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187-637: Politically and culturally, the nativization policy aimed to eliminate Russian domination and culture in Soviet republics where ethnic Russians did not constitute a majority. This policy was implemented even in areas with large Russian-speaking populations; for instance, all children in Ukraine were taught in the Ukrainian language in school. The policies of korenizatsiia facilitated the Communist Party 's establishment of

374-622: A Ukrainian Academy of Sciences . The latter established a Committee on Orthography and Terminology, which initiated a scholarly and methodological research program into Ukrainian terminology. The Hetmanate's rule ended with the German evacuation and was replaced by the Directorate government of Symon Petlura in the wake of Ukraine's defeat against the Polish during the Polish-Ukrainian war. Ukraine

561-561: A 2006 survey, Ukrainian is used at home by 23% of Kyivans , as 52% use Russian and 24% switch between both). In the Donets Basin region the percentage of students receiving education in Russian roughly corresponds to the percentage of population who considers Russian as their native language and in Crimea the overwhelming majority of secondary schools students are taught in Russian. The distribution

748-555: A Ukrainian translation or subtitles, and local radio and television stations have the right to broadcast in Russian only if they can prove they have a Russian audience. There was some opposition against this ban. Today the ban is in full effect, but Russian movies are mostly subtitled in cinemas and on Ukrainian television. Non-Russian and non-Ukrainian movies which used to be dubbed in Russian may now only be dubbed, post-synchronized or subtitled in Ukrainian. Ukrainian authorities defended

935-507: A cultural thaw within Ukraine. In October 1964, Khrushchev was deposed by a joint Central Committee and Politburo plenum and succeeded by another collective leadership, this time led by Leonid Brezhnev , born in Ukraine, as First Secretary and Alexei Kosygin as Chairman of the Council of Ministers . Brezhnev's rule would be marked by social and economic stagnation, a period often referred to as

1122-531: A large territory with traditionally mixed population in the east and south that became part of the Ukrainian Soviet republic. The All-Ukrainian Sovnarkom 's decree "On implementation of the Ukrainization of the educational and cultural institutions" (July 27, 1923) is considered to be the onset of the Ukrainization program. The (August 1) decree that followed shortly "On implementation of the equal rights of

1309-460: A mandatory subject of study in all non-Russian schools. In general, the cultural and linguistic russification reflected the overall centralization imposed by Stalin. The Cyrillic script was instituted for a number of Soviet languages, including the languages of Central Asia that in the late 1920s had been given Latin alphabets to replace Arabic ones. Moldova became part of the USSR as a consequence of

1496-494: A massive decline of reported Ukrainians in these regions in the 1937 Soviet Census compared to the 1926 First All-Union Census of the Soviet Union . The Communist Party of Ukraine, under the guidance of state officials like Lazar Kaganovich , Stanisław Kosior , and Pavel Postyshev, boasted in early 1934 of the elimination of "counter-revolutionaries, nationalists, spies and class enemies". Whole academic organizations, such as

1683-557: A massive decline of reported Ukrainians in these regions in the 1937 Soviet Census . Upon signing of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact , Nazi Germany and Soviet Union partitioned Poland and its Eastern Borderlands were secured by the Soviet buffer republics with Ukraine securing the territory of Eastern Galicia. The Soviet September Polish campaign in Soviet propaganda was portrayed as the Golden September for Ukrainians, given

1870-487: A nascent Ukrainian state emerged but, initially, the state's very survival was not ensured. As the Central Rada , the governing body, was trying to assert the control over Ukraine amid the foreign powers and internal struggle, only a limited cultural development could take place. However, for the first time in the modern history, Ukraine had a government of its own and the Ukrainian language gained usage in state affairs. As

2057-693: A period of the Russian Civil War from 1917 to 1923, many factions claiming themselves governments of the newly born republic were formed, each with supporters and opponents. The two most prominent of them were an independent government in Kiev called the Ukrainian People's Republic (UNR) and a Soviet Russia -aligned government in Kharkov called the Ukrainian Soviet Republic (USR). The Kiev-based UNR

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2244-573: A press conference in Sochi ( Russia ) that the implementation of Russian as a second state language remains the goal of his party even though he does not see it achieved in the immediate future because such a change, which would require amending the Constitution, would not collect the required majority (⅔) in the Parliament of Ukraine given the current political situation. During the electoral campaign for

2431-469: A profound shift of the language of instruction in schools to Ukrainian. In 1930, Stalin proclaimed at the 16th Party Congress that building socialism was a period of blossoming of national cultures. The final goal would be to merge into one international culture with a common language. Meanwhile, the first five-year plan in 1928–1931 was a period of radicalism , utopianism and violence in an atmosphere of "cultural revolution". Russian cultural heritage

2618-465: A regional language, citing the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages , ratified by Ukraine in 2003. In Dnipropetrovsk, the court has found the order of the city council on introducing Russian as a regional language unlawful, but the legal battle on the local status of the Russian language remains to be resolved. In the wake of the 2006 Parliamentary crisis in Ukraine that fractured

2805-450: A required subject of study. The term korenizatsiia went out of use in the latter half of the 1930s, replaced by more bureaucratic expressions, such as "selection and placement of national cadres" ( подбор и расстановка национальных кадров ). From 1937, the central press started to praise Russian language and Russian culture. Mass campaigns were organized to denounce the " enemies of the people ". " Bourgeois nationalists " were new enemies of

2992-488: A resolution limiting the expansion of Ukrainian-language education in the city. The following day the city prosecutor declared the decision illegal and the mayor suspended it, and the council reversed itself two days later. According to a March 2010 survey, forced Ukrainization and Russian language suppression are among the least troubling problems for Ukrainian citizens, concerning only 4.8% of population. The government of independent Ukraine implemented policies to broaden

3179-459: A result of social processes or policies. In Western historiography, the term Ukrainization refers also to a policy and resulting process of forcing ethnic minorities living on Ukrainian territories to abandon their ethnic identity by means of the enforced assimilation of Ukrainian culture and identity. During the aftermath of World War II , in the Ukrainian SSR this process had been preceded by

3366-520: A result. Another concern was that the Soviet Union's westernmost minorities – Belarusians, Ukrainians, Poles, Finns etc. – who had been previously treated with conscious benevolence in order to provide propaganda value to members of their ethnic groups in nations bordering the USSR (and thus facilitating future national unification, which would then bring about territorial expansion of the USSR) were now instead increasingly seen as vulnerable to influence from across

3553-415: A second language in Russian schools. A string of local Ukrainian-language publications was started and departments of Ukrainian studies were opened in colleges. Overall, these policies were implemented in thirty-five administrative districts in southern Russia. Starting from the early 1930s, the Ukrainization policies were abruptly and bloodily reversed. " Ukrainian bourgeois nationalism " was declared to be

3740-852: A separate version of RTR Planeta was started specially for Ukrainian TV viewers in October 2009. On 13 May 2010, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov claimed that in Ukraine "the discriminatory, politically-motivated, ideology-tinged and anti-Russian decisions that were being made when Yuschenko was President have been lifted". On 23 May 2017, Ukrainian parliament approved the law proposed in November 2016 that demands national, regional, satellite, and multi-channel TV and radio networks to broadcast at least 75% of their content (summarized on weekly basis separately in time intervals 7   am – 6   pm and 6   pm – 10   pm) in Ukrainian starting from 13 October 2017. 50%

3927-600: A significant curtailing of the rights of indigenous peoples carried out without consultations with their representatives. On 27 June 2018 Ukrainian foreign minister Pavlo Klimkin stated that following the recommendation of the Venice Commission the language provision of the (September 2017) law on education will not apply to private schools and that every public school for national minorities "will have broad powers to independently determine which classes will be taught in Ukrainian or their native language." In January 2020

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4114-545: A symbolic nature , elections to the Supreme Soviet were contested every five years. Nominees from electoral districts from around the republic, typically consisting of an average of 110,000 inhabitants, were directly chosen by party authorities, providing little opportunity for political change, since all political authority was directly subordinate to the higher level above it. With the beginning of Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev 's perestroika reforms towards

4301-513: A system, lower-level authorities directly reported to higher level authorities and so on, with the bulk of the power being held at the highest echelons of the Communist Party. Originally, the legislative authority was vested in the Congress of Soviets of Ukraine , whose Central Executive Committee was for many years headed by Grigory Petrovsky . Soon after publishing a Stalinist constitution ,

4488-467: A time without cause. After not receiving any pay for many months, many choirs and artistic ensembles such as the Kiev and Poltava Bandurist Capellas ceased to exist. Blind traditional folk musicians known as kobzars were summoned from all of Ukraine to an ethnographic conference and disappeared (See Persecuted bandurists ). In the regions of southern Russian SFSR ( North Caucasus and eastern part of Sloboda Ukraine included into RSFSR) Ukrainization

