This article is devoted to the analysis of the influence of the Ukrainian Social Democratic Party (USDP) on the formation and development of political and legal opinion in Galicia during the period of the proclamation and decline of the ZUNR (1918-1923). The role and place of iconic Ukrainian social democrats in the socio-political life of the region and the peculiarities of the evolution of the USDP to the political course of the ZUNR, the Polish state through the prism of the short period of Ukrainian power and the specifics of the occupation regime are highlighted. It was found that during the period under study, the development of Ukrainian political and legal thought was influenced by tectonic social and political events: the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy; Ukrainian revolutions in Galicia and Trans-Dnieper Ukraine; the proclamation of the West Ukrainian People's Republic and the Ukrainian People's Republic; Zluka ZUNR and UNR; occupation of Galicia by Poland; assimilation policy of the Polish government; the struggle of civil society and legal political forces for the restoration of Ukrainian national statehood.
It is emphasized that the USDP was directly related to these historical processes, because from the moment of its creation, it was one of the first legal parties of Austria-Hungary to proclaim the idea of the right of the Ukrainian people to state and political independence and made efforts to implement the programmatic position of the party in practice by forming the legal consciousness of Ukrainians Galicia Combining the national idea with Marxism, the social democrats sought to achieve the national and social liberation of the Ukrainian people and build an independent Ukrainian socialist state. It is emphasized that the idea of a unified and cathedral Ukraine became the core during the national liberation struggle of 1917-1923.
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