New-York tribune., 1918-01-27
'TheUkraiine
State and
Peace

;ng. in view of all the circumstances in
the case. The Ukrainians have pursued
their own course practically ever since the
) Russian Revolution achieved it's success.
The Bolshevik government, too in accord
auce with their declared principle of al
lowing the various racial groups of Rus
n sis to determine their own future, appar-
4 entity raised no objections to the dele
estes Of the new Ukraine state coming to
Brest-Litovsk and negotiating upon
their own account with the representa-
ives of the Central Powers. Naturally.
too, it was wholly agreeable to both Teu-
tonic realms to contribute their part
i toward establishing permanent division
III Of Russia. Where both sides were anx-
III ious to reach the same result, the arrange
ri ment of this side-peace was evidently an
a easy matter. There was no doctrinaire
a and stubborn Trotzky to block the wav to
! peace.
v As the Ukraine state will probably fig
s ure in history henceforth, it is worth
l while here to give some details concerning
| it, taken chiefly from a recent article ap-
! pearing in the "Frankfurter Zeitung."
4 Only few days after the revolution oc-
II Cured at Petrograd the Ukraine Rada
\ was organized at Kiev as a sort of pro-
Al visional government, and it has main
II tanned its existence since then without
4 any of those kaleidoscope changes at
/ Petrograd which astonished the world
/ from time to time. The comparatively
\ smooth sailing that the Kiev government
Il has enjoyed is due to the fact that it is
not dominated by mob of wild theorists.
It is in the hands of the substantial ele-
| ments of the population. 1t includes So
cialsts, but it is not controlled by them.
! The economic character of the Ukraine
territory, too, makes for political stabil-
4 ty; it is the great wheat-growing region
I Of Russia, contains the greatest sugar
|! mills of the country and also has the only
coal deposits that have proved worth de-
/ veoping. 1t also embraces the great Black
Sea ports through which most of Russa's
/ great export trade was carried on before
| the war.
While the Ukraine state has made
| separate peace, it is we'll to emphasize the
] fact that the Kiev government does not
regard its territory as wholly separated
from the rest of Russia. In the early
days OF It's existence there was move
ment to demand a complete separation, but
at comparatively early date more mod
crate view prevailed,
This Ukraine republic is still without
definite geographical limits. The Petro-
grad authorities have hitherto conceded to
it only the governments of Volhynia, Po-
dolla, kiev, Poltava and Tchernigov, with
an area of slightly more than 100000
square miles and a population of 1S,740,-
600. The kiev Rada, however, claims ter
rltories more than double the size of the
above Upon the ground of predominant
Ukralnan population it claims the fol-
lowing additional provinces: Kharkov,
Ekaterlnoslav, Kherson, Kursk, Voronesh,
Kholm (Chelm) and the part of Taurida
not included in the Crimea. If these claims
should be established the new republic
would contain 900 square miles of ter
ntory and a population of 33, 100000. Of
this population about 73 per cent (24,000,-'
oOO) is ukrainian; the rest consists of
Great Russians and Jews.
The delimitation of the western from
tier of the Ukraine state will probably
present considerable difficulties, and moth
Ing has reached us showing how this prob
lem was disposed of in the arrangements
agreed upon at Brest-Litovsk. A great
part of Podolia and Volhynia is occupied
0y the German and Austrian troops, and
II is quite uncertain as yet what they will
do with this occupied territory. Moreover.
much of the land in the western parts of
the two governments is in the hands of
Polish owners, and these, mostly of the
old Polish aristocracy, will probably in
sist upon the annexation of those western
districts to the new Polish state. They
would even have some historical warrant
Tor taking this position, as the territory in
question once belonged to the old Polish
kingdom.
In the hurly- -hurly of more important
events at Petrograd little news has come
out of Russia about the development of
the Ukraine state, but enough has come
through to indicate that relatively
Steady and we'll functioning government
Is IN power at Kicv. At the middle of
!hls month a dispatch stated that France
mad made a gold loan Of $1,000, 900 to the
new state In the same dispatch General
slnnechenko, president of the Ukraine
oecrelarlat, described the Ukraine as can
oasls of order and constitutional policy"
ne Is even dreaming that the Ukraine
state shall take firm hold of the rest of
"ussia and bring order out Of chaos. He
Said