To the 100th anniversary of the Day of Unity of Ukraine: the actual thought of the scientist

January 22, 2019

Today we celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Day of Unity of Ukraine. It was on January 22, 1919 that the “Act Zluky” (Unification Act) was proclaimed, which was one of the most important events of the Ukrainian revolution period of 1917-1921. Thanks to this document, the unification of the Ukrainian People’s Republic and Western Ukrainian People’s Republic took place. Volodymyr Marchuk, Associate Professor of the M.P. Kovalskyi Department of History of the National University of Ostroh Academy, explains about these events in his academic paper.

“Act Zluky” 1919

An extremely important role in the process of formation of the modern Ukrainian nation was played by political events related to the “Act Zluky” of the Ukrainian lands in the period of the Ukrainian revolution of 1917-1921. Ethnopolitical and ideological consequences of the revolution led to the formation of the modern state.

The overthrow of tsarism in the Russian Empire allowed the Ukrainian people to proclaim their own state - the Ukrainian People's Republic. The process of creating its own state, the West Ukrainian People's Republic, began in Western Ukraine after the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in November 1918. On the instant, without having managed to strengthen itself, this republic suffered foreign aggression and encroachment, enormous territorial and human losses. It accelerated the development of plans for unification with Dnieper Ukraine.

The unifying stir had a bilateral, counter nature. The slogan of unity never disappeared. The Ukrainian National Union (UNU) delivered a far-going program of unity of Ukraine in the middle of October 1918.

The successful deployment of the anti-Hetman uprising led by the Directorate and the restoration of the UPR, on the one hand, and the Ukrainian-Polish war in Western Ukraine, on the other, accelerated the unification of the two republics. It turned out that the WUPR (The West Ukrainian People's Republic) constantly needed external support. Ukrainian National Council (UNC) could not count on assistance from the countries of Western Europe, since the Entente states had their own interests in this part of Europe. Therefore, among the leadership of WUPR, members increasingly recognized the need to unite with Greater Ukraine.

As a result of preliminary consultations, the “pre-accession treaty” on merging two parts of Ukraine “into one state body” was signed in Fastiv on December 1, 1918 by the Plenipotentiary Representatives of the State Secretariat of WUPR, Lonhyn Tsehelskyi, Dmytro Levytskyi, and members of the Directorate, Volodymyr Vynychenko, Symon Petliura, Panas Andriievskyi, Fedor Shvets.

The law on the unity of WUPR with the UPR, signed on January 3, 1919, in Stanislav (now Ivano-Frankivsk), was unanimously approved by the convened UNC. Approving of this document, Ye. Petrushevych, UNC President, noted: “The adopted law will remain in our history as one of the best events. There were no two opinions between us during the procedure of unification. There is one Ukrainian People's Republic for us from today. Let it live. "

Many thousands of celebrations were held in many cities and villages of WUPR under the influence of UNC decision to unite, where Western Ukrainians fundamentally discovered their will in uniting the Ukrainian lands.

In order to notification to the UNC Resolution as of January 3, 1919, a representative WUPR delegation headed by Lev Bachynskyi, UNC Vice-President, was sent to complete the registration of the unity of the two republics, as well as participate in the work of the Labor Congress of Ukraine in Kiev.

On January 19, 1919, the first official meeting of the Directorate and the Council of People’s Ministers of the UPR was held, with the participation of the presidium of the WUPR delegation. The latter presented the Directorate with the credentials of UNC on the unification of the West Ukrainian Republic with the Greater Ukraine. The Council heard and approved all acts of unity, including the text of the Directorate`s Universal.

The Directory and the Council of People’s Ministers decided to hold a solemn celebration of the unification of the UPR and WUPR on January 22. Perhaps it was no mere chance, since this day coincided with the anniversary of the IV Universal of the Ukrainian Central Council, according to which the UPR was declared as an independent sovereign state of the Ukrainian people. So, it thereby became the day of the double national holiday - Independence and Unity.

January 22, 1919 Kiev put on a holiday look. Blue-yellow flags fluttered on the state institutions. The balconies of the houses were decorated with carpets and canvas with Ukrainian embroidery and drawings. A triumphal arch at the entrance from Volodymyrska Street to Sofia Square was decorated with a large panel, and on its` sides - the ancient Ukrainian and Galician emblems. To the sounds of orchestras, Ukrainian military units, students and pupils, numerous delegations from various institutions and departments began to come, and they captured the entireвся square and even the streets adjacent to it.