4675-606: A variety of ways since the twelfth century. For example, Zaporozhian Cossacks called their hetmanate "Ukraine". Within the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth , the name carried unofficial status for larger part of Kiev Voivodeship . " The Ukraine" was once the usual form in English, despite Ukrainian not having a definite article . Since the Declaration of Independence of Ukraine , this form has become less common in

4862-544: A year. Chernenko was succeeded by Mikhail Gorbachev in 1985. Gorbachev's policies of perestroika and glasnost (English: restructuring and openness ) failed to reach Ukraine as early as other Soviet republics because of the influence of Volodymyr Shcherbytsky , a conservative communist appointed by Brezhnev and the First Secretary of the Ukrainian Communist Party. The Chernobyl disaster of 1986,

5049-629: A young Joseph Stalin (himself a Georgian and therefore an ethnic minority member) to Vienna , which was a very ethnically diverse city due to its status as capital of the Austro-Hungarian empire . Stalin reported back to Moscow with his ideas for the policy. It was summarized in Stalin's pamphlet (his first scholarly publication), Marxism and the National Question (1913). As adopted in 1923 korenizatsiia involved teaching and administration in

5236-446: Is a policy or practice of increasing the usage and facilitating the development of the Ukrainian language and promoting other elements of Ukrainian culture in various spheres of public life such as education , publishing , government , and religion . The term is also used to describe a process by which non-Ukrainians or Russian-speaking Ukrainians are assimilated to Ukrainian culture and language, either by individual choices or as

5423-562: Is an official language of the European Union , while ensuring that persons studying at such institutions study the state language Ukrainian as a separate academic discipline; it guaranteed that national minorities whose language is an official languages of the European Union the right to use the language of the corresponding national minority in the educational process along with the state language and it ensured that pupils who had begun their general secondary education before 1 September 2018 in

5610-494: Is no evidence that agricultural yield could not feed the population at the time, four million Ukrainians were starved to death while Moscow exported over a million tonnes of grain to the West, decimating the population. Within a decade, Ukraine's industrial production had quintupled, mainly from facilities in the Donets Basin and central Ukrainian cities such as Mykolaiv . In 1945, agricultural production stood at only 40 percent of

5797-566: Is now western Ukraine was gained via the Soviet-German Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact , with the annexation of Eastern Galicia and Volhynia in 1939, significant portions of Romania in 1940, and Carpathian Ruthenia in Czechoslovakia in 1945. From the 1919 establishment of the Ukrainian SSR until 1934, the city of Kharkov served as its capital; however, the republic's seat of government was subsequently relocated in 1934 to

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5984-566: Is often referred to as " Executed Renaissance " (Ukrainian: розстріляне відродження). The terror peaked in 1933 during the Holodomor , four to five years before the Soviet-wide " Great Purge ", which, for Ukraine, was a second blow. The vast majority of leading scholars and cultural leaders of Ukraine were liquidated, as were the "Ukrainianized" and "Ukrainianizing" portions of the Communist party. At

6171-516: Is required from local networks, and 75% of news programs is required in Ukrainian for all networks. Films and broadcasts which are not products of these networks and produced after 1991 must be broadcast exclusively in Ukrainian. Reasonable exceptions are provided for inclusion of non-Ukrainian language into otherwise Ukrainian-language broadcasts. The National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine may permit exceptions to this law for broadcasts which serve elimination of threats to national security. At

6358-418: Is similar in the institutes of the higher education while the latter are somewhat more Ukrainianized. The increase of the share of secondary school students obtaining education in Ukrainian (from 47.9% to 67%) over the first decade of the Ukrainian independence roughly corresponded to the share of native Ukrainian speakers - 67.5%. Schools continue to be transferred to the Ukrainian language up to this day. At

6545-467: Is still in use but not as important as it was in the Soviet era, since it has no special status in the country and its usage as mother tongue has been declining for some time. During the Soviet era, a significant number of ethnic Russians and Ukrainians migrated to other Soviet republics, and many of them settled there. According to the last census in 1989, the Russian 'diaspora' in the Soviet republics had reached 25 million. Some historians evaluating

6732-496: Is the language of education at all levels except for subjects that are allowed to be taught in two or more languages, namely English or one of the other official languages of the European Union . The law was condemned by PACE that called it "a major impediment to the teaching of national minorities". The law also faced criticism from officials in Hungary , Romania and Russia . ( Hungarian and Romanian are official languages of

6919-493: The 1991 Ukrainian presidential election held on the same day as the independence referendum, 62 percent of voters voted for Leonid Kravchuk , who had been vested with presidential powers since the Supreme Soviet's declaration of independence. On 8 December 1991, Ukraine (at Kravchuk's direction), Russian and Belarus signed the Belovezh Accords which declared that the Soviet Union had effectively ceased to exist and founded

7106-421: The 2010 Ukrainian presidential election Yanukovych at first stated that if he would be elected President he then will do everything in order to make Russian the second state language in Ukraine, but in an interview with Kommersant later during the campaign he stated that the status of Russian in Ukraine "is too politicized" and said that if elected president in 2010 he would "have a real opportunity to adopt

7293-527: The 24th Party Congress talked about "a new historical community of people – the Soviet people", and introduced the ideological tenant of Developed socialism , which postponed communism. When Brezhnev died in 1982 , his position of General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was succeeded by Yuri Andropov , who died quickly after taking power. Andropov was succeeded by Konstantin Chernenko , an ethnic Ukrainian , who ruled for little more than

7480-537: The Commonwealth of Independent States as a quasi-replacement. On 21 December 1991, all the former Soviet republics (except Estonia, Georgia, Lithuania and Latvia) signed the Alma-Ata Protocol which reiterated that the Soviet Union had functionally ceased to exist. The Soviet Union formally dissolved on 26 December 1991. The Ukrainian SSR's system of government was based on a one-party communist system ruled by

7667-510: The Communist Party of Ukraine (CPU) openly criticised Stalin's russification policies in a meeting in June 1953. On 4 June 1953, Aleksey Kirichenko succeeded Leonid Melnikov as First Secretary of the CPU; this was significant since Kyrychenko was the first ethnic Ukrainian to lead the CPU since the 1920s. The policy of de-Stalinization took two main features, that of centralisation and decentralisation from

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7854-434: The Communist Party of Ukraine , a branch of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (KPSS). The republic was one of 15 constituent republics composing the Soviet Union from its entry into the union in 1922 until its dissolution in 1991. All of the political power and authority in the USSR was in the hands of Communist Party authorities, with little real power being concentrated in official government bodies and organs. In such

8041-576: The Constitution of Ukraine and interests of the Republic" on 5 October 1991. After Ukrainian independence the Ukrainian SSR's parliament was changed from Supreme Soviet to its current name Verkhovna Rada , the Verkhovna Rada is still Ukraine's parliament. Ukraine also has refused to recognize exclusive Russian claims to succession of the Soviet Union and claimed such status for Ukraine as well, which

8228-673: The English-speaking world , and style-guides warn against its use in professional writing. According to U.S. ambassador William Taylor , "The Ukraine" implies disregard for the country's sovereignty. The Ukrainian position is that the usage of " 'The Ukraine' is incorrect both grammatically and politically." After the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II during the February Revolution of 1917 in Petrograd , many people in Ukraine wished to establish an autonomous Ukrainian Republic. During

8415-563: The Era of Stagnation . The new regime introduced the policy of rastsvet , sblizhenie and sliianie ("flowering", "drawing together" and "merging"/"fusion"), which was the policy of uniting the different Soviet nationalities into one Soviet nationality by merging the best elements of each nationality into the new one. This policy turned out to be, in fact, the reintroduction of the russification policy. The reintroduction of this policy can be explained by Khrushchev's promise of communism in 20 years ;

8602-866: The Law of Languages (a guarantee for the protection of all languages in Ukraine) the education system gradually reshaped from a system that was only partly Ukrainian to the one that is overwhelmingly so. The Russian language is still studied as a required course in all secondary schools, including those with Ukrainian as the primary language of instructions. The number of secondary school students who received their primary education in Ukrainian grew from 47.9% in 1990–1991 (the last school year before Ukrainian independence) to 67.4% in 1999 and to 75.1% by 2003–2004 (see table). Ukrainization has achieved even greater gains in higher education institutions where as of 1990–1991 only 7% of students were being taught primarily in Ukrainian. By 2003–2004

