Soviet Ukrainization in the Internal Party Polemics of the 1920s

Abstract

The Soviet policy of Ukrainization is one of the most notable experiments in ethnic relations conducted in the twentieth century. The “nationalist deviations” condemned by the party (Alexander Ya. Shumsky, Nikolai A. Skrypnik, and other active supporters of Ukrainization) are described in modern literature in more detail than as manifestations of “Great Russian chauvinism”. This article analyses the ideas of Bolshevik leaders who criticized Soviet Ukrainization and opposed its convinced supporters. The article analyses the statements of Grigory Ye. Zinoviev, Dmtiry Z. Lebed, Vagarshak A. Vaganyan, Yuri Larin, Anatoli V. Lunacharsky, and Semen Yu. Semkovsky. Since some Ukrainian lands ended up as parts of Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Romania, it became profitable for the Bolsheviks to support the Ukrainian idea in its Soviet form. Thus, Lebed, Zinoviev, and Vaganian considered the national question as a means of transforming the world. They were convinced of the priority of the class principle over the national, and were confident in the inevitable erasure of national differences. At the same time, they took into account the objective characteristics of the Ukrainian nation, the overwhelming majority of which, at the beginning of the twentieth century, was comprised of peasants. Discussions in the party environment were conducted not around the need for Ukrainization, but around its limits. The compulsion towards the broad masses of the population, excessive haste, and administrative pressure towards the Russian and Russian-speaking population, especially the proletariat, were critically assessed.