THE HISTORY OF UKRAINE'S MODERN FOREIGN SERVICE

Establishment of Ukraine's modern foreign service is connected to the creation of independent state and proclamation of the 1st Universal of the Ukrainian Central Council on June 10, 1917. The process of formation of independent legislative and executive authorities led to the 2nd Universal of the Ukrainian Central Council on July 16, 1917, which envisaged establishment of the General Secretariat - an executive authority. Since the first day of its existence, the General Secretariat of International Affairs started its work within the General Secretariat. The General Secretariat of International Affairs became a predecessor of the first Ukrainian foreign service of the Twentieth century.

Volodymyr Vynnytchenko, the Head of General Secretariat of the Ukrainian People's Republic (which was proclaimed by the 3rd Universal of the Ukrainian Central Council on November 7, 1917), and Oleksandr Shulhyn, the Secretary General for Foreign Affairs, signed a draft "Law on Establishment of the General Secretariat of Foreign Affairs" on December 22, 1917, which was at the same day approved at a meeting of the Government of the Ukrainian People's Republic (UPR).

In accordance with the approved document, the duties of the General Secretariat of Foreign Affairs included conducting state foreign affairs, protection of interests of Ukrainian citizens beyond the borders of UPR, and settlement of ethnic misunderstandings within UPR (temporarily).

The 4th Universal of the Ukrainian Central Council on January 12, 1918 proclaimed UNR "a self-dependent, totally independent, free, sovereign state of the Ukrainian people".

At that time the Government of Ukraine initiated work on establishment of a network of diplomatic and consular missions, which activity was guided by state laws and regulations of the General Secretariat of Foreign Affairs (later on - the Ministry of Foreign Affairs). A relevant legal base of diplomacy was established as well - thus, in spring of 1918 the staff of Ukrainian Foreign Ministry drafted the Law on UPR's foreign missions; diplomatic staff was being trained - Consular courses under the Ukrainian Economic Association were to begin their work since March-April 1918.

Establishment of contacts with countries of the world was initiated during the work of the Ukrainian Central Council. Thus, in December 1917 the Ukrainian government established ties with the Entente countries by receiving representatives of France ("General Commissioner of France to the Government of Ukraine") and Great Britain ("Representative of Great Britain").

At the end of December 1917 the Ukrainian delegation participated in peace negotiations at Brest, where the first peace treaty in WW I was signed among UPR and Germany, Austro-Hungary, Turkey and Bulgaria.

When Pavlo Skoropadsky, the Hetman of Ukrainian State, came to power on April 28, 1918, the Ukrainian Government continued development of national Foreign Service.

Historians evidence that three main directions of foreign policy of the Ukrainian State were established, namely "establishment of friendly relations with the countries of the Quadruple Union, settlement of territorial disputes with the neighboring countries and establishment of diplomatic relations with neutral states".

The circle of countries, with which diplomatic relations were established, grew under Hetman's rule. Thus, the Ukrainian State sent its diplomatic missions to Romania, Finland, Switzerland, Sweden (a total of 10 states), and received more than two dozens of plenipotentiary representatives (Austro-Hungary, Bulgaria, Georgia, Germany, Turkey, Poland, Romania, Finland and others).

The Government of Ukrainian State also formed a separate delegation for peace talks with Russia. The negotiations with Russian delegation took place in Kyiv in May-October 1918. The delegation of Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, headed by Christian Rakovsky and Dmytro Manuilsky, also served as temporary diplomatic mission to the Ukrainian State.

When Dmytro Doroshenko replaced Mykola Vasilenko as the Minister for Foreign Affairs, several important steps were made to improve the structure of Ukrainian Foreign Ministry and legal base of foreign policy. The Law on Embassies and Missions of the Ukrainian State was passed in June 1918, and the Law on Ukrainian Consular Service was passed in July 1918. First national Consular Courses started their work under Hetman's government. They were created as educational establishment for training diplomatic and consular specialists for the state.

When the second republican government (the Directory) seized power from the Hetman in December 1918, diplomatic contacts of previous Ukrainian governments were preserved to a considerable extent, and sometimes even broadened.

In particular, the Directory (the first Foreign Minister of which was Volodymir Chehivsky) sent several diplomatic missions to such countries as Belgium, Great Britain, Greece, Italy, the USA and others. Embassies were opened in Estonia, Latvia, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and other countries. Under the Directory, the Ukrainian State was represented in Vatican as well. A separate delegation of UPR participated in Paris Peace conference, at the same time being a temporary diplomatic mission of Ukraine to France.

The main goal of Ukrainian diplomatic missions and special delegations was to gain recognition of Ukraine and achieve international support in nation building. UPR's diplomatic missions conducted broad informational and publishing work regarding Ukraine, as well as performed basic consular functions. Return of Ukrainian POWs was organized in countries where they were held, and military/medical missions for POWs were established in Berlin, Vienna and Rome.

Conducting meetings of ambassadors and heads of diplomatic missions became customary under the Directory, the most important of them were held in Carlsbad in 1919 and in Vienna in 1920.

Foreign policy of the Western Ukrainian People's Republic (WUPR) became an important page of the history of Ukrainian diplomacy.

An armed revolt in Lviv resulted in seizure of power by the National Council on November 1, 1918. On November 13 it adopted a temporary Organic Law on Independence of the Ukrainian Lands that Used to Be a Part of Former Austro-Hungary and Establishment of an Independent State.

WUPR's foreign policy mostly consisted of two key directions: relations with Dnipro-based UPR and the Entente countries.

Being guided by historical unification of Ukrainian lands into a single state, the representatives of both governments proclaimed the Act of Unification of UPR and WUPR on January 22, 1919.

The government of WUPR established broad diplomatic contacts, having opened its own missions in Austria, Italy, Germany, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia. Special missions were sent to the countries where considerable numbers of Ukrainian emigrants lived - to Canada, the USA and Brazil.

In July 1919 the government of WUPR sent a separate delegation to Paris peace talks, where WUPR's representatives worked together with UPR's diplomatic mission.

Establishment of state bodies of soviet Ukraine took place simultaneously with state-building processes conducted by the governments of UPR, Hetman state and WUPR).

Due to this, the Ukrainian Socialistic Radyanska (Soviet) Republic (USRR) was officially proclaimed in January 1919. Since the very beginning of establishment of administrative bodies of Soviet Ukraine, its "foreign policy functions" were trusted, to a certain extent, with the People's Secretariat of Interethnic Affairs, which later on was turned into the People's Secretariat of International Affairs.

A network of own diplomatic missions was created by the government of USRR. Thus, USRR was represented in Warsaw, Berlin and Prague. Speaking about foreign representatives to USRR, we can mention representatives of Poland, Austria, Germany and Czechoslovakia, who performed mostly trade-related and consular services.

At that time, the actions of People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs (PCFA) of USRR was mostly aimed at development of diplomatic relations with other states, improvement of internal legislation within the competence of Commissariat and maintaining contacts with representations of foreign states in USRR.

However, the situation changed when the Union of Soviet Socialistic Republics was established in December 1922. All foreign political, economic and trade ties of Ukraine soon fell within the competence of Union's center, thus depriving USRR of its right to conduct own foreign policy.

Ukraine's international actions in 1944-1990 was mostly concentrated at UN participation and work at other international organizations. This made it possible to inform the global community about Ukraine's life and to be involved into discussion of global and regional problems as well as introduce own proposals.

Ukraine, as a UN Charter member, participated in its elaboration, as well as in formation of its structure, bodies and authorities.

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