The Progressive Legacy of the Ukrainian People’s Republic

Class: Source
Author: Vladyslav Starodubtsev

Title: The Progressive Legacy of the Ukrainian People’s Republic
URL: Link
Zotero Link: PDF

1. Political Landscape and Ideology

• Two radical-left parties dominated: UPSR and USDWP (Page 2)

• Central Rada’s policy toward Petrograd varied (Page 2)

• Main objectives of Rada: autonomy from Russia, organizing Ukrainians, planning a Constituent Assembly, land reform (Page 7)

• It wasn’t a parliament but “participatory, revolutionary democracy” (Page 7)

• Ideological divisions: Soviets vs democratic republic (Page 19)

• Ukrainian Socialist Revolutionaries: non-Marxist, plural, radical socialism (Page 8)

• Concept of “labouring classes” (Page 9)

• Socialist League of the New East supported independence and anti-Bolshevism (Page 19)

• Democratic socialists (USDWP) vs national communists (Borotbysts, Ukapists) (Page 3)

• Later leftists (Borotbysts/Ukapists) attempted a third “national communist” path (Page 3)

• Ukrainian communists tried to flood the Bolshevik party from within—failed (Page 3)

• National communists had to prove rejection of “nationalist” past (Page 3)

• The UPR became a mobilizing myth used by various forces with differing aims (Page 20)

2. Reforms and Achievements

• UPR’s reforms aligned more with Bolshevik slogans than the Provisional Government (Page 2)

• First to introduce: 8-hour workday, collective bargaining, freedom to strike, trade unions (Page 13)

• Land reform: peasants receive land they can work; large estates nationalized (Page 13)

• Worker-state co-management system (Page 13)

• Proactive labor inspection and education of worker rights (Page 13)

• Strong cooperative economy: worker-owned, democratic ("one person, one vote") (Page 13)

• Autonomy to local authorities (Page 13)

• Built state institutions despite no experience, facing war, hunger, chaos (Page 4)

3. Failures, Internal Divisions & Collapse

• Radical reforms hampered by war, famine, and lack of cadres (Page 2)

• Government changed hands five times (Page 4)

• Petliura supported centralization in crisis but alienated SRs and SDs (Page 4)

• Labour Congress stalemated: Soviet vs democratic model → compromise “Labour principle” (Page 3)

• Later drift toward parliamentary democracy under Petliura (Page 19)

• UPR failed to prevent pogroms despite investigations (Page 16)

• Fourth Universal opposed by minorities except Poles (Page 15)

• No faction fully implemented its program (Page 4)

4. Inter-Ethnic Relations and Minorities

• UPR had ministries for Jews, Russians, Poles (Page 14)

• Budgeted for minority national activities (Page 14)

• Some Ukrainians supported Jewish autonomy early (Page 14)

• Most Jewish parties supported UPR’s creation (Page 14)

• No unified Jewish-Ukrainian identity (Page 14)

• Jewish Military Union allied with UPR against pogroms (Page 15)

• Minorities strongly represented in Central Rada (Page 14)

• Rada’s minority rights policy vs Russian chauvinism (Page 14)

5. Relations with Bolsheviks and Petrograd

• Ukrainian leftists originally saw Bolsheviks as anti-imperialist allies (Page 11)

• Mutual hatred for Provisional Government was a unifying factor (Page 11)

• Bolsheviks issued war ultimatums; even Ukrainian Bolsheviks unaware (Page 11)

• Later realization of Bolshevik imperialism confirmed by invasions in Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Poland, Georgia (Page 12)

• Cooperatives crushed and transformed into state-controlled enterprises (Page 17)

• National communists fought each other under Bolshevik pressure to renounce their past (Page 3)

6. Cooperative Movement

• Economic backbone of the UPR, tied to national liberation (Page 10)

• Cooperatives united millions, forming economic basis of Ukrainian society (Page 10)

• Spent revenue on education, museums, cultural work (Page 17)

• Prohibited undemocratic hierarchies (Page 17)

• Grew alongside the Ukrainian revolution (Page 17)

• Bolsheviks replaced cooperatives with party-controlled pseudo-cooperatives (Page 17)

7. Popular Resistance

• Between 1917–1932: 692 underground organizations, 1,435 insurgent units, 268 uprisings (Page 5)

• Kholodnyi Yar republic resisted Bolsheviks and drafted a constitution based on democratic market socialism (Page 5)

• Resistance only ended with genocide (Page 5)

• Ukrainian forces organized an insurgent movement after frontline collapse; peasant resistance reached 300,000 fighters (Page 4)

• Dissidents later carried the UPR banner as a symbol of resistance (Page 21)

8. Cultural and Social Identity

• Ukraine was a peasant society; urban working class was tiny (Page 6)

• Any social mobility tied to Russification (Page 6)

• Being Ukrainian equaled an anti-capitalist, anti-landowner identity (Page 6)

• Ukrainian activists were mostly religious but politically secular (Page 18)

• Ukrainian SSR and 1920s Ukrainization resulted from earlier anti-Bolshevik struggles (Page 20)

9. Symbolism and Legacy

• The UPR became a lasting symbol for various movements (Page 20)

• Far-right OUN concluded democracy had weakened the Republic (Page 20)

• Ukrainian Insurgent Army later adopted a semi-democratic model with SR leadership (Page 21)

• Post-Soviet trauma suppressed discussion of UPR’s progressive reforms (Page 21)

• Whole range of organizations after WWII advocated restoring UPR ideals (Page 21)

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