Today, January 22nd, Ukraine celebrates Unity Day. On this day in 1918, the IV Universal of the Central Council of the Ukrainian People’s Republic was proclaimed, declaring the UPR a “self-sufficient, independent, free, sovereign state of the Ukrainian people.” This document was adopted at a session of the Small Council, voted on by roll call in the Central Council, and published in Ukrainian, Russian, Jewish (Yiddish), and Polish.
This date, January 22nd, is also known as the Day of Unification, commemorating the signing of the “Unification Act” in 1919. This act legally unified the Ukrainian People’s Republic and the West Ukrainian People’s Republic, reuniting the ancestral Ukrainian lands into a single entity. The unified state proclaimed by the “Unification Act” was short-lived, but its creation was a crucial stage in the Ukrainian people’s struggle for statehood and independence from empires and oppressors. The brief existence of an independent Ukrainian State in the early 20th century became a powerful impetus for the Ukrainian aspiration for sovereignty and inspired the Ukrainian national movement for years and decades to come.
The significance of this day for the formation of the Ukrainian State was officially confirmed in 1999 by Presidential Decree № 42/99 of January 21, 1999, by President Leonid Kuchma, which officially granted this day a special status and proclaimed it “Ukraine’s Unity Day.”
Gradually, in Ukrainian society, the primary meaning of January 22nd is shifting from the “Day of Unification” to the “Day of the Proclamation of the UPR’s Independence.” More and more people consider the Ukrainian People’s Republic the direct predecessor of the modern Ukrainian State, viewing the period of totalitarian rule and its subordinate pseudo-state structures as an occupation. While these issues are actively debated in society, there is a broad consensus on the importance of January 22nd as a unifying holiday for all citizens of Ukraine, regardless of their ethnic or religious affiliation.
