Mykola Volodymyrovych Porsh (; 19 October 1879 – 16 April 1944) was a political and civil activist of Ukraine, economist, member of the

Russian Constituent Assembly The All Russian Constituent Assembly () was a constituent assembly convened in Russia after the February Revolution of 1917. It met for 13 hours, from 4 p.m. to 5 a.m., , whereupon it was dissolved by the Bolshevik-led All-Russian Central Ex ...

. He was a prominent activist of the

Revolutionary Ukrainian Party The Revolutionary Ukrainian Party () was a Ukrainian political party in the Russian Empire founded on 11 February 1900 by the Kharkiv student secret society Hromada. History The rise of the party came about with a successful consummation after o ...

(de facto since 1903) and the

Ukrainian Social Democratic Labour Party The Ukrainian Social Democratic Labour Party (), also commonly known as Esdeky (), was a social-democratic political party in the Ukrainian People's Republic. The party was reformed in 1905 at the Second Congress of the Revolutionary Ukrainian Par ...

(since 1905). Porsh was an active member of the

Central Council of Ukraine The Central Rada of Ukraine, also called the Central Council (), was the All-Ukrainian council that united deputies of soldiers, workers, and peasants deputies as well as few members of political, public, cultural and professional organizations o ...

and a General Secretary (minister) of Labor and Military Affairs. Later he served as an ambassador to Germany.

Biography

Mykola Porsh was born on 19 October 1879 in

Lubny Lubny (, ) is a city in Poltava Oblast, central Ukraine. It serves as the administrative center of Lubny Raion. It also hosts the administration of , one of the hromadas of Ukraine. Population: History Lubny is reputed to be one of the oldes ...

into a German-Jewish noble family. His father was a jurist. Mykola Porsh studied at the Lubny Gymnasium and later the Kyiv University of St. Vladimir. From the 1890s he was involved with

Marxism Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflict, ...

, participated in a national movement and soon joined circles of the Revolutionary Ukrainian Party. In 1905 as the party's chairman Porsh replaced Dmytro Antonovych with whom he previously published newspaper "Pratsia" (Labor). Porsh wanted to create new edition of the party's statute changing it from a peasantry orientation to more of workers. In 1906 along with number of other future political leaders (

Mykhailo Hrushevsky Mykhailo Serhiiovych Hrushevsky (; – 24 November 1934) was a Ukrainian academician, politician, historian and statesman who was one of the most important figures of the Ukrainian national revival of the early 20th century. Hrushevsky is ...

Volodymyr Vynnychenko Volodymyr Kyrylovych Vynnychenko (; – March 6, 1951) was a Ukrainian statesman, political activist, writer, playwright and artist who served as the first List of prime ministers of Ukraine, prime minister of the Ukrainian People's Republic.< ...

Symon Petliura Symon Vasyliovych Petliura (; – 25 May 1926) was a Ukrainian politician and journalist. He was the Supreme Commander of the Ukrainian People's Army (UNA) and led the Ukrainian People's Republic during the Ukrainian War of Independence, a pa ...

) he created the

. After the liquidation of the RUP, Mykola Porsh emigrated to

Lemberg Lviv ( or ; ; ; see #Names and symbols, below for other names) is the largest city in western Ukraine, as well as the List of cities in Ukraine, fifth-largest city in Ukraine, with a population of It serves as the administrative centre of ...

. In 1917 Mykola Porsh was elected to the

and in November 1917 he was appointed as the General Secretary of Military Affairs. During that time Ukraine was not able to stop advances of the Russian Red Guards and save Kyiv from the Russian occupation. On his submission on 16 January 1918, the Minor Council adopted the law "About People's Army" which regulated the basic principle of creating the Ukrainian Army based on people's militia. During that period 1917-1918, Mykola Porsh headed the Soviet of Workers Deputies. On 27 July 1918, along with

, Mykola Porsh was arrested as a representative of leftist movements that were involved with created at the People's Administrations Society an organization, goal of which was an armed revolt to overthrow the existing government of the

Ukrainian State The Ukrainian State (), sometimes also called the Second Cossack Hetmanate, Hetmanate (), was an Anti-communism, anti-Bolshevik government that existed on most of the modern territory of Ukraine (except for Western Ukraine) from 29 April to 14 ...

. During times of Directorate he was an ambassador in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

until 1920. After the government of Ukraine went into exile, Porsh quit political life and permanently settled in

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. There Porsh wrote number of scientific works. Mykola Porsh died on 16 April 1944 and was buried in

. He translated in the

Ukrainian language Ukrainian (, ) is an East Slavic languages, East Slavic language, spoken primarily in Ukraine. It is the first language, first (native) language of a large majority of Ukrainians. Written Ukrainian uses the Ukrainian alphabet, a variant of t ...

the first volume of the

Das Kapital ''Capital: A Critique of Political Economy'' (), also known as ''Capital'' or (), is the most significant work by Karl Marx and the cornerstone of Marxian economics, published in three volumes in 1867, 1885, and 1894. The culmination of his ...

Karl Marx Karl Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet '' The Communist Manifesto'' (written with Friedrich Engels) ...

Bibliography

* Porsh, M. ''About the autonomy''. Kyiv 1907Electronic catalog of the National Library of the United Kingdom.
/ref>

References

External links

Minor Dictionary on the History of Ukraine.
Mykola Porsh
Encyclopedia of Kyiv {{DEFAULTSORT:Porsh, Mykola 1879 births 1944 deaths People from Lubny People from Poltava Governorate People from the Russian Empire of German descent Ukrainian people of German descent Ukrainian people of Jewish descent Ukrainian people in the Russian Empire Revolutionary Ukrainian Party politicians Ukrainian Social Democratic Labour Party politicians Ministers of defense of Ukraine Russian Constituent Assembly members Members of the Central Council of Ukraine Ambassadors of Ukraine to Germany Labor ministers of Ukraine Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv alumni Ukrainian translators