On January 22, Ukraine celebrates Unity Day - one of the most important public holidays, symbolizing the unity of Ukrainian lands.. This day is the embodiment of the centuries-old desire of the Ukrainian people for unification and independence.. The history of this holiday is a history of struggle, unity and renewal of historical memory.

The idea of \u200b\u200bconciliarity of Ukrainian lands began to actively take shape in the middle of the 19th century during the Spring of Nations of 1848-1849. One of the centers of this movement was Galicia, where the Main Russian Council proclaimed the unity of the Ukrainian people, divided between the Russian and Austrian empires.

However, a real opportunity for unification arose only during the First World War and revolutionary events in the Russian Empire. In January 1918, the IV Universal of the Ukrainian Central Rada proclaimed the state independence of the Ukrainian People's Republic (UNR).

Subsequently, on October 18, 1918, the Ukrainian National Rada was created in Lviv, which took power in the Western Ukrainian lands and proclaimed the Western Ukrainian People's Republic (WUNR), recalled the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory.

December 1, 1918. In Fastov, a Pre-Accession Agreement was concluded on the unification of the UPR and WUNR. On January 3, 1919, a decision was made in Stanislav to reunite. The culmination of this process was the solemn proclamation of the Act of Union on January 22, 1919 on Sophia Square in Kyiv, on the first anniversary of the proclamation of the IV Universal. This act symbolized the unification of Ukrainian lands into a single conciliar state.