Map of the USSR 1950. In exchange for the Crimea, Ukraine gave Russia its own territories? Territorial disputes of the USSR and the south-east of Russia
Until the 17th century the territory of most of Ukraine was under the rule of the Commonwealth. The first national Ukrainian state was formed in 1654 in the modern central region of Ukraine during the liberation war of Bohdan Khmelnytsky. At the same time, Ukraine entered into Russian citizenship to protect itself from Poland. After the Russian-Polish war of 1654-1667. according to the Andrusovo truce, the lands east of the Dnieper (Left-Bank Ukraine) passed to Russia, and the western territory (Right-Bank Ukraine) remained part of the Commonwealth.
As a result of wars with Poland and the Ottoman Empire in the XVIII century. The Russian Empire ceded the Right-bank Ukraine, Volhynia and Podillia, then the Crimea, the Sea of Azov and the Northern Black Sea region. Kyiv, Volyn, Podolsk, Kharkov, Yekaterinoslav, Tauride, Novorossiysk and Kherson provinces were created. At the same time, the annexed regions did not have national autonomy as such. The concept of "Little Russia" was used, and the inhabitants were called Little Russians or South Russians. On the eve of World War I, parts of Western Ukraine, together with Transcarpathia, were part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Between the February and October Revolutions of 1917
The February Revolution of 1917 put an end to the Russian Empire. On the night of 1 to 2 (13 to 14) March, Emperor Nicholas II signed his abdication, and the Provisional Government came to power in Petrograd. In Kyiv, they learned about the change of government on March 3 (16). This news immediately hit the local newspapers and spread throughout Ukraine, rallies were held in many cities in support of the revolution. Over the next few days, all organs of tsarist power in Ukraine were liquidated. Management passed into the hands of the provincial and district commissioners, who were appointed by the Provisional Government. The formation of the Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, the representative bodies of the revolutionary forces, began.
Also on March 3 (16) a meeting of representatives of various political and public organizations was held in Kyiv. They did not have a common opinion about the future status of Ukraine. Some of them (independents), led by N. Mikhnovsky, advocated immediate education independent state. The other part - the autonomists headed by V. Vinnichenko - saw Ukraine as an autonomous republic in a federation with Russia. To avoid a split in the national movement, the leaders of the parties decided to unite and create a common inter-party center - the Ukrainian Central Rada. This was announced on March 4, and the famous Ukrainian historian M.S. Grushevsky became the chairman of the Rada. The Central Rada supported the autonomy of Ukraine, declaring: “Let Ukraine be free. Without separating from all of Russia, without breaking with the Russian state, let the Ukrainian people on their land have the right to independently put their lives in order. As historians note, in the first post-revolutionary period, only a few spoke of the creation of a completely independent state, most of Ukrainian leaders talked about the autonomy of Ukraine within Russia.
In a telegram of greetings to the head of the Provisional Government, Prince Lvov, the Central Rada declared its support for the Provisional Government, and also expressed gratitude for caring for the national interests of Ukrainians. On March 7 (20) M. Hrushevsky was elected chairman of the UCR.
So, in the spring of 1917, power in Ukraine was represented by the Central Rada, which pursued the policy of the Provisional Government, the provincial commissariat from the Provisional Government in Kyiv, and local councils of workers', peasants' and soldiers' deputies led. The authority of the Bolsheviks was low. The legitimacy of the Rada itself was highly questionable. It was formed by a self-proclaimed group of members of the Association of Ukrainian Progressives. As the Provisional Government pointed out, no one elected the Rada, so it cannot represent the will of the entire Ukrainian people.
On April 6-8 (19-21) in Kyiv, the All-Ukrainian National Congress was held, at which 848 delegates from various organizations discussed issues of national-territorial autonomy of Ukraine. The congress participants decided to create a state authority and develop a draft autonomous status of Ukraine. A new composition of the Central Rada was elected. M. Grushevsky remained the head, and S. Efremov and V. Vinnichenko became his deputies - they headed the executive body, the Malaya Rada. Symon Petliura also took part in this congress as chairman of the Ukrainian Front Rada of the Western Front. The congress passed a resolution: "In accordance with the historical traditions and modern real needs of the Ukrainian people, the congress recognizes that only the national-territorial autonomy of Ukraine is able to satisfy the aspirations of our people and all other peoples living on Ukrainian soil."
The National Convention received widespread support. It was followed by many military, peasant, workers' congresses, and they all agreed on the demand for national-territorial autonomy. On May 5-8 (18-21), 1917, the First All-Ukrainian Military Congress was held. Its participants spoke in favor of the formation of the Ukrainian national army, the "Ukrainization" of the Black Sea Fleet and the reorganization of the army on a national-territorial basis. At the congress, the opinions of independentists and autonomists again clashed, and the autonomist concept of the socialist parties gained the upper hand.
Based on the resolutions of this and other congresses, the Rada drew up a memorandum to the Provisional Government, in which it expressed hope for support for the slogan of autonomy. The Ukrainian delegation headed by V. Vinnichenko arrived in Petrograd in mid-May, but the Provisional Government did not take a clear decision on Ukrainian requirements.
Then the Ukrainian Rada moved to more decisive actions and at a meeting on June 10 (23), 1917 adopted the First Universal, which unilaterally proclaimed the national-territorial autonomy of Ukraine within Russia. On June 28 (July 11), a delegation of the Provisional Government headed by A. Kerensky arrived in Kyiv and stated that it would not object to autonomy, but the final decision should be made by the All-Russian constituent Assembly. Speaking about the Ukrainian territory, Kerensky named five central provinces. Then, on July 3 (16), the Rada issued the Second Universal, in which it announced a resolute refusal to declare autonomy until the convocation of the Constituent Assembly.
At the same time, radical Ukrainian servicemen put pressure on the Central Rada. The compromise concessions of the Central Rada to the Provisional Government finally led to armed demonstrations, the largest of which was the speech of the Ukrainian Military Club named after. Hetman P. Polubotok July 5 (18), 1917. The uprising was suppressed, and the rebel soldiers were sent to the front.
On October 20 (November 2), the Third All-Ukrainian Military Congress gathered in Kyiv, where one of the leaders of the Socialist-Revolutionaries openly criticized the policy of the Rada and called for "forming on your own Ukrainian Democratic Republic". On October 25 (November 7), the Bolsheviks overthrew the Provisional Government in Petrograd. The second revolution received practically no support in Ukraine, since the influence of the Bolsheviks here was too weak. On October 26 (November 8), at a meeting of the Malaya Rada, with the participation of various political and public organizations, the Regional Committee for the Protection of the Revolution was created, to which all authorities in Ukraine were to submit. The Regional Committee itself was under the control of the Central Rada. The next day, the Central Rada adopted a resolution condemning the Petrograd uprising and declaring the need to transfer power to the revolutionary democracy, but not to the Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies.
In Kyiv, the Bolsheviks failed to seize power, and the new government - the Council of People's Commissars - was hostile to the Central Rada. The Bolsheviks were supported only in the Donbass, and in early October they took power in Lugansk, Gorlovka, Makeevka and Kramatorsk.
The Bolsheviks withdrew from the Rada and created a military revolutionary committee. The confrontation between Soviet Russia and the Central Rada grew. On November 7(20), 1917, the Rada announced the creation of the Ukrainian People's Republic within Russia. While A. Kerensky agreed to give at the disposal of the Central Rada only five provinces - Kyiv, Volyn, Podolsk, Poltava and part of Chernigov, at a general meeting on October 31 (November 13), the Rada extended the power of its General Secretariat also to Kherson, Yekaterinoslav, Kharkov , Kholmsk and partly Tauride (without Crimea), Kursk and Voronezh provinces.
