Russian Union [Russian: Русский союз; Russkii soiuz]. A Russian political organization in Ukraine, established in May 1918 in Kyiv, during Ukrainian struggle for independence (1917–20). It represented various Russian parties and groupings, including the Constitutional Democratic (kadet) party, the Russian Social Democratic Workers' party (Mensheviks), Socialist Revolutionaries, and Popular Socialists. The official purpose of the union was to preserve the Russian school system and to promote Russian culture, but in practice it demanded the restoration of the privileged position of the Russian culture and Russian language in Ukraine. Its members ultimately sought the dismantling of the Ukrainian state and the rebuilding of Russia in its prerevolutionary form.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 4 (1993).]