The organization was formed in Kyiv earlier in 1897 by the Ukrainized Polish political activist Volodymyr Antonovych and the Ukrainian lexicographer Oleksandr Konysky.
Among the radicals were the above-mentioned Serhiy Yefremov, Borys Hrinchenko as well as Modest Levytsky, Fedir Matushevsky, and others.
The fundamental principals of the party were parliamentarism and federalism: Ukraine had to acquire under the Constitution of Russia a wide degree of autonomy.
UDRP also was seeking a compulsory purchase from private owners its land and industries that eventually would be nationalized.
During this period the party published its own press media Hromada's Thought which was a predecessor of the newspaper Rada.