The
Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic or the
Ukrainian SSR was a self-proclaimed partially
recognized republic formed by the members of the Russian Social-Democratic
Labour Party and eventually became one of the founding
constituents of the Soviet
Union
from its formation in 1922 to its abolition in
1991.
Name
The first Bolshevik republic declared in
December 24 or
December
25, 1917 and was called either the
Republic of Soviets of
workers', soldiers', and peasants' deputies or
Ukrainian
People's Republic.
On
March 10, 1919 according to the III
Congress of Soviets in Ukraine (March 6-10, 1919) the name of the
state was changed to
Ukrainian Socialist Soviet
Republic.
On
December 30, 1922 according to the I
Congress of Soviets in Soviet Union the state was incorporated into
the Soviet Union.
On
December 5, 1936 according to the VIII
Extraordinary Congress Soviets in Soviet Union (November 25 -
December 5, 1936) the state name changed to
Ukrainian Soviet
Socialist Republic. On
January 31,
1937 this decision was ratified on the XIV Extraordinary Congress
of Soviets in Ukrainian SSR. It changed along with the names of all
other Soviet republics, transposing the second ("socialist") and
third ("soviet" or "radyans'ka") words. From 1937 to 1991, Ukraine
was officially known as the
Ukrainian Soviet Socialist
Republic, abbreviated
Ukrainian SSR, UkrSSR, or
UkSSR.
The official names in Ukrainian and Russian were:
History
After the
Russian Revolution
of 1917, several factions sought to create an independent
Ukrainian state, alternately cooperating and struggling against
each other.
Bolsheviks and
Mensheviks in Ukraine first participated
in the formation of the Ukrainian National Republic
(UNR), which initially declared autonomy in 1917,
and then independence in 1918.
Right
after the October Revolution in
Petrograd
they instigated the Kyiv Bilshovyk Uprising to take Kyiv
into their hands, but surprisingly it did not go as planned.
Due to
lack of adequate support from the local population and
anti-revolutionary Central Rada, the Bolshevik split and moved to
Kharkiv
where they were supported in big cities and
industrial centers of the eastern Ukraine. They issued an
ultimatum to the
Central Rada on
December 17, to recognize the Soviet
regime of which the Rada was very critical. The Bolsheviks convened
a separate congress and declared the first Soviet Republic of
Ukraine on 24 December 1917. Warfare ensued against the Ukrainian
National Republic (UNR) for the installation of the Soviet regime
in the country. After the
Treaty
of Brest-Litovsk, the
Russian SFSR
yielded all the captured Ukrainian territory as the Bolsheviks were
pushed out of Ukraine. The government of the Soviet Ukraine was
dissolved, but eventually reforming first on 20 November 1918, and
then 21 December 1919. Eventually, the
Red
Army ended up controlling much of the Ukrainian territory after
the Polish-Soviet
Peace of Riga.
On 30
December 1922, along with the Russian,
Byelorussian, and Transcaucasian republics, the Ukrainian
SSR was one of the founding members of the Union of Soviet
Socialist Republics
(USSR).
In 1932 the Soviet government inflicted one of the largest national
catastrophes in modern history of the
Ukrainian nation. A man-made famine known as the
Holodomor caused a direct loss of human
life estimated between 2.6 million to 10 million.
In September 1939 the Soviet Union
invaded Poland, and added
Galicia lands inhabited by
Ukrainians to the territory of the Ukrainian SSR. In 1945, these
lands were permanently annexed, and the
Transcarpathia region was added as well, by
treaty with the post-war administration of Czechoslovakia.
After
World War II some amendments to
the Constitution of the Ukrainian SSR were accepted, which allowed
it to act as a separate subject of international law in some cases
and to a certain extent, remaining a part of the Soviet Union at
the same time. In particular, these amendments allowed the
Ukrainian SSR to become one of founding members of the
United Nations (UN) together with the Soviet
Union and the
Byelorussian SSR.
This was
part of a deal with the United States
to ensure a degree of balance in the General Assembly, which, the
USSR opined, was unbalanced in favor of the Western Bloc. In
its capacity as a member of the UN, the Ukrainian SSR was
an
elected member of the
United Nations Security
Council in 1948-1949 and 1984-1985.
