# Unification Act

The Unification Act (Ukrainian: Акт Злуки, romanized: Akt Zluky, IPA:; or Велика Злука, Velyka Zluka, IPA:) was an agreement signed by the Ukrainian People's Republic and the West Ukrainian People's Republic in Sophia Square in Kyiv on 22 January 1919. Since 1999, it is celebrated every year as the Day of Unity of Ukraine to commemorate the signing of the treaty; it is a state holiday in Ukraine, though not a public holiday.

## History

On January 22, 1919, the Central Council of Ukraine, with its Fourth Universal, proclaimed the Ukrainian People's Republic an independent, sovereign state of the Ukrainian people.
On 1 December 1918, a pre-accession agreement on the further unification of the two republics into a single state was concluded between the Ukrainian People's Republic (UPR) and the Western Ukrainian People's Republic (ZUNR) in Fastiv. On 3 January 1919, the parliament of the Western Ukrainian People's Republic in Stanislaviv ratified it and sent a delegation to negotiate with the UPR government, and on 22 January 1919, the UPR Directory issued a universal declaring the creation of a single and independent UPR. On the same day, in a solemn atmosphere, it was announced on Sophia Square in Kyiv.
According to the treaty Halychyna would become an autonomous part of Ukraine.
The Act of Unification was effectively denounced after representatives of the Galician Army unilaterally signed the Zyatkivtsi Agreement with the Volunteer Army on 6 November 1919, without taking into account the opinion of the UPR government. The agreement on the cessation of hostilities put the Galician army at the disposal of General Anton Denikin. These agreements were re-approved in Odesa on 17 November 1919, with the leadership of the Novorossiya region of the Armed Forces of Southern Russia, and the treaty was ratified in Vinnytsia on 19 November, after which it was implemented.
On 2 December 1919, representatives of the Ukrainian People's Republic and Poland signed a draft declaration in Warsaw, according to which the Ukrainian People's Republic gave Poland Chełm Land, Polissia, Podlachia, Western Volhynia, and Eastern Halychyna. On 4 December 1919, the official diplomatic delegation of the Western Ukrainian People's Republic (S. Vytvytskyi, A. Horbachevskyi, M. Novakivskyi) announced to the UPR Embassy in Warsaw and the Government of the Republic of Poland that the Western Ukrainian People's Republic UPR with the Polish government. On 20 December 1919, the authorized dictator Yevhen Petrushevych convened a meeting of the ZUNR government in Vienna, at which a decision was made to unilaterally repeal the Act of Unification.
However Ukraine was unable to gain independence and in December 1920 the Ukrainian SSR of the Soviet Union was established comprising most of the territory of the Ukrainian People's Republic. The territories of the West Ukrainian People's Republic became mostly part of Poland. In 1939 the territories of both became part of the Ukrainian SSR.
The unification action of 1919 left a deep mark in the historical memory of the Ukrainian people. This was evidenced by the January events of 1939 in Carpatho-Ukraine.

### 71st anniversary

To mark the 71st anniversary of the signing of the Act Zluky in 1990, over 300,000 Ukrainians created a human chain (approx. 482 km (300 mi) long) from the capital Kyiv to the western Ukrainian city of Lviv on 21 January 1990. The chain, the largest public demonstration in Ukraine since the beginning of Glasnost, was funded by the People's Movement of Ukraine (Rukh) and was partly inspired by the Baltic Way which had taken place the previous year. For the first time since the period of the Ukrainian People's Republic, the blue and yellow national flag was raised.

## Participants
### On the part of the Ukrainian People's Republic

Symon Petliura, Volodymyr Vynnychenko, Chairman of the Directorate, Fedir Shvets, Panas Andriievskyi [uk].

### On the part of the West Ukrainian People's Republic

Vasyl Stefanyk (leader), Lonhyn Tsehelskyi, Dmytro Levytskyi, Andrii Shmhigelskyi [uk], Tymotei Starukh [uk].

## Unity of Ukraine Day

On 21 January 1999, the President of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma decreed the creation of the holiday "Unity of Ukraine Day" (Ukrainian: День Соборності України, romanized: Den Sobornosti Ukrainy), a government holiday, celebrated every year on 22 January to mark the political and historical significance of the 1919 agreement. It is not a public holiday. In December 2011, President Viktor Yanukovych caused public controversy when he merged the "Day of Freedom" into this day, naming it officially the "Day of Unity and Freedom of Ukraine" (Ukrainian: День Соборності та Свободи України, Den' Sobornosti ta Svobody Ukrayiny). The "Day of Freedom" was created in 2005 by President Viktor Yushchenko, Yanukovych's opponent, to be celebrated on 22 November in commemoration of the Orange Revolution. President Yanukovych stated he changed the day of celebration because of "numerous appeals from the public". Mid-October 2014 President Petro Poroshenko undid Yanukovych's merging when he decreed that 21 November will be celebrated as "Day of Dignity and Freedom" in honour of the Euromaidan-protests that started on 21 November 2013.
In a 22 January 2021 Facebook post on the occasion of the 102nd Unity of Ukraine Day celebrating the 1919 symbolic unification of the Ukrainian People's Republic and the West Ukrainian People's Republic, the pro-Russian former Prime Minister of Ukraine Mykola Azarov claimed that instead, the 1939 Soviet annexation of Eastern Galicia and Volhynia should be recognized as the day Ukraine gained "the real unity of Ukraine". According to Azarov "many Ukrainians, do not know these facts, because now the Soviet period of Ukraine is smeared with black paint, and Bandera is glorified and glorified." Azarov also claimed that prior to 1939 Western Ukraine became part of the USSR "there was no industry or social infrastructure. And look at what has been created in Western Ukraine for several decades of independence."
On Unity Day 2024 President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a Presidential Decree "regarding the resolution of the issues of Ukrainian historical territories" now under Russian control beyond Ukraine's (international recognized) official borders; like the Kuban, Belgorod and Rostov Oblasts. These territories were claimed by the Ukrainian People's Republic government (1917–1921) and who before Holodomor and the Russification efforts of the 1930s of the Soviet Union hosted huge Ukrainian populations. According to the decree Ukraine should strive "to preserve the national identity of Ukrainians" in these regions of Russia.