Prelude (1921-1931)
The period of 1917-1921 saw revolution, war, and Ukraine's ill-fated attempt to establish an independent state. Although a Ukrainian delegation had been sent to the Treaty of Versailles negotiations after World War I, it was not recognized by the “Great Powers”. Despite Woodrow Wilson’s statements favoring national aspirations and “self-determination”, the geopolitics of the day prevented the formation of a Ukrainian state. Instead, the Great Powers decided not to antagonize the Soviet Union, and they believed that having a strong Poland on the Soviet border was preferable to a weaker and potentially unstable Western Ukraine. The signing of the 1921 Peace of Riga formalized the partition of Ukrainian lands between Poland and the Soviet Union, with the bulk of Ukrainian territories in the latter.
After a near-revolt by non-Russian Bolsheviks, the Soviet government agreed to a constitution in 1924 that included division of jurisdiction between the republics and the central “all-Union” government, and at least a theoretical right for republics to secede. In practice, these apparent concessions were mostly meaningless, as Moscow continued to have the ultimate decision-making power. Despite this, the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic was the first stable territorial and administrative structure based on Ukrainian identity since the Cossack State of the 17th and 18th centuries.
