Mykola Volodymyrovych Porsh ( uk, Микола Володимирович Порш) was a political and civil activist of Ukraine, economist, member of the

Russian Constituent Assembly The All Russian Constituent Assembly (Всероссийское Учредительное собрание, Vserossiyskoye Uchreditelnoye sobraniye) was a constituent assembly convened in Russia after the October Revolution of 1917. It met fo ...

. He was a prominent activist of the

Revolutionary Ukrainian Party The Revolutionary Ukrainian Party ( uk, Революційна Партія України) was a Ukrainian political party in the Russian Empire founded on 11 February 1900 by the Kharkiv student secret society Hromada. History The rise of the ...

(de facto since 1903) and the

Ukrainian Social Democratic Labor Party The Ukrainian Social Democratic Labour Party ( uk, Украї́нська соціа́л-демократи́чна робітни́ча па́ртія, ''Ukrayínsʹka sotsiál-demokratýchna robitnýcha pártiya''), also known as Esdeky and SDP ...

(since 1905). Porsh was an active member of the

Central Council of Ukraine The Central Council of Ukraine ( uk, Українська Центральна Рада, ) (also called the Tsentralna Rada or the Central Rada) was the All-Ukrainian council (soviet) that united deputies of soldiers, workers, and peasants deputie ...

and a General Secretary (minister) of Labor and Military Affairs. Later he served as an ambassador to Germany.

Biography

Mykola Porsh was born on October 19, 1879 in

Lubny Lubny ( uk, Лубни́, ), is a city in Poltava Oblast (province) of central Ukraine. Serving as the administrative center of Lubny Raion (district), the city itself is administratively incorporated as a city of oblast significance and does n ...

in a German-Jewish noble family. His father was a jurist. Mykola Porsh studied at the Lubny Gymnasium and later the Kiev University of St. Vladimir. From the 1890s he was involved with

Marxism Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...

, participated in a national movement and soon joined circles of the Revolutionary Ukrainian Party. In 1905 as the party's chairman Porsh replaced

Dmytro Antonovych Dmytro Antonovych (14 November 1877, in Kyiv – 12 October 1945, in Prague) was a Ukrainian politician and art historian. Family Professor Dmytro Antonovych was the son of two Ukrainian historians: his father was Volodymyr Antonovych and his mo ...

with whom he previously published newspaper "Pratsia" (Labor). Porsh wanted to create new edition of the party's statute changing it from a peasantry orientation to more of workers. In 1906 along with number of other future political leaders (

Mykhailo Hrushevsky Mykhailo Serhiiovych Hrushevsky ( uk, Михайло Сергійович Грушевський, Chełm, – Kislovodsk, 24 November 1934) was a Ukrainian academician, politician, historian and statesman who was one of the most important figure ...

Volodymyr Vynnychenko Volodymyr Kyrylovych Vynnychenko ( ua, Володимир Кирилович Винниченко, – March 6, 1951) was a Ukrainian statesman, political activist, writer, playwright, artist, who served as the first Prime Minister of Ukraine. ...

Symon Petliura Symon Vasylyovych Petliura ( uk, Си́мон Васи́льович Петлю́ра; – May 25, 1926) was a Ukrainian politician and journalist. He became the Supreme Commander of the Ukrainian Army and the President of the Ukrainian People' ...

) he created the

. After the liquidation of the RUP, Mykola Porsh emigrated to

Lemberg Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in Western Ukraine, western Ukraine, and the List of cities in Ukraine, seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is o ...

(Lwow). In 1917 Mykola Porsh was elected to the

and in November 1917 he was appointed as the General Secretary of Military Affairs. During that time Ukraine was not able to stop advances of the Russian Red Guards and save Kiev from the Russian occupation. On his submission on January 16, 1918, the Minor Council adopted the law "About People's Army" which regulated the basic principle of creating the Ukrainian Army based on people's militia. During that period 1917-1918, Mykola Porsh headed the Soviet of Workers Deputies. On July 27, 1918 along with

, Mykola Porsh was arrested as a representative of leftist movements that were involved with created at the People's Administrations Society an organization, goal of which was an armed revolt to overthrow the existing government of the

Ukrainian State The Ukrainian State ( uk, Українська Держава, translit=Ukrainska Derzhava), sometimes also called the Second Hetmanate ( uk, Другий Гетьманат, translit=Druhyi Hetmanat, link=no), was an anti-Bolshevik government ...

. During times of

Directorate Directorate may refer to: Contemporary *Directorates of the Scottish Government * Directorate-General, a type of specialised administrative body in the European Union * Directorate-General for External Security, the French external intelligence ag ...

he was an ambassador in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

until 1920. After the government of Ukraine went into exile, Porsh quit political life and permanently settled in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. There Porsh wrote number of scientific works. Mykola Porsh died on April 16, 1944 and was buried in

. He translated in the

Ukrainian language Ukrainian ( uk, украї́нська мо́ва, translit=ukrainska mova, label=native name, ) is an East Slavic language of the Indo-European language family. It is the native language of about 40 million people and the official state langu ...

the first volume of the Capital: Critique of Political Economy by

Karl Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...

Bibliography

* Porsh, M. ''About the autonomy''. Kiev 1907Electronic catalog of the National Library of the United Kingdom.
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References

External links

Minor Dictionary on the History of Ukraine.
Mykola Porsh
Encyclopedia of Kiev {{DEFAULTSORT:Porsh, Mykola 1879 births 1944 deaths People from Lubny People from Poltava Governorate People from the Russian Empire of German descent Ukrainian people of German descent Ukrainian people of Jewish descent Ukrainian people in the Russian Empire Revolutionary Ukrainian Party politicians Ukrainian Social Democratic Labour Party politicians Defence ministers of Ukraine Russian Constituent Assembly members Members of the Central Council of Ukraine Ambassadors of Ukraine to Germany Labor ministers of Ukraine Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv alumni Ukrainian translators