On December 4 (17), 1917, the Council of People's Commissars sent a Manifesto to the Central Rada with ultimatum demands. It said that the Council of People's Commissars recognizes the People's Ukrainian Republic and its right to secede from Russia or enter into an agreement with the Russian Republic on federal and similar relations between them. The right of the Ukrainian people to national independence was also recognized. At the same time, the Council of People's Commissars accused the Central Rada of an ambiguous bourgeois policy towards the Soviets and Soviet power in Ukraine, of refusing to convene a regional congress of Ukrainian Soviets, of disorganizing the front, disarming Soviet troops in Ukraine, supporting the "Kadet-Kaledin conspiracy", helping Kaledin and refusing to let troops to fight Kaledin.
On December 11-12 (24-25), the First All-Ukrainian Congress of Soviets was convened in Kharkov, which proclaimed the formation of the Ukrainian Socialist Soviet Republic. Thus, two Ukrainian states emerged. The resolution of the First All-Ukrainian Congress of Soviets on the self-determination of Ukraine dated December 12 (25), 1917 reported that “... the First All-Ukrainian Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, recognizing the Ukrainian Republic as a federal part Russian Republic, declares a decisive struggle against the policy of the Central Rada, which is detrimental to the worker and peasant masses, revealing its bourgeois, counter-revolutionary character. In documents from the time of the Civil War, the republic was called differently: the Ukrainian Republic of Soviets of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies; Soviet Ukrainian People's Republic; Ukrainian Workers' and Peasants' Republic; Ukrainian soviet republic; Ukrainian Federative Soviet Republic.
On January 22, 1918, the Central Rada issued the Fourth Universal, which declared the independence of the UNR. On January 26 (February 8), the Red Army captured Kyiv, and a few days later the government of Soviet Ukraine moved to the city. As a result of the hostilities of December 1917 - January 1918. Bolsheviks occupied Yekaterinoslav, Poltava, Kremenchug, Elisavetgrad, Nikolaev, Kherson and other cities. However, they were prevented from strengthening their power by the German occupation, which lasted from the end of February until April 1918. On March 3, 1918, the Bolsheviks concluded a separate peace in Brest-Litovsk, according to which they pledged to liberate the territory of Ukraine and transfer it to the jurisdiction of Germany and Austria-Hungary. In addition, Ukraine was supposed to supply Germany to supply a large number of goods and food.
Political entities during the Civil War in Ukraine
In total for the period 1917-1920. on the territory of Ukraine there are 16 self-proclaimed political entities. Here one should also take into account the formation of the Soviet republics on a territorial basis. Modern Ukrainian history textbooks bypass these state formations, recognizing the existence of only the UNR and ZUNR. The first such republic was the Odessa Soviet Republic, created on January 17 (30), 1918. Its territory covered the Kherson province. The republic lasted until March 13, 1918, when German and Austro-Hungarian troops captured Odessa.
Another territorial Soviet republic in the east of Ukraine was formed at the 1st Constituent Congress of Soviets of Workers', Soldiers', Peasants', Settlement and Laborers' Deputies, which was held in Simferopol on March 7-10, 1918. Officially, it was called the Soviet Socialist Republic of Taurida as part of the RSFSR and until 19 March included in its composition the entire territory of the Taurida province - the Crimean peninsula and the northern regions adjacent to the Black and Azov Seas. Despite the fact that the republic was part of the RSFSR, it was also attacked by German troops and ceased to exist on April 30.
At the end of January 1918, the Donetsk-Krivoy Rog Soviet Republic was also organized on the principles of national autonomy. Her power extended to Kharkov, Yekaterinoslav, and partially Kherson provinces and to some areas of the Don army. This republic is worth mentioning especially, since it occupied a significant territory of modern Ukraine and also claimed autonomy.
Donbass, the largest industrial center of Russia, was divided between the Yekaterinoslav, Kharkov provinces and the Don Cossack Oblast. The idea of its association arose even before February Revolution. After the coup in Kharkov on April 25 - May 6, 1917, the First Regional Congress of Soviets of Workers' Deputies of the Donetsk and Kryvyi Rih regions was held, uniting the Kharkov, Yekaterinoslav provinces, the Krivoy Rog and Donetsk basins. The new area was divided into 12 administrative regions, and her belonging to Russia was taken for granted. A small dispute arose only in the question of the capital - Kharkov or Yekaterinoslav (modern Dnepropetrovsk). They chose Kharkov, since the headquarters of the mining industry of southern Russia was also located there. During this period, the Bolsheviks in southern Russia had no influence, and Kharkov declared that it would submit to Petrograd.
When in the summer of 1917 the Central Rada demanded from the Provisional Government, in addition to the former Little Russian territories, the annexation of Novorossia and part of the Donbass, Nikolai von Ditmar, head of the Council of Congresses of Miners of the South of Russia (SSGUR), reported to the Provisional Government: “All this mining and mining industry is not at all a local regional , and the common state property, and in view of the colossal significance of this industry for the very existence of Russia, of course, there can be no question of all this industry and this region being in the possession of anyone other than the whole people ... This whole region is like industrially, as well as geographically and domestically, it seems to be completely different from Kyiv. This entire region is of independent paramount importance for Russia, ... and the administrative subordination of the Kharkov region to the Kyiv region is definitely not called for by anything. On these grounds, the Provisional Government published a circular dated August 4, 1917, according to which the territory of the UNR was limited to five central provinces.
After the overthrow of the Provisional Government in November 1917, the Central Rada issued the 3rd Universal, in which the Donbass and Kharkiv were declared part of Ukraine. In response, on November 16, 1917, the executive committee of local councils of the Donetsk-Kryvyi Rih region adopted an official resolution: “Unfold a broad agitation to leave the entire Donetsk-Krivoy Rog basin with Kharkov as part of the Russian Republic and attribute this territory to a special, unified administrative-self-governing region » .
On January 27-30 (February 9-12), 1918, the 4th Regional Congress of Soviets of Workers' Deputies was held in the Kharkov Metropol Hotel, on the last day of which the Donetsk Republic was proclaimed. The decision was supported by 50 out of 74 delegates. new republic- The Council of People's Commissars - the Bolsheviks, Mensheviks and Left Socialist-Revolutionaries entered, headed by the Bolshevik comrade Artyom (F. Sergeev). The next day, he sent a telegram to Lenin: "The Regional Congress of Soviets adopted a resolution on the establishment of the Council of People's Commissars of the Donetsk-Kryvyi Rih Basin as part of the All-Russian Federation of Soviets." As in the RSFSR, the Donetsk Republic had a red flag, and monetary unit rubles acted. There are other names of the republic, for example, Krivdonbass or Donkrivbass, but the traditionally accepted name is the Donetsk-Krivoy Rog Republic (DKR).
A few days before the proclamation of the Donetsk Republic, the Central Rada signed an agreement in Brest with Germany and Austria-Hungary, which allowed the entry of Austro-German troops into the territory of Ukraine. According to the agreement, the northern border of Ukraine passed along the line Tarnograd-Belogray-Krasnostav-Melnik-Velykolitovsk-Kamenets-Pruzhany-Vyganovskoe Lake, i.e. the UNR transferred part of the Western Polissya with the Belarusian population. The question arose about where the eastern border of Ukraine was - the Rada considered the Donbass to be Ukrainian, while Petrograd and the Donbass itself recognized themselves as Soviet. On the eve of the German invasion of Kharkov, Comrade Artem handed over to the leaders of foreign powers a note with the following content: “As for the borders of our Republic ... Just a few months ago, the Kyiv Rada, in an agreement with Prince Lvov and Tereshchenko, established the eastern borders of Ukraine exactly along the line that was and is the western borders our Republic. The western borders of the Kharkov and Yekaterinoslav provinces, including the railway part of Krivoy Rog, Kherson province, and the counties of the Taurida province up to the isthmus have always been and are the western borders of our Republic. The Sea of Azov to Taganrog and the borders of the coal-mining Soviet Districts of the Don region along the Rostov-Voronezh railway line to the Likhaya station, the western borders of the Voronezh and the southern borders of the Kursk provinces close the borders of our Republic. The researcher of the Donetsk Republic V. Kornilov in his book "Donetsk-Kryvyi Rih Republic: a shot dream" provides evidence that the authority of the Council of People's Commissars of the republic was recognized in this territory, and some neighboring cities also asked to be included in the Donetsk Republic.
