The Day of Unity of Ukraine is a holiday celebrated every year on the day of the proclamation of the Act of Reunification of the Ukrainian People's Republic and the Western Ukrainian People's Republic ( Act Zluky), which took place on January 22, 1919, on St. Sophia Square in Kyiv.
It was preceded by the signing (January 22, 1918) of the Fourth Universal of the Central Rada, which declared the Ukrainian People's Republic a sovereign and independent state. The Western Ukrainian People's Republic was proclaimed in November 1918. The process of unification of Ukraine was completed on January 22, 1919.
Today, after two decades of Independence, the problem of the unity of Ukraine is, unfortunately, no less relevant. Cultural and mental differences between the East and West Ukrainians always existed, they became known as the "syndrome of the Zbruch", but always our compatriots sought unity. The act of reunification of the UPR and WUPR is a historical fact that showed the impotence of any attempts to unite the Ukrainian people, to oppose the Ukrainians to each other.
On the fields of World War I there was a fraternisation of the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen who fought in the Austro-Hungarian troops and Ukrainians-soldiers of the Russian Empire Army. Subsequently, the awareness of the need for unity forced the Ukrainian western regions to declare independence in order to reunite with the Ukrainian People's Republic.
Today is the time to recall how unity was achieved then, on January 22, 1919.
The Act of Zluky was deeply determined historically and relied on the long-standing dream of the Ukrainian people about an independent, united national state. It became a powerful expression of the will of Ukrainians to ethnic and territorial unity, a testimony of their self-awareness - an important milestone in the process of becoming a political nation. The idea of the unity of the Ukrainian lands acquired state status, in the next decades remained a unifying factor and perhaps the only common provisions of the program objectives of all branches of the national liberation movement. The Unification Act granted the completed form to an independent Ukrainian state, contributed to overcoming the remnants of federalism in the mentality of the national political elite.
The unification had a practical and political dimension, as both states needed the concentration of armed forces and mutual assistance to protect their territories from foreign military intervention, which at that time became an aggression. The fact of the legitimacy of the final reconciliation process that preceded the Unification Act also was very important.
The first diplomatic contacts of Lviv with Kiev took place on November 7, 1918, when the delegation of the Galicians, consisting of O. Nazaruk and V. Shukhevych, went to the Central Ukraine and had the meeting with Hetman P. Skoropadsky. O. Nazaruk recalls: "When I told the Hetman about the the purpose of our arrival, he asked:" Say honestly - do you want to cut the masters?" - "We want to build a Ukrainian state ", - I was surprised."
On November 23, the WUPR government directed to the Nadnipryantshina a second delegation, consisting of L. Tsegelsky and D. Levytsky. As the Hetmanate had lived its last days, Galicians entered into negotiations for the association and provision of assistance to the Directory. On November 30 they arrived in Fastov, where they met with the members of the Directory, V. Vynnychenko, S. Petliura, P. Andriyevsky, F. Shvets and A. Makarenko. Recalling these talks, Volodymyr Vynnychenko wrote: "Not having the confidence to retain power in Galicia, and besides, being subjected to the onslaught of the masses, which sought to fully unite with the Great revolutionary Ukraine, the Council of State Secretaries appealed to the Directory with a proposal the unification of the two republics into one Ukrainian state ... The Directory readily accepted this proposal, fully agreeing with the opinion of the leaders of the working Galician masses ... that the Ukrainian people on both sides of the Zbruch should be united for centuries and then to fight for their fate togather."
Solemn celebration and proclamation of the Act of Zluky took place on January 22, 1919, on Sofievska Square near the cathedral. Thousands of residents of the capital, military units, clergy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, headed by Archbishop Agapit, and bishops who made the Liturgy, members of the Directory, the Government of the UPR and the WUPR delegation gathered on the square. At twelve o'clock, the solemn feast began with a speech by L. Tsegelsky, who read a Charter - a decision of the National Council on Reunification and handed over it to the Head of the Directory V.Vynnychenko.
Universal of the UPR was announced by the member of the Directory F. Shvets:
UNIVERSAL OF THE DIRECTORY OF THE UKRAINIAN PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC
JANUARY 22, 1919
"In the name of the Ukrainian People's Republic, the Directory informs the Ukrainian people about a great event in the history of our Ukrainian Land.
On January 3, 1919, in the city of Stanislaviv, the Ukrainian National Council of the Western Ukrainian People's Republic, as the speaker of the will of all Ukrainians of the Austrian Empire and as their highest legislative factor, solemnly proclaimed the unification of the Western Ukrainian People's Republic with the Nadnipryanska Ukrainian Republic as a unified sovereign People's Republic.
Welcoming with great joy this historic step by our western brothers, the Directory of the Ukrainian People's Republic decided to accept and implement this union on the conditions specified in the Decree of the Western Ukrainian People's Republic of 3 January 1919.
The eternal dreams for which the best sons of Ukraine lived and died were realised.
Henceforth the Ukrainian People's Republic is the independent and unifind.
Henceforth people of Ukraine, liberated by a powerful impulse of their own forces, have the opportunity to build an inseparable independent Ukrainian State for the goodness and happiness of all of its labour people by the combined efforts of all its sons. January 22, 1919, In Kyiv "
The union of the UPR and WUPR became a model of civilized, non-expansionist gathering of territories in a single sovereign state.
Together with the adoption of the Universal on the unification of the UNR and ZUNR, the Labor Congress declared that the united UPR "has no idea to take under its authority the foreign lands." The state border of the Ukrainian People's Republic on the day of the unification on January 22, 1919 was much longer than the modern one. The boundary of the then Ukraine is reflected on the map of "Soborna Ukraina", which was published in Lviv on the initiative of the charitable fund "Ukraine - Rus".
This is the first wall map of the United Ukrainian State, which depicts all Ukrainian ethnic lands that were part of Ukraine in 1919. Kuban, Stavropol, Chernomorshchyna, Eastern Slobozhanshchyna, Starodubshchina (nowadays they are part of Russia). Beresteyshchyna and Gomel region (Belarus). Kholmshchyna, Podlasie, Nadsieny, North Lemkivshchyna (Poland), Southern Lemkivshchyna (Slovakia). Marmaroschina, Southern Bukovina (Romania), Transnistria.
On a map over which a group of historians and scholars worked on, on the basis of archival materials, the areas of compact residence of Ukrainians, so-called " Kliny (wedges)", where the Ukrainian army was formed, were selected. Raspberry wedge is the North Caucasus, Gray wedge - North Kazakhstan and South-West Siberia, Green wedge - Southern part of the Far East (the main city - Vladivostok), Yellow Wedge Lower and Middle Volga.
By the way, the area of the Green Wedge was twice that of Ukrainian territory, where Ukrainians carried out state-building processes: in 1918 they demanded that the Russian government acknowledge the Far Eastern Green Cline as part of Ukraine and proclaim the cultural Constitution of the Ukrainian Far East and the Independent Ukrainian Far Eastern Republic.
January 22, 1990, our contemporaries duly supported the history duty of the fighters for Ukraine's independence, combining the unify of Kyiv and Lviv, the East and West of Ukraine with the living chain.
The celebration of the Day of Unity, honoring the founders of the Act of Unification, is not only a public need but also our moral duty - to preserve the light memory of countless victims that were given by the Ukrainian people on the altar of independence, unity, statehood of Ukraine .