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Caption: War Publications - WWI Compilation 1923 - Article 21
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s t that mc the Rada stated that it took this country the horrors of a civil strife; it disci iU>ut the disintegration of Russia, the esta establish mm of the c being, according to the statement, merely a sttp. the formation of a federation of free ami equal DCODU Ukrainian Republic, wh«. Ion dde roent, concluded a separate peace with the Central Powers. It iis impossible at the present time to state with any degree of certainty whether the ease with which peace was negotiated can he attributed to the fact that many leaders of the Rada belonged to the secret Austrian Bund and were Mpported by (Jerman money. Whatever the case may be, the fact remains that Ukraine was the first country to withdraw from the war and to uive to the Central Powers a decided temporary advantage in the gigantic struggle. Great Russia and Little Russia are mutually complementary geographic and economic regions: for over a centurv and a halt the lite ot these two parts of the Russian Empire has been linked together, the Russian language having become the language of trade, of literature, of official and social intercourse between the various nationalities dwelling in the southern provinces of the country. Many parts of the present Ukrainian Republic never belonged to Ukraine and the people inhabiting these parts have not expressed the desire of renouncing their Russian citizenship. They feel, and think, and hope in the terms of the great country stretching from the Arctic Ocean to the Black Sea and from the borders of Austria-Hungary and Germany to the shores of the Pacific. The effect of the breaking away of Ukraine from Russia can be best compared with the effect which the separation of our own Southern Section would have produced upon the United States. Fxonomically it is utterly undesirable and under a truly democratic regime in Russ>» it is unnecessary either politically, socially, or culturallv. An independent Ukraine means the setting up of hundreds of miles of artific^ boundanes within the confines of which national or quasi-national jealousies and animosities will solidify and grow, and will lead to the S ^ n n I?rl T T ° ^ not occur if Grea* USSla f a Feder bv a c o n T l ^ tv nf ^ ^ **"* ° « e d Republic united y eCOn m,C mtercStS and *L,Z™ ° ^ the ties of mutual understanding. 8 P H d Pr blems which w o u o f Russia.
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