Brief Independence for Ukraine 1918-1922

It was to be an all-too-brief respite for Ukraine, though. The Great War reached its Armistice, but the lesser war for Ukraine waged on. The Rada lasted for a year, followed by another Hetmanate for a few months, followed by three months of the Ukrainian National Council of the West Ukrainian People’s Republic, followed finally by the Directorate of the Ukrainian People's Republic from November 1918 to 1922.

The Rada’s mandate was autonomous statehood, but pro-Russian workers’ and soldiers’ coalitions opposed it bitterly. There had been no discussion in communist circles on what might happen if revolutionary leaders turned out to be as exploitative as the old lot. The Bolshevics considered that they themselves were by definition the “revolutionary party.” Ukrainian nationalism, therefore, was deemed “counter-revolutionary,” something that should be stamped out.

Communist parties quickly and efficiently dominated Russia’s surrounding states with populist rhetoric and Russian backup. In 1922, under intense pressure from Russia, Belarus, Transcaucasia, Russia and Ukraine formed the core of the USSR. This newly formed “united states of central Asia” formed a single country, with almost the same boundaries as the toppled Tsarist Empire. Ukraine had gone through a bloody revolution, only to end up where it had been before—a subjugated vassal state.

In the far Western Ukrainian-dominant areas that were outside the original Ukrainian Soviet State, Hungary had taken control of the region of Transcarpathia. The main political contest there was whether you leaned toward Budapest or Moscow. Ukrainian aspirations were ignored, and took many years to emerge as a political force. Ukrainians, everywhere, were under house arrest.