Mykola Ivanovych Mikhnovsky was a Ukrainian independence activist, lawyer and journalist who was one of the early leaders of the Ukrainian nationalist movement in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Mikhnovsky was the author of the pamphlet Independent Ukraine, one of the organisers of the Ukrainian People's Army, and co-founder of the first political party in eastern Ukraine, the Revolutionary Ukrainian Party, as well as the co-founder and leader of various other parties, including the Ukrainian People's Party, the Ukrainian Democratic Party, and the Brotherhood for Self-Determination.

The Ukrainian People's Army, also known as the Ukrainian National Army (UNA) or by the derogatory term Petliurivtsi, was the army of the Ukrainian People's Republic (1917–1921). They were often quickly reorganized units of the former Imperial Russian Army or newly formed volunteer detachments that later joined the national armed forces. The army lacked a certain degree of uniformity, adequate leadership to keep discipline and morale. Unlike the Ukrainian Galician Army, the Ukrainian People's Army did not manage to evolve a solid organizational structure, and consisted mostly of volunteer units, not regulars.