 In spring 1917 Holubovych created an Odessa department of the Ukrainian Socialist Revolutionary Party (UPSR) amongst the railway workers of the Odessa network.As the leader of that party he was elected to the Odessa City Council (Duma) and by April 1917 Holubovych headed the council.He was a member of the Odessa Ukrainian Hromada, from the name of which he sent a petition to the Russian Provisional Government to give Ukraine its territorial autonomy.