8789-517: The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact . Soon after, the language of the country was renamed to "Moldavian" and it ceased being written in the Latin alphabet, changing to Cyrillic. This policy would only be reversed in 1989, after large demonstrations imbued with patriotic feeling. Romanian is an official language in the Moldovan constitution since its independence, and it is Moldova's sole official language today. Russian

8976-790: The Russian Revolution , particularly after the Bolshevik Revolution . The outbreak of the Ukrainian–Soviet War in the former Russian Empire saw the Bolsheviks defeat the independent Ukrainian People's Republic , during the conflict against which they founded the Ukrainian People's Republic of Soviets , which was governed by the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR), in December 1917; it

9163-531: The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic during the war, and 2.2 million Ukrainians were sent to forced labour camps by the Germans. The material devastation was huge; Adolf Hitler 's orders to create "a zone of annihilation" in 1943, coupled with the Soviet military's scorched-earth policy in 1941, meant Ukraine lay in ruins. These two policies led to the destruction of more than 28,000 villages and 714 cities and towns. 85 percent of Kiev 's city centre

9350-514: The Soviet -Ukrainians still experienced food shortages due to the inefficiencies of a highly centralised economy . During the peak of Soviet-Ukrainian agriculture output in the 1950s and early-to-mid-1960s, human consumption in Ukraine, and in the rest of the Soviet Union , actually experienced short intervals of decrease. There are many reasons for this inefficiency, but its origins can be traced back to

9537-634: The Supreme Soviet of Ukraine declared independence on 24 August 1991 and renamed the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic as Ukraine . A referendum on independence was held on 1 December 1991. 92.3% of voters voted for independence nationwide. The referendum carried in the majority of all oblasts, including Crimea where 54% voted for independence, and those in Eastern Ukraine where more than 80% voted for independence. In

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9724-473: The Supreme Soviet of Ukraine changed the Constitution and adopted the "Law of Languages". The Ukrainian language was declared the only official language , while the other languages spoken in Ukraine were guaranteed constitutional protection. The government was obliged to create the conditions required for the development and use of Ukrainian language as well as languages of other ethnic groups, including Russian . Usage of other languages, along with Ukrainian,

9911-645: The Third All-Ukrainian Congress of Soviets ratified the constitution of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in Kharkiv. After the Russian Revolution of 1917 , several factions sought to create an independent Ukrainian state, alternately cooperating and struggling against each other. Numerous more or less socialist-oriented factions participated in the formation of the Ukrainian People's Republic among which were Bolsheviks, Mensheviks , Socialists-Revolutionaries and many others. The most popular faction

10098-542: The Ukrainian Cinema Foundation , claims "Some European sellers at Berlin's film market are reporting that Russian buyers are already threatening not to buy films if they sell directly to Ukraine without using Russian distribution channels." Despite earlier fears that there would be problems due to the introduction of compulsory Ukrainian dubbing of films, the number of visitors to Ukrainian cinemas soared by 40% in Q1 of

10285-472: The Ukrainian SSR , UkSSR , and also known as Soviet Ukraine or just Ukraine , was one of the constituent republics of the Soviet Union from 1922 until 1991. Under the Soviet one-party model , the Ukrainian SSR was governed by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union through its republican branch , the Communist Party of Ukraine . The first iterations of the Ukrainian SSR were established during

10472-752: The World Federation of Trade Unions and the World Federation of Democratic Youth , and since 1949, the International Olympic Committee . Legally, the Soviet Union and its fifteen union republics constituted a federal system , but the country was functionally a highly centralised state, with all major decision-making taking place in the Kremlin , the capital and seat of government of the country. The constituent republics were essentially unitary states , with lower levels of power being directly subordinate to higher ones. Throughout its 72-year existence,

10659-501: The dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Ukrainian SSR emerged as the present-day independent state of Ukraine , although the modified Soviet-era constitution remained in use until the adoption of the modern Ukrainian constitution in June 1996. Throughout its 72-year history, the republic's borders changed many times, with a general trend toward acquiring lands with ethnic Ukrainian population majority, and losing lands with other ethnic majorities. A significant portion of what

10846-491: The dissolution of the Soviet Union the law, with some minor amendments, remained in force in the independent Ukrainian state. Adopted in 1996, the new Constitution of Ukraine confirmed the official state status of the Ukrainian language, and guaranteed the free development, use, and protection of Russian and other languages of national minorities of Ukraine. Language issues are still used by politicians to generate controversy. On May 20, 2008, Donetsk city council passed

11033-532: The new constitution was adopted. The new constitution stated that the many socialist nations had transformed on a voluntary basis into a harmonious union. According to the new constitution there were 11 socialist republics, 22 autonomous republics, nine autonomous regions and nine national territories. At the same time, administration was now greatly centralised. All the Republics were now harnessed to serve one common socialist state. Between 1933 and 1938 korenizatsiia

11220-401: The (minority) nationality areas new institutions should be organized giving the state a national (minority) character everywhere, built on the use of the nationality languages in government and education, and on the recruitment and promotion of leaders from the ranks of minority groups. On the central level the nationalities should be represented in the Soviet of Nationalities . The main idea of

11407-777: The 12th Congress of the Communist Party of Ukraine , Moscow-appointed leader Pavel Postyshev declared that "1933 was the year of the defeat of Ukrainian nationalist counter-revolution." This "defeat" encompassed not just the physical extermination of a significant portion of the Ukrainian peasantry, but also the virtual elimination of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church clergy and the mass imprisonment or execution of Ukrainian intellectuals, writers and artists. Ukrainian music ensembles had their repertoires severely restricted and censored. Foreign tours by Ukrainian artists were canceled without explanation. Many artists were arrested and detained often for months at

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11594-476: The 14th Extraordinary Congress of Soviets in Ukrainian SSR on 31 January 1937. The name Ukraine ( Latin : Vkraina ) is a subject of debate. It is often perceived as being derived from the Slavic word "okraina", meaning "border land". It was first used to define part of the territory of Kievan Rus' ( Ruthenia ) in the 12th century, at which point Kiev (now Kyiv ) was the capital of Rus'. The name has been used in

11781-419: The 14th century). The vernacular Ruthenian "business speech" ( Ukrainian : ділове мовлення , romanized :  dilove movlennya ) of the 16th century would spread to most other domains of everyday communication in the 17th century, with an influx of words, expressions and style from Polish and other European languages, while the usage of Church Slavonic became more restricted to the affairs of religion,

11968-915: The 16th century, when present-day Ukraine and Belarus were part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania , the Renaissance had a major impact on shifting culture, art and literature away from Byzantine Christian theocentrism as expressed in Church Slavonic , towards humanist anthropocentrism , which in writing was increasingly expressed by taking the vernacular language of the common people as the basis of texts. New literary genres developed that were closer to secular topics, such as poetry, polemical literature, and scientific literature, while Church Slavonic works of previous times were translated into what became known as Ruthenian, Chancery Slavonic, or Old Ukrainian (also called проста мова prosta mova or "simple language" since

12155-534: The 1920s the administration of the Ukrainian SSR insisted in vain on reviewing the border between the Ukrainian Soviet Republics and the Russian Soviet Republic based on the 1926 First All-Union Census of the Soviet Union that showed that 4.5 millions of Ukrainians were living on Russian territories bordering Ukraine. A forced end to Ukrainisation in southern Russian Soviet Republic led to

12342-429: The 1940 level, even though the republic's territorial expansion had "increased the amount of arable land ". In contrast to the remarkable growth in the industrial sector, agriculture continued in Ukraine, as in the rest of the Soviet Union, to function as the economy's Achilles heel . Despite the human toll of collectivisation of agriculture in the Soviet Union, especially in Ukraine, Soviet planners still believed in

12529-401: The 1940 level. The slow changes in agriculture can be explained by the low productivity in collective farms, and by bad weather-conditions, which the Soviet planning system could not effectively respond to. Grain for human consumption in the post-war years decreased, this in turn led to frequent and severe food shortages. The increase of Soviet agricultural production was tremendous, however,

12716-494: The 49 Ukrainian, Russian and Moldovan crew were detained by the Kuomintang regime in various terms up to 34 years in captivity with 3 deaths. The "Thaw"  – the policy of deliberate liberalisation – was characterised by four points: amnesty for some convicted of state crime during the war or the immediate post-war years; amnesties for one-third of those convicted of state crime during Stalin's rule;

12903-422: The Bahaliy Institute of History and Culture, were shut down following the arrests. In 1935–36, 83% of all school children in the Ukrainian SSR were taught in Ukrainian even though Ukrainians made up about 80% of the population. In 1936 from 1830 newspapers 1402 were in Ukrainian, as were 177 magazines, in 1936 69,104 thousand Ukrainian books were printed. In the following fifty years the Soviet policies towards

