Ostapenko, Sergey Stepanovich

Born in the family of a poor Ukrainian peasant. Since the family's income was insignificant, his father was engaged in horse-drawn transportation of goods. In 1893, Sergei entered a rural elementary school, which he graduated in 1897 . Then he was educated at the Belokrinitsky four-year agricultural school in the Kremenets district in Volyn. Since 1904 - a teacher of a two-year school in the town of Turisk, Kovelsky district. He was a member of the Ukrainian Party of Socialists-Revolutionaries (UPSR), in 1905 he was arrested for political reasons, and was imprisoned for three years. After his release, he could not get a job.

In 1909 he graduated as an external student with the Vladimir Cadet Corps in Kiev . In 1909-1913 he studied at the Faculty of Economics of the Kiev Commercial Institute, after the successful completion of which he was sent to Germany for an in-depth study of economics. In 1913 he returned to Russia, worked as the head of the statistical bureau of the Baltic district zemstvo in Podillia, the head of the static mining bureau of Slobozhanshchina ( Kharkov ). Returning to Kiev, he was a private assistant professor at the Kiev Commercial Institute. Author of scientific works “Meat Export” ( 1912 ) and “Economics of Animal Production and Grain Duties” ( 1914 ).

He did not take an active part in the revolutionary events of 1917 .

Since January 1918 - economic adviser to the Ukrainian peace delegation at the talks in Brest-Litovsk , headed by Vsevolod Golubovich . Since March 14, 1918, he has been a member of the Commodity Exchange Commission with the Central Powers (led by Nikolai Porsh ), created under the Council of People's Ministers of the UPR with broad powers for negotiating and signing agreements. After the coming to power of the hetman Pavel Skoropadsky , from May 1918 he worked in the economic commission at the Ukrainian peace delegation in negotiations with Soviet Russia in Kiev. At the same time he was engaged in pedagogical activity. He gave lectures on political economy, economic geography of Ukraine, economic policy and industrial economics for students of the Institute of Economics and Administration, students of a cooperative school, students of consular courses and courses of livestock specialists.

After the overthrow of the hetman’s power, Ostapenko, as a specialist in the field of economics and, at the same time, a socialist, was included in the UNR government. As a representative of the UPR, he became a member of the government of Vladimir Chekhovskiy formed on December 26, 1918 as Minister of Trade and Industry according to the quotation of the Ukrainian Socialist Republic (at the same time, he had more moderate views than most Ukrainian Socialist Revolutionaries). In February 1919, when, as a result of the Red Army offensive, the state organs of the UPR moved to Vinnitsa , Ostapenko suspended his membership in the UPSR so as not to leave the government, on which the Central Committee of the UPSR insisted. After the resignation of some of the ministers, he temporarily acted as minister of agitation and propaganda (along with his main position). February 6, 1919 took part in negotiations with the chief of staff of the French troops in Ukraine, Colonel Freidenberg at the station Birzula near Odessa . The Ukrainian side insisted on the recognition of Ukraine’s independence and the admission of its representatives to the international peace conference in Paris, promising to carry out social reforms and ensure democracy. Negotiations ended to no avail, which was one of the reasons for the resignation of the Chekhov government.

Chairman of the Council of Ministers

The new government The UPR Directory has commissioned the formation of Ostapenko, known for his active desire to reach an agreement with the Entente states. From February 13 to April 9, 1919 Ostapenko was chairman of the Council of Ministers of the UPR. The composition of his government included representatives of liberal democratic parties, including self-dependent and radical socialists, federalist socialists, Ukrainian national republicans, Galician national democrats and radicalists, and the Poalei Zion Social Democratic Party. The Ukrainian Socialist-Revolutionaries and Ukrainian Social Democrats were not included in the government, remaining in the opposition.

The government of Ostapenko failed to negotiate with France. It was not engaged in the implementation of agrarian reform, had no influence on military commanders. Ostapenko’s relations with the actual leader of the Directory, Simon Petlyura, were complex - Ostapenko believed that it was Petlyura’s figure that impeded the conclusion of an alliance with the Entente countries. At the same time, Petlyura refused to resign. The effective work of the government was hindered by the constant change of his whereabouts as a result of further advancement of the Red Army - in February-March 1919 it was consistently located in Vinnitsa, Zhmerynka , Proskurov . On March 20, the Directory and the government were forced to evacuate from Proskurov, some of their leaders went to Rivne , some to Kamenetz-Podolsky , and some to Stanislav (now Ivano-Frankivsk ). In early April, French troops left Odessa, which made the agreement between the UPR and France irrelevant.

On April 9, at the initiative of Petlyura and under the influence of the leftist forces of Ukraine, the Ostapenko government was fired and replaced by the cabinet of Boris Martos, in which the Ukrainian Social Democrats held key posts. Ostapenko did not enter the new government.

After the resignation, Ostapenko moved away from political activity. He lived in Galicia, then moved to Kamenetz-Podolsky, which was under the control of the UNR authorities, where on July 18, 1919 he became a privat-docent at the Department of Statistics at the Department of Law of Kamenetz-Podolsky State Ukrainian University. Since November 5, 1919, he also taught political economy. Since February 25, 1920 - a full-time private assistant professor in the department of political economy and statistics. In early March 1920, he sent to the university lithography for propagation the text of lectures on political economy, which was done in May. In 1920, he published two books in Kamenetz-Podolsky - “The course of statistics and demography” (edition of the provincial people's council) and “Important authorities of the Ukrainian people in the remnants of the last nations” (publication of the provincial people's cash register of state credit). Actively participated in the All-Ukrainian Partnership of Economists.

After the establishment of Soviet power in Kamenetz-Podolsky in November 1920, unlike many of his colleagues, he did not emigrate to Poland , but remained in the city. At the end of 1920 he went to Kiev. In May 1921 he was brought as a witness to participate in the trial of the leaders of the UPR, held in Kiev at the Supreme Extraordinary Tribunal. During the trial, Ostapenko became the defendant, pleaded not guilty and was sentenced to five years in prison camps. However, given the “value of Ostapenko as a scientific force,” this sentence was commuted to forced labor in the specialty.

After the trial, Ostapenko worked in the literary and political journal Chervoniy Shlyah, in which in 1924 (No. 1-2) he published the work Capitalism in Ukraine. He was also a professor at the Institute of National Economy in Kiev, taught at educational institutions in Kharkov, was a practical economist, popularizer of scientific knowledge. He is the author of the scientific work “Power Engineering of the Great State Gift for 1913 and 1923 Rocky” ( 1925 ).

Further fate is unclear. According to some reports, in 1931 he was arrested and died in camps. In modern literature, the dates of death of Ostapenko are called 1933 (in the book of V. A. Savchenko about Petliura) and 1937.

In memory of Ostapenko, on the occasion of his 125th birthday, the National Bank of Ukraine issued in 2006 a coin with a face value of 2 hryvnias with his portrait.

• Savchenko V.A. Simon Petlyura. Kharkov, 2004.

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• Coin dedicated to Sergey Ostapenko (inaccessible link)