UKRAINIAN NATIONAL REPUBLIC DURING THE DIRECTORY (NOVEMBER 1918 – NOVEMBER 1920) AND ITS PLACE IN THE CENTURIES OLD HISTORY OF THE NATIONAL STATE
Authors: Boyko Ihor , Tyshchyk Borys 
Published: August 2022

The article reveals the preconditions for the formation and development of the Ukrainian National Republic during the Directory (November 1918 – November 1920) and defines its place in the centuries-old history of the Ukrainian statehood. It is noted that the Directory of the UNR replaced the Hetmanate (Ukrainian State). The Directory proclaimed itself the interim supreme power of the revolutionary era and stated that power in the UNR should belong only to the working classes. Peasants, workers and the intelligentsia were invited to elect delegates to the Labor Congress of Ukraine – the temporary legislative body of the UNR. Considerable attention is paid to the characteristics of domestic and foreign policy of the UNR under the Directory, the formation of higher and local government, the judiciary, the army, as well as the legislation of the UNR under the Directory. In the process of forming the highest state power, the UNR and its basic political principles were restored. Legislative power was to belong to the Labor Congress, but it lasted only a week due to the war. The government was the Council of National Ministers. In the UNR, the Directory decided to create a system of so-called «labor councils» – in villages, cities, counties and provinces, and in the center – the Congress of the Working People. On December 26, 1918, this «labor principle» of the organization of power was specified in the «Declaration of the Ukrainian National Republic», stating that the power in the UNR should belong only to the working classes – workers and peasants, those classes who gained power with their blood, and the non-labor, exploitative classes, which fed on the labor of the working classes, and those who destroyed the land, destroyed the economy and marked their rule with cruelty and reaction, did not have the right to vote in the order of the state. By a majority vote, not only the real exploiters – landlords and capitalists, but also the so-called «non-labor» intelligentsia – doctors, high school teachers, university professors, lawyers, writers, clergy, etc. – were deprived of the right to vote. The notion of «labor intelligentsia», which was granted suffrage, included such categories that directly served the «working people» – nurses, paramedics, teachers of public schools, clerks, etc. Due to the ill-considered radicalism (deprivation of the right to vote), the Directory was left without the support of the majority of specialists, industrialists, officials, without whom the normal existence of the state is impossible. The Directory carried out a number of democratic transformations, in particular, the 8-hour working day had been restored, working control over enterprises had been established; assistance was provided to the unemployed and other needy categories of the population. In the UNR under the Directory, the local administrative power was represented by parish, county, provincial commissioners or atamans appointed by the Directory. It was in their hands that the more or less real power in the province was concentrated. In addition, in some provinces the activity of pre-revolutionary bodies of zemstvo and city self-government was resumed – zemstvo assemblies and zemstvo councils as well as city dumas and city councils. In almost all localities and settlements there were councils of workers peasant deputies formed during the revolution, revolutionary committees, peasants, and others. Commissariats were established under the county commissioners, and departments under the provincial commissioners, which were divided into general, administrative, passport, police, and financial departments. The reasons for the collapse of the UNR in the Directory are identified.