Secret combat organisations in Ukraine (april 1918): founders and members
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Abstract
Abstract. In April 1918, a number of high-ranking officials of the Ukrainian People’s Republic decided to form secret
armed cells to protect the state leadership from attempts on its power. The purpose of the study is to identify the organizers and
characterize the composition of these conspiratorial militant groups.
The scientific novelty is defined by the fact that for the first time in the historical literature, this research raises and
considers the question of the organizers and members of the pro-government armed underground in the Ukrainian People’s
Republic (spring 1918).
Conclusions. Members of the Council of People’s Ministers of the Ukrainian People’s Republic and leaders of the ruling
political parties (the Ukrainian Social Democratic Workers’ Party and the Ukrainian Party of Socialists-Revolutionaries),
ministers M. Kovalevsky and M. Tkachenko were Among the initiators of the creation of a network of secret “combat societies”.
The local implementers of this decision, direct organizers and commanders of armed groups were representatives of the UPR’s
county and provincial state administrations, mostly military officers. There is evidence of paramilitary secret organizations
in the Kyiv and Podillia provinces, but it should be assumed that the formation of such organizations also took place in other
regions of Ukraine as well. The Free Cossacks cells were the basis for the development of secret units. The secret armed units
consisted primarily of veterans of the First World War, although many young people who had not previously served in the army
were also involved. By joining the armed groups, volunteers sought to implement the government’s programme of political and social transformations related to the development of a Ukrainian national socialist state. The number of combat units formed in this way was very large, amounting to tens of thousands of fighters.
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References
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