Ukrainian Social Democratic Labour Party
우크라이나 사회민주노동당
A Ukrainian Marxist party formed in December 1905 on the basis of the Revolutionary Ukrainian Party. Putting the national question and Ukrainian autonomy first, it acted independently of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. In 1917, under the Central Rada, it dominated the first Ukrainian government headed by Volodymyr Vynnychenko, and under the Directorate it supplied several heads of government. It continued in emigration and in 1950 merged with other socialist parties into the Ukrainian Socialist Party.
In depth
The Ukrainian-language source says the party was active from December 1905 to 1950, consisted of intelligentsia and partly of workers and peasants, and had about 3,000 members in 1908. According to the English-language source it was officially founded at the 2nd Congress of the Revolutionary Ukrainian Party (RUP), established in Kharkiv, during the Revolution of 1905, and adopted the Erfurt Programme of the Social Democratic Party of Germany. It proposed joining the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party on condition of being recognised as the sole representative of the Ukrainian proletariat, but no agreement was reached; during the Stolypin reaction it acted together with the Jewish Bund and partly with the Mensheviks.
Police persecution limited its activity after 1908. Its leaders included Volodymyr Vynnychenko, Symon Petliura, Dmytro Antonovych, Lev Yurkevych and Mykola Porsh. The party resumed activity at a congress in Kyiv in April 1917 and demanded Ukrainian autonomy, and under the Central Rada it carried the main burden of executive power through Vynnychenko's governments. Being more cautious on the land question, however, it lost mass support to the Ukrainian Party of Socialist Revolutionaries, and after the Fourth Universal only two of its ministers remained in the government.
Under the Hetmanate the party was in opposition and leaders such as Petliura were temporarily imprisoned. It took part in the Ukrainian National Union, in preparing the coup and in forming the Directorate, which Vynnychenko (as chairman) and Petliura joined. Party figures such as Volodymyr Chekhivsky, Borys Martos and Isaak Mazepa headed governments. At its Fourth Congress in January 1919 it split into a left "independent" faction, which accepted the organisation of Soviet power, and a majority that supported the Directorate; in February Petliura left the party. The independents founded the Ukrainian Communist Party (UKP) in January 1920.
In emigration the "Foreign Delegation of the USDRP" was based in Prague and belonged to the Socialist International; it did not join the UNR government in exile but was loyal to it. After the Second World War the party took part in founding the Ukrainian National Council and in 1950 merged with other socialist parties into the Ukrainian Socialist Party.