13090-427: The Congress of Soviets was transformed into the Supreme Soviet (and the Central Executive Committee into its Presidium ), which consisted of 450 deputies. The Supreme Soviet had the authority to enact legislation, amend the constitution , adopt new administrative and territorial boundaries, adopt the budget, and establish political and economic development plans. In addition, parliament also had to authority to elect

13277-479: The European Union, Russian is not. ) Ukrainian officials stressed that the new law complies fully with European norms on minority rights. The law does state that "Persons belonging to indigenous peoples of Ukraine are guaranteed the right to study in public facilities of preschool and primary education in the language of instruction of the respective indigenous people, along with the state language of instruction" in separate classes or groups. PACE describes this as

13464-486: The Germans. While the war brought to Ukraine an enormous physical destruction, victory also led to territorial expansion. As a victor, the Soviet Union gained new prestige and more land. The Ukrainian border was expanded to the Curzon Line . Ukraine was also expanded southwards, near the area Izmail , previously part of Romania . An agreement was signed by the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia whereby Carpathian Ruthenia

13651-634: The Kiev Bolshevik group split. Most moved to Kharkov and received the support of the eastern Ukrainian cities and industrial centers. Later, this move was regarded as a mistake by some of the People's Commissars ( Yevgenia Bosch ). They issued an ultimatum to the Central Rada on 17 December to recognise the Soviet government of which the Rada was very critical. The Bolsheviks convened a separate congress and declared

13838-514: The Presidium was a powerful position in the republic's higher echelons of power, and could nominally be considered the equivalent of head of state , although most executive authority would be concentrated in the Communist Party's politburo and its First Secretary . Full universal suffrage was granted for all eligible citizens aged 18 and over, excluding prisoners and those deprived of freedom. Although they could not be considered free and were of

14025-559: The Rada was eventually overthrown in a German-backed coup (April 29, 1918), the rule of a Hetmanate led by Pavlo Skoropadskyi was established. While the stability of the government was only relative and Skoropadsky himself, as a former officer of the tsarist army, spoke Russian rather than Ukrainian, the Hetmanate managed to start an impressive Ukrainian cultural and education program, printed millions of Ukrainian-language textbooks, and established many Ukrainian schools, two universities, and

14212-620: The Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic. With the signing of the Brest-Litovsk Treaty by Russia, it was ultimately defeated by mid-1918 and eventually dissolved. The last session of the government took place in the Russian city of Taganrog . In July 1918, the former members of the government formed the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Ukraine , the constituent assembly of which took place in Moscow . With

14399-607: The Russian people which had suppressed the Russian language. The policy of indigenization was abandoned. In the following years, the Russian language became a compulsory subject in all Soviet schools. Pre-revolution Russian nationalism was also rehabilitated. Many of the heroes of Russian history were re-appropriated for glorification. The Russian people became the "elder brother" of the "socialist family of nations" . A new kind of patriotism, Soviet patriotism , emerged, with national survival taking priority over ideological conflicts between communists and fascists. In 1938, Russian became

14586-533: The Soviet Union and the restoration of capitalism. Now it was time to see that the Russians got fair treatment. National leaderships of the republics and autonomies were liquidated en masse. By the mid-1930s, with purges in some of the national areas, the policy of korenizatsiia took a new turn, and by the end of the 1930s the policy of promoting local languages began to be balanced by greater Russianization , though perhaps not overt Russification or attempts to assimilate

14773-630: The Soviet Union as a colonial empire (" Soviet Empire "), applied the " prison of nations " idea to the USSR. Thomas Winderl wrote "The USSR became in a certain sense more a prison-house of nations than the old Empire had ever been." Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic ( Ukrainian : Українська Радянська Соціалістична Республіка , romanized :  Ukrainska Radianska Sotsialistychna Respublika ; Russian : Украинская Советская Социалистическая Республика , romanized :  Ukrainskaya Sovetskaya Sotsialisticheskaya Respublika ), abbreviated as

14960-434: The Soviet Union's westernmost border point. According to the 1989 Soviet census , the republic of Ukraine had a population of 51,706,746 (second after Russia). Its original names in 1919 were both Ukraine and Ukrainian Socialist Soviet Republic ( Ukrainian : Українська Соціалістична Радянська Республіка , romanized :  Ukrainska Sotsialistychna Radianska Respublika , abbreviated УСРР , USRR ). After

15147-468: The Soviet government started an indigenization policy , which had an influence on all non-Russian peoples of the USSR . The purpose of this policy was to expand the communist party network on the non-Russian lands with the involvement of the indigenous population. As a result, this also caused a short period of Ukrainization, until a reversal happened in the early 1930s. As Bolshevik rule took hold in Ukraine,

15334-603: The Soviet government) did not end before May 1945, the Germans were driven out of Ukraine between February 1943 and October 1944. The first task of the Soviet authorities was to reestablish political control over the republic which had been entirely lost during the war. This was an immense task, considering the widespread human and material losses. During World War II the Soviet Union lost about 8.6 million combatants and around 18 million civilians, of these, 6.8 million were Ukrainian civilians and military personnel. Also, an estimated 3.9 million Ukrainians were evacuated to

15521-433: The Soviet republics to secede from the union, which was codified in each of the Soviet constitutions . Accordingly, Article 69 of the Constitution of the Ukrainian SSR stated: "The Ukrainian SSR retains the right to willfully secede from the USSR." However, a republic's theoretical secession from the union was virtually impossible and unrealistic in many ways until after Gorbachev's perestroika reforms. The Ukrainian SSR

15708-533: The Soviet state itself. The policy of glasnost , which ended state censorship , led the Ukrainian diaspora to reconnect with their compatriots in Ukraine, the revitalisation of religious practices by destroying the monopoly of the Russian Orthodox Church and led to the establishment of several opposition pamphlets, journals and newspapers. Following the failed August Coup in Moscow on 19–21 August 1991,

15895-634: The UN on 24 October 1945. In effect, this provided the Soviet Union (a permanent Security Council member with veto powers) with another two votes in the General Assembly . The latter aspect of the 1944 clauses was never fulfilled and the republic's defense matters were managed by the Soviet Armed Forces and the Defense Ministry. Another right that was granted but never used until 1991 was the right of

16082-519: The UN, the Ukrainian SSR was an elected member of the United Nations Security Council in 1948–1949 and 1984–1985. When Stalin died on 5 March 1953, the collective leadership of Khrushchev, Georgy Malenkov , Vyacheslav Molotov and Lavrentiy Beria took power and a period of de-Stalinization began. Change came as early as 1953, when officials were allowed to criticise Stalin's policy of russification . The Central Committee of

16269-420: The Ukrainian SSR, as part of the general Soviet korenization policy; this involved promoting the use and the social status of the Ukrainian language and the elevation of ethnic Ukrainians to leadership positions (see Ukrainization – early years of Soviet Ukraine for more details). In 1932, the aggressive agricultural policies of Joseph Stalin 's regime resulted in one of the largest national catastrophes in

16456-505: The Ukrainian language mostly varied between quiet discouragement and suppression to persecution and cultural purges , with the notable exception for the decade of Petro Shelest 's Communist Party leadership in the Soviet Ukraine (1963–1972). The mid-1960s were characterized by moderate Ukrainization efforts in governmental affairs as well as the resurgence of the usage of Ukrainian in education, publishing and culture. On 28 October 1989,

16643-432: The Ukrainian national Orthodox Church was created, the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (See History of Christianity in Ukraine ). The Bolshevik government initially saw the national churches as a tool in their goal to suppress the Russian Orthodox Church , always viewed with great suspicion by the regime for its being the cornerstone of the defunct Russian Empire and the initially strong opposition it took towards

16830-474: The Ukrainian parliament passed a bill that amend some laws on the rights of national minorities in light of the Council of Europe ’s expert assessment and in order to meet one of the European Commission ’s criteria for the opening of EU membership negotiations . These changes gave the right to privately-owned institutions of higher education to have the right to freely choose the language of study if it

17017-528: The United States after the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine . In September 1939, the Soviet Union invaded Poland and occupied Galician lands inhabited by Ukrainians, Poles and Jews adding it to the territory of the Ukrainian SSR. In 1940, the Soviet Union occupied Bessarabia, Northern Bukovina and the Hertsa region , lands inhabited by Romanians, Ukrainians, Russians, Jews, Bulgarians and Gagauz, adding them to

17204-574: The administrative division within the provinces consisted of cities, urban-type settlements , and villages. Cities in the Ukrainian SSR were a separate exception, which could either be subordinate to either the provincial authorities themselves or the district authorities of which they were the administrative center. Two cities, the capital Kiev , and Sevastopol (which hosted a large Soviet Navy base in Crimea), were uniquely designated "cities with special status." This meant that they were directly subordinate to

