Ukrainian State

The Ukrainian State (Ukrainian: Українська Держава) was the official name of Ukraine used between 29 April and 14 December 1918, following the deposition of the Central Rada of Ukrainian People's Republic. For the entirety of its history, the state was ruled autocratically by Pavlo Skoropadsky, the Hetman of all Ukraine, who took a sharp departure from the earlier democratic and socialist-leaning policies of the Central Rada, instead aligning his government with the interests of large landowners and industrialists.

Established against the backdrop of the Central Powers becoming increasingly dissatisfied with the Ukrainian government's inability to fulfil its obligations to provide large quantities of food and raw goods as per the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, the Ukrainian State was deeply politically, economically and militarily dependent upon the Central Powers, particularly Germany and Austria-Hungary, who pledged to support Skoropadsky's rule in return for greater control over the state. Despite this dependency, the Ukrainian State pursued a largely independent internal policy and managed to establish a relatively well-functioning bureaucracy, in contrast to the chaos of the previous government.

Failure to complete land reform, a perceived support for often violent German and Austrian methods to extract grain from the countryside and a controversial ethnic policy (which was seen as too Russophilic) led to the Ukrainian population growing dissatisfied by the government of the Ukrainian State. Meanwhile, Skoropadsky's main backers in the form of Germany and Austria had been defeated by the Triple Entente, leaving the Ukrainian State at the mercy of neighbouring countries, particularly the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. Tensions finally culminated in the Anti-Hetman Uprising, during which the Directorate toppled the Ukrainian State and re-established the Ukrainian People's Republic.