Participation of agrarian scholar Viktor Brunst in the preparation of land reform in Ukraine (may–december 1918)
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
Abstract. The purpose of the article is to examine the activities of Viktor Brunst, Deputy Minister of Land Affairs of the
Ukrainian Hetmanate, a renowned agrarian scholar, in the development of legislative foundations for land reform.
The methodological framework is based on the principles of historicism, academic rigor, problem-chronological approach,
biographical method, and personification of historical events. Special attention is paid to the critical analysis of the
legislative basis of the reform.
The scholarly novelty lies in the first attempt in Ukrainian historiography to present a systematic analysis of one of the
key figures driving the agrarian policy of Hetman Pavlo Skoropadskyi.
Conclusions. The author convincingly argues that land reform was one of the main directions of state-building under the
Hetmanate. The Ministry of Land Affairs, particularly Deputy Minister Brunst, played a leading role in its preparation. His
activities as secretary of government land commissions and de facto coordinator of a complex set of measures to draft legislative acts for land transformation are explored. Sharing the ideology of Hetman’s agrarian reform, he consistently defended its principles at the final sessions of the government, opposing the large-landowning lobby.
Article Details
References
Chykalenko, Ye. (2004). Shchodennyk. T. 2 (1918–1919) [Diary. Vol. 2 (1918–1919)]. Kyiv. [in Ukrainian].
Dontsov, D. (2002). Rik 1918 [The Year 1918]. Kyiv. [in Ukrainian].
Getman, P. P. Skoropadskii. (2014). Ukraina na perelome. 1918 god [Ukraine at the turning point. 1918]. Moscow. [in Russian].
Kokh, H. (1936). Krakh germanskoi okkupatsii na Ukraine (po dokumentam okkupantov) [Collapse of the German occupation in Ukraine (based on occupiers’ documents)]. Moscow. [in Russian].
Leontovych, V. (2004). Zibrannia tvoriv u 4-kh tomakh. T. 3 [Collected works in 4 volumes. Vol. 3]. Kyiv. [in Ukrainian].
Oswoboditel’naya voina ukrainskogo naroda protiv nemetskikh okkupantov. Dokumenty i materialy. (1938). [Liberation war of the Ukrainian people against the German occupiers. Documents and materials]. Kyiv. [in Russian].
Pyrih, R. (2014). Odna doba premiierstva Mykoly Ustymovycha [One day of Mykola Ustymovych’s premiership]. In Problemy vyvchennia istorii Ukrains’koi revoliutsii 1917–1921 rokiv: Zbirnyk naukovykh statei (Vol. 10). Kyiv. [in Ukrainian].
Pyrih, R., & Tymchenko, R. (2025). Zemelna reforma hetmana Pavla Skoropads’koho: istorychni narysy, dokumenty i materialy [Land reform of Hetman Pavlo Skoropadskyi: historical essays, documents and materials]. Kyiv. [in Ukrainian].
Serapionova, E. P. (1995). Rossiiskaia emigratsiia v Chekhoslovatskoi respublike (20–30-e gody) [Russian emigration in the Czechoslovak Republic (1920s–30s)]. Moscow. [in Russian].
Skoropads’kyi, P. (1995). Spohady [Memoirs]. Kyiv–Philadelphia. [in Ukrainian].
Trudy russkoi, ukrainskoi i belorusskoi emigratsii, izdannye v Chekhoslovakii v 1918–45 hh. (1996). T. 1, Ch. 1 [Works of Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian emigration published in Czechoslovakia in 1918–1945. Vol. 1, Part 1]. Prague. [in Russian]