Rights and perspectives of the czechs in Ukraine during the ukrainian war of independence (1917 - 1921)

Abstract

The purpose of the research is the need to carry out a thorough analysis on the legal status of the Czech ethnic minority in Ukraine and the Czech military during the Ukrainian War of Independence and its impact on their public, socio-economic and cultural educational life. The research methodology is based on the following principles: objectivity, historicism, consistency, problematic. There have been applied the methods of analysis and synthesis, problem chronological, comparative. The scientific novelty consists in the study and comparison of the legal position of the Czechs in Ukraine on the eve and during the Ukrainian War of Independence of 1917 – 1921. Due to the introduction of archival materials into scientific circulation, it was possible to find out the impact of the frequent change of governments in Ukraine on the situation of the Czech minority. The Conclusions. At the end of World War I, the Czech element in Ukraine has been very significant. The Czechs received equal rights along with other ethnic groups of Ukraine due to the revolution, which broke out in 1917. However, there were not established any political parties by them. The Czech minority received legal protection and the right to develop its own cultural heritage, despite the Ukrainization, which was initiated by the Ukrainian Central Council (UCC). The importance of the law “On National Personal Autonomy” from a legal and social standpoint cannot be overstated. This law guaranteed the Czechs of Ukraine such prospects that their compatriots in Austria-Hungary did not have. Significant financial support was provided by P. Skoropadskyi’s Hetmanate to the fields of education and culture. The restoration of the laws of the UCC by the Directorate of the Ukrainian People’s Republic could have contributed to the further favourable position of the Czechs, but the gradual loss of Ukrainian statehood did not allow the ideals of the Ukrainian Revolution regarding freedom and equality of all peoples and the norms of the law “On National Personal Autonomy” to be implemented. In 1920 – 1921 the position of the Czechs in Ukraine was under difficult conditions. Due to the lack of legal guarantees, social protection and the policy of war communism implemented by the Soviet government, the majority of the Czech population of Ukraine left its territory.