Turning the pages back... February 11, 1900 (02/07/93)

Turning the pages back...

February 11, 1900

In the late 1890s, young Ukrainians both in Galicia (under Austria Hungary) and in the rest of Ukraine (under the Russian empire) were inspired by the radical atmosphere of the times. They rejected the previous generation's obsession with folklore, populism and heavy-handed efforts to revive Ukrainian consciousness, which they considered condescending and inadequate.

The new focus was on addressing the social and economic grievances of the peasantry, and on open demands for Ukrainian independence. The first group to formulate its ideas in the latter vein was the Brotherhood of Taras, formed in Kyyiv in 1891.

On February 11, 1900, the leaders of the local Student Hromada, Petro Andrievsky, Dmytro Antonovych (son of the historian and leading populist, Volodymyr Antonovych), Yuriy Kollard, Oleksander Kovalenko, Lev Matsievych, Mykhailo Rusov and others, established the Revolutionary Ukrainian Party, the first Ukrainian political party in Russian-ruled Ukraine.

Initially, the party advocated political terrorism and armed struggle against the tsarist regime, and espoused the nationalism typified by a speech delivered by Mykola Mikhnovsky, a former member of the Brotherhood of Taras, at public commemorations of Taras Shevchenko in Poltava and Kharkiv in March 1900. The young lawyer called for "a single, unitary, indivisible, free, independent Ukraine from the Carpathians to the Caucasus." The speech had been solicited by RUP's founders, and circulated as the party's first pamphlet, titled Samostiyna Ukrayina (Independent Ukraine).

By 1902, Mikhnovsky had been forced out of the party, which moved away from nationalist positions to concentrate on politicizing the peasantry, and organizing rural groups, strikes and boycotts in the regions of Kyyiv, Chernihiv and Poltava. The party's official newspapers were Haslo (1902-1903), Selianyn (1903-1906), Dobra Novyna (1903) and Pratsia (1904-1906). Its members also disseminated socialist literature of such authors as Karl Kautsky, Paul Lafargue and Wilhelm Liebknecht in Ukrainian translation. RUP cooperated with many non-Ukrainian parties in Ukraine, including the Jewish Workers' Bund (with which it enjoyed particularly good relations), the Russian Socialist Revolutionary Party (the SR's), the Polish Socialist Party and the Russian Social Democratic Workers' Party.

RUP held its first congress in December 1902, electing a central committee. Its influence and membership began to spread outward from centers such as Kharkiv, Kyyiv and Poltava, into western and southern Ukraine. In 1904, the party sent a representative to the Socialist International congress in Amsterdam.

Ideological differences led to an open conflict at its second congress in December 1904, held in Lviv, at which members such as Volodymyr Vynnychenko and Symon Petliura caused a split, favoring a renewed emphasis on the national composition of the party, but a tempering of its nationalism with Marxism. The orthodox Marxist wing left the following month.

During the 1905 Revolution, RUP members were quite active, organizing workers' and peasants' strikes and boycotts. However, because of factional disputes they decided to boycott elections to the newly created Russian Duma, and many members fled westward as pressure from the imperial police intensified and drove many political organizations underground.

At RUP's last congress in December 1905, the remaining national autonomists renamed the party the Ukrainian Social Democratic Workers' Party (USDRP). The party enjoyed a broad appeal and spawned many other Ukrainian political parties. Its membership was quite colorful and varied, including men who would play significant roles in the ensuing years, such as Volodymyr Chekhivsky (Directory cabinet minister), Dmytro Dontsov (nationalist ideologue), Dmytro and Volodymyr Doroshenko (historians), Symon Petliura (organizer of the first modern Ukrainian army), Mykyta Shapoval (a Ukrainian SR), and Volodymyr Vynnychenko (first premier of Ukraine).

Sources: "Revolutionary Ukrainian Party," Encyclopedia of Ukraine, Vol. 4, (Toronto: University of Toronto Press); O. Subtelny, "Ukraine, a History," (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1988).

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