The Ukrainian National Republic, also called the Ukrainian People's Republic (1918-1921), was a parliamentary republic of Eastern Europe that was located in present-day Ukraine. The national republic was led by Szymon Petlyura for most of its existence, and went from a socialist-lenient republic to a nationalist republic opposed to the Soviet Union. It was invaded by the Red Army in 1921 and conquered.
History[]
Ukraine in 1918
On 23 June 1917, the Ukrainian People's Republic was declared as a part of the Russian Republic formed after the Russian Revolution of March, and was a socialist-lenient republic led by Mykhailo Hrushevsky. The republic declared its independence from the Bolsheviks on 25 January 1918 under Szymon Petlyura and became a nationalist parliamentary republic. From 1917 to 1932 there were 268 uprisings against chekists (supporters of the Bolshevik Cheka police), communists, and prodotryads (food expropriators) in Ukraine, and some of these actions included Nestor Makhno's Black Army during the Russian Civil War and a 1920 Uman ambush against the Red Army of the Bolsheviks.
During the Russian Civil War, Ukraine fought for its independence against the Bolsheviks as well as Poland, another independent nation that was struggling for its survival. The Polish-Ukrainian War of 1919 was short, and Poland gained some lands in the western parts of Poland from the Ukrainians, in addition to the city of Lviv (Lwow) and a few other cities. Ukraine allied with Poland in 1919 when the Soviets invaded Poland, and the allied forces resisted the Russians in the Polish-Soviet War. The Ukrainians were crushed by the strong Red Army, but the Poles were successful in turning the Soviets back at the battle of Warsaw. The 18 March 1921 Peace of Riga confirmed the Soviet Union's control over Ukraine, now the Ukrainian SSR. Petlyura was killed in 1926 because of his failure to prevent pogroms.
Culture[]
In 1897, Ukraine had 23,430,407 people. 73% were Ukrainian, 11% were Russian, 9% were Jewish, 2% German, 2% Polish, 1% Belarusian, 1% Romanian, and 1% other. 85% of the people were Eastern Orthodox, 9% Jewish, and 4% Roman Catholic. The languages spoken were Ukrainian and Yiddish.