17391-437: The administrative divisions of the Ukrainian SSR changed numerous times, often incorporating regional reorganisation and annexation on the part of Soviet authorities during World War II. The most common administrative division was the oblast (province), of which there were 25 upon the republic's independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. Provinces were further subdivided into raions (districts) which numbered 490. The rest of

17578-518: The armed forces, Red Army formations serving in Ukraine and abroad, was less successful although moderate progress was attained. The Schools of Red Commanders ( Shkola Chervonyh Starshyn ) was organized in Kharkiv to promote the careers of the Ukrainian national cadre in the army (see picture). The Ukrainian newspaper of the Ukrainian Military District "Chervona Armiya" was published until

17765-450: The ban, stating that it aimed to develop a home-grown Ukrainian distribution industry and to give Ukrainian distributors "muscle" in negotiating their own deals to buy foreign films. Russian distributors control around 90% of foreign films screened in Ukraine and tend to supply Russian-language dubbed or subtitled copies that are part of wider packages distributed throughout Russia and the former Soviet territories. Andriy Khalpakhchi, director

17952-470: The border, "fifth columns" for expansionist states seeking to acquire Soviet territory inhabited by their own ethnic group. The adherence of the masses to national rather than class identity was as strong in Russia as in other republics and regions. Between 1937 and 1953, racial policies began to creep into nationality policies, with certain nationalities seen as having immutable traits, particularly nationalities in

18139-408: The campaign by his opponent ( Viktor Yushchenko ), who pointed out that Yanukovych could have already taken steps towards this change while he was a Prime Minister of Ukraine if this had really been his priority. During his campaign Yushchenko emphasized that his being painted as a proponent of the closure of Russian schools frequently made by his opponents is entirely baseless and stated his view that

18326-431: The central Ukrainian SSR authorities and not the provincial authorities surrounding them. However, the history of administrative divisions in the republic was not so clear cut. At the end of World War I in 1918, Ukraine was invaded by Soviet Russia as the Russian puppet government of the Ukrainian SSR and without official declaration it ignited the Ukrainian–Soviet War . Government of the Ukrainian SSR from very start

18513-502: The centre. In February 1954, the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) transferred Crimea to Ukraine during the celebrations of the 300th anniversary of Ukraine's reunification with Russia (Soviet name for the Pereiaslav Agreement ). The massive festivities lasted throughout 1954, commemorating ( Ukrainian : Переяславська рада ), the treaty which brought Ukraine under Russian rule three centuries before. The event

18700-514: The church, hagiography, and some forms of art and science. The 17th century witnessed the standardisation of the Ruthenian language that would later split into modern Ukrainian and Belarusian . The strong Russification of Ukraine eliminated the Ukrainian language from state institutions, schools, and all spheres of social activity of the people, which limited its functioning and created extremely unfavorable conditions for its development. During

18887-528: The city of Kiev , the historic Ukrainian capital, and remained at Kiev for the remainder of its existence. Geographically, the Ukrainian SSR was situated in Eastern Europe , to the north of the Black Sea , and was bordered by the Soviet republics of Moldavia (since 1940), Byelorussia, and Russia, and the countries of Romania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Poland. The republic's border with Czechoslovakia formed

19074-441: The co-operation of the peoples within it really fraternal, only if these survivals are vigorously and irrevocably eradicated from the practice of our state institutions. Hence, the first immediate task of our Party is vigorously to combat the survivals of Great-Russian chauvinism. The main danger, Great-Russian chauvinism, should be kept in check by the Russians themselves, for the sake of the larger goal of building socialism. Within

19261-404: The death of Lenin and the consolidation of his power, Stalin was determined to industrialisation and reversed policy again. As heavy industry and wheat exports boomed, common people in rural areas were bearing a cost. Gradually escalating measures, from raised taxes, dispossession of property, and forced deportations into Siberia culminated in extremely high grain delivery quotas. Even though there

19448-576: The decree ordered in these areas, among other things, to switch to Russian all newspapers and magazines, and all Soviet and cooperative paperwork. By the autumn of 1932 (beginning of a school year), all schools were ordered to switch to Russian. In addition the decree ordered a massive population swap: all "disloyal" population from a major Cossack settlement, stanitsa Poltavskaya was banished to Northern Russia , with their property given to loyal kolkhozniks moved from poorer areas of Russia. This forced end to Ukrainization in southern RSFSR had led to

19635-572: The defeat of the Central Powers in World War I , the Bolsheviks resumed its hostilities towards the Ukrainian People's Republic fighting for Ukrainian independence and organised another Soviet Ukrainian government. The Provisional Workers' and Peasants' Government of Ukraine was created on November 28, 1918, in Kursk , with the proviisional government assigned to the city of Sudzha . On 10 March 1919,

19822-621: The defeated Central Powers. 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 became one of the founding members of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). During the 1920s, a policy of Ukrainization was pursued in

20009-524: The early Soviet government had its own reasons to encourage the national movements of the former Russian Empire . While trying to ascertain and consolidate its power, the Bolshevik government was by far more concerned about political oppositions connected to the pre-revolutionary order than about the national movements inside the former empire. The reversal of the assimilationist policies of the Russian Empire

20196-587: The effectiveness of collective farming. The old system was reestablished; the numbers of collective farms in Ukraine increased from 28 thousand in 1940 to 33 thousand in 1949, comprising 45 million hectares; the numbers of state farms barely increased, standing at 935 in 1950, comprising 12.1 million hectares. By the end of the Fourth Five-Year Plan (in 1950) and the Fifth Five-Year Plan (in 1955), agricultural output still stood far lower than

20383-450: The election; but while his knowledge of Ukrainian noticeably improved, Kuchma did not follow through on his pledge to make Russian a state language during the 10 years of his presidency. In 2004 an election promise by Viktor Yanukovych (leader of the Party of Regions ) to adopt Russian as the second official language might also have increased the turnout of his base, but it was rebutted during

20570-476: The end of the 1990s, about 50% of professional school students, 62% of college students and 67% of university students (cf. 7% in 1991) studied in Ukrainian and in the following five years the number increased even further (see table). In some cases, the changing of the language of instruction in institutions, led to the charges of assimilation, raised mostly by the Russian-speaking population. Despite this,

20757-469: The establishment of the first Ukrainian mission to the United Nations in 1958; and the steady increase of Ukrainians in the rank of the CPU and government of the Ukrainian SSR. Not only were the majority of CPU Central Committee and Politburo members ethnic Ukrainians, three-quarters of the highest ranking party and state officials were ethnic Ukrainians too. The policy of partial Ukrainisation also led to

20944-485: The expulsion of some ethnic minorities and appropriation of their cultural heritage. "Ukrainization" is also used in the context of these acts. After the Declaration of Independence of Ukraine in 1991, the government of Ukraine began following a policy of Ukrainization, to increase the use of Ukrainian while discouraging Russian, which has been gradually phased out from the country's education system, government, and national TV, radio programs, and films. Until 2017,

21131-852: The face of the Central Powers as the others refused to recognise it. After the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk , the Russian SFSR yielded all the captured Ukrainian territory as the Bolsheviks were forced out of Ukraine. The government of Soviet Ukraine was dissolved after its last session on 20 November 1918. After re-taking Kharkov in February 1919, a second Soviet Ukrainian government was formed. The government enforced Russian policies that did not adhere to local needs. A group of three thousand workers were dispatched from Russia to take grain from local farms to feed Russian cities and were met with resistance. The Ukrainian language

21318-561: The famine was caused by a combination of factors, including Soviet policies of compulsory grain requisitions, forced collectivization , dekulakization , and Russification . The General Assembly of the UN has stopped shy of recognizing the Holodomor as genocide, calling it a "great tragedy" as a compromise between tense positions of United Kingdom, United States, Russia, and Ukraine on the matter, while some nations went on to individually categorize it as genocide, including France, Germany, and

21505-419: The fifth year not less than 20% of the lessons must be taught in Ukrainian. Then every year the volume of teaching in the state language (Ukrainian) should increase, reaching 40% in the ninth grade. In the twelfth and final year at least 60% of education should be taught in Ukrainian. The 2017 language education law stipulated a 3-year transitional period to come in full effect. In February 2018, this period

21692-552: The first Soviet Republic of Ukraine on 24 December 1917 claiming the Central Rada and its supporters outlaws that need to be eradicated. Warfare ensued against the Ukrainian People's Republic for the installation of the Soviet regime in the country, and with the direct support from Soviet Russia the Ukrainian National forces were practically overrun. The government of Ukraine appealed to foreign capitals, finding support in

