The agrarian question has become very important in the state.

Condemning the activities of the “socialist Central Council”, P. Skoropadsky advocated the restoration of private property and freedom of enterprise. These views were embodied in the “Letter to the Ukrainian people” of April 29, 1918 p.

The agrarian question has become very important in the state. From the first days of its activity, the Hetman’s government took measures to normalize the situation in the countryside. Provincial and county commissions were set up to prepare a new agrarian law. “Temporary rules on land commissions” obliged the peasants to return the landlord’s property and reimburse the losses caused to large landowners. In October 1918 p. the High Land Commission was established, headed by P. Skoropadsky.

In early November, a project of agrarian reform appeared, which provided for the forced redemption of large land holdings by the state and their distribution among the peasants no more than 25 tithes in one hand. Only farms that were of cultural importance, served sugar factories, raised breeding cattle, could have 200 acres. Reconstruction of Ukraine’s railways was quite successful. Already in the middle of summer 1918 p. managed to establish regular transportation of goods and passengers.

The unbalanced financial and credit system of Ukraine was restored. We managed to create a state budget. The law of May 9 established a national currency – the ruble, whose stability has been strengthened. It was provided with natural resources of Ukraine, mainly sugar. In the hetman’s state, the uncontrolled circulation of Russian rubles and “kerenok” of German marks and Austro-Hungarian crowns was allowed. Ukraine paid a large contribution to foreign countries with its natural resources and handicrafts.

Hetman’s rule made greater concessions to the German-Austrian occupiers. Thus, according to the economic agreement of September 10, 1918 p. for the 1918/19 economic year, the government of the Ukrainian state granted the right to export at least 100 million poods of bread, cattle up to 11 million poods (live weight), sheep – 300 thousand heads, poultry – 2 million heads, up to 400 thousand. poods of lard, butter, cheese, about 200 thousand, poods of canned meat, sausages and meat products (per month), 2.5 million poods of sugar, as well as many other foods and industrial raw materials.

For example, from May 16 to October 30, 4,500,230 poods of wool, 173,836 poods of hair and bristles, 379,352 poods of various fabrics, 479,000 poods of hides and furs, 449,000 poods of various metals, 144,734 poods of ore, 286,965 poods of tobacco were exported. 78,250 pounds of hemp and flax, 18,641 pounds of rubber. This economic agreement has further strengthened Ukraine’s dependence on Western allies.

Further reduction of industrial production continued. At the metallurgical plants of the South with 63 blast furnaces at the end of May 1918. four worked, and at the end of August – only two. By autumn, out of 102 open-hearth furnaces, only 7 were in operation, and only 7 rolling mills were in operation. Cast iron smelting in 1918 p. decreased compared to 1913 p. 11 times, steel – 13, rolled production – 15, iron ore mining – 17, manganese – 10 times. The entire mining and metallurgical region of Donbass and Kryvyi Rih was a continuous industrial cemetery.

Unemployment has become widespread. Thus, according to far incomplete data, in 1918 p. only in 23 cities of Ukraine there were 180.6 thousand unemployed. In Kyiv, Katerynoslav, Kharkiv, and Odesa alone, the number of unemployed reached 75,000. 160 out of 6,100 workers remained at the Hartman Luhansk plant, and 4,100 at the Donetsk-Yuryevsky plant. More than 90% of all workers at the Kryvyi Rih mines became unemployed. The productive forces of agriculture were undermined. Due to the reduction in 1918 p. sown areas almost halved compared to the prewar period decreased the commodity weight of grain. As a result, speculation has increased. Prices for food and consumer goods have risen sharply. Thus, a pound of white bread cost 300 rubles, a pound of sugar – 600 rubles, lard – 700 rubles. Workers in large cities and industrial centers received, and not every day, only a pound of bread a day.

In December 1918. The Hetmanate was overthrown by the Directory. December 26, 1918 p. it issued a Declaration in which it declared its intention to expropriate state, church, and large private land holdings for redistribution among the peasants. The government undertook to represent the interests of workers, peasants and the “labor intelligentsia.”

Due to the critical political and military situation in which the Directory of the Ukrainian People’s Republic operated from the very beginning, its social base narrowed. The new Ukrainian government has failed to manage the economy.

In a number of industries of Ukraine due to the general destruction, “management” of the occupiers intensified the process of fragmentation of production. Even in an industry such as coal, in 1919 p. out of 61 enterprises, only 23 remained. The share of medium and small enterprises increased. In conditions of economic ruin, they proved to be more viable.

