Ukrainian Party of National Work

Ukrainian Party of National Work (Ukrainska partiia natsionalnoi roboty, or UPNR). A political party formed in Lviv on 24 April 1924 by a group of politicians originally affiliated with the Ukrainian Labor party. They were joined by the editorial staff of the journal Zahrava, which was published by Dmytro Dontsov. The executive committee consisted of Ostap Lutsky, Dmytro Paliiv, Samiilo Pidhirsky, Kornylo Troian, and Yuliian Sheparovych. Their political program maintained that the Ukrainian nation had been reduced by foreign elements controlling the cities into a dependent rural society. The party believed that effective counteraction could be developed only through a system of re-education of the younger generations, who would develop a sense of discipline and self-reliance. The group's rallying cry was Ukraine for the Ukrainians. Its political platform also denounced unequivocally all doctrines of internationalism or cosmopolitanism. The party was never able to implement its ambitious goals, and was dissolved on 11 July 1925, when its members joined forces with the newly formed Ukrainian National Democratic Alliance. Nonetheless the political program of the UPNR strongly influenced the shaping of the ideology of Ukrainian nationalism.

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