The concept of the Republic of the Working People: the history of its emergence, scientiﬁc-theoretical and political capacity
Authors: Soldatenko Valerii 
Published: December 2024

Revolutionary era 1917–1920 became a period of revival of the Ukrainian nation. One of the most important factors in this process was the implementation of projects to create their own national statehood. The intellectual forces of the nation put forward and, taking into account the circumstances, tried to theoretically substantiate several diﬀerent models of the state structure of the revived Ukraine.

Revolutionary practice and the development of international relations have not confirmed the rationalism and expediency of the initial calculations of implementing decentralization and democratization of the former Russian Empire, in which Ukraine would have acquired the status of broad national-territorial autonomy. From the beginning of 1918, the leaders of the Ukrainian Revolution took a course towards creating an independent, independent, sovereign state. However, the Austro-German occupation interrupted the process of creating a popular political and legal model of Ukraine.

The liquidation of the occupation-hetman regime that followed by the end of the year, the return of society to the path of revolutionary steps, and the proclamation of the revival of the Ukrainian People’s Republic determined the promotion and justification of plans for its further development in the changed conditions. The head of the UPR Directory, Social Democrat V. Vinnychenko, took on this task. He proposed the concept of creating a Republic of the Working People, according to which only the labor elements of society would be participants in the political process — peasants, workers, employees, intelligentsia, who would not resort to the exploitation of other people’s labor. The remaining strata — entrepreneurs, bankers, large landowners - were excluded from participation in political life. To implement the plan, it was planned to create labor councils that would diﬀer from the existing Councils of Workers’, Soldiers’ and Peasants’ Deputies in the equality of representation and participation in their functioning of all citizens constituting the creative (labor) majority of the nation.

In this case, V. Vinnychenko took advantage of the ideas of the left elements of the Ukrainian political parties that were born in the crucible of the revolution and were already actively publicly pulsating, included in the USDRP, UPSR, etc., who sought to find a way to organically combine national interests and aspirations with the theoretical tenets of Marxism, the triumph of which was seen in the then achievements of the socialist revolution.

The concept of the Republic of the Working People turned out to be attractive, rational, capable of resolving in the future diﬃcult issues of relations with Soviet Russia and the Entente countries. It was approved by the leading national political parties and the Labor Congress of Ukraine (January 23–28, 1919). However, the implementation of the agreed constructive course turned out to be impossible due to sharply complicated international conditions (armed interventions), the escalation of the Civil War and contradictions within the Ukrainian political leadership.

The concept of the Republic of the Working People remained an interesting, meaningful, vibrant fruit and monument of the intellectual creativity of patriotic political forces that fought for a progressive, civilized path of development of the Ukrainian nation.

Key words: Ukrainian revolution, UNR, Directory, V. Vynnychenko, Republic of the Labor People, Labor Councils, Labor Congress.