The
Ukrainian SSR was also the site of the Chornobyl disaster in 1986, when a
reactor at the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant
melted down and
exploded, subjecting countless multitudes to radiological
effects.
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 “Western Ukraine” and Ukrainian SSR at
1939/1940 winter USSR map.
Bessarabia noted as occupied by Romania.
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The
Ukrainian SSR was officially renamed Ukraine
on 24 August
1991. It declared its intention of leaving the Soviet Union
the same day, and on 25 December 1991 became fully independent
following the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
Secretaries
Terms of the leaders of the
Communist Party of
Ukraine, and
de facto leaders
of the republic:
- Georgy Pyatakov, July 12-September 9,
1918
- Serafima Hopner, September 9-October
23, 1918
- Emanuel Kviring, October 23, 1918–March 6,
1919
- Georgy Pyatakov, March 6-May 30, 1919
- Stanislav Kosior, May 30-December 10, 1919
- Rafail Farbman, January-March 23, 1920 (acting)
- Mykola Mykolaiv, March 23-March 25,
1920
- Stanislav Kosior, March 25-November 23,
1920 stayed until October 17, 1922 in
Secretariat
- First Secretary
- Viacheslav Molotov, November 23, 1920 – March
22, 1921
- Feliks Kon, March
22-December 14, 1921 (acting)
- Dmitry Manuilsky, December 15, 1921 – April
10, 1923
- Emanuel Kviring, April 10, 1923 –
March 20, 1925
- General Secretary
- Emanuel Kviring, March 20–April 7, 1925
- Lazar Kaganovich, April 7, 1925 – July 14,
1928
- Stanislav Kosior, July 14, 1928 –
January 23, 1934
- Ivan Akulov, October 12, 1932 - November 22, 1933 (Donbas secretary)
- First Secretary
- Stanislav Kosior, January 23, 1934 –
January 27, 1938
- Nikita Khrushchev, January 27-June 18, 1938
(acting)
- Nikita Khrushchev, June 18, 1938 - March 3,
1947
- Lazar Kaganovich, March 3-December 26, 1947
- Nikita Khrushchev, December 26, 1947
– December 28, 1949
- Leonid Melnikov, 1949–1953
- Alexei Kirichenko,
1953–1957
- Nikolai Podgorny,
1957–1963
- Petro Shelest, 1963–1972
- Volodymyr Shcherbytsky,
1972–1989
- Vladimir Ivashko,
1989–1990
- Stanislav Hurenko,
1990–1991
Administrative divisions
The administrative divisions of the Ukrainian SSR changed numerous
times throughout its 74-year history. The most common
administrative division was the
oblast
(
province) of which there were 25 upon the
UkSSR's abolishment in 1991. Most of the UkSSR's oblasts still
exist as oblasts of independent Ukraine while one changed its
status to an autonomous republic. (
).
Upon the
Ukrainian SSR's formation to 1934, the republic's capital was the
city of Kharkiv
(Rus.
Kharkov) located in the east of the republic.
In 1934, the capital
moved from Kharkiv to Kiev
, which
remains the capital of Ukraine today.
Other administrative divisions of the Ukrainian SSR included the
two
Autonomous
Soviet Socialist Republics which existed during different time
periods. The
Moldavian
Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic existed from 1924-1940
until it was upgraded to that of a
constituent Soviet
republic in 1940.
The other
ASSR was the Crimean Autonomous
Soviet Socialist Republic which was formed in 1991 from the
former Crimean
Oblast
, which was transferred to the Ukrainian SSR from
the Russian
SFSR in 1954. After Ukrainian independence, the Crimean
ASSR was renamed the Crimean
Autonomous Republic
.
Oblasts
References
- Revolution of 1917
- Guide to the history of the Communist Party and the Soviet
Union in 1898 - 1991
- Guide to the history of the Communist Party and the Soviet
Union in 1898 - 1991
- Guide to the history of the Communist Party and the Soviet
Union in 1898 - 1991
- France Meslé, Gilles Pison, Jacques Vallin France-Ukraine: Demographic Twins Separated by
History, Population and societies, N°413, juin
2005
- ce Meslé, Jacques Vallin Mortalité et causes de décès en
Ukraine au XXè siècle + CDRom ISBN 2-7332-0152-2 CD online data
(partially -
http://www.ined.fr/fichier/t_publication/cdrom_mortukraine/cdrom.htm
External links