21879-527: The governing coalition and returned Yanukovych to the Prime Ministership, the " Universal of National Unity " signed by President Yushchenko as well as the leaders of several of the most influential political parties declared that Ukrainian would remain the official state language in Ukraine. However, within a week after signing the Universal, Yanukovych, then approved as Prime Minister of Ukraine , stated at

22066-457: The great power) and local nationalism. However, he described the former as the greater danger: [The] Great-Russian chauvinist spirit, which is becoming stronger and stronger owing to the N.E.P. , . . . [finds] expression in an arrogantly disdainful and heartlessly bureaucratic attitude on the part of Russian Soviet officials towards the needs and requirements of the national republics. The multi-national Soviet state can become really durable, and

22253-473: The issue of school language, as well as the churches, should be left to local communities. Nevertheless, during Yuchshenko's presidency the transfer of educational institutions from Russian to Ukrainian continued. In the 2006 parliamentary election the status of the Russian language in Ukraine was brought up again by the opposition parties. The leading opposition party, Party of Regions , promised to introduce two official languages, Russian and Ukrainian, on

22440-412: The korenizatsiia was to grow communist cadres for every nationality. By the mid-1930s the percentage of locals in both the party and state service grew considerably. The initial period of korenizatsiia went together with the development of national-territorial administrative units and national cultures. The latter was reflected above all in the areas of language construction and education. For several of

22627-515: The language of the corresponding national minority, will have the right to continue to receive such education until the completion of their full secondary education in accordance with the rules that applied before the Law of Ukraine "On protecting the functioning of the Ukrainian language as the state language" came into force on 16 July 2019. Since 2004 the Ukrainian government has enacted restrictions on Russian-language television and radio programs. Russian-language programs are required to include

22814-415: The language of the republic; and promoting non-Russians to positions of power in Republic administrations and the party, including for a time the creation of a special administrative units called natssovety ( нацсоветы , national rural councils ) and natsrayony ( нацрайоны , national districts ) based on concentrations of minorities within what were minority republics. For example, in Ukraine in

23001-438: The languages and facilitation of the Ukrainian language" mandated the implementation of Ukrainian language to all levels of state institutions. Initially, the program was met with resistance by some Ukrainian Communists , largely because non-Ukrainians prevailed numerically in the party at the time. The resistance was finally overcome in 1925 through changes in the party leadership under the pressure of Ukrainian representatives in

23188-521: The late 1920s there were even natssovety for Russians and Estonians . In 1920s, there still was animosity towards the Russians and towards other nationalities on the part of the Russians, but there were also conflicts and rivalries among other nationalities. In 1923, at the 12th Party Congress , Stalin identified two threats to the success of the party's "nationalities policy": Great Power Chauvinism ( Russian : великодержавный шовинизм , romanized :  velikoderzhavnyy shovinizm , chauvinism of

23375-409: The law "On Education" granted Ukrainian families (parents and their children) a right to choose their native language for schools and studies. This law was revised to make the Ukrainian language the primary language of education in all schools, except for children of ethnic minorities, who are to be taught in their own language and later on bilingual. From the second half of the 15th century through

23562-475: The law was changed and made it legal to teach "one or more disciplines" in "two or more languages – in the official state language, in English, in another official languages of the European Union ". All not state funded schools were made free to choose their own language of instruction. According to the 2020 law until the fifth year of education all lessons can be completely thought in the minority language without mandatory teaching of subjects in Ukrainian. In

23749-523: The local languages in government and education, in publishing, in culture, and in public life. In that manner, the cadre of the local Communist Party were promoted to every level of government, and ethnic Russians working in said governments were required to learn the local language and culture of the given Soviet republic. The nationalities policy was formulated by the Bolshevik party in 1913, four years before they came to power in Russia. Vladimir Lenin sent

23936-531: The mid-1930s. The efforts were made to introduce and expand Ukrainian terminology and communication in the Ukrainian Red Army units. The policies even reached the army units in which Ukrainians served in other Soviet regions. For instance the Soviet Pacific Fleet included a Ukrainian department overseen by Semyon Rudniev . At the same time, despite the ongoing Soviet-wide anti-religious campaign,

24123-655: The mid-late 1980s, electoral reform laws were passed in 1989, liberalising the nominating procedures and allowing multiple candidates to stand for election in a district. Accordingly, the first relatively free elections in the Ukrainian SSR were contested in March 1990. 111 deputies from the Democratic Bloc , a loose association of small pro-Ukrainian and pro-sovereignty parties and the instrumental People's Movement of Ukraine (colloquially known as Rukh in Ukrainian) were elected to

24310-432: The minorities. By this time, non-Russians found their appetite whetted rather than satiated by korenizatsiia and there was indication it was encouraging inter-ethnic violence to the extent that the territorial integrity of the USSR would be in danger. In addition, ethnic Russians resented the institutionalized and artificial "reverse discrimination" that benefited non-Russians and regarded them as ungrateful and manipulative as

24497-520: The modern history for the Ukrainian nation . A famine known as the Holodomor caused a direct loss of human life estimated between 2.6 million to 10 million. Some scholars and the World Congress of Free Ukrainians assert that this was an act of genocide . The International Commission of Inquiry Into the 1932–1933 Famine in Ukraine found no evidence that the famine was part of a preconceived plan to starve Ukrainians, and concluded in 1990 that

24684-548: The national and regional levels. On the national level such changes require modifying Article 10 of the Constitution of Ukraine , which the party hopes to achieve. Before the election in Kharkiv, and following the election in the other south-eastern regions such as Donetsk , Dnipropetrovsk , Luhansk , Mykolaiv , and the Crimea, the newly elected local councils, won by the Party of Regions (and minor supporting parties), declared Russian as

24871-504: The newly formed Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic , while Budzhak and Bukovina were secured by the Ukrainian SSR. Following the creation of the Ukrainian SSR significant numbers of ethnic Ukrainians found themselves living outside the Ukrainian SSR. In the 1920s the Ukrainian SSR was forced to cede several territories to Russia in Severia , Sloboda Ukraine and Azov littoral including such cities like Belgorod , Taganrog and Starodub . In

25058-472: The newly stable Ukrainian SSR becoming a founding member of the Soviet Union . The government of the Ukrainian Soviet Republic was founded on 24–25 December 1917. In its publications, it named itself either the Republic of Soviets of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies or the Ukrainian People's Republic of Soviets . The 1917 republic was only recognised by another non-recognised country,

25245-488: The number reached 68.8%. On the city and village levels, the representation of Ukrainians in the local government bodies reached 56.1% and 86.1%, respectively. As for other governmental agencies, the Ukrainization policies increased the Ukrainian representation as follows: officers of all-republican People's Commissariat (ministries) - 70-90%, oblast executive brunches - 50%, raion - 64%, Judiciary - 62%, Militsiya (law enforcement) - 58%. The attempted Ukrainization of

25432-493: The parliament. Although the Communist Party retained its majority with 331 deputies, large support for the Democratic Bloc demonstrated the people's distrust of the Communist authorities, which would eventually boil down to Ukrainian independence in 1991. Ukraine is the legal successor of the Ukrainian SSR and it stated to fulfill "those rights and duties pursuant to international agreements of Union SSR which do not contradict

25619-450: The party. In April 1925 the party Central Committee adopted the resolution on Ukrainization proclaiming its aim as "solidifying the union of the peasantry with the working class" and boosting the overall support of the Soviet system among Ukrainians. A joint resolution aimed at "complete Ukrainization of the Soviet apparatus" as well as the party and trade unions was adopted on April 30, 1925. The Ukrainian Commissariat of Education ( Narkomos )

25806-538: The percentage of college and technicum students studying in Ukrainian reached 87.7% and for the students of the university-level institutions this number reached 80.1% (see table). The extent of educational institutions' Ukrainization varies in the different regions of Ukraine. In the 16 western oblasts (provinces) of Ukraine there are 26 Russian language schools out of 12,907 and in Kyiv six out of 452 schools use Russian as their primary language of instruction, (according to

25993-413: The previous, in particular 'Green' units). At first, the Bolshevik authorities were sceptical about the revival and independence of the non-Russian nations (e.g. Finland, Poland, Lithuania, Ukraine etc.) after the collapse of the Russian Empire . However, after they have noticed that the indigenous peoples of the former Russian Empire had a rather negative view of becoming a part of a new Russian state,

26180-432: The primary problem in Ukraine. Many Ukrainian newspapers, publications, and schools were switched to Russian. The vast majority of leading scholars and cultural leaders of Ukraine were purged , as were the "Ukrainianized" and "Ukrainianizing" portions of the Communist party. Major repression started in 1929–30, when a large group of Ukrainian intelligentsia was arrested and most were executed. In Ukrainian history, this group

