Obtaining International Sovereignty of the UPR at the Central Rada Period

Abstract

The history of diplomacy and foreign policy of new independent states are one of the most difficult and hardest objects of scientific study because they synthesize complex issues of world and national history system components. The diplomatic service is one of the most important attributes of any sovereign state, an indicator of real aspirations of the country and of its attitude towards the world and its political content. The ultimate success of the Ukrainian revolution of 1917–1920 both in the East and in the West, in our opinion, depended on the international publicity and receiving substantial external support as it happened for example in Poland, Finland and the Baltic States.

Measures on the formation of an all-Russian federation taken by the Central Rada led to the opposite result – the armed conflict with red Petrograd and invitation of the German-Austrian troops to save the UPR from the Bolshevik aggression. In the long term the foreign policy choice made by the Central Rada in January 1918 in favor of Germany and its allies, that were defeated in World War I, was a mistake. At the same time, signing the Brest peace treaty between the UPR and the Central Powers and diplomatic recognition of Ukraine from these states opened new opportunities for the development of national diplomatic and consular service, and forced RSFSR to agree to start peace talks with the Ukrainian People’s Republic.