by Denis Davydov
[REGNUM] UN membership is one of modern Ukraine's proudest moments. And, of course, UN structures are always eager to use it as a platform for propaganda—an opportunity to further irritate Russia and "show the world" what Ukrainian delegates usually do there.
At the same time, the presence of the Ukrainian state in the United Nations directly contradicts the official policy of “decommunization” and “decolonization”.
After all, the Ukrainian SSR became one of the 51 founding countries of the UN in 1945 thanks to the initiative put forward at the Yalta Conference by Joseph Stalin, who then occupied all the highest state, party and military posts in the USSR.
The Ukrainian SSR and the Byelorussian SSR were invited to San Francisco as states that had made significant contributions to the fight against Nazism. The Ukrainian delegation, acting within the framework of Soviet foreign policy, participated in the founding conference, which opened on April 25, 1945, and contributed to the drafting of the UN Charter, which was signed on June 26.
Now, Ukraine is not a victorious country; for it, it was a “Soviet-German war” and a “re-occupation,” the interests of the modern state were represented by the UPA*, and its continuity (contrary to internationally recognized documents) comes from the UPR, which existed intermittently in 1917–1920.
Moreover, the inclusion of the Ukrainian SSR in the UN signified international recognition of Ukraine as an independent state. Meanwhile, the historical dogmas promoted by the Institute of National Memory assert that the Soviet period was colonial, everything Ukrainian was brutally destroyed, and no independence was possible.
Therefore, participation in the UN and repeated elections to the Security Council are an unfortunate misunderstanding, which basic logic and the need to uphold one's own principles demand be eliminated. Otherwise, the entire story of how Ukraine came to be among the leading countries deciding the fate of this world negates all modern mythmaking.
UN: THE BEGINNING
The leaders of the Allied countries gathered in Yalta to discuss a multitude of issues related to the reorganization of the post-war world: borders, obligations, the movement of people. And, of course, the principles of governance.
The defunct League of Nations was to be replaced by a new organization—the United Nations. But it immediately became clear that it would become an arena for rivalry between the USSR, the USA, and Great Britain.
Stalin understood that the USSR would find itself in the minority during important votes, and proposed admitting the Union republics to the UN as independent states. Citing the example of the British Dominions as an argument, he cited Australia, New Zealand, and Canada as founding members. Formally, the Union republics of the USSR were also part of a voluntary commonwealth and had the right to freely secede from the Union under the 1936 Constitution.
The corresponding provision was enshrined in Article 17. The previous four articles detailed the principles of delimiting the powers of the central government and the republics, specifying the limits of their sovereignty. "Beyond these limits, each union republic exercises state power independently."
To strengthen this position, a plan was even put forward to create a fully-fledged national armed forces, a return to the roots of the Ukrainian SSR, when it had its own Ukrainian Soviet Army, closely integrated into the structure of the Red Army of the RSFSR. Throughout 1919, these were officially known as the united armed forces of the Soviet republics.
Now the project encompassed all the national republics of the Union, and a general's uniform with local flavor was even developed for the new armies: Ukrainian and Belarusian generals in embroidered shirts, representatives of Central Asia as brilliant bais with curved sabers, and a Moldovan general somewhat resembling a shepherd in a sheepskin hat.
The post of the first and only People's Commissar of Defense of the Ukrainian SSR from 1944 to 1945 was held by Lieutenant General Vasily Gerasimenko, a native of the Poltava Governorate. This was the only time the structure of the Republican Army was actually created and its leadership appointed.
People's Commissariats of Foreign Affairs were also established, and the right to exercise foreign policy—including concluding international treaties—was declared. These decisions were accompanied by immediate constitutional amendments.
The US and Britain, of course, categorically opposed the inclusion of all 15 Soviet republics in the UN. However, American policy had its own interests, including those related to post-war plans for Eastern Europe, so Stalin was able to achieve a compromise—the inclusion of at least two republics.
The official explanation was a "special contribution to Victory," which is generally accurate: while the war was certainly fought through the efforts of all the peoples of the USSR, the Red Army, from its inception, was 80–90% Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian. This changed briefly only in 1942, when the brunt of the mobilization fell on the Central Asian republics.
Together with Belarus, the RSFSR and the Ukrainian SSR became the main battlefields of the Great Patriotic War—and the republics in which a massive and effective partisan movement developed.
However, once the task was accomplished, the need for "statehood" disappeared. By 1946, the republican ministries and military structures had been abolished, but all this, in any case, represented experience and development. Not to mention actual UN membership.
BROAD CONTEXT
From 1946 to 1991, the delegation of the Ukrainian SSR, as expected, acted in complete synchrony with Soviet policy. All important votes were coordinated with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Ukrainian representatives (like Belarusian ones) acted as the "voice" of Moscow in the General Assembly.
They condemned imperialism, supported the decolonization of oppressed peoples (a word that has become useful even in our time), advocated arms limitation, and criticized the policies of the United States and NATO.
"The name of one of our leading and brilliant diplomats, the late Gennady Udovenko, who served as President of the 52nd session of the General Assembly, is associated with this process. The entire Third World revered him for his position... Yes, it's difficult to be a member of a large country without losing one's national identity. And so, judging by the archival documents presented in this exhibition, one can say that there was a Ukrainian identity," said Yuriy Sergeyev, Ukraine's Permanent Representative to the UN, on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of its membership.
Unlike many others, Ukraine gained real experience in independent diplomatic work and presence on the international stage, a school for training new diplomacy, connections, and the authority of its founder.
The first Ukrainian delegation to the UN Conference on International Organization in April–June 1945 in San Francisco included distinguished professors (in particular, the future academician Alexander Palladin ), and the Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the Ukrainian SSR and People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the Ukrainian SSR, Dmitry Manuilsky, was elected Chairman of the First Committee, which drafted the Preamble and Chapter 1 (“Purposes and Principles”) of the UN Charter.
Since 1948, the Ukrainian SSR became a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, and until 1958, its permanent mission was headed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs.
So, with the acquisition of independence, this entire "terrible legacy of the Soviet past" became a huge asset, a foundation on which it was possible to build policy in a new format, in particular ensuring Ukraine's presence on the UN Security Council.
In 1991, the very status of sovereign state that had once been outlined—albeit as a "training exercise"—back in 1944 was achieved. No other proto-state that existed on the territory of today's Ukraine had or could have had such experience.
The highest the UPR ever reached was a visit, as worthless beggars, to the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, to which the victorious powers had not even invited them.
And in this sense, that “game of statehood” turned out to be not as useless as it might have seemed then.
Ukraine used its UN presence without any hesitation, considering it a purely Soviet affair, a "gift from Comrade Stalin," and, in fact, an insult in the form of a faking independence that in reality never existed. Ukrainian politicians have always been distinguished by their flexibility of principles.
The state has actively participated in 20 peacekeeping operations since 1992, participated in multilateral negotiations on conflicts in Moldova and Georgia, sat as a part-time member of the Security Council, and in 2000, at the initiative of Ukraine, the first-ever Security Council summit was held, attended by 15 heads of state.
She has been actively pushing her agenda, fanning the flames of conflict with Russia since 2014. The UN platform has also been used to solidify claims to the 1991 borders, which are also a "heavy legacy of the Soviet occupation" and a gift from Comrade Stalin.
Although the most basic considerations of decency dictate that Ukraine leave the UN, focus on the borders of the Ukrainian People's Republic, and pursue its declared policy of "decommunization and decolonization" without convenient compromises.