Events in Ukraine 1914–1922 Their Importance and Historical Background (Part III)

Abstract

The editorial board continues to publish the most important documents that characterize the state and progress of the Ukrainian national liberation movement, the attitude of other states towards this movement in the early twentieth century. The publication of the selected documents from the first and second volumes of the collection of documents “Events in Ukraine 1914-1922 their Importance and Historical Background” was carried out in the 39th and 40th volumes of the Collection. Currently we are publishing our research from the third volume. The compilers selected 37 documents or fragments of them, which chronologically encompass the period from 6 March to 18 October 1918. They represent the then vision of the Ukrainian problem by the ruling elites of Austro-Hungarian Empire and Germany, as well as reflect the main stages of Pavlo Skoropadsky’s performance as the head of the Ukrainian state in its internal development, as well as in establishing relations with Central Powers and other states. Namely – the documents from 465 to 625 contain information about the proclamation of Pavlo Skoropadsky as Hetman of Ukraine and difficulties in forming a government, establishing relations with the Central Powers and the issue of expediting the ratification of the Treaty of Breast-Litovsk, etc., socio-political movements and subversive performance of the Bolsheviks in Ukraine. Documents number 674-822 are about diplomatic negotiations and the intransigent struggle of the Hetman for the creation of “the Greater Ukraine” (and the document number 694, which demonstrates the high assessment of the national Ukrainian policy of the Hetman’s government is especially interesting here). The last documents number 866-951 are about Ukraine’s relations with the Bolsheviks, Romania, and other states. We hope that these documents will be insightful and informative for both students and experts of international relations and the history of Ukraine in the early twentieth century. Having selected the documents from different parts of the book, we preserved their serial and page numbers, the style of the titles and captions. We also present a list of abbreviations in the original.