State Senate

State Senate (Державний Сенат; Derzhavnyi Senat). The highest judicial body in the court system of the Hetman government of Pavlo Skoropadsky. It was set up by an act of 8 July 1918 to replace the General Court, which had functioned during the period of the Central Rada. The State Senate was organized on the model of the Russian Senate, and it functioned temporarily according to the Russian procedural rules. There were 45 appointees to the Senate. The hetman appointed Mykola Vasylenko as president, and the chairmen of the general court,s were D. Nosenko (administrative court), V. Husakivsky (civil court), and Mykhailo Chubynsky (criminal court). The Senate and each general court, had its own procurator.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 5 (1993).]