Resources of materials, products, and raw materials important for the state economy decreased. In 1918 p. 34.8% of coal was mined in comparison with 1913 p., And in 1919 p. – only 20.5%. Fuel shortages in Ukraine have become extremely acute. Iron and manganese industry in 1919 p. completely ceased operations. No mine worked. The machine-building industry of Ukraine sharply reduced production. Thus, the production of locomotives in 1918 p. against 1917 p. decreased by 2.5 times, and in 1919 p. – 15 times. Sugar production has significantly decreased. If in 1918 p. only half of the 1913 issue was produced, and in 1919 the fifth part was produced. Other food industries were in this position. All this had an extremely negative impact on the financial situation of the population, especially in the city.

The Ukrainian peasantry, which supported the Directory at the beginning of the struggle against the hetmanate, began to show political dissatisfaction with its economic policy. The impetus for the deepening of the conflict was given by the land law of the Directory, published on January 8, 1919 p. Declaring the abolition of private ownership of land, the law at the same time, in fact, did not answer the main question: when will the peasantry receive land? Land ownership of foreign (Polish, Austrian, German) landowners was declared inviolable. Her fate was to be decided by a special law. 15-tenth farms remained intact. All this led to a protest against the Directory of the Executive Committee of the All-Ukrainian Council of Peasant Deputies (“Union”). The committee stated that the Directory had not implemented the promised social reforms.

With great delay, according to the law of the Directory of the Ukrainian People’s Republic of January 4, 1919 p. Ukrainian money was recognized as the only legal tender in Ukraine. And although the Ukrainian government quickly lost most of its territory, Ukrainian money still had a higher purchase value than the “Kerenka” Bolshevik rubles or the “Denikinki”. The Ukrainian ruble in the territories liberated during the war was usually exchanged for four Soviet or Denikin rubles. To raise the functional value of Ukrainian money and trust in it, the then Minister of Finance B. Martos occasionally released a significant amount of sugar, flour, alcohol and other products that were available to the government.

As a result of a successful armed uprising, which took place in early November 1918, a new page in the history of Eastern Galicia was opened. The power of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy was overthrown and the Western Ukrainian People’s Republic was proclaimed. The Ukrainian People’s Council became the legislative body of the Western Ukrainian People’s Republic and then the Western Ukrainian People’s Republic. Its program declaration, issued on November 5, 1918, proclaimed democracy, the foundations of the economic policy of the young republic, and guaranteed the rights and freedoms of citizens, their national and social equality.

The legislative body of the Ukrainian People’s Council was the Council of State Secretaries, established on November 10, 1918. The government of the Western Ukrainian People’s Republic faced extremely difficult socio-economic tasks. The Secretariat of the Interior’s greatest concern was to provide food for the population and the army. There was a shortage of food in Galicia. The shortage of industrial goods was even more acute.

The government of Dnieper Ukraine provided assistance to Galicians – 1,000 wagons of food (including 500 wagons of sugar) were sent and a certain amount of money was allocated for the purchase of food. However, this assistance was insufficient. Therefore, the State Secretariat of the Interior was forced to take a number of radical measures. All stocks of food and essentials were concentrated by the Secretariat.

Considerable work was done by the Secretariat of Railways, Posts and Telegraphs, he managed to establish the movement of trains, which from November 1918 p. to January 1919 p. transported hundreds of thousands of servicemen and prisoners. To train new railway staff, the Secretariat took care of railway courses. From January 1919 p. the work of post offices was adjusted. There was a telegraph and partly a telephone.

The secretariats of finance and trade and industry faced the greatest difficulties. The First Secretariat was subordinated to the Customs Administration, the Treasury Guard, and the Administration of Measures and Masses. Both secretariats lacked specialists. State treasury revenues were minimal. Given the complete impoverishment of the population, tax revenues were insignificant. With great effort, the government sought several hundred thousand crowns lab report writier to pay “per diem” to veterans. Secretaries of State received a small salary, and only from January 1919 p.

The Secretariat of Public Works dealt with the use of minerals (oil, coal, salt). He supervised the roads and state sawmills. The Secretariat’s burning task was to rebuild Galicia’s shattered economy. To this end, there were technical and construction branches in the counties. In the winter of 1919 p. the required amount of forest has been harvested for reconstruction works. With the onset of spring, it was planned to begin rebuilding the region.

The Secretariat of Land Affairs implemented the land law adopted by the Ukrainian National Council and supervised the cultivation of all land.