ACTIVITIES OF VOLUNTEER FORMATIONS AS LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES DURING THE UKRAINIAN REVOLUTION (1917–1921)

Abstract

The article highlights the organizational and legal basis for the creation and functioning of law enforcement agencies in the conditions of the revival of Ukrainian statehood of 1917–1921, in particular volunteer paramilitary formations and their importance in ensuring the protection of public order and the fight against crime during the UNR of the time of the Central Rada, the Ukrainian State of P. Skoropadsky, the UNR during the Directory. It was found that the weakness of administrative and law enforcement agencies during the period of the Provisional Government and the UNR, the actual state of anarchy and chaos prompted local communities to self-organize and form military-volunteer formations of the Free Cossacks. The reasons for the support and legalization by the Ukrainian Central Council of the societies of the Free Cossacks created on the popular initiative and their regulatory and legal support, namely the Charter, which determined the legal basis for the organization and activity of volunteer formations of Cossacks in Ukraine, are analyzed. The role of the Free Cossacks in deterring the Soviet-Bolshevik invasion was determined, in the absence of a sufficient number of combatready Ukrainized military formations. The organizational and legal achievements of the hetmanate P. Skoropadsky in the field of law enforcement, namely the creation of the State Guard, as the only body for ensuring law enforcement of the Ukrainian State, are analyzed. It is clarified why the hetman's government resorted to the practice of creating in the cities of volunteer people's squads and agricultural selfdefense units, which local managers faced difficulties in organizing this process. The reasons for the creation and activity of the people's militia during the Directory, which was supposed to replace the State Guard, as well as the role and importance of people's selfprotection, in the field of protecting the population from criminal encroachments during the studied period, are characterized.