Immediately after the formation of the DKR, a government was formed - the Council of People's Commissars, headed by Artyom. On the very first day, 10 people's commissars were appointed, a total of 16 were planned in cooperation with the Social Revolutionaries. The new government actively undertook social and economic transformations. Thus, the Southern Regional Council was created under the Council of People's Commissars National economy where the best engineers and economists worked. The leadership of the DKR approved an 8-hour working day, leave for workers and compulsory secondary education.
At the beginning of March 1918, the Germans entered the territory of the DKR. They were opposed by mobilized detachments of workers and soldiers. They were not enough to stop the Germans, but they were able to slow down the enemy advance. On April 7, 1918, the Austro-German troops occupied Kharkov, and the DKR government moved to Lugansk. When the Germans entered Lugansk on April 28, the leadership of the republic was forced to retreat across the Don to Tsaritsyn. Despite the German occupation, the republic continued to exist.
By the beginning of May, the entire territory of Ukraine was occupied by the troops of the Central Powers. The Ukrainian Central Rada was in a political crisis, and its activities did not meet the expectations of the interventionists. Then Germany and Austria-Hungary decided to change the government and elected P. Skoropadsky, a former lieutenant general of the tsarist army, as the hetman of Ukraine. The country received a new name - the Ukrainian State. Skoropadsky's regime did not last long - by the autumn of 1918 it became clear that the defeat of the Central Powers in the war was inevitable. After the end of the First World War and the revolution in Germany, Skoropadsky lost the support of the Germans.
On December 14, 1918, the Ukrainian State was replaced by the Ukrainian People's Republic headed by the Directory. At first, Vinnichenko was in charge, but already at the beginning of 1919 S. Petlyura became the head of the Directory. Petliura fought against the white, red and rebel troops of N. Makhno.
After the revolution in Germany in the fall of 1918, the Bolsheviks again launched an offensive in the eastern regions of Ukraine. On November 17, the Ukrainian Revolutionary Military Council was approved under the leadership of I. Stalin. On November 28, the Provisional Workers' and Peasants' Government of the Ukrainian SSR, headed by G. Pyatakov, was created in Kursk. On January 4, 1919, it moved to Kharkov, and at the end of January it was transformed into the Council of People's Commissars under the leadership of H. Rakovsky. The government of the Donetsk Republic also returned. However, there was no longer any talk of joining the DKR to the RSFSR - Stalin advocated the unification of Donbass with Central Ukraine in the interests of internationalism.
I. Stalin declared: "There will be no Donkrivbass and there should not be." On February 17, 1919, Lenin signed a decree: “Ask Comrade Stalin through the Bureau of the Central Committee to carry out the destruction of Krivdonbass.” The Communist Party decided that the petty-bourgeois Ukraine needed to be diluted with the proletarian element of the Donbass. At the same time, there was no official decision on the liquidation or self-dissolution of the DKR, as well as on its accession to Ukraine.
For some time, the Belgorod and Grayvoron districts of the pre-revolutionary Kursk province were part of the Ukrainian SSR. On January 31, 1919, the Council of People's Commissars of the Ukrainian SSR adopted a resolution on the formation of the Donetsk province as part of two counties - Bakhmut and Slavyanoserbsky. The draft decree stipulated that the Ukrainian government did not lay claim to the Don Oblast of the RSFSR.
On February 7, 1919, the People's Commissar for Military Affairs of Ukraine ordered the formation of the Kharkov Military District, which included the territories of Kharkov, Yekaterinoslav, Poltava and Chernihiv provinces. On February 25, the question of the borders between the RSFSR and the Ukrainian SSR was considered. It was decided to keep the pre-revolutionary borders between the provinces as the borders between the republics, but the four northern districts of the Chernigov province passed to the RSFSR, which included them in the Gomel province.
Education of the Ukrainian SSR
On March 8-10, 1919, the 3rd Congress of Soviets of the Ukrainian SSR took place in Kharkov, which proclaimed the creation of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (Ukrainian SSR) as an independent state, and the draft Constitution of the Ukrainian SSR was also adopted. The congress approved the policy of the Ukrainian government for the comprehensive strengthening of relations with Soviet Russia. Thus, Ukraine joined the wishes of other independent Soviet republics for the creation of a union of republics. At the same time, the Ukrainian Council of People's Commissars approved the "Treaty on Borders with the Russian Socialist Soviet Republic", which recognized the state administrative borders of nine provinces where Ukrainians lived - Kyiv, Kherson, Podolsk, Volyn, Kharkov, Poltava, Chernigov, Yekaterinoslav and Tauride.
By May 1919, almost the entire territory of Ukraine (except Western) was controlled by the Red Army. However economic policy Bolsheviks caused discontent of the local population, which was used by the rebels and whites. Along with the strengthening of the internal counter-revolution, the white movement received active assistance from the Entente countries. By the beginning of autumn 1919, all independent Soviet republics were abolished except for the RSFSR. Together with the Cossacks, Denikin's army held the area of the Don Cossacks.
The revolutionary insurrectionary army of N. Makhno fought against Denikin. In mid-September, the Makhnovists occupied Yekaterinoslav and threatened Taganrog, where Denikin's headquarters were located. The insurrectionary movement of Makhno contributed to the turn of the Civil War in Ukraine in favor of the Reds. On October 11, 1919, the offensive of the Red Army against Denikin began - the third attempt to establish Bolshevik power in Ukraine. The Bolsheviks advanced swiftly: December 12 Soviet troops entered Kharkov, December 16 to Kyiv, February 7, 1920 to Odessa. Eastern Ukraine almost completely came under the control of the Bolsheviks by the end of December 1919, the central and right-bank Ukraine were occupied in early 1920.
On December 3, 1919, at the VIII All-Russian Conference of the RCP(b), a special resolution on Soviet power in Ukraine was adopted. The first paragraph of this resolution emphasized: "Steadyly pursuing the principle of self-determination of nations, the Central Committee considers it necessary to reaffirm that the RCP is on the standpoint of recognizing the independence of the Ukrainian SSR." The resolution also pointed out the need to create the closest alliance for all Soviet republics and ordered by all means to contribute to the removal of all obstacles to the free development of the Ukrainian language and culture, to show tolerance in interethnic relations, to attract representatives of the Ukrainian population, especially the peasantry, to cooperation and not to allow any coercion in the formation of communes, artels, etc.
Remains armed forces The south of Russia went to Poland, some of them then returned to the Crimea to the whites. The remnants of the White armies, which were evacuated from Novorossiysk in the spring of 1920, were transferred to the Crimea and entrenched themselves on the peninsula. In April, they were organized into the Russian army under the command of P. Wrangel. Throughout the summer of 1920, battles were going on in Northern Tavria. Finally, the Bolsheviks managed to occupy a strategic foothold on the left bank of the Dnieper near Kakhovka and thus create a threat to Perekop. The White troops had to retreat to the Crimea, where they went on the defensive.
In the autumn of 1920, the Red Army stormed the Perekop positions of Wrangel's army. Despite a significant numerical superiority, the Bolsheviks did not manage to break through the enemy defenses until Makhno's detachments entered the rear of the Whites. On November 11, the Red Army broke into the Crimea. By November 13, 1920 white army and civilian refugees on the ships of the Black Sea Fleet sailed from the Crimean coast to Constantinople. In total, about 150 thousand people left Crimea. The troops of S. Petliura were defeated in October 1919, and Petliura himself fled to Warsaw, where he later concluded an agreement on behalf of the Directory with Polish government about the war against Soviet Russia.
