Tsentralna Rada

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The Tsentralna Rada or Central Rada (Ukrainian: Центральна Рада, Tsentral’na rada) was a representative body formed in 1917 in Kiev (Kyiv) to govern the Ukrainian People's Republic — which was first an autonomous polity and then later a fully independent state. It achieved this by a gradual process, moving from being a representative solely of ethnic Ukrainians, to the incorporation of other ethnic and national groups in Ukraine, and issuing a series of four "Universals", or Declarations which began with Ukrainian autonomy within a democratic federal Russia and ended with sovereignty and complete national independence for the Ukrainian People's Republic.

During its brief existence from 1917 to 1918, the Tsentralna Rada, which was headed by the Ukrainian historian, Mykhailo Hrushevsky, was the fundamental governing institution of the Ukrainian People's Republic and set precedents in parliamentary democracy and national independence that were never completely forgotten during Soviet times and are still remembered today.