Ukrainian People's Republic

The Ukrainian People's Republic (UPR) was a short-lived state in Eastern Europe. Prior to its proclamation, the Central Council of Ukraine was elected in March 1917 as a result of the February Revolution, and in June declared Ukrainian autonomy within Russia, which was later recognized by the Russian Provisional Government. Following the October Revolution, the Central Council of Ukraine denounced the Bolshevik seizure of power and proclaimed the establishment of the Ukrainian People's Republic in the approximate territory Russian governorates of Kiev, Volhynia, Kharkov, Kherson, Yekaterinoslav, Poltava, Chernigov and Podolia. The republic formally declared its independence from Russia on 22 January 1918.

After the October Revolution, an alternative government known as the Ukrainian People's Republic of Soviets was established in Kharkiv and engaged in a war against the Ukrainian People's Republic, receiving support from Soviet Russia. In addition, both parties were opposed by the White movement, Poland, Green armies, and anarchists, leading to a protracted conflict known as the Ukrainian War of Independence, part of the wider Russian Civil War, and resulting in numerous victims among Ukrainians fighting on different sides of the front. As a result of the fighting, Soviet Russia managed to extend its control over what would ultimately become the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, which became a founding member of the Soviet Union in 1922.

During its short existence, the republic went through several political transformations – from the socialist-leaning republic headed by the Central Council of Ukraine with its general secretariat, to the socialist republic led by the Directorate and by Symon Petliura. Between April and December 1918, the socialist authority of the Ukrainian People's Republic was suspended, having been overthrown by the pro-German Ukrainian State of Pavlo Skoropadskyi, who was elected as the Hetman of Ukraine by a congress of landowners. After the collapse of the Ukrainian State, the Ukrainian People's Republic declared its unification with the West Ukrainian People's Republic in January 1919. After the Polish–Ukrainian War, it signed an alliance with the Second Polish Republic.

In course of the Polish-Soviet War, the state lost the remainder of its territory to the Bolsheviks. Following the Peace of Riga, signed on 18 March 1921 between Poland, Soviet Russia (acting also on behalf of Soviet Belarus), and Soviet Ukraine, the republic's government continued its activities in exile. Following the Declaration of Independence of Ukraine, the leadership of the Ukrainian People's Republic officially recognized Ukraine as its legal successor and transferred its symbols of power to the Ukrainian president.