:Ukrainian State

{{Main|Central Rada|Ukrainian People's Republic}}

{{Further|Ukraine after the Russian Revolution}}

{{See also|Ukrainian–Soviet War|Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (Ukraine–Central Powers)|Operation Faustschlag}}

As a result of the Bolshevik aggression, the government of the Ukrainian People's Republic that initially pursued anti-military policy sought military support after the capital Kyiv was sacked on 9 February 1918, by Mikhail Muravyov. On 9 February, Ukraine signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with the coalition of the Central Powers and by March all Bolshevik forces of the Russian SFSR were removed from the territory of Ukraine. The German Army Group Kyiv was created in order to protect Ukraine from further Bolshevik aggression and headed by the German field marshal Hermann von Eichhorn.{{cn|date=August 2024}}

{{stack|File:Skoropadsky - before 1917.jpg, Hetman of Ukraine]]}}

{{Main|1918 Ukrainian coup d'état}}

On 25 April, the administration of Army Group Kyiv suspected the government of Vsevolod Holubovych of kidnapping of {{ill|Abram Dobry|uk|Добрий Абрам Юрійович}}, the chairman of the Foreign Trade Bank in Kyiv. Through that bank the German occupational forces were officially conducting all financial operations with the Reichsbank in Berlin. The next day, Eichhorn issued a decree according to which all criminal cases on the territory of Ukraine could selectively fall under the jurisdiction of the German field military court instead of the Ukrainian court system. At the next session of the Central Rada, Holubovych stated:{{cn|date=August 2024}}

{{quote|Who is this Mr Dobry? Is he a subject of the German State? No, he is not a far relative nor a godparent, he is a stranger. And just because that stranger who legally has no connections with Germany and gave no halters to issue a decree of such colossal weight was abducted, the decree was issued.}}

{{stack|File:Грамота до всього українського народу, закони УД-2.webp}}

On 29 April, a party congress of bread producers consisting of some 6,000 delegates from all eight governorates of Ukraine was taking place{{cite book|last=Subtelny |first=Orest |author-link=Orest Subtelny |year=1988 |title=Ukraine: A History |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l5uiWHgRphQC&dq=Ukrainian+State+Hetman+Pavlo&pg=PA356 |location=Toronto |publisher=University of Toronto Press |isbn=0-8020-5808-6}}{{page needed|date=November 2022}} in the building of the Kyiv Circus. After receiving information about the situation at the Congress from his couriers, Pavlo Skoropadskyi later arrived in his car to the event where he was elected the Hetman of Ukraine. After that all participants moved to St. Sophia's Square, where Skoropadskyi was blessed by Nykodym, the Vicar of Kyiv and Galicia (Metropolitan Vladimir was executed by Bolsheviks). That night the Hetman supporters took over government building of military and internal affairs as well as the State Bank. The following day, the elite and most loyal formation of the Central Council, the Sich Riflemen, was disarmed.{{cn|date=August 2024}}

Skoropadskyi issued his manifesto (hramota) "To the All-Ukrainian Nation" and the Law of the Provisional State System.{{cite news |date=16 May 1918 |title=Закони про тимчасовий державний устрій України |url=http://zakon3.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/n0004300-18 |trans-title=Laws on the provisional state system of Ukraine |newspaper=Державний Вістник |trans-newspaper=State Herald |language=uk |issue=1 |access-date=2022-11-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150608062057/http://zakon3.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/n0004300-18 |archive-date=2015-06-08}} Desiring stability, the Austro-Hungarian and German forces welcomed the coup; Skoropadskyi co-operated with them, making him unpopular among many Ukrainian peasants. The new state retained the tryzub (coat of arms) and the national flag but reversed the design to light blue over yellow. The Sich Riflemen opposed the coup and were disbanded along with the "Bluecoats", a Ukrainian division formed from POWs in Germany and Austria-Hungary named after their blue uniforms.{{cn|date=August 2024}}

Internal opposition was provoked by the requisitioning of food stocks and restoration of land to the wealthy landowners. Opponents of the Skoropadskyi regime committed acts of arson and sabotage and, in July 1918, assassinated Hermann von Eichhorn, the commander of German troops in Ukraine. In August 1918, the anti-Skoropadskyi coalition succeeded in forcing him to re-form the Sich Riflemen. By then it was becoming obvious that the Central Powers had lost the war and that Skoropadskyi could no longer rely on their support. He thus looked for support from conservative Russian elements in society and proposed joining a federation with Anton Denikin and the White movement. This further eroded his standing among Ukrainians.{{cn|date=August 2024}}

In December 1918, Skoropadskyi was deposed and the Directorate was established as a form of the Ukrainian People's Republic.

{{stack|File:Ukrainian State 1918 divisions.png}}

The country lay in Eastern Europe along the middle and lower sections of the Dnieper on the coast of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. The Ukrainian State covered most of the territory of modern-day Ukraine—minus West Ukraine, Budjak and Crimea. Its territory however extended into today's Russia, Belarus, Moldova and Poland.{{cn|date=August 2024}}

To its northeast Ukraine established a preliminary demarcation line with the Russian SFSR, on the east it had a border with the Don Republic, to its south were the Black and Azov Seas, while the Crimean peninsula—the Crimean Regional Government—came under the control of Sulkevych. To the southwest along the Dniester lay a border with the Kingdom of Romania, to the west Ukraine bordered the German Empire and Austria-Hungary. To the north were the German-occupied territories of Ober Ost and the Belarusian People's Republic.{{cn|date=August 2024}}

