Pavlo Skoropadsky

Pavlo Petrovych Skoropadsky (Ukrainian: Павло Петрович Скоропадський; 15 May [O.S. 3 May] 1873 – 26 April 1945) was a Ukrainian aristocrat, military leader and statesman who served as the hetman of the Ukrainian State throughout 1918 following a coup d'état on 29 April, of the same year. He abdicated on 14 December 1918.

Born the son of a nobleman, he attended the Page Corps from which he came out an officer. After his service in the Russo-Japanese War, he was promoted to the rank of colonel, later in command of the 20th Finnish Dragoon Regiment in 1910. Skoropadsky would be promoted to major general and aide-de-camp of Nicholas II in 1912. During the First World War, he became a lieutenant general in charge of the 34th Army Corps.

After the February Revolution, which saw the emergence of the Central Rada, Skoropadsky began to Ukrainize his 34th Army Corps, later known as the 1st Ukrainian Corps. With the tacit support of the German Empire, Skoropadsky overthrew the Ukrainian People's Republic and established the Ukrainian State. During his rule, he gave the occupying Austrian and German forces greater control over Ukraine while also appealing to the interests of large landowners.

Opposition to his rule grew, particularly among the rural population, due to the forced requisition of grain by the German and Austrian troops, which often acted violently towards the local Ukrainian peasants. After his issue of a controversial statement proclaiming his aim to join a federal union with the White movement, which was unpopular with many Ukrainians, the Anti-Hetman Uprising broke out on 14 November 1918 and removed him from power, re-establishing the earlier Ukrainian People's Republic.

Despite his short tenure as hetman, he is credited with founding the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, establishing diplomatic ties internationally and restoring relative peace and order amidst the wider Russian Civil War.