Content area
Full Text
Ukrainian territory was fought over by various factions after the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the First World War, which added the collapse of Austria-Hungary to that of the Imperial Russia. The crumbling of the empires had a great effect on the Ukrainian nationalist movement and in the short period of four years a number of Ukrainian governments sprung up. This period was characterized by optimism and nation-building, as well as chaos and civil war. It ended in 1921, with the territory of modern-day Ukraine divided between Soviet Ukraine (which would become a constituent republic of the Soviet Union) and Poland, with small regions belonging to Czechoslovakia and Romania.
National Awakening
Following the Russian October Revolution of 1917, during the First World War, territories which had belonged to the Russian Empire, including Ukraine, suddenly found themselves in a political vacuum. Factions in Ukraine and several foreign powers vied for control during the increasingly chaotic period of the Russian Civil War.[citation needed] After the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the ethnic Ukrainian territories of Galicia(Halychyna), Transcarpathia (Zakarpattia), and Bukovina (Bukovyna) found themselves likewise in strife.
Ukrainians of Dnieper Ukraine and of the Western territories independently declared statehood as the Ukrainian People's Republic (Ukrayins'ka Narodna Respublika, UNR) and the Western Ukrainian People's Republic (Zakhidno-Ukrayins'kaNarodna Respublyka, ZUNR), respectively. Forces of these Ukrainian republics, the White movement, the Ukrainian and Russian Bolsheviks, Poland, Germany, and Romania fought over Ukrainian lands. The Makhnovist Partisan Army claimed significant areas as an anarchist "Free Territory." Many stateless paramilitary bands lacking any coherent ideology fought these forces and each other in what frequently seemed a political free-for-all. Various alliances were formed and broken.
Despite the turbulence, this period saw a resurgence of Ukrainian-language publication, which had been controversial in Austro-Hungary, and persecuted in the Russian Empire.[citation needed] The Hetmanate, installed by Germany while overthrowing the government of the UNR, conducted state policies directed at bolstering the Ukrainian...