26367-407: The ratification of the 1936 Soviet Constitution , full official names of all Soviet republics were changed, transposing the second ( socialist ) and third ( sovietskaya in Russian or radianska in Ukrainian) words. In accordance, on 5 December 1936, the 8th Extraordinary Congress Soviets in Soviet Union changed the name of the republic to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, which was ratified by

26554-735: The regime change. Therefore, the government tolerated the new Ukrainian national church for some time and the UAOC gained a wide following among the Ukrainian peasantry. Ukrainization even reached those regions of southern Russian SFSR , particularly the areas by the Don and Kuban rivers, where mixed population showed strong Ukrainian influences in the local dialect. Ukrainian language teachers, just graduated from expanded institutions of higher education in Soviet Ukraine, were dispatched to these regions to staff newly opened Ukrainian schools or to teach Ukrainian as

26741-815: The republic were obtaining their education in Ukrainian and illiteracy dropped from 47% (1926) to 8% in 1934. Simultaneously, the newly literate ethnic Ukrainians migrated to the cities, which became rapidly largely Ukrainianized — in both population and education. Between 1923 and 1933 the Ukrainian proportion of the population of Kharkiv , at the time the capital of Soviet Ukraine , increased from 38% to 50%. Similar increases occurred in other cities, from 27.1% to 42.1% in Kyiv , from 16% to 48% in Dnipropetrovsk , from 16% to 48% in Odesa , and from 7% to 31% in Luhansk . Similarly expansive

26928-555: The republic's executive branch, the Council of Ministers as well as the power to appoint judges to the Supreme Court. Legislative sessions were short and were conducted for only a few weeks out of the year. In spite of this, the Supreme Soviet elected the Presidium, the Chairman , 3 deputy chairmen, a secretary, and couple of other government members to carry out the official functions and duties in between legislative sessions. Chairman of

27115-594: The republic's three largest minority groups, which were the Jews, Russians , and Poles . Other ethnic groups, however, were allowed to petition the government for their own national autonomy. In 1924 on the territory of Ukrainian SSR was formed the Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic . Upon the 1940 conquest of Bessarabia and Bukovina by Soviet troops the Moldavian ASSR was passed to

27302-493: The rest of the 15 republics, had virtually no say in their own foreign affairs. However, since 1944, the Ukrainian SSR was permitted to establish bilateral relations with countries and maintain its own standing army. This clause was used to permit the republic's membership in the United Nations, alongside the Byelorussian SSR. Accordingly, representatives from the "Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic" and 50 other states founded

27489-421: The role of languages in Ukraine was an important election issue. In 1994 the main opposition candidate, Leonid Kuchma , in an attempt to widen his political appeal, expressed his support for the idea of Russian becoming the second state language, as well as promising to improve his knowledge of the Ukrainian language. In addition to the stagnating economy, the language issue likely contributed to Kuchma's victory in

27676-410: The russification policies, and the apparent social and economic stagnation led several Ukrainians to oppose Soviet rule. Gorbachev's policy of perestroika was also never introduced into practice, 95 percent of industry and agriculture was still owned by the Soviet state in 1990. The talk of reform, but the lack of introducing reform into practice, led to confusion which in turn evolved into opposition to

27863-513: The same time. In particular, these amendments allowed the Ukrainian SSR to become one of the 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

28050-420: The single-purchaser and -producer market system set up by Joseph Stalin . Khrushchev tried to improve the agricultural situation in the Soviet Union by expanding the total crop size – for instance, in the Ukrainian SSR alone "the amount of land planted with corn grew by 600 percent". At the height of this policy, between 1959 and 1963, one-third of Ukrainian arable land grew this crop. This policy decreased

28237-460: The small nationalities in Russia that had no literary language, a "Committee of the North" helped to create alphabets so that the national languages could be taught in schools and literacy could be brought to the people in their native languages—and the minorities would thereby be brought from backwardness to the modern world. And in the very large Ukrainian Republic, the program of Ukrainianization led to

28424-578: The territory of the Ukrainian SSR and the newly formed Moldavian 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. Following eastward Soviet retreat in 1941, Ufa became the wartime seat of the Soviet Ukrainian government. While World War II (called the Great Patriotic War by

28611-443: The time the only two national Ukrainian TV channels who did not already broadcast 75% of their content in Ukrainian were " Inter " and " Ukraine ". Also because of this May 2017 approved law, since 8 November 2018 Ukrainian radio stations must broadcast no less than 35% of songs in Ukrainian or if it plays 60% of its songs in the official languages of the European Union then 25%. In two presidential elections, in 1994 and 2004,

28798-636: The total production of wheat and rye ; Khrushchev had anticipated this, and the production of wheat and rye moved to Soviet Central Asia as part of the Virgin Lands Campaign . Khrushchev's agricultural policy failed, and in 1963 the Soviet Union had to import food from abroad. The total level of agricultural productivity in Ukraine decreased sharply during this period, but recovered in the 1970s and 1980s during Leonid Brezhnev 's rule. Ukrainianization Ukrainization ( Ukrainian : Українізація [ʊkɾɐˌjiɲiˈzat͡sijɐ] ) or Ukrainisation

28985-511: The transition was gradual and lacked many controversies that surrounded the de-Russification in several of the other former Soviet Republics , its perception within Ukraine remained mixed. On September 25, 2017, a new law on education was signed by the President (draft approved by the Verkhovna Rada (Ukraine's national parliament) on September 5, 2017) which said that the Ukrainian language

29172-537: The two competing governments, known as the Ukrainian–Soviet War , was part of the ongoing Russian Civil War , as well as a struggle for national independence (known as the Ukrainian War of Independence ), which ended with the territory of pro-independence Ukrainian People's Republic being annexed into a new Ukrainian Socialist Soviet Republic, western Ukraine being annexed into the Second Polish Republic , and

29359-477: The unification of Soviet nationalities would take place, according to Vladimir Lenin , when the Soviet Union reached the final stage of communism, also the final stage of human development . Some all-Union Soviet officials were calling for the abolition of the "pseudosovereign" Soviet republics, and the establishment of one nationality. Instead of introducing the ideologic concept of the Soviet Nation , Brezhnev at

29546-467: The unification of Ukrainian lands on both banks of Zbruch River , until then the border between the Soviet Union and the Polish communities inhabited by Ukrainian speaking families. At the onset of Soviet Ukraine, having largely inherited conditions from the Tsarist Empire, one of the biggest exporters of wheat in the world, the Ukrainian economy was still centered around agriculture , with over 90% of

29733-499: The unstable borderlands. Moreover, Stalin seemed set on greatly reducing the number of officially recognized nationalities by contracting the official list of nationalities in the 1939 census, compared with the 1926 census. The development of so-called "national schools" ( национальные школы ) in which the languages of minority nationalities were the main media of instruction continued, spreading literacy and universal education in many national minority languages, while teaching Russian as

29920-457: The use of Ukrainian and mandated a progressively increased role for Ukrainian in the media and commerce. The most significant was the government's concerted effort to implement Ukrainian, as the only official state language in the country, into the state educational system. Despite the Constitution, the Law on Education (grants Ukrainian families (parents and their children) a right to choose their native language for schools and studies ) as well as

30107-509: The workforce being peasants. In the 1920s, Soviet policy in Ukraine attached importance to developing the economy. The initial agenda, War Communism , had prescribed total communisation and appropriation per quota of food from the people by force - further economic damage and a famine claiming up to one million lives ensued. With the New Economic Policy and the partial introduction of free markets, an economic recovery followed. After

30294-509: The year 2009 compared to the same period of the previous year. Several Russian TV channels have not been allowed to broadcast in Ukraine since November 1, 2008, according to Ukraine's National Council on Television and Radio Broadcasting mainly because of the advertising aired by the channels. The Ukrainian distributors of television channels were ordered to bring the broadcasts in line with Ukrainian laws. Channel One and Ren TV have since been granted temporary permission to broadcast, while

30481-554: The years of the Ukrainian People's Republic , the Ukrainian press was restored, books were printed in Ukrainian, and teaching was carried out in schools founded by the Ukrainian National Academy of Sciences . Following the Russian Revolution of 1917 , the Russian Empire had dissolved, and the Ukrainians intensified their struggle for an independent Ukrainian state. In the chaos of World War I and revolutionary changes,

30668-590: Was a member of the UN Economic and Social Council , UNICEF , International Labour Organization , Universal Postal Union , World Health Organization , UNESCO , International Telecommunication Union , United Nations Economic Commission for Europe , World Intellectual Property Organization and the International Atomic Energy Agency . It was not separately a member of the Warsaw Pact , Comecon ,