Exactly at noon there were deputies of a sui generis Ukrainian parliament - the Labor Congress, members of the Directorate, the WUPR delegation, members of the UNU (Ukrainian National Union), ministers headed by the head of government, representatives of the diplomatic corps, clergy. Celebrations began with Lev Bachynskyi`s speech, the Head of the WUPR delegation, the Vice-president of the UNRada, in which, in particular, he said: "Honorable Directorate, the High Government of the Ukrainian People's Republic! On this historic square of the capital city of Kiev, here we are - the representatives of Western Ukraine, viz. Galicia, Bukovyna and Transcarpathian Rus, elected by law and free votes of our people, and we bring it to you and assure publicly before the whole people of Ukraine, before the whole world and in the face of history that we, the Ukrainian people of the western Ukrainian lands, being one blood, one heart and one soul with the whole people of the Ukrainian People's Republic, want to restore the national unity of our people, that was existed under the leadership of Volodymyr the Great and Yaroslav the Wise, to which our great hetmans - Bohdan Khmelnytskyi, Petro Doroshenko and Ivan Mazepa - sought. From today, Western Ukraine unites in one inseparable body, in the United and Sovereign State».

After that, L. Bachynskyi solemnly handed the read letter to the Chairman of the Directory. Having adopted it, Vynnychenko congratulated the delegation of Western Ukrainians with a short speech, in which he emphasized the historical significance of the Unity Act. In support of the ratification of the Pre-accession Treaty of December 1, 1918, and the UNRada`s Resolution of January 3, 1919, F. Shvets announced the Universal of the Directory of the unification of the UPR and the WUPR (Universal of Unity).

«In the name of the Ukrainian People’s Republic, the Directory informs the Ukrainian People about a great event in the history of our Ukrainian land.

On January 3, 1919, in Stanislaviv, the Ukrainian National Council of the Western Ukrainian People's Republic, as a spokesman for the will of all Ukrainians of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire and as their highest legislative factor, solemnly proclaimed the union of the Western Ukrainian People's Republic with the Dnieper People's Republic to a single sovereign People's Republic.

Welcoming with great joy this historic step of our western brothers, the Directorate of the Ukrainian People's Republic has decided to accept and implement that union on the conditions specified in the decision of the Western Ukrainian People's Republic of January 3, 1919.

Henceforth, the Western Ukrainian People's Republic (Galicia, Bukovyna and Hungarian Rus) and the Dnieper Great Ukraine, the parts of the United Ukraine, which have been separated for centuries from each other, are merged together. From now on, the Ukrainian people, liberated by a powerful impulse of their own forces, can build an indivisible independent Ukrainian state by united friendly efforts of all their sons for the benefit and happiness of all of its laboring people.»

The next day the Labor Congress of Ukraine started its work, where the Universal of the Directorate was issued by the V. Zlotchanskyi, the Secretary of the Presidium. After hearing and discussing Sobornosti Acts, the Congress practically unanimously approved them with great enthusiasm. By ratifying the Universal Unity, the Congress has given it a legal character. Ye. Petrushevych, the President of UNRada, was soon elected to the Directorate.

In spite of the fact that according to the Universal of the Directorate, approved by the Labor Congress of Ukraine on January 23, 1919, the union of two Ukrainian state entities - the UPR and the WUPR (under the name of the Western Region of the UPR - WRUPR) - was declared unreal. Both state entities continued to operate autonomously, and at some points it even reached an acute confrontation. There was also no organizational union of military formations - the UPR Army, headed by  S. Petliura and the Ukrainian Galician Army, which was subordinated to the Yevhen Petrushevych, the dictator of the WRUPR, and had its own command in the name of Mykhailo Omelianovych-Pavlenko, Olexandr Hrekov, Myron Tarnavskyi. Such a state of affairs was one of the reasons that led to defeat both the Dnieper and Galician.

On the 71st anniversary of the Act Zluky (January 22, 1990) in Ukraine, one of the largest mass events in Central and Eastern Europe, the "living chain" as a symbol of the unity of the eastern and western lands, was celebrated in Ukraine, and a sign of the celebration of the events of the Ukrainian Revolution. More than a million people, having joining hands, created a continuous chain from Kiev to Lviv. The action was one of the evidence that Ukrainians overcame fear of the communist regime and are ready to confront the policies of the Communist Party.