The Unification Act was an agreement signed on January
22, 1919 by the Ukrainian
People's Republic and the West Ukrainian
People's Republic on the St. Sophia
Square in Kiev. Since
1999 the Day of Unity of Ukraine, celebrated every year on 22 January to mark the signing of
the treaty, is a state holiday; it
is not a public holiday.
The
agreement was aimed at creating a unified Ukrainian state, a movement long
awaited by the intelligentsia on
both sides. However, the ActZluky was regarded as purely symbolic in that both governments still retained
their own separate armies, administrations and government structure. The text
of the universal made
by the Directorate of
the Ukrainian People's Republic:
The territory of Ukraine, divided over the centuries, including Galicia, Bukovyna, Carpathian Ruthenia, and Dnieper Ukraine will now become a great united Ukraine.
Dreams, for which the best sons of Ukraine fought and died for, have come true.
According to the treaty Galicia would become an autonomous part of Ukraine.
However
Ukraine was unable to gain independence and in December 1920 the Ukrainian SSR of the Soviet Union was
established comprising most the territory of the Ukrainian People's Republic. The territories of the West Ukrainian People's Republic became
mostly part of Poland. In 1939
the territories of both became part of the Ukrainian SSR.
On January 21, 1999, the President of
Ukraine Leonid Kuchma decreed the "Day
of Reunion of Ukraine" (Ukrainian: День Соборностi України, Den’ Sobornosti Ukrayiny), a
government holiday, celebrated every year on January 22 to mark the political and historical
significance of the 1919 agreement.
It
is not a public holiday. In
December 2011, President Viktor Yanukovych caused public
controversy when he merged the "Day of Freedom" into this day, naming it officially the "Day of
Unity and Freedom of Ukraine" (Ukrainian: День Соборності та Свободи України, Den’ Sobornosti ta Svobody Ukrayiny).
The "Day of Freedom" was created
in 2005 by President Viktor Yushchenko, Yanukovych's opponent, to be celebrated
on 22 November in commemoration of the Orange Revolution. President
Yanukovych stated he changed the day of celebration because of “numerous
appeals from the public”.
Mid-October 2014 President Petro Poroshenko undid Yanukovych's
merging when he decreed that 21 November will be celebrated as "Day of
Dignity and Freedom" in honour of the Euromaidan-protests
that started on 21 November 2013.
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