30855-437: Was allowed in local institutions located in places of residence of the majority of citizens of the corresponding ethnicities. Citizens were guaranteed the right to use their native or any other languages and were entitled to address various institutions and organizations in Ukrainian, in Russian, or in another language of their work, or in a language acceptable to the parties. After the Ukrainian accession of independence following

31042-544: Was also censured from administrative and educational use. Eventually fighting both White forces in the east and Ukrainian forces in the west, Lenin ordered the liquidation of the second Soviet Ukrainian government in August 1919. Eventually, after the creation of the Communist Party (Bolshevik) of Ukraine in Moscow, a third Ukrainian Soviet government was formed on 21 December 1919 that initiated new hostilities against Ukrainian nationalists as they lost their military support from

31229-496: Was also the city where the first Soviet Ukrainian government was created in 1917 with strong support from Russian SFSR authorities. However, in 1934, the capital was moved from Kharkov to Kiev , which remains the capital of Ukraine today. During the 1930s, there were significant numbers of ethnic minorities living within the Ukrainian SSR. National Districts were formed as separate territorial-administrative units within higher-level provincial authorities. Districts were established for

31416-475: Was an increase in Ukrainian language publishing and the overall flourishing of Ukrainian cultural life. As of 1931 out of 88 theatres in Ukraine, 66 were Ukrainian, 12 were Jewish ( Yiddish ) and 9 were Russian. The number of Ukrainian newspapers, which almost did not exist in 1922, had reached 373 out of 426, while only 3 all-republican large newspapers remained Russian. Of 118 magazines, 89 were Ukrainian. Ukrainization of book-publishing reached 83%. Ukrainization

31603-462: Was celebrated to prove the old and brotherly love between Ukrainians and Russians , and proof of the Soviet Union as a "family of nations"; it was also another way of legitimising Marxism–Leninism . On 23 June 1954, the civilian oil tanker Tuapse of the Black Sea Shipping Company based in Odessa was hijacked by a fleet of Republic of China Navy in the high sea of 19°35′N, 120°39′E , west of Balintang Channel near Philippines , whereas

31790-421: Was charged with overseeing the implementation of the Ukrainization policies. The two figures, therefore, most identified with the policy are Oleksandr Shumskyi , the Commissar for Education between 1923 and 1927, and Mykola Skrypnyk , who replaced Shumskyi in 1927. The Soviet-backed education system dramatically raised the literacy of the Ukrainophone rural population. By 1929 over 97% of high school students in

31977-469: Was created. The structure was nationality-based states in which nationality cultures were blossoming, and nationality languages were spoken and used at schools and in local administration. The transition was real, not merely a centralized Russian empire camouflaged. The 17th Party congress in 1934, proclaimed that the building of the material basis for a socialist society had succeeded. The Soviet Union first became an officially socialist society in 1936 when

32164-539: Was destroyed, as was 70 percent of the city centre of the second-largest city in Ukraine, Kharkov . Because of this, 19 million people were left homeless after the war. The republic's industrial base, as so much else, was destroyed. The Soviet government had managed to evacuate 544 industrial enterprises between July and November 1941, but the rapid German advance led to the destruction or the partial destruction of 16,150 enterprises. 27,910 collective farms , 1,300 machine tractor stations and 872 state farms were destroyed by

32351-441: Was effectively outlawed in 1932. Specifically, the December 14, 1932 decree "On Grain Collection in Ukraine, North Caucasus and the Western Oblasts" by the VKP(b) Central Committee and USSR Sovnarkom stated that Ukrainization in certain areas was carried out formally, in a "non-Bolshevik" way, which provided the "bourgeois-nationalist elements" with a legal cover for organizing their anti-Soviet resistance. In order to stop this,

32538-539: Was embroiled in war, with factions including the anarcho-communist Insurgent Army of Nestor Makhno besides the Polish backed Petlura's government. Following Skoropadsky's surrender to Józef Piłsudski in the Treaty of Warsaw, Petlura was installed as the leader of the Ukrainian People's Republic in order to participate in the invasion of the Ukrainian SSR . It was at various times also the scene of fighting of White and Green armies, as well as armed bands that often were not backed by any political ideology (to which some add

32725-400: Was extended until 2023. In June 2023 this period was again extended to September 2024. Since the introduction of the 2017 language law Hungary–Ukraine relations have greatly deteriorated over the issue of the Hungarian minority in Ukraine . Hungary is since 2017 blocking Ukraine's attempt to integrate within the EU and NATO to help the Hungarian minority in Ukraine. On 8 December 2022,

32912-411: Was handed over to Ukraine. The territory of Ukraine expanded by 167,000 square kilometres (64,500 sq mi) and increased its population by an estimated 11 million. After World War II, 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

33099-402: Was initially the local Socialist Revolutionary Party that composed the local government together with Federalists and Mensheviks. Immediately after the October Revolution in Petrograd , Bolsheviks instigated the Kiev Bolshevik Uprising to support the revolution and secure Kiev. Due to a lack of adequate support from the local population and governing anti-communist Central Rada , however,

33286-427: Was internationally recognized and supported by the Central Powers following the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk , whereas the Kharkov-based USR was solely supported by the Soviet Russian forces, while neither the UNR nor the USR were explicitly supported by the White Russian forces that remained, although there were attempts to establish cooperation during the closing stages of the war with the former. The conflict between

33473-416: Was later succeeded by the Ukrainian Soviet Republic in 1918. Simultaneously with the Russian Civil War , the Ukrainian War of Independence was being fought among the different Ukrainian republics founded by Ukrainian nationalists , Ukrainian anarchists , and Ukrainian separatists – primarily against Soviet Russia and the Ukrainian SSR, with either help or opposition from neighbouring states. In 1922, it

33660-403: Was managed by the Communist Party of Ukraine that was created in Moscow and was originally formed out of the Bolshevik organisational centers in Ukraine. Occupying the eastern city of Kharkov , the Soviet forces chose it as the republic's seat of government, colloquially named in the media as "Kharkov – Pervaya Stolitsa (the first capital)" with implication to the era of Soviet regime . Kharkov

33847-474: Was mostly Russian-speaking, by the end of the 1920s ethnic Ukrainians composed over one half of the membership in the Ukrainian communist party, the number strengthened by accession of Borotbists , a formerly indigenously Ukrainian "independentist" and non-Bolshevik communist party. In the all-Ukrainian Ispolkom , central executive committee, as well as in the oblast level governments, the proportion of Ukrainians reached 50.3% by 1934 while in raion ispolkoms

34034-435: Was not actually repealed. Its provisions merely stopped being enforced. There also began purges of the leaderships of the national republics and territories. The charge against non-Russians was that they had instigated national strife and oppressed the Russians or other minorities in the republics. In 1937, the Soviet government proclaimed that local elites had become hired foreign agents and their goal had become dismemberment of

34221-414: Was one of four Soviet republics (with the Russian SFSR, the Byelorussian SSR, and the Transcaucasian SFSR ) that signed the Treaty on the Creation of the Soviet Union . As a Soviet quasi-state , the Ukrainian SSR became a founding member of the United Nations in 1945 alongside the Byelorussian SSR , in spite of the fact that they were also legally represented by the Soviet Union in foreign affairs. Upon

34408-461: Was potentially done to help to improve the image of the Soviet government and boost its popularity among the common people. Until the early-1930s, Ukrainian culture enjoyed a widespread revival due to Bolshevik policies known as the policy of Korenization ("indigenization"). In these years a Ukrainization program was implemented throughout the republic. In such conditions, the Ukrainian national idea initially continued to develop and even spread to

34595-413: Was stated in Articles 7 and 8 of On Legal Succession of Ukraine , issued in 1991. Following independence, Ukraine has continued to pursue claims against the Russian Federation in foreign courts, seeking to recover its share of the foreign property that was owned by the Soviet Union. It also retained its seat in the United Nations , held since 1945. On the international front, the Ukrainian SSR, along with

34782-404: Was thoroughly implemented through the government apparatus, Communist Party of Ukraine membership and, gradually, the party leadership as well, as the recruitment of indigenous cadre was implemented as part of the korenization policies. At the same time, the usage of Ukrainian was continuously encouraged in the workplace and in government affairs. While initially, the party and government apparatus

34969-402: Was under attack, churches were closed and demolished, old specialists were dismissed, and science and art were proletarianized. The Bolsheviks' tactics in their struggle to neutralise nationalist aspirations led to political results by the beginning of the 1930s. The old structure of the Russian Empire had been destroyed and a hierarchical federal state structure, based on the national principle,

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