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Dyrektoriya UNR was a
temporary, revolutionary, state authority created by the Ukrainian National
Union on 14 November 1918 for directing the overthrow of Hetman Pavlo Skoropadsky. The uprising against
the hetman was hastened by his declaration of a ‘federative union’ with the
future non-Bolshevik Russia
on that day. At the beginning the Directory was headed by Volodymyr
Vynnychenko (representative of the Ukrainian Social Democratic Workers'
party), and included the following members: Supreme Otaman Symon Petliura
(Ukrainian Social Democratic Workers' party and delegate of the Sich
Riflemen), Fedir Shvets (representing the Peasant Association), Opanas
Andriievsky (Ukrainian Party of Socialists-Independentists), and Andrii
Makarenko (non-partisan member, delegate of the railway workers). The
Directory formed a temporary government—the Executive Council for State
Affairs (Rada Zaviduiuchykh Derzhavnymy Spravamy). The uprising led to
Skoropadsky's abdication in favor of his council of ministers, which, in
turn, yielded power to the Directory. A new government—the Council of
National Ministers of the Ukrainian
National Republic—was
established by the Directory's decree of 26 December 1918 and was chaired by
Volodymyr Chekhivsky. The Directory abolished many of the Hetman government's
laws and institutions and restored the legislation of the Central
Rada. The most important of these laws dealt with land
distribution, the establishment of Ukrainian as the official language, the
autocephaly of the Orthodox church, and the convening of the Labor Congress.
The Labor Congress met on 23–8 January 1919, and the Directory submitted its
powers to the congress—the legislature of the Ukrainian National
Republic. In view of
the state of war, the Labor Congress empowered the Directory to act as the
‘supreme power and enact laws that are necessary for the defense of the
Republic’ and invested the Council of National Ministers with executive
power. The ministers were appointed by the Directory and were responsible to
it between sessions of the Labor Congress. At the end of March Yevhen
Petrushevych, the president of the Ukrainian National Rada of the Western Province of the Ukrainian National Republic,
joined the Directory, in accordance with a resolution of the Labor Congress,
but he did not actually participate in the Directory's work and eventually
resigned from it.
On 5 February 1919 the Directory moved from Kyiv to Vinnytsia. Henceforth it
frequently changed residence, depending on events at the front. To win the
support of the Entente in the Ukrainian-Soviet War,
1917–21, Volodymyr Vynnychenko resigned from the Directory, and Symon
Petliura became its head on 11 February. At the same time a new government,
without the socialists, was formed and headed by Serhii Ostapenko. When the
talks with the Entente collapsed, a new socialist cabinet was formed by Borys
Martos in Rivne on 9 April 1919. At the end of August it was replaced by
Isaak Mazepa's cabinet. Opanas Andriievsky left the Directory in connection
with Otaman Volodymyr Oskilko's uprising.
Only three members remained in the Directory. Their powers were not clearly
delineated. Besides carrying out their representative and legislative
functions, they sometimes interfered in the affairs of the executive branch
and provoked conflicts with the Council of National Ministers.
At a meeting of the Directory and the Council of National Ministers on 15
November 1919 at Kamianets-Podilskyi it was decided that Andrii Makarenko and
Fedir Shvets would go abroad on state business and that in their absence ‘the
supreme authority in the affairs of the Republic [is] invested in the head of
the Directory and the Supreme Otaman Symon Petliura, who in the name of the
Directory will confirm all laws and decrees adopted by the Council of National
Ministers.’ On 21 May 1920 the government of the republic issued an order
(confirmed by Petliura) recalling the two members of the Directory—Makarenko
and Shvets. Their failure to return was considered as a resignation from the
Directory. Thus, the Directory ceased to be a collective body. All its powers
passed to Petliura (sitting in the middle / see photo below).
The ‘Law on the Temporary Supreme Authority and the Legislative System of the
Ukrainian National Republic,’
passed on 12 November 1920, gave constitutional sanction to the new one-man
Directory as the supreme power of the republic. According to this law, if the
head of the Directory became incapable of carrying out his functions, the
supreme power would pass to the head of the State People's Council (Derzhavna
Narodna Rada). Before this council convened, the supreme power would be
entrusted to a college consisting of the head of the cabinet, the chief
justice of the Supreme Court, and a representative of the political parties.
Until this college was summoned, the head of the Council of National
Ministers would replace the head of the Directory. After Petliura's death on
25 May 1926 supreme power was assumed in accordance with this law by the head
of the Government-in-exile of the Ukrainian
National Republic
at the time, Andrii Livytsky.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Khrystiuk, P. Zamitky i materiialy do istoriï ukraïns'koï revoliutsiï
1917–1920 rr., 3–4 (Vienna 1921–2; repr, New York 1969)
Antonov-Ovsiienko, V. ‘V borot'bi proty Dyrektoriï.’ Litopys revoliutsiï,
1930, nos 1–5
Mytsiuk, O. Doba Dyrektoriï UNR: Spomyny i rozdumy (Lviv 1939)
Mazepa, I. Ukraïna v ohni i buri revoliutsiï 1917–1921, 3 vols (Prague 1942;
2nd edn, Munich 1950–1)
Reshetar Jr., J. The Ukrainian Revolution, 1917–1920: A Study in Nationalism
(Princeton, NJ 1952; repr, New York 1972)
Lykholat, A. Razgrom natsionalisticheskoi kontrrevoliutsii na Ukraine
(1917–1922 gg.) (Moscow
1954)
Rybalka, I. Rozhrom burzhuazno-natsionalistychnoï Dyrektoriï na Ukraïni
(Kharkiv 1962)
Stakhiv, M. Ukraïna v dobi Dyrektoriï UNR, 7 vols (Scranton, PA 1962–6)
Rybalka, I. (ed). Grazhdanskaia voina na Ukraine,
1918-1920: Sbornik dokumentov i materialov, 1 (Kyiv 1967)
Hunczak, T. (ed). The Ukraine,
1917–1921: A Study in Revolution (Cambridge, Mass 1977)
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