The phenomenon of the Ukrainian underground state: legal classification of the institutions of the Ukrainian underground

The article analyzes the phenomena and processes of the struggle of the Ukrainian national liberation movement of 1941-1954 through the prism of the stage-by-stage national state formation of Ukraine. Emphasis is placed on the universally recognized and natural right of peoples and nations to self-determination, which was implemented in practice by the Ukrainian national liberation movement, primarily represented by the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army and the Supreme Ukrainian Liberation Council, as subjects of Ukrainian national state-building in the underground, expressing the sovereign will of the Ukrainian people as a source of power. It is proposed to introduce into historical and legal science the category (term and concept) «Ukrainian underground state» for a clear and objective interpretation and qualitative characterization of the phenomena and processes of the struggle of the Ukrainian national liberation movement of 1941-1954. In the author’s concept, the Ukrainian underground state should be understood as a set of state institutions of the civil and military Ukrainian underground, which waged an armed struggle against the anti-democratic regimes of the occupying countries and established Ukrainian national statehood underground in 1941-1954 in the process of the practical implementation of the rights of peoples and nations to self-determination. The key characteristics and description of the essential features of the given scientific term are presented. Legal emphasis is placed on the legal nature and significance for the national state formation of Ukraine of the declarative-legal Act of Proclamation of the Renewal of the Independence of Ukraine of June 30, 1941 and the creation of a state-political platform - the Supreme Ukrainian Liberation Council in 1944. A comparative analysis of the Ukrainian underground state and the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, which simultaneously represented Ukrainian statehood, while having different sources of power, was conducted. The author also proposes to consider the Ukrainian underground state as one of the historical stages of the national statehood of Ukraine, alongside and on a par with, for example, the Ukrainian People’s Republic, the Western Ukrainian People’s Republic, or Carpathian Ukraine. Turning to the phenomenon of the Ukrainian underground state and the historical role of the Ukrainian national liberation movement for the restoration of Ukraine in 1991, it is emphasized that this page of our past fits absolutely naturally into the pan-European context of resistance movements to various regimes in the 20th century. In comparative analysis, the Ukrainian underground state is a unique global phenomenon that was created and functioned in particularly difficult and extraordinary conditions. Other European resistance movements, having objectively assessed their political and legal nature and achievements, taking into account their differences from the national phenomenon under study, provide grounds to argue the unconditional authenticity of the Ukrainian underground state in world history. It has been stated that as of now, the conceptual and categorical apparatus of historical and legal science, the scientific terminology characterizing the national liberation struggle of 1941-1954, require clarifications and additions. The absence of a number of categories (terms and concepts), which results in conceptual gaps, excessively complicates the objective understanding of the character, legal nature, and state content (meaning) of the underground struggle. The scientific, social, and political significance of supplementing historical and legal science with a new term is emphasized, which, in particular, is implemented in the spirit of the preamble and norms of the Law of Ukraine “On the Principles of the State Policy of the National Memory of the Ukrainian People”. A scientific basis has been created for further consolidation of the state concept of the “Ukrainian underground state” at the legislative level.