section_path: History/Early leadership
section_name: Early leadership
paragraph_text: Early leadership
  
  Prior to the formation of the modern Ukrainian presidency, the previous Ukrainian head of state office was officially established in exile by Andriy Livytskyi. At first, the de facto leader of the nation was the president of the Central Rada in the early years of the Ukrainian People's Republic, while the highest governing body was the General Secretariat headed by its chairperson. With the proclamation of the last universal of the UPR dated 25 January 1918 due to military aggression, the Central Rada of the UPR proclaimed its independence from Russia. On 29 April 1918, the Rada elected Mykhailo Hrushevsky as the first president of the Central Rada of the Ukrainian People's Republic, in effect making him the de facto leader of the republic. Although a rather widespread misconception, the state leadership position title varied and none of them had an official "presidential" title.
  
  On 29 April 1918 the Central Rada was arrested and liquidated during a coup d'état initiated by the local German administration to install Hetman Pavlo Skoropadskyi who barely spoke a word of the Ukrainian language. In November of the same year the directorate government of the UPR was established as the opposition movement to the Skoropadsky's regime. The Ukrainian People's Republic was soon re-established in December 1918 with Volodymyr Vynnychenko as the Directorate's chairperson, serving as the republic's de facto second "president" from 19 December 1918 to 10 February 1919. Although really the Directorate was the temporary governing body until the new Ukrainian Constituent Assembly would elect its president. Symon Petliura assumed the representation of the state after Vynnychenko's resignation on 11 February 1919 and until Petlyura's assassination in Paris on 25 May 1926.