraine, which is rightly emphasized. There were 27 states among the participants, including young state of Poland and Czechoslovakia, but the Ukrainian People's Republic representatives were not invited. Thus, in the past, orientation on the Germans, which was seen as cooperation with the enemy, brought disappointment and lack of support. Such countries as France, England, and the United States made bets on preserving the integrity of Russia. Unfortunately, Ukraine was absent in the European agenda. We believe that such annotated messages contain a complete picture of the Ukrainian government's foreign policy.

The monograph demonstrates the kaleidoscope of events of the young state creation quite extensively, which, despite various obstacles, strove for independence and unity. In the monograph there is focus on the unification processes of Ukraine, the eternal dream - from the Sian to the Don. The authors do not ignore Galicia, which was also involved in state-building processes intensively. At first glance, it would seem that the political climate was favourable in the post-imperial Austro-Hungarian space. And Ukraine should have been among the new states. As a result, the November events and creation of the West Ukrainian People's Republic (November of 1918), despite the fact that Poland claimed the West Ukrainian lands. Soon it became the reason for another war - Poland's war with Ukraine. In the light of these events, the governments of Ukraine also made one important step - the unification of the UNR and the ZUNR on January 22, 1919. However, the unity of Ukraine remained largely declarative, and a real full unification did not take place.

In the monograph there is a thorough preface, which contains clear, concise explanations, as well as reasonable evaluative judgments, and it deserves special attention. According to the authors' conclusions: “The Ukrainian Revolution does not lend itself to unequivocal assessments, the defeat of the national, democratic state-building did not mean the defeat of the revolution as such, it was a powerful catalyst for social changes, growth of the national self-awareness, and formation of the nation. From the moment of the revolution, the definition of the Ukrainians as Malorossy finally became a thing of the past, their state territory and borders were established, bans on the Ukrainian printed word fell, and the national science and education received a new impetus. The Ukrainians as the nation became famous in the world” (p. 13).

The emphasis of the authors on the creation of legislative acts and documents of the new Ukrainian government (the Hetmanate is meant), their meaning, catches the eye. The fact is that the researchers quite rightly point out the presence of laws at the state level that somehow resembled the pre-revolutionary Russian Empire. Such restoration of memory, according to the author's team, is not at all unfavourable, but also hostile to Ukraine's past, and became a certain incentive for the “undisguised Russophilism”. In the end, certain delays in the statebuilding processes of the leaders of the Ukrainian People's Republic allowed the enemies to buy time, misleading the leadership of the young republic, and later to continue the expansion of Ukraine. Hence, the actual phrase “get away from Russia” was not fully understood, which later had disastrous consequences for the Ukrainians.

The chronicle, as a genre used by the authors of the publication, is quite appropriate, as already noted, in relation to the understanding of the events of the last century and has a number of advantages: consistency of presentation, recording of a wide range of an everyday life, detailing, etc. However, according to a clear logic of the chronicle description, the very structure, separation of social, economic, and cultural life of people is lost for a reader.

Particular attention should be paid to the name and geographical indexes, which, in addition to the primary reference function, give the study an academic quality. However, in our opinion, the publication would only benefit if the authors provided the use of names for convenience in the name index of the page.

In addition, it would be appropriate to include a separate list of bibliographic sources that would serve as an informative base for the authors.

In conclusion, we should note that the monograph “The Chronicle of the Ukrainian Revolution of 1917 - 1921. Part One: 1917 - 1918” is a significant addition to the historiographical sources about events in Ukraine at the beginning of the 20th century. A significant array of facts testifies to important state-building processes, which once again affirmatively declare the irreversible desire for independence and unity of Ukraine.

Without any doubt, the monograph will interest researchers of our past, teachers, students, as well as a wider circle of readers, everyone who is interested in history.

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