Pavel Skoropadsky - Hetman of the Ukrainian State
In April 1918, at the All-Ukrainian Congress of grain-growers in Kiev, Pavel Skoropadsky was proclaimed a hetman of Ukraine. The published “Literacy to the entire Ukrainian people” dealt with the creation of the Ukrainian State, headed by a hetman, who temporarily took over the authority of a special administration of the region.
The Ukrainian State lasted seven and a half months. In form, it was an authoritarian conservative regime, relying on the occupying Austro-German troops. Getman managed to achieve international recognition of the Ukrainian State, establish Ukrainian universities in Kiev and Kamenetz-Podolsk, create the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, the National Library.
He developed the army, tried to solve the land issue, but did not manage to build an effective army or carry out agrarian reform. The unauthorized actions of the occupying forces and the restoration of the old order led to the antigetman movement. In the end, the defeat of the States of the Fourth Union in the war and the unresolved agrarian question led to the collapse of the Hetmanate.
Skoropadsky went to Berlin, and then to Switzerland, where he was reunited with his family. In the end, the whole family settled in the town of Wannsee (now it is a district of Berlin). In exile, Skoropadsky became the head of the “Ukrainian Union of state grain growers”, whose departments subsequently appeared in Poland, the Czech Republic, Germany, Yugoslavia and Turkey.
After its split, in the 1930s, supporters of Skoropadsky merged into the “Union of Hetmanian Statesmen,” whose branches existed both in Europe and in America. Thanks to Pavel Petrovich, in 1925 the Ukrainian Science Institute was founded at the University of Berlin, which played a major role in the development of Ukrainian science and culture in exile.
When in 1945, Soviet troops approached Berlin, Skoropadsky, in order not to fall into the Soviet occupation zone, left the city. April 16, 1945 at Plattling Station, he fell under the bombing of American aircraft and was contused. Ten days before the 71st birthday, Pavel Skoropadsky died in the hospital of a Benedictine monastery in the Bavarian city of Metten, where he was buried. Later, the hetman's ashes were transported to Oberstdorf in southern Bavaria.
The Ukrainian State lasted seven and a half months. In form, it was an authoritarian conservative regime, relying on the occupying Austro-German troops. Getman managed to achieve international recognition of the Ukrainian State, establish Ukrainian universities in Kiev and Kamenetz-Podolsk, create the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, the National Library.
He developed the army, tried to solve the land issue, but did not manage to build an effective army or carry out agrarian reform. The unauthorized actions of the occupying forces and the restoration of the old order led to the antigetman movement. In the end, the defeat of the States of the Fourth Union in the war and the unresolved agrarian question led to the collapse of the Hetmanate.
Photo © jnsm.com.ua
Skoropadsky went to Berlin, and then to Switzerland, where he was reunited with his family. In the end, the whole family settled in the town of Wannsee (now it is a district of Berlin). In exile, Skoropadsky became the head of the “Ukrainian Union of state grain growers”, whose departments subsequently appeared in Poland, the Czech Republic, Germany, Yugoslavia and Turkey.
After its split, in the 1930s, supporters of Skoropadsky merged into the “Union of Hetmanian Statesmen,” whose branches existed both in Europe and in America. Thanks to Pavel Petrovich, in 1925 the Ukrainian Science Institute was founded at the University of Berlin, which played a major role in the development of Ukrainian science and culture in exile.
When in 1945, Soviet troops approached Berlin, Skoropadsky, in order not to fall into the Soviet occupation zone, left the city. April 16, 1945 at Plattling Station, he fell under the bombing of American aircraft and was contused. Ten days before the 71st birthday, Pavel Skoropadsky died in the hospital of a Benedictine monastery in the Bavarian city of Metten, where he was buried. Later, the hetman's ashes were transported to Oberstdorf in southern Bavaria.
