Council of People's Ministers
| History of national governments of Ukraine (1917-20) |
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 Ukraine
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The Council of People's Ministers of Ukraine (Ukrainian: Рада Народних Міністрів УНР) was the main executive institution of the Ukrainian People's Republic. Its duties and functions were outlined in the Chapter V of the Constitution of the Ukrainian National Republic.
It was reorganized out of the General Secretariat of Ukraine upon the proclamation of the 4th Universal and Independence on January 25, 1918 after the return of the Ukrainian delegation from the preliminary peace talks from Brest-Litovsk. At the preliminary talks in Brest, Ukraine was recognized as an equal-rightful participant and was scheduled to finalized the treaty on February 9, 1918. Until the end of the month January 1918 the member of the former General Secretariat continued to serve as full pledged ministers.
The composition of the council was determined by agreement among the major parties (coalition) and confirming by the plenum of Central Council of Ukraine. The list of proposed members was petitioned by the chairman of the Central Council, Mykhailo Hrushevsky.
The former members of secretariat continued to serve now as ministers. The major changes was no introduction of the Ministry of Agrarian Affairs and the former secretary of Food Supply Kovalevsky was replaced by Dmytro Koliukh (unaffiliated). Also the Commissioner to the Russian Government was abandoned as well.
Deputy-Chairman: Ivan Kraskovsky (UPSF), Oleksandr Karpynsk, and L.Abramovych.
The initial coalition was composed Esdeks, SRs, Federalists, and national minorities, however by the end of January a crisis has developed between Esdeks and SRs as the Bolshevik forces of the Soviet Russia were quickly advancing towards Kiev, while the Kiev Bolshevik faction instigated another disorder. Rada issued a note of non-confidence in Vynnechenko's government forcing him to resign on January 30, 1918.
A new cabinet was composed mostly out of members of the Socialist-Revolutionary party headed by its leader Vsevolod Holubovych. Along with it a special commission was organized to the Brest-Litovsk negotiations. Holubovych's government existed for about three months. One of the major changes to the cabinet was reappointment of the Minister of Military Affairs, with which Mykola Porsh had a lot of trouble.
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