Pavlo Skoropadsky

… I believe in our people, and therefore, I believe that we will overcome all the difficulties that are and will be on our way to our state…

Pavlo Skoropadsky

Pavlo Skoropadsky was a descendant of an ancient Cossack family, a general  in the Imperial Russian Army. He gained popularity in Ukrainian military circles during the revolutionary events of 1917-1918. In April-December 1918, he was Hetman of Ukraine. As a result of the anti-Hetman uprising led by members of the Ukrainian People’s Republic (UPR) Directorate, he voluntarily resigned and moved abroad.

Skoropadsky lived with his family in Germany and Switzerland. He was one of the founders of the Ukrainian monarchism in exile, headed the Ukrainian Union of Agrarians-Statists and, after its collapse, the United Hetman Organization. He initiated the foundation of the Ukrainian Scientific Institute in Berlin in 1926. Ukrainian Scientific Institute in Berlin was engaged in Ukrainian studies and provided scholarships to Ukrainian scholars and students. Prominent scholars and supporters of the monarchist idea were among the staff of the Institute: Dmytro Doroshenko, Viacheslav Lypynsky, and Ivan Mirchuk.

Despite his conservative views, Pavlo Skoropadsky sought to consolidate all Ukrainian political movements  in exile. He helped to release his political opponents Stepan Bandera, Andriy Melnyk, and Yaroslav Stetsko from Nazi concentration camps.

Pavlo Skoropadsky died of injuries after being wounded in the Allied bombing at the Plattling railway station in Bavaria. He was buried in the cemetery of Oberstdorf.