The Ukrainian Hetmanate State in the Imperatives of the End of the World War (1918)

Abstract

The purpose is to study the impact of the outbreak of the World War I on the fate of the Ukrainian Hetmanate state project, which was born of the Central European empires. The role of the pragmatic interests of the German-Austrian allies, the geopolitical plans of the Entente victorious countries, and P. Skoropadskyi’s conscious visions in the Hetmanate’s transition from declared independence to the revival of “Great Russia” is determined.

The methodological basis is the principles of historicism, problem-chronological, and personalization of events. Particular attention is paid to the critical analysis of historiographical sources and their verification.

The novelty lies in the systematic coverage of the impact of global factors of the fi nal stage of the Great War on the processes of Ukrainian state-building, in particular the rise and collapse of the Skoropadskyi’s Hetmanate, the reasons for the variability of political loyalties of the head of state, which led to the rejection of Ukraine’s independence in favor of the revival of federal Russia, are tho roughly investigated.

Conclusions. The author proves that the creation and fall of the Ukrainian Hetmanate was determined by the military and political conflicts of the World War I. Its rigid attachment to one of the warring blocs gave it the status of a satellite of the Central Powers. Hetman of Ukraine found himself in the position of a voluntary and forced Germanophile, whose state worked to strengthen the Quadruple Alliance with its food and raw material resources. It is proved that the statements about the hetman’s secret ties with the French and British common in modern Ukrainian historiography are conspiracy theories, and he refuted them. The sharp turn in the course of the Great War, the crushing defeat of the Hetmanate’s allies, forced Skoropadskyi to look for ways to save the state. However, the Entente’s firm course toward the revival of Russia left him no choice. Hetman’s proclamation of the federal charter was a step forced by the geopolitical situation, the radicalization of the socialist opposition, and the leadership of the Volunteer Army in the united anti-Bolshevik front. The dichotomous Russian-Ukrainian mentality of the hetman, whose Russophile segment was galvanized by the critical situation, also played a role. However, even these hypothetical hopes for Ukrainian statehood preservation were dashed by the consequences of the Great War.