MILITARY ELITE OF UKRAINIAN STATE: EVOLUTION OF POLITICAL LOYALTIES

This article is a research on the transformation of the political loyalties of the military leaders who served in the Hetmanate of P.Skoropadskyi. It focuses on the impact of the revolution on the formation of the national identity when a part of the high rank military officers took part in the Ukrainization of the army and became the first commanding personnel of the military forces of the Ukrainian People's Republic (UPR). The article reveals the factor of contextuality in the political position of the military personnel in regards to national state formations, the role of the social imperatives in choosing a place of service, the levelling of the military oath by the change of the political circumstances. The article shows that the idea of the renaissance of the "Great Russia" was dominant in the minds of the former imperial generalship that accounted for their joining the Volunteer Army forces after the demise of the Hetmanate. The article personifies the changes of the political loyalty of the generals and navy admirals of the Ukrainian State on the level of the leadership of the military and marine ministries, corps and divisions. The article identifies the suppressing role of the German military leadership in the process of building of the Ukrainian army. It defines Hetman P.Skoropadskyi's views on the staffing policy when creating the military forces of Ukraine, its naval forces in particular.