The article examines the genesis of the views of legislative and executive bodies: The Ukrainian Central Rada and its General Secretariat, the Ukrainian State and the Council of Ministers, the Directorate of the Ukrainian People’s Republic and the Council of People’s Ministers of the period of national liberation struggle of 1917-1921 on the issue of land ownership (possession) on legal grounds (development of legislative documents). The development of ideas about land ownership was largely determined by the system of political views of the leaders of legislative state entities and the executive branch structures accountable to them. It is worth emphasizing that two of them (the UCR and the GS, the UPR Directorate and the Council of People’s Ministers) were dominated by socialist views. An important external factor in the genesis of views on the land issue, in particular, is inextricably linked to the general political attitude to the Ukrainian question. This concerned both the Provisional Government of Russia and the Council of People’s Commissars of Soviet Russia. The presence of the German Expeditionary Corps on Ukrainian territory and the outbreak of the Soviet-Ukrainian war should be considered significant factors of influence on the internal situation.

The General Secretariat drafted the Provisional Land Law, which had legal capacity until it was approved by the duly elected parliament, the Constituent Assembly. Under the Ukrainian State Duma, Hetman Pavlo Skoropadskyi canceled all land transactions performed by the General Secretariat in his «Letter to the Ukrainian People». The most complete and consistent resolution of the land issue began (taking into account the previous experience of the Ukrainian Central Rada) under the Directory. The greatest contribution to the preparation of the Law on Land in the Ukrainian People’s Republic was made by the Socialist Revolutionaries. In particular, one of the leaders of the UPSR, Mykyta Shapoval, headed the Ministry of Land Affairs.

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