{{Excerpt|Administrative division of Ukraine (1918)}}

{{History of Ukraine}}

{{Main|Anti-Hetman Uprising}}

File:Ukrainian State 1918.11-12.png}} {{Color box|#D3F47B|Dashed|#77D9B7}} Negotiations with Crimea and Kuban for joining the Ukrainian State
{{Color box|#D3F47B|Dashed|#E97673}} Neutral zone between Russia and Ukraine prescribed by the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk]]

File:Skoropadsky - 1918 (2).jpg

Almost the entire commanding staff of the Ukrainian State armed forces consisted of officers of the former Imperial Russian Army. Most officers were not supportive of the Ukrainian cause and viewed it as a way to make it through tough times. At the same time, wide masses of the population did not have a developed sense of nationalism and mainly chose to follow socialist and communist principles.{{cite magazine|last=Rukkas |first=Andriy |date=12 April 2013 |url=http://ukrainianweek.com/History/77266 |title=The Army and Independence |magazine=The Ukrainian Week |access-date=29 April 2022}}

Following the armistice ending World War I, Ukrainian socialists formed the Directorate of Ukraine (the "Directory"), whose forces were spearheaded by the Sich Riflemen and "Greycoats".{{clarify|date=November 2012}} Although German and Austrian troops had not yet withdrawn from Ukraine, they had no further interest in fighting. Most of Skoropadskyi's own forces changed sides and joined the Directory.

On 16 November 1918, starting in Bila Tserkva, fighting broke out in the Hetmanate. Skoropadskyi had to turn to the thousands of Russian White Guard officers who had escaped to Ukraine with the intention of joining Denikin's Volunteer Army in the region of the Don river further east. They{{clarify|reason=They and their troops or the officers alone?|date=April 2015}} were assembled into a "Special Corps" but proved unable to resist the Directory's forces led by Symon Petliura. Skoropadskyi abdicated his position as Hetman on 14 December, as the Ukrainian People's Army took Kyiv. He was expelled and the Hetmanate was replaced by the provisional government of the Directorate.{{cn|date=August 2024}}

{{Clear}}

{{wikisourcelang|uk|Закони про тимчасовий державний устрій України|Laws on the Provisional State System of Ukraine}}

According to the "Laws on the Provisional State System of Ukraine", the leading position of the country was occupied by the Christian Orthodox faith.{{cite journal |last=Kyrydon |first=A. M. |date=2013 |script-title=uk:Релігійно-церковне життя в період Гетьманату: проблемне поле взаємодії |trans-title=Religious and church life in the period of Getmanat: the problem field of interaction |url=http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?C21COM=2&I21DBN=UJRN&P21DBN=UJRN&IMAGE_FILE_DOWNLOAD=1&Image_file_name=PDF/Ntip_2013_7_32.pdf |journal=Національна та історична пам'ять |trans-journal=National and Historical Memory |language=uk |issue=7 |pages=252–259 |access-date=2022-11-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220315203129/http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?C21COM=2&I21DBN=UJRN&P21DBN=UJRN&IMAGE_FILE_DOWNLOAD=1&Image_file_name=PDF/Ntip_2013_7_32.pdf |archive-date=2022-03-15}} At the same time, citizens of Ukraine who belonged to other denominations had the right to profess their religion and rites.{{cn|date=August 2024}}

The Russian Orthodox Church, and later the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, ruled in Central and Eastern Ukraine. However, in Western Ukraine there was friction between Orthodox, Greek Catholics, Roman Catholics and Jews. In the conflicts, the Ministry of Confessions of the Ukrainian State and the Council of Ministers morally and materially supported the Orthodox clergy.{{cn|date=August 2024}}

On 25 June, the government allocated 3 million rubles to help priests who moved to Volhynia, Kholmshchyna, Grodno, Podolia, and Polesia, which were annexed to the Ukrainian State. On 2 July, 120,000 roubles were allocated for the maintenance of the Orthodox clergy in the lands of Kholmshchyna, Podlachia and Polesia.{{cite journal |last=Boyko |first=O. |date=2009 |script-title=uk:Територія, кордони і адміністративно-територіальний поділ Української Держави гетьмана П. Скоропадського (1918) |trans-title=Territory, borders and administrative-territorial division of the Ukrainian State of Hetman P. Skoropadskyi (1918) |url=http://www.history.org.ua/JournALL/regions/3/11.pdf |journal=Регіональна історія України |trans-journal=Regional History of Ukraine |language=uk |issue=3 |pages=217–232 |access-date=2022-11-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150701042001/http://www.history.org.ua/JournALL/regions/3/11.pdf |archive-date=2015-07-01}}

{{reflist}}

{{Main|Bibliography of Ukrainian history}}

{{See also|List of Slavic studies journals}}

{{Commons category|Ukrainian State}}

• [http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/History.asp#Topic_18 The Ukrainian National Republic and the Struggle for Independence, 1917–1921] at the Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine

{{Politics in (current) Ukraine between 1917 and 1920}}

Category:1918 disestablishments in Ukraine

Category:1918 establishments in Ukraine

Category:1918 in Ukraine

Category:Former client states

Category:Former countries

Category:Former countries in Europe

Category:Former monarchies

Category:History of Ukraine (1918–1991)

Category:Post–Russian Empire states

Category:States and territories disestablished in 1918

Category:States and territories established in 1918

Category:Ukrainian independence movement

Category:Ukrainian monarchy

Category:Ukrainian People's Republic

Category:Provisional governments

Category:Military dictatorships

Category:Central Powers intervention in the Russian Civil War