Conceptual bases of the development of the Directorate of UPR: discussions on the parliamentary and soviet authorities models

Abstract

The article considered the issue that Ukrainian statehood existed in conditions of total political instability. The lack of a Directorate’s clear vision of the prospects for development and a corresponding political program, as the headquarters of the UNR, has become a catalyst for political struggle. The search for the best state model lasted throughout the time of the Ukrainian Revolution of 1917–1921. At first (the beginning of the Ukrainian Central Rada’s work) there were discussed the forms of government that have been already tested in the then advanced countries, such as parliamentary and presidential republics.

In conclusions it was indicated that Ukrainian politicians unanimously supported democratic values and parliamentary system at the initial stage of the revolution. Only after a while, under the influence of a number of domestic political and foreign policy factors, an alternative has grown, which, during the period of the Directory, got the character of a tough confrontation. However, even in complicated military-political conditions, it continued to defend the ideas of constitutionalism, parliamentarism and the division of branches of power.