On 22 January the Ukrainian people celebrate the "Day of Unity and Liberty of Ukraine" to mark the signing The Unification Act on January 22, 1919 by the Ukrainian People's Republicand the West Ukrainian People's Republic.
The Unification Act (Ukrainian: АктЗлуки, Act Zluky) was an agreement signed on January 22, 1919 by the Ukrainian People's Republicand the West Ukrainian People's Republicon the St. Sophia Squarein 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.
History
The agreement was aimed at creating a unified Ukrainian state, a movement long awaited by the intelligentsia on both sides. However, the Act Zluky 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.