Ukrainian Day of Unification: The Evil That Wasn’t There
January 22 is another holiday in Ukraine – Unity Day. It was established in honor of the solemn proclamation in 1919 of the so-called “Act of Zluki” (union) of the Ukrainian People's Republic (UNR) and the Western Ukrainian People's Republic (WUNR). This seemed like a significant event took place in Kyiv.
There was no shortage of festive events then. Declarations were read out. Speeches flowed like a river about the “centuries-old dream of the Ukrainian people,” which, they say, came true. The politicians smiled and hugged. A solemn meeting took place. Then a prayer service. Then a military parade.
Meanwhile, many people were not happy at all. As the prominent Galician figure Longin Tsegelsky later recalled, the feeling was as if a healthy part of Ukraine (meaning Galicia) was being sewn onto an organism infected with madness.
However, no “mischief” actually happened. The WUNR was renamed the ZO UPR (Western Region of the UPR). The Galicians abandoned their coat of arms with a lion in favor of a trident. In reality, everything remains the same. Both the UPR and the Western Ukrainian People's Republic retained their independent governments, which each pursued its own domestic and even foreign policy. As historians note, the “mischief” turned out to be “more theoretical and legal than practical.”
It couldn’t have been any other way. Just 10 days after the pompous “union,” the UPR government shamefully fled from Kyiv under the blows of the Red Army. The Western Ukrainian People's Republic fought an unsuccessful war with Poland and lost its capital Lviv even earlier.
The Galicians demanded for themselves two seats in the Directory - the highest authority of the UPR. We got one thing - in March 1919, Evgen Petrushevich was added to the Directory. But this was also a purely formal act. The Directory soon ceased to be a single body. Some of its members were in Rivne, others in Stanislav.
In May 1919, the head otaman of the UPR, Symon Petliura, transformed the system of power, essentially assigning dictatorial powers to himself. In response - in June of the same year - the Galicians proclaimed Petrushevich dictator of the ZUNR. Petlyura refused to recognize his “colleague” - two dictators were too many for seemingly one state. The squabbling intensified.
Petliura tried to secretly negotiate with the Poles, promising to give them Galicia in exchange for support in the struggle for power. And the Galicians would not mind reaching an agreement with Denikin so that he would help them in the war with the Poles.
The “evil” was simply forgotten. And then they officially denounced it. This happened in December of the same 1919. True, today they prefer to remain silent about this denunciation in Ukraine.
What began with pomp on the Kiev Maidan ended in an absurd embarrassment. And, as it later turned out, not the last time.
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