— 24 —
It was through the insistence of the Ukrainian delegates that the Agronomical Congress, meeting at Moscow in 1901, carried resolutions to the same purpose. It was the same in the Union of the Small Industries at Poltava in 1902, at the Congress of Technical Workers at Petrograd in 1903, and in several other conferences.
In the years which preceded the Revolution of 1917 the Ukrainian national question occupied, almost to the exclusion of all others, all the congresses and provoked the most impassioned discussions.
At the congress of the schoolmasters of all Russia which was held at Petrograd in 1913 numerous representatives of the Ukraine ardently maintained their national demands (the Ukrainian members of this congress were later on relieved from their duties).
The Ukrainian co-operative societies also played a very big part during the last ten years. Some millions of men joined in these movements which were directed by the patriots.
In the Congress of Co-operative Societies of the whole of Russia the struggle between the North and the South, between the Ukraine and Russia, occupied all minds. The co-operative movement in the Ukraine was largely instrumental in the general awakening of the people in 1917.
(d) 1917 and the Central Rada.
At its commencement the revolution in the Ukraine presented itself in a most national form. A demonstration of more than 100,000 men, comprising a considerable number of peasants, took place at Kiev on March 19, under the national flag, amid most splendid and moving enthusiasm.
In March and also in April several congresses of co-operative societies and of all political parties gathered together at Kiev. The most important was the National Congress of April 8, in which all patriotic societies, all co-operative societies and professional organisations, and numerous municipalities took part. The delegates of the Ukraine met: they were composed
