Revolutionary Ukrainian Party

History

The rise of the party was the accomplishment of other tries from various public associations such as the Brotherhood of Tarasovs and the Social-Democratic Circle of Ivan Steshenko and Lesia Ukrainka.

Originally, the aim or R.U.P. was the independence of all Ukrainian national elements. What made the R.U.P. unique was the willingness to embrace all political philosophies, including socialism.

The party has officially arose at its First Congress in December 1902 when six party communities united into one political party in the following cities Kharkiv, Poltava, Kiev, Nizhyn, Lubny, and Yekaterinodar. Some smaller groups represented such cities like Romny, Pryluky, Odessa, Moscow and Saint Petersburg. The congress also elected the party Central Committee, Foreign Committee and Publication Committee with the last two located abroad in Lemberg and Czernowitz. The Central Committee consisted of Dmytro Antonovych, Yevhen Holitsynsky (later replaced by Volodymyr Vynnychenko), Mykhailo Tkachenko, and V.Kozynenko, while Foreign Committee was headed by Antonovych and Vynnychenko.

In 1903 the party turned away from its original nationalistic program of "Independent Ukraine" and changed it to program that was more based on principals and goals of international social democracy (such as Erfurt Program). In 1903 RUP was joined by the Kiev-based Ukrainian Socialist Party that mirrored party programme of the Polish Socialist Party was created by Kievan Polish students and Polish Ukrainophiles. In 1903 many members of RUP were arrested, while others fled to Lemberg (Lviv). The same year Marian Melenevsky became a head of the Foreign Committee.

In 1904 Mykola Porsh became a new party leader. The party shifted its focus away from peasantry concentrating on Ukrainian urban proletariat. In August 1904 a representative of RUP, Yevhen Holitsynsky participated at the International Socialist Congress in Amsterdam, however due to the protest of the RSDLP members on a separate Ukrainian delegation he was forced to join their delegation at the event.

In December 1904 took place the Second Congress of RUP which culminated in split with Marian Melenevsky leading the more Marxist members in establishing the Ukrainian Social Democratic Union (Spilka) in January 1905 that became an autonomous entity of the RSDLP and was instrumental during the Revolution of 1905 in Ukraine.

In December 1905 RUP was renamed into the Ukrainian Social Democratic Labour Party (USDLP).