Throughout 1920, military clashes continued between the Whites, Bolsheviks, Ukrainians and Poles. By the end of 1920, in most of the territory of Ukraine, Soviet authority. In October, a peace agreement was signed between Poland, the RSFSR, and the Ukrainian SSR, and on March 18, 1921, the Treaty of Riga was signed, ending the Soviet-Polish war. The western border of the Ukrainian SSR was established along the Zbruch River, Western Ukraine was part of Poland.
Territorial disputes of the Ukrainian SSR and the South-East of Russia
In 1920, administrative reorganizations began in the South-East of Russia. After the expulsion of Denikin and Wrangel from the territory of the Don region and the Sea of \u200b\u200bAzov, the Tsaritsyno province is created. At the same time, Ukraine is considering the creation of the Don province, intending to include in it part of the Donetsk coal basin, which was part of the Don region. This issue is discussed behind closed doors, without agreement with the administration of the Don region. On January 17, 1920, the Donetsk Gubrev Committee of the city of Lugansk ordered “until the economic territory of the Donetsk province is clarified and the regions of the province are correctly distributed, temporarily approve ... 11 administrative districts that are part of the Donetsk province”, including also the territory of the Shakhtinsky district - Belo-Kalitvensky, Bokovo-Khrustalny , Aleksandro-Grushevsky districts, as well as individual settlements Taganrog region.
In January 1920, it was decided to transfer part of the troops to peaceful construction and create a Labor Army in Ukraine from the military units of the Southwestern Front. By a resolution of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR of January 20, the Ukrainian Council of the Labor Army was created under the chairmanship of I. V. Stalin. In April 1920, at the suggestion of the Council of People's Commissars of Ukraine and the Ukrainian Labor Army, the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the Soviets decided to form the Donetsk province from parts of the Kharkov, Yekaterinoslav provinces and the Don Army Region. The Bakhmut, Lugansk and Mariupol districts entirely departed from the Ekaterinoslav province, and the entire Taganrog district, the villages of the Donetsk district (Gundorovskaya, Kamenskaya, Kalitvenskaya, Ust-Belokalitvenskaya) departed from the Don Cossack Region. Lugansk became the center of the Donetsk province.
Disputes immediately arose because of Taganrog. Closely associated with Rostov-on-Don, he did not want to submit to Lugansk. Taganrog played an important role in the economy of the South-East of Russia, primarily as a deep-water port capable of receiving sea vessels with a significant carrying capacity. In 1921, the Don Executive Committee and the Regional Economic Council of the South-East of Russia (after the territorial reform it was named the North Caucasian Territory of the RSFSR) raised the issue of returning the Taganrog, Aleksandro-Grushevsky and Kamensky regions under their jurisdiction. They put forward the following as grounds: Taganrog industry is closely connected with Rostov and southeastern industry. The Shakhtinsky coal basin, which included the Aleksandro-Grushevsky and Kamensky districts, gave 7% of its production to the South-East, and the products Agriculture exported to Rostov. In response, the Ukrainian SSR announced the predominant Ukrainian population in these areas and the principle of the indivisibility of Donbass.
At a meeting of the Commission on Regionalization under the Regional Council of the South-East of Russia on October 8, 1921, the following proposal was made:
“The agricultural part of the Taganrog region has a direct attraction to Taganrog, and with it to Rostov, and not to the Donetsk region, annexed to Ukraine.
It is proposed to include in the Donoblast:
1. The agricultural part of the Taganrog district;
2. Grushevsky district within the old (1919) borders of the Cherkasy district;
3. Kamensky district within the former (1919) borders of the Donetsk district;
4. Ekaterinoslavskaya village (along the border of 1919 of the Don district). "
However, petitions from local authorities remained unanswered.
On December 30, 1922, at a conference of delegations from the congresses of Soviets of the RSFSR, the Ukrainian SSR, the BSSR and the ZSFSR, an agreement was approved on the formation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The entire territory of Donbass and the Novorossiysk provinces went to Ukraine.
In December 1922, when considering the issue of zoning the RSFSR, the State Planning Committee came to the conclusion that it was necessary to form, among other economic regions, the South-Eastern Region with a center in Rostov-on-Don, and the dispute about the return of Taganrog with the territory adjacent to it flared up with new force. In April 1923, the Regional Economic Council of the South-East of Russia sent a letter to the NKVD with a question about possible changes in the boundaries of the South-Eastern Region. Regional leadership cited economic grounds for including the Taganrog and Aleksandro-Grushevsky districts in this region. In particular, it noted that Taganrog is the only deep-water port in the South-East on the Sea of Azov and is necessary for economic development Rostov, while Ukraine already has two ports on the Sea of Azov - Mariupol and Berdyansk. The South-East supplies the industry of Taganrog with raw materials and is the main consumer of its products. Thus, the Taganrog Metallurgical Plant was the largest in the region and supplied the enterprises of the South-East with cast iron, steel, boiler and roofing iron. For the developed oilseed and leather industry of Taganrog, the raw materials of the South-East were also important.
The transfer of the Aleksandro-Grushevsky (Shakhtinsky) and Ekaterinsko-Kamensky districts, which supplied the South-East with cheap fuel, was also discussed. The south-eastern region claimed the return of Gundorovskaya, Kamenskaya, Karpovo-Obryvskaya, Ekaterininsky and Kalitvenskaya volosts with a population of 102,965 people. and an area of 573,994 acres. Until May 1923, Ukraine did not allow even the thought of a possible revision of the border with the South-East of the RSFSR.
In 1923, the top party leadership announced the need to indigenize the republican party and state apparatus in order to strengthen party power in the localities and control the situation in the republics. In Ukraine, this course was called "Ukrainization". Indigenization was presented as a kind of "compensation" to the republican leaders for supporting the Union and showed the solution of the national question in the USSR. So, in the Ukrainian SSR, extensive measures to introduce the Ukrainian language in secondary and higher educational institutions, cultural and educational institutions, the media and office work in party and Soviet institutions were also translated into Ukrainian.
On May 22, 1923, the South-East raised the issue of Ukrainian borders with the Don region in the Presidium of the Ukrainian State Planning Committee, which adopted the following resolution: "to consider the transfer of the Shakhtinsky region, covering a huge part of the entire anthracite region with the city of Taganrog, inappropriate." “In relation to Taganrog, the State Planning Commission considers that the South-Eastern Region has a number of serious grounds to lay claim to the city of Taganrog and the agricultural part of the Taganrog District due to old trade relations with Rostov, and also due to the common agricultural structure of the Taganrog Region with the South-Eastern Region.” Thus, the Ukrgosplan recognized the validity of some claims to the Taganrog district, but was in no hurry to transfer it to the South-East. Ukrgosplan proceeded from the “class principle”, which was the most important for the Bolsheviks, and considered it necessary to once again “clarify the issue with the Taganrog industry and its relationship to the Donbass in connection with the political expediency of separating the peasant Taganrog region from the proletarian Donbass and joining this region to the Rostov region.”
At the same time, the Administrative Commission of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee was considering cases on the annexation to Ukraine of a number of volosts of the Putivl and Rylsky districts of the Kursk province, as well as the Rodionov-Neevitay volost of the Cherkasy district of the Don region. The local population of Putivl and Rylsk uyezds gravitated toward the Ukrainian SSR, arguing that their uyezds had better communication with the major cities of the Kharkov province than with Rylsk in the Kursk province. However, the Kursk authorities were strongly opposed. The situation with the Rodionovo-Nesvitayevsky volost turned out to be more complicated. In 1920, the local population wished to become part of the RSFSR, and in 1923 - to the Ukrainian SSR, each time naming the same reasons: "there is a better road and no rivers."
On the other hand, the Ukrainian leaders did not want to give in to Russia on the issue of annexing Taganrog, Aleksandro-Grushevsky and Ekaterininsky-Kamensky regions to the South-East of the RSFSR. At the same time, the “desire of the population” of a number of volosts of the Kursk province to join Ukraine came in very handy. At the beginning of 1923, the Ukrainian SSR put forward a project to revise the Ukrainian-Russian borders, demanding a significant part of the Kursk, Bryansk and Voronezh provinces.
In June 1923, the Presidium of the Donetsk Provincial Executive Committee decided to recognize as unfounded the opinion about Taganrog, as a port city of particular importance for the Donoblast. It was decided to further study the links between the economy, industry and the population of Taganrog with the Donbass. In April 1924, a commission arrived in Kharkov to discuss controversial issues about joining the Taganrog and Shakhtinsky districts to the South-Eastern Territory, but the negotiations did not lead to anything.
A special protest from Ukraine was caused by the transfer of the Shakhty district. According to experts, anthracite of this quality has not been found anywhere else in the world. The entire production plan of Donbass was based on work in this area. Before the war, the Shakhtinsky district provided 30% of the anthracite production in the entire Donets basin. With regard to Taganrog, Ukraine reported that it plans to export bread through Taganrog as early as next year, and that its population is mainly Ukrainian. The commission adopted a resolution that the differences could not be settled. The only positive thing was the recognition by Kharkov of economic and economic ties between Taganrog and Rostov. Further discussion of the question of the borders of the South-East with Ukraine was transferred to Moscow.
Also at the end of April, the Taganrog Executive Committee presented its theses on the belonging of the Taganrog District to Ukraine and Donbass. Thus, relying on the national principle, it was pointed out that the boundaries of the union republics are determined not by economic interests, but by the will of the population itself. The economic space of the USSR is unified, since there are no customs borders between the republics. “Starting from the period of settlement of the Taganrog District, it has always been part of Ukraine (first, the Novorossiysk General Government, and then the Yekaterinoslav Governorate) and only from 1887 until the revolution was part of the Don Army Region. …AT this moment there is no reason to repeat the sad experience of the tsarist government, which separated the Taganrog district from Ukraine. A rather controversial statement, if we recall that Taganrog was founded by Peter I as the first port on the Sea of Azov and, before the founding of Sevastopol, was considered the most important Russian port. Further, these lands were called South Russian, like Novorossia.
As evidence, the Taganrog executive committee cited the Donbass census data for January-February 1923, according to which the Ukrainian population in the Taganrog district was 77%, Russian - 18%, other nationalities - 5%. Compared with the data of the All-Russian census for 1897, the Ukrainian population increased by 24%, while the Russian population decreased by 28%. The indigenous population are the descendants of the Zaporizhzhya Cossacks, and only in some villages - Russian Cossacks. Despite the fact that for 26 years the Taganrog district was separated from Ukraine by the tsarist government, natural Ukrainization took place there.
According to the economic principle, the Gubernia Executive Committee refuted all the arguments of the South-East. So, he argued that the port of Taganrog has independent significance and does not depend on the South-East. The city is supplied with its own raw materials, which it receives from Ukraine (in particular, the Metallurgical Plant receives strips from Mariupol and Yuzovka, coal from Makeevka), and not from the South-East. Similarly, oilseeds and wool were never imported, but only exported to the South-East, to Rostov and Nakhichevan. The enterprises existing in Tagokrug were founded before the revolution with private and foreign capital, precisely because in Taganrog they could be more profitably supplied with local fuel and raw materials. Taganrog itself, its port and district are inextricably linked with the Donbass. The Mariupol port is not able to serve the Donbass, as it is located farther from the anthracite deposits than the Taganrog port. Thus, Taganrog cannot be separated from the Donbass, despite its geographical proximity and economic ties with Rostov. According to the provincial executive committee, the annexation of Taganrog to Rostov under the tsarist regime led only to negative results: there was a decline in the production and industrial activities of Taganrog and the district due to the strengthening of Rostov-on-Don.
The disputes of the local authorities would have continued further if the top party leadership in Moscow had not joined the cause. At a meeting on July 11, 1924, the Politburo of the Central Committee of the RCP (b), which was addressed by the authorities of the South-East, issued a resolution “to consider it desirable to join Taganrog and the Aleksandro-Grushevsky district to the South-Eastern district, so that the transferred territory, especially with the Ukrainian population would have been reduced.
On July 24, 1924, a special Commission was formed to establish the exact boundaries of the regions extending from the Ukrainian SSR to the RSFSR. The so-called Parity Commission of the Donetsk Gubernia Executive Committee and the South-Eastern Regional Executive Committee was created, which led the direct transfer of the territory.
At the same time, large-scale work on zoning began in the South-East of Russia, which ended at the end of 1924 with the creation North Caucasus District. Four districts were registered on the territory of the future Rostov region: Donskoy, Donetsk, Salsky and Morozovsky. The initial intention to join the Taganrog and Shakhtinsky districts to the Don turned out to be unsuccessful: during the detour, it turned out that all the settlements of the Taganrog district gravitate towards Taganrog, and it was impossible to manage them from Rostov. A similar situation has developed with the Shakhty district. Thus, according to the new plan, the territory of the Rostov region was to be divided into 6 districts: Don, Taganrog, Shakhtinsky, Donetsk, Salsky and Morozovsky. On the eve of the party plenum in August 1924, on behalf of I.V. Stalin, the members of the Central Committee and the Presidium of the Central Control Commission sent out a note from the South-East Territory Committee on the annexation of the Shakhtinsky and Taganrog districts, which had a great influence on the decision of the plenum. The fate of Taganrog was sealed.
The meeting of the Parity Commission ended on October 3, 1924. At the request of representatives of both sides, it was decided to immediately begin transferring parts of the territories of the Shakhtinsky and Taganrog districts to the Southeast, and consider October 1 as the legal date for the transfer of control of these districts to the Southeast Regional Executive Committee. So, from October 1, 1924, Shakhtinsky, Sulinovsky, Vladimirovsky, Ust-Belokalitvensky, Leninsky, Glubokinsky, Fedorovsky, Kamensky, Nikolaevsky, Matveyevo-Kurgansky, Sovetinsky districts, parts of Alekseevsky, Ekaterininsky, Golodaevsky and Sorokinsky districts were transferred to the RSFSR, and also the city of Taganrog. The agreement described in detail the obligations of the parties, it was also decided to organize acceptance commissions in Shakhty and Taganrog.
The reaction of the peasants and Cossacks, who ended up on the territory of the Ukrainian SSR as a result of the settlement of the Ukrainian-Russian border, was practically the same as that of the inhabitants of the Kursk and Voronezh provinces. Since October 1924, the commission of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR on zoning received the protocols of peasant meetings of a number of village councils of the Donetsk province, which petitioned for their accession to the RSFSR. As reasons, the peasants noted not only the economic connection with the South-East, the convenience of communication, etc., but also their unwillingness to come to terms with the Ukrainization of schools and office work.
The exact boundaries of the part of the Shakhty and Taganrog districts, extending from the Ukrainian SSR to the North Caucasus Territory, were determined by the decrees of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR of October 21, 1924 and July 13, 1925. Thus, during 1924-1925. The Taganrog district was returned to the South-East of Russia, with a reduced territory and population. 5 districts remained in it: Fedorovsky, Nikolaevsky, Matveevo-Kurgansky, Sovetinsky and Golodaevsky. The Krasno-Lugsky, Dmitrievsky and Amvrosimovsky districts remained in Ukraine, and the Ekaterininsky district ceased to exist.
In the Shakhty district, most of the party leaders did not agree to return to the RSFSR, while the workers were mainly in favor of joining the South-East. The dispute was resolved in December 1924, when the Donetsk Provincial Committee of the CP(b)U decided: “The Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party for the second time confirmed the need to transfer the Aleksandro-Grushevsky district and Taganrog to the South-East. The Bureau and the Plenum of the Gubkom did not consider it possible to protest against the second decision of the Politburo: since it was decided a second time after all the motives against were stated, then that was the end. ... The Politburo takes into account not only the motives of Donbass, but also the motives large area South-East and the whole political and economic situation throughout the country.
Territorial disputes of the Ukrainian SSR and the Central Black Earth provinces of Russia
In parallel with the questions about the borders of the Don region, the questions about the borders with the Central Black Earth provinces of the RSFSR were also resolved. On April 11, 1924, the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR issued a resolution on the creation of a special Commission for the settlement of borders between the RSFSR, the Ukrainian SSR and the BSSR. It included representatives of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee A. Beloborodov and M. Latsis and the All-Ukrainian Central Executive Committee M. Poloz and A. Butsenko, and was headed by the chairman of the Central Executive Committee of the BSSR G. Chervyakov. The Ukrainian delegation emphasized the fact that the ethnographic borders of Ukraine do not coincide with the borders of the nine provinces that were part of the Ukrainian SSR. She recalled that even during the creation of the Ukrainian SSR, the question arose of the mismatch of ethnographic borders with the borders of nine provinces inhabited in the majority by Ukrainians. Then they decided to postpone this issue to a later time, when the civil war would end and the Soviet system would be strengthened, in order to calmly take into account all the ethnographic and economic data. Now it is this issue that has become decisive in the official demand of the Ukrainian side to revise the Russian-Ukrainian border. Data on the number and percentage of the Ukrainian and Russian population in the border areas gave the dispute a national coloring.
The Ukrainian SSR put forward the following project of changing the borders between the RSFSR and the Ukrainian SSR. From the Kursk province should have been transferred
- Putivl uyezd: Burynskaya, Gruzchanskaya, Glushetskaya, Kazachenskaya, Klepalskaya, Nikolaevskaya, Novo-Voskresenskaya, Popovo-Slobodskaya, Prigorodnaya and Uspenskaya volosts;
- Rylsky district: Glushkovskaya, Kobylskaya, Kulbakinskaya, Spagostskaya, Sukhanovskaya, Tetkinskaya volosts;
- Sudzhansky district: Belovsky, Gontarovskaya, Zamostyansky, Krenichensky, Miropolsky, Novo-Ivanovsky, Ulanovskaya volosts.
- Graivoronsky and Belgorod counties completely;
- Pemsky volost of the Oboyan district and several volosts of the Novo-Oskolsky district.
From the Voronezh province - Valuysky district, Rossoshsky, Bogucharsky, partially Ostrogozhsky, Pavlovsky and Kalachevsky counties.
Ukraine also asked to give it a number of villages in the Sevsky district of the Bryansk province, a small part of the Minsk province and the Semenovskaya volost of the Novo-Zybkovsky district of the Gomel province. Instead of the above, Ukraine offered to transfer to the Belarusian Republic a part of the Volyn province of the Ukrainian SSR.
The Russian leadership on the ground responded unambiguously to Ukrainian claims. The Kursk Gubernia Plan came to the conclusion that the main feature of the disputed border territory is ethnographic striping, which makes it difficult to resolve the issue of borders from a national point of view. The same situation was observed on the territory of the Ukrainian SSR, adjacent to the Kursk province. It was also noted that on the territory of the border strip, the population speaks a mixed language, transitional from Ukrainian to Russian. Therefore, when establishing an administrative boundary, one should be guided by economic signs. The rejection of almost half of the Kursk province under the project of the Ukrainian SSR will cause serious damage to the general economy of the RSFSR. The main thing for the province was the sugar industry, it was also supposed to develop mining due to deposits of white chalk and the occurrence of a magnetic anomaly. Completely denying the claims of the Ukrainian side, the Kursk authorities submitted their proposal to the Commission for the settlement of borders for discussion. They considered it expedient to annex Novgorod-Seversky, parts of the Glukhovsky and Krolevetsky districts of the Chernigov province to the Kursk province.
Using the slogans of the Soviet national policy and the decision on indigenization, the Ukrainian party leaders tried to refer to the will of the Ukrainian population, demanding accession to the national state - the Ukrainian SSR. Although the Ukrainian leaders demanded a rather vast territory, they still hoped for success. The Ukrainian Republic was opposed only by the leadership of certain regions of the RSFSR.
The Commission for the Settlement of Borders accepted the Ukrainian project for consideration, emphasizing that the basis for the settlement of borders between the republics in accordance with the principles of Soviet national policy must be "an ethnographic sign, based on the absolute or relative majority of one or another nationality of the disputed area." At the same time, the commission pointed out the need to take into account also the economic factor - "economic gravitation in those individual cases where it is pronounced."
It was decided to study in detail ethnographic, economic, geographical and other materials on disputed areas. The Ukrainian side provided two historical references compiled by the most famous Ukrainian historians D. Bagalei and M. Hrushevsky. Both historians substantiated the right of Ukraine to possess the disputed territories of Kursk, Voronezh and Bryansk provinces.
Party and state bodies of the regions bordering Ukraine referred to the protests of the population against joining the Ukrainian SSR. At the congresses held at the end of 1924, it was noted that due to the national policy pursued before the revolution, the Ukrainian population assimilated with the Russians. Moreover, when in the specified Russian provinces the policy of Ukrainization began, the local Ukrainian population reacted negatively to it. An attempt to introduce teaching in the Ukrainian language in schools failed: the peasants refused to send their children there, moreover, there was an acute shortage of teachers capable of teaching in this language. On the Ukrainian side of the border, the situation was similar - many did not recognize themselves as Ukrainians.
Indigenization was to be carried out not only in Ukraine, but also among the Ukrainian population living compactly in the RSFSR. Officials faced a problem: Ukrainians in the RSFSR not only did not know the Ukrainian language, but also did not want to learn it. The process of assimilation in the border areas has gone too far. An attempt to translate office work and education into Ukrainian failed due to a banal lack of specialists. If the leadership of the Kursk, Voronezh and Bryansk provinces unequivocally opposed the transfer of the territory, then the opinion of the local population was divided. Thus, it was impossible to make a decision to move the border, relying only on the ethnographic factor.
The Commission of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR on zoning decided to find out the opinion of "disinterested" authorities. On October 17, 1924, special requests were sent to various central departments on the advisability of transferring part of the territory of the RSFSR to Ukraine. The letters were received by the Central Statistical Administration, the People's Commissariat of the RSFSR, the People's Commissariat of Postal Service, the People's Commissariat for Internal Trade, Khleboprodukt, Sakharotrest, the Supreme Economic Council of the RSFSR and the Supreme Economic Council of the USSR, Tsentrosoyuz and the People's Commissariat. Several departments (the Supreme Economic Council of the RSFSR, Tsentrosoyuz, Narkomzem, Khleboprodukt) considered it inappropriate to transfer part of the territory of the RSFSR to Ukraine, the rest evaded a clear answer. The Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee decided: “In view of the request of the members of the commission from the RSFSR about their line of conduct when considering the borders of the RSFSR and the Ukrainian SSR, suggest that they be guided by: 1) the national composition of the population, 2) the population’s attraction to one or another republic, 3) take into account economic considerations and 4 ) to meet the needs of the Ukrainian SSR wherever it does not sharply violate the interests of the border population of the RSFSR.
By November 1924, the Commission for the Settlement of Borders possessed extensive material and, in the course of hard work, identified volosts with a predominantly Ukrainian population located on the territory of the RSFSR. The technical subcommittee was also to summarize data on the proposed economic consequences transfer of Russian territory to the Ukrainian SSR.
The main attention was paid to the province of Kursk, since most of the territory claimed by Ukraine was part of this province. In the event of a transfer of the border, the Kursk province lost more than 50% of sugar factories, more than 64% of workers employed in the industry; in addition, it completely lost the chalk, ceramic, starch-treacle, sawmill, wool, and hemp industries. Significant damage would be inflicted on the peat, flour-grinding, distilling, oil and leather industries. As a result, the subcommittee came to the following conclusion: since the ethnic composition of the disputed territories is characterized by extreme striping, issues should be resolved on the basis of "political considerations", bearing in mind not only the ethnic composition of the population of the territory being torn away, but also the possible economic damage to the Kursk industry.
The issue of border regulation was again considered at a meeting of the commission of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR on zoning on November 14, 1924. The issue of borders with the South-East and the BSSR was recognized as agreed. Difficulties in establishing the Russian-Ukrainian border in the region of the Voronezh, Kursk and Bryansk provinces were explained by the "extraordinary national intertwining", so it was impossible to be guided only by a national sign. When studying economic features, the members of the commission came to the conclusion that not only the territories claimed by Ukraine gravitate towards the RSFSR, but also part of the territory of the Ukrainian Republic also gravitates towards the RSFSR. Ukrainian wishes were not supported. The protracted consideration of the issue caused dissatisfaction on the Ukrainian side. The Ukrainian SSR demanded that the regions in the north be ceded to it, since they made concessions in the South-East.
Summing up the results of the meeting, the chairman of the commission, A. Yenukidze, stated: “There are now at least 3 million Great Russians in the Ukrainian SSR, so the dispute is due to the fact that some piece of the Ukrainian population will remain within the RSFSR, only because this is the Ukrainian population, of course it is impossible. We, as republics of a single Union, cannot be based only on a national basis. In the common interests of the Union, the economic factor is of the greatest, even paramount importance, so that because of a purely national attribute ... we cannot economically weaken the most important region that is of importance to the entire Union.
On November 27-28, 1924, the commission decided to transfer to Ukraine part of the territory of the Kursk province - a number of volosts of the Putivl uyezd, the Krenichen volost of the Sudzhan uyezd, the entire Graivoron uyezd, the entire Belgorod uyezd, a number of volosts of the Korochan uyezd and part of the Novo-Oskol uyezd, as well as the Semenov volost of Gomel province, a number of villages of the Sevsky district of the Bryansk province, Valuysky district of the Voronezh province. This compromise solution caused dissatisfaction on both the Ukrainian and Russian sides.
The Ukrainian delegation insisted that the Ukrainian Republic must be brought to its ethnographic borders and that the wrong delimitation of provinces before the revolution should be corrected. The basis for this should be the national-ethnographic situation, as well as the economic ties of this territory with the Ukrainian SSR. The main complaints from Ukraine were expressed about the principle of resolving the issue chosen by the Commission - based on administrative issues, not ethnographic ones. Ukraine demanded that the regions with the Ukrainian population living there be annexed to it, despite the presence in Ukraine itself of large territories with a Russian population. The leaders of the Ukrainian SSR mainly referred to the main principles of the national policy of the USSR, according to which the organization and unification of regions and republics takes place primarily on a national basis, as well as to the decisions of the XII Party Congress on the need for indigenization.
The delegation of the RSFSR was also dissatisfied with the decision of the commission and sent its own report on controversial issues to the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR. “The territory torn away according to the decision of the commission has a (rural) population of 901,287 people, of which 478,814 are Ukrainians. (53%), Great Russians 419,892 people. (47%) and others 1,581 people. (0%), if we include here the urban population of Belgorod… Putivl, Grayvoron… then the Ukrainian population will be about half.” Referring to the stripedness of the settlement, the peculiarities of the economy and the convenience of administration, the delegation of the RSFSR believed that only part of the declared territory could go to Ukraine. Compared to the decision of November 27-28, it was proposed to transfer only southern part Graivoronsky district, not the entire Belgorod district, but only the southern part of the Murom volost, a number of volosts of the Putivl district, the Krinichesky volost of the Sudzhansky district of the Kursk province, not the entire Valuysky district of the Voronezh province, but only the Troitsk volost and part of the Urazov volost, 11 villages of the Bryansk province, as well as Semenovskaya volost, Gomel province.
On January 23, 1925, the commission of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR on the settlement of borders between the RSFSR, the BSSR and the Ukrainian SSR adopted the final version of the decision of the commission on border issues between the Ukrainian SSR and the RSFSR. This edition was significantly different from the November one and practically coincided with the proposal of the Russian delegation.
The border settlement project was coordinated for another six months. Finally, on October 16, 1925, the chairman of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR, M. Kalinin, signed the corresponding resolution. It practically coincided with the decision of the commission, with the exception of some points: from the Putivl district of the Kursk province, it was additionally decided to transfer the Prigorodnaya, Novo-Goncharnaya, Novo-Slobodskaya, Shalyginskaya and Belochitskaya volosts to Ukraine. In addition, the decree contained a clause on the inclusion of part of the Donetsk province of the Ukrainian SSR into the RSFSR. So, Sovetinsky, Golodaevsky, Fedorovsky, Nikolaevsky (with the city of Taganrog), Matveevo-Kurgansky districts, the eastern part of the Ekaterininsky district of the Taganrog district of the Donetsk province, Shakhtinsky, Glubokinsky, Kamensky, Ust-Belkalitvensky, Lennisky, Vladimirovsky, Sulinsky districts were finally included in the RSFSR and part of the territory of the Sorokinsky, Alekseevsky districts of the Shakhtinsky district of the Donetsk province. To transfer the territory, a Parity Commission was formed, which was headed by the chairman of the commission of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR on zoning S. Ter-Gabrielyan.
As in the South-East, in the Bryansk, Kursk and Voronezh provinces on February 1, 1926, eight local acceptance commissions were created, which included two representatives from the Ukrainian and Russian sides each. Work on the transfer of territories lasted another six months, until the middle of 1926.
However, the dispute over some border points continued. Only on October 24, 1928, the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR adopted a resolution according to which the villages of Znob-Trubchevskaya and Grudskoye of the Bryansk province remained in the RSFSR, and a number of border villages of the Bryansk and Kursk provinces were transferred to the Ukrainian SSR. The border between the republics of the RSFSR and the Ukrainian SSR was finally defined. The RSFSR achieved the annexation of Taganrog and the Shakhtinsky region, the Ukrainian SSR received territory in the north as compensation.
Ukraine is a country with a great past: Kievan Rus, Zaporizhzhya Sich... But the state with that name is only 27 years old, and the literary Ukrainian language was established only in the last century. Between them are centuries of foreign principalities and empires. "Vesti" traced how the territory of Ukraine has changed over the past fifteen hundred years - from tribes to gaining independence.
V-IX centuries. Tribes
The meadows live on the Dnieper, they speak the Kievan dialect of Old Russian, they graze cattle, grow grain, and fish. In the neighbors there are other Slavic tribes and the Khazar Khaganate, to which they pay tribute. According to The Tale of Bygone Years, in the 9th century, Askold and Dir, warriors of the Novgorod prince Rurik, settled in Kyiv, who sent them to plunder Constantinople. The exact time of the founding of Kyiv is unknown, but the settlement became a city in the VIII-IX centuries.
IX-XIII centuries. Kievan Rus
882 year. Prophetic Oleg, a relative of Rurik, kills Askold and Dir by deceit and captures Kyiv. Oleg moved his headquarters from Novgorod to Kyiv, thereby formalizing Kievan Rus. Since that time, the state has been strengthened. Principalities within Kievan Rus ruled by the Rurik dynasty, power is inherited. In 988 (6496 "from the creation of the world") Prince Vladimir baptizes Russia. There is human trafficking. The first set of laws "Russian Truth" was adopted under Yaroslav the Wise (reigned: 1016-1054). The money in use is different, in the end, silver and gold hryvnia are established (in Kyiv of the 11th century - 163-165 grams). The political center of the state is preserved in Kyiv and during the period of disintegration into separate principalities in the XII-XIII centuries until the Tatar-Mongol invasion.
XIII century. Ruin and Galicia-Volyn principality
In 1240, Kyiv was ravaged by Batu and became dependent on the Golden Horde for a long time. It is ruled by princes who receive labels in the Horde, including Alexander Nevsky. Before the invasion, Kyiv was controlled by the princes of the Galicia-Volyn principality. It suffered less from the raids of the Tatar-Mongols and either made alliances with the West (Hungary, Lithuania), or, on the contrary, participated in campaigns against Lithuania along with the Mongols.
XIV-XVI centuries. Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Cossacks
Throughout the XIV century, the Lithuanian princes seized the surrounding lands, while successfully fighting off the Teutonic knights. In 1362, Prince Olgerd conquered Kyiv and ended the dependence of these lands on the Golden Horde. The Lithuanians did not inflict damage on Orthodoxy, and the ancient Russian law was gradually modified into feudalism. Office work was carried out in Cyrillic in a mixture of southern and western dialects of Old Russian with Polish and Lithuanian inclusions. And they spoke in "Russian Language".
In the 15th century, historians believe, Cossacks appeared - military people living in the territory not controlled by any state in the lower reaches of the Dnieper and Don.
XVI-XVIII centuries. Rzeczpospolita
In 1569, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania signed the Union of Lublin with the Kingdom of Poland - a document on the formation of a new state of the Commonwealth. At that time, the largest state in Europe, it opposed the Moscow kingdom and Ottoman Empire. Ukrainian lands went under the control of the Poles. Formally, the new state also included the so-called Wild Field - the southern steppes between the Dniester and the Volga, but in reality there was no state and almost no population. The Cossacks settled there. The attempts of the Polish authorities to create a single church of Orthodox and Catholics, as well as the conversion of large landowners to Catholicism, did not lead to the formation of a single state. Ukraine during this time has experienced several divisions between Poland, Turkey and Russia, many uprisings and a thirty-year civil war.
XVIII-XX centuries. Russian empire
After the third partition of the Commonwealth in 1795, almost the entire territory of modern Ukraine became part of the Russian Empire. Galicia, including Lvov, went to Austria. Right-bank Ukraine in the 19th century took part in Polish uprisings that were suppressed by the empire. The Ukrainian standard language was formed only by the beginning of the 20th century, literature in Ukrainian was partially banned.
XX century. USSR. Western Ukraine
During the First World War and the Civil War, Austrians, Germans, Poles invade Ukraine, dozens of states appear on its territory, it is captured either by Petliura or the anarchist father Makhno. When the revolutionary frenzy came to naught, the Ukrainian SSR was formed. It did not include then Crimea and small territories of Russia. Western Ukraine turned out to be part in Poland (Lvov), part in Romania (Chernivtsi), part in Czechoslovakia (Uzhgorod). Before World War II, part of the territories was annexed by the USSR, and Transcarpathia was annexed as a result of the war.
XX-XXI centuries. USSR. Independent Ukraine
In 1954, by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, Crimea was transferred to Ukraine. The independence of the country was declared on August 24, 1991.
Now it is customary to speak of Ukraine as a largest country Europe. This is, in general, correct. Now the territory of Ukraine is almost 604 thousand km 2, while the area of France is only 547 thousand km 2, and Spain - 497. Only Russia is larger than Ukraine with its 3.7 million km 2.
However, one must understand a simple thing - Ukraine itself did not, in fact, have any merit in expanding its territory. Let's consider some stages of the formation of the borders of modern Ukraine.
The first actually Ukrainian state can be considered the state created by Bogdan Khmelnytsky during the liberation war against Poland (the Commonwealth).
In fairness, it should be noted that Khmelnitsky has never been a fighter for the independence of Ukraine. His correspondence with the Polish king leaves no doubt that he fought for the legal order in the Commonwealth in general (remember that his estate was subjected to an attempted “raider seizure”) and for the rights of the Orthodox gentry in particular. Not meeting understanding, he received what he was looking for from the Moscow Tsar.
As of 1654, the borders of the state of Bogdan Khmelnitsky looked like this:
It is quite obvious that the hetman did not lay any claim to the southern lands, Crimea and Donbass. This was all the area of the "Wild Field", controlled by the Crimean Khan, who, at that time, was an ally of Khmelnitsky.
He did not lay claim to the lands of Sloboda, which, although they were inhabited by refugees from Ukraine, were, nevertheless, under the rule of the Russian tsar.
Galicia and Volyn were partially liberated during the war of liberation, but after the defeat near Berestechko, they remained under the control of the Poles. Khmelnitsky, by the way, did not seek to liberate territories, but only Orthodox people. That is why he limited himself to indemnity from Lviv - there was, in fact, no one to release there, Ukrainians (or rather, Rusyns) lived there only on one Russkaya street, and even those, one must understand, fled from possible repressions from the Poles.
Well, about Transcarpathia, which was part of Hungary, there was no talk at all.
Borders of Ukraine in the Russian Empire
When we talk about the times of Catherine II, they prefer to recall the defeat of the Zaporizhzhya Sich and the official introduction of serfdom (de facto it existed even before that). However, at the same time, it is somehow naturally forgotten that it was during the Russian-Turkish wars of the 18th century that the settlement (by the way, to a large extent by Ukrainians) of the former lands was carried out. wild field» - Novorossiya and Crimea. The latter was annexed to the Russian Empire in 1783.
It was then that they founded Largest cities the modern South of Ukraine - Elisavetgrad (Kirovograd, 1775), Yekaterinoslav (Dnepropetrovsk, 1776), Kherson (1778), Nikolaev (1789), Odessa (1794).
Already after the death of Catherine, in 1812, Bessarabia - Moldavia and Budzhak - part of the current Odessa region in the interfluve of the Prut and Dniester rivers, was annexed to Russia.
If this is “occupation”, then the lands of the Nogai and Crimean Tatars were occupied. The Nogai horde, by the way, broke up, and the Nogais now live in Russia and Turkey.
In addition, according to the results of the second and third partitions of Poland in 1793-1795, Right-Bank Ukraine and Volyn were annexed to Russia. The remaining Western Ukrainian territories (Galicia, Bukovina and Transcarpathia) remained part of Austria-Hungary.
The Russian Empress did not only what the hetmans could not do, but also what the hetmans did not even plan.
Surprisingly, the current "patriots" do not at all feel any gratitude to Catherine for such a radical expansion of the borders of Ukraine. True, speaking out against the monuments to Catherine, they are not at all in a hurry to return the lands that she annexed. Moreover, Southern Ukraine (not to mention Crimea), unlike the Right Bank and Volhynia, was not a Ukrainian ethnic territory in any way and became it precisely thanks to Russian conquests. Unless, of course, we talk about the “proto-Ukrainian Trypillia civilization”, which was located mainly on the territory of Romania and Moldova.
The period of "free zmagan"
The period after the collapse of the Russian Empire did not give any special territorial acquisitions. No, there are many absolutely fantastic maps of the Ukrainian People's Republic, covering not only Galicia, but also the Kuban.
However, in fact, the UNR was only one of the state entities created on the territory of the Ukrainian provinces of the Russian Empire. In 1917, this territory was divided among four state entities.
In 1918, this territory was united by the German occupation administration, which created the puppet state of Hetman Skoropadsky. Hetman, later, had to flee with the German occupiers...
The revived UNR managed to unite with the West Ukrainian people's republic, but this unification was formal, since it was at that moment that the ZUNR did not have its own territory, but was represented by the government of Petrushevich and the Ukrainian Galician army