Home Archive 2023, V. 9, Iss. 1 Ukrainian-Russian Relations in the Period of the Central Rada: Historical and Legal Aspects

Ukrainian-Russian Relations in the Period of the Central Rada: Historical and Legal Aspects

 

DOI: 10.46340/ephd.2023.9.1.1

Olena Syniavska, PhD in History
Odesa Mechnikov National University, Odesa, Ukraine;
Leibniz Institute for South and Southeast European Studies, Regensburg, Germany

How to cite: Syniavska, O. (2023). Ukrainian-Russian Relations in the Period of the Central Rada: Historical and Legal Aspects [Ukrainsko-rosiiski vidnosyny v period Tsentralnoi Rady: istoryko-pravovi aspekty]. European Philosophical and Historical Discourse, 9, 1, 5-13. https://doi.org/10.46340/ephd.2023.9.1.1

 

Abstract

The attention of modern world society is focused on the events in Eastern Europe. Tension between Russia and Ukraine has been observed for centuries, and in February 2022 it escalated into open armed aggression. But this is not the first Russian-Ukrainian war. Almost a hundred years ago, when the Russian Empire fell, Ukrainians already had to fight with Russia. Ukrainian-Russian relations played a decisive role in terms of the prospects and future of the Ukrainian National Revolution in 1917. At the final stage of the First World War, they were determined by two important components: the relations of the Ukrainian liberation movement with the Provisional Government and the war of Bolshevik Russia against the Ukrainian People’s Republic. The purpose of the article is to determine the main aspects of the relations between the Ukrainian government and the Russian governments in the context of legitimizing the power of the Central Rada during the national liberation struggle in 1917 – the first third of 1918. In addition to the source base, a wide range of Ukrainian and foreign historiography was used to reveal the purpose of the study. The article proves that the beginning of the February Revolution in Russia gave hope to Ukrainian leaders to find a compromise in the post-imperial space in the equal coexistence of all Slavic peoples. Most Ukrainian politicians really hoped to find a common language with the Russian authorities – first with the representatives of the Provisional Government, then with the Bolshevik leaders. But neither the Cabinet of Ministers of Alexander Kerensky nor Lenin’s Council of People’s Commissars supported the relevant Ukrainian initiatives. Moreover, the Russian Bolsheviks unleashed a war against Ukraine, thus showing their true negative attitude towards Ukrainian statehood. After a series of unsuccessful attempts to reach a compromise on the definition of the state status of Ukraine, first with the Provisional Government of Russia, and then with the Bolshevik government of Vladimir Lenin, Ukrainians in 1918 had to defend their right to freedom and independence with arms in their hands.
Keywords: Ukrainian Revolution, Central Rada, Provisional Government, Council of People’s Commissars, Russian-Ukrainian war, 1917-1918.

 

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