«HE WAS NOT A CORRUPT PERSON» (sketches to a political portrait of Marian Melenevskyi)

The paper scrutinizes the beginning of Marian Melenevskyi's revolutionary activities, his participation in student movements, peasant strikes, founding the organization of rural workers, and the distribution of campaign pieces among the peasants with a call to defend their economic rights, for which he was exiled. His close cooperation with the Ukrainian Socialist Party, its material support, and recognition of the program are stressed, as well as his quite significant financing of the Revolutionary Ukrainian Party and enthusiastic activity in its Foreign Committee. Differences between the political emigrants-erupists and the Central Committee of the RUP in Naddniprianshchyna region on the issue of the party's status are pointed out: regarding unification with the Russian Social Democratic Workers' Party (RSDWP) or preserving the organization's full party independence. The negation by M. Melenevskyi's group of the national principle in the Ukrainian labor movement and slogans of the autonomy of Ukraine led to the split of the RUP into two organizations – the Ukrainian Social Democratic Union and the Ukrainian Social Democratic Labor Party. Emphasis is placed on the merging of the Union with the RSDWP, its transition to the class struggle basis, neglecting a national factor by members of the Union, and non-recognition of Ukraine's independence postulate. Additionally, there are noted the Union's activities success during the elections to the II State Duma in 1907, and its defeat during the reaction to provocateurs' denunciation, the arrest of its members, Melenevskyi's unsuccessful attempt to revive the organization's activities abroad and in Ukraine. Dynamic activities of Melenevskyi in the Union for the Liberation of Ukraine (ULU), created with the outbreak of World War I, are revealed. The author stresses Melenevskyi's co-authorship of ULU's appeals to the European peoples, conducting extensive information and diplomatic work in the Black Sea-Balkan region, in particular in Turkey, in an attempt to use it as a springboard for Ukrainian insurgent actions on the Black Sea coast, his cooperation with Turkish government factors and the recognition of independent state aspirations of Ukrainians. A negative attitude of the Russian social democrats to Melenevskyi's state ideas is shown, and his focus only on his national forces in achieving the state independence of Ukraine is highlighted. While welcoming the February revolution in Russia, he hoped for the total liberation of the Ukrainian people from Moscow despotism and refused to participate in the work of the Hetman's government. His diplomatic activities and work in various Soviet trade and cooperative offices in London are highlighted. To sum up, the unreasonableness of the first and second arrests of M. Melenevskyi and the shooting execution sentence handed down by the relevant judicial authorities of the USSR are shown. Keywords Marian Melenevskyi, Union, Union for the Liberation of Ukraine (ULU), Bolsheviks, trade and cooperative representative offices.