November 12, 2025 marks the 105th anniversary of the signing of the "Law on Temporary Supreme Administration and Legislation in the Ukrainian People's Republic" by Simon Petliura, Head of the Directory of the Ukrainian People's Republic.
On January 22, 1918, the Central Rada proclaimed the Ukrainian People's Republic an independent, sovereign, and free state of the Ukrainian people in its Fourth Universal.
Under the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk of 1918, between the Ukrainian People's Republic on the one hand and Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey, and Bulgaria on the other, the Ukrainian People's Republic was recognized as an independent state.
On November 12, 1920, the head of the Directory, Symon Petliura, approved the "Law on Temporary Supreme Administration and the Procedure for Legislation in the Ukrainian People's Republic" adopted by the Council of Ministers of the UPR.
The law established the procedure for electing the head of state in the event of his death or voluntary resignation, and recognized that the law would remain in force until the creation of a new parliament of the independent Ukrainian state.
After the defeat of the Ukrainian liberation struggle, the territory of the UPR was annexed by Poland and Soviet Russia. From the end of 1920, the government of the UPR was in exile. Therefore, on the basis of the Laws "On the Form of Ukrainian Power," "On Temporary Supreme Administration and the Order of Legislation in the Ukrainian People's Republic," and "On the State People's Council of the UPR," the State Center of the Ukrainian People's Republic in exile was created. It was the full-fledged representative body of the Ukrainian people in their struggle for freedom, state independence, and sovereignty, and for 72 years represented Ukraine abroad.
While in various European countries, the heads of the Directory, S. Petliura, A. Livytsky, V. Prokopovich, and others, as well as the executive body, which at that time was the Council of People's Ministers of the UPR, continued to perform their main function—preserving the Ukrainian state.
They carried out diplomatic missions, conducted large-scale cultural, social, educational, and scientific activities, made considerable efforts to preserve the national name "Ukrainians" at the global level, demonstrated ethnic identity, and condemned the terror unleashed by the leadership of the Ukrainian SSR-Ukrainian SSR.
Ultimately, the collapse of the Soviet Union and Ukraine's independence on August 24, 1991, marked the beginning of modern Ukraine, which became the legitimate successor to the UPR. The fact of succession was confirmed on August 22, 1992, when the State Center of the Ukrainian People's Republic in exile solemnly resigned, transferring its powers to the authorities of the restored state of Ukraine. An authorized delegation headed by the last President in exile, Mykola Plavyuk, presented the first President of Ukraine, Leonid Kravchuk, with a "Decree on the Termination of Activities," the "Declaration of Ukraine's Succession from the Ukrainian People's Republic," the regalia of Hetman Mazepa, the state flag, and the seal, confirming the continuity and uninterrupted existence of the Ukrainian state, which came into being not in 1991, but a hundred years ago in the turmoil of the 1917 national revolution.
"I wish for all the people of Ukraine, as the sovereigns of their state, to stand guard over its independence, and that there will never again be a need for the President or Government of Ukraine to be forced to act in exile, but that they will successfully and for the benefit of the Ukrainian people govern it in the capital of a free Ukraine — Kyiv!" Plavyuk said at the time.
And today, Ukrainians continue to fight for the Ukrainian state, for the opportunity to be free and independent.