The "Great Russians" regarded the Ruthenes as belonging to the Russian nation, and their language as a mere dialect. Towards the middle of the 19th century, however, there began in the Ukraine a separatist movement, associated with the names of the Ruthene scholar Kostomarov and the poet Shevchenko, of which the political ideal was the union of all the Ruthenes, including those of Galicia, in an Ukrainian nation. This Ukrainophil move ment gathered force, and became a very important factor in the politics of eastern Europe, especially after the outbreak of the World War.
The collapse of the Russian empire in 1917, and the downfall of the Habsburg monarchy which followed, seemed to give the opportunity for realizing the Ukrainophil ideal. In March 1917 a formal demand for the recognition of Ukrainian autonomy was made to the Provisional Government at Petrograd, and on April 19 an Ukrainian national convention met at Kiev to elect a rada (council). This took over the government in June, and was rec ognized by the Petrograd Provisional Government in August. On November 20, contemporaneously with the Bolshevik revolution in Petrograd, the rada proclaimed an Ukrainian People's republic, the independence of which was accepted in principle by the Bol sheviks, who made no objection when the Central Powers agreed to receive the Ukrainian delegates to the conference at Brest Litovsk and to negotiate with them a separate peace.
In January 1918, however, the situation had altered. A Bol shevik Government had been set up at Kharkov, and was making rapid headway against the "compromising" Kiev rada, and at Brest-Litovsk Trotsky now declared that a separate peace with the Ukraine would involve the breaking-off of the negotiations with Soviet Russia. The news from the Ukraine was, however, un certain; the Central Powers were in urgent need of food supplies from southern Russia; and on February 9 they signed a peace treaty with the Ukrainian People's Republic. By subsidiary treat ies, signed on the 12th, the Ukraine agreed, inter alia, to provide supplies of grain, etc., in return for manufactured articles.
Meanwhile the Kiev Government had been hard-pressed by the Bolsheviks and, in March, appealed to the Central Powers for help. German and Austrian troops now marched into and occu pied the Ukraine, mainly with the object of securing the stipu lated supplies of food, which had fallen far short of expectations. A proclamation of the German General Eichorn ordering cultiva tion to be proceeded with, led to a quarrel with the rada, which was dissolved by the Germans, who made Skoropadski hetman of the Ukraine. Violent unrest followed among the peasants, who
demanded the restoration of the People's Republic, and on July 30 General Eichorn was assassinated. An armistice had been con cluded with Soviet Russia in May. In November, with the col lapse of the Central Powers, there was a movement against the hetman, headed by Petliura, a former member of the rada. Skoro padski was overthrown, and Petliura and Vinnichenko, ex-presi dent of the People's Republic, established themselves as dictators in Kiev, where they proclaimed the union of the Ukraine with the West Ukrainian republic set up at Lwow (Lemberg) by the Ga lician Ruthenes. This led to a short war with Poland, to whom Galicia had been assigned by the Allied Powers. Petliura marched to the aid of the Lemberg Government, which was threatened by the advance of General Haller's Polish legion from the Western front, but was decisively defeated.
In Feb. 1919 Petliura, driven from Kiev by a Bolshevik ris ing, took refuge with his armed followers in East Galicia and in 1920 joined forces with the Poles against the Bolsheviks. Mean while, in March 1919, a second Ukrainian Soviet Government had been set up, but was dissolved in June, when Denikin's "Whites" took Kharkov. In December, however, the Soviet forces recap tured Kharkov and Kiev, Odessa also falling to them in Feb. 192o, and a third Ukrainian Soviet republic was established. In May 1920 the Poles, with Petliura's troops, occupied large parts of the Ukraine, including Kiev, but were forced to retire when the Russian Soviet army took the offensive (see RUSSIA). By the treaty of Riga (Oct. 12, 1920 and March 18, 1921) Poland and Russia recognised the independence of the Ukraine. On Dec. 28, 1920 a Russo-Ukrainian treaty was signed defining relations be tween the two Soviet republics.
During 1921 the Ukrainian Socialist Soviet republic signed sep arate treaties with Georgia tjan. 31), Lithuania (Feb. 14), (Aug. 3), Estonia (Nov. 25) and Italy (Dec. 27) ; and also, in conjunction with the Russian Socialist Federated Soviet republic, with Austria (Dec. 7). In 1922 a treaty with Turkey was signed (Jan. 2) and, again in conjunction with the R.S.F.S.R., a trade agreement with Czechoslovakia (June 5). On July 6, 1923 the constitution of the Union of Socialist Soviet republics was adopted, of which the Ukraine became a constituent member. In Sept. 1924 the autonomous Moldavian Socialist Soviet republic was formed as part of the Ukraine.