Ukrainian Social Democratic Party (1899)

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Ukrainian Social Democratic Party was a political party in Galicia. The party was founded in 1899. USDP was affiliated to the Social Democratic Workers Party of Austria, but also had close ties to the Ukrainian Social Democratic Workers Party in the Russian Empire. Ideologically the party had a Austro-Marxist orientation. It advocated the creation of an independent Ukrainian state. V. Levynsky, Y. Bachynsky and Vityk Hankevych were leading personalities of the party.^[1]

The party was active mobilizing for the 1902 peasant strikes. In 1914 the party joined the Ukrainian General Council, and adopted a pro-Austrian position. This position was however reverted in 1921, as the party adopted a line of advocating unification with Soviet Ukraine. The Polish authorities illegalized the party in 1924. After the banning, many USDP cadres joined the Communist Party of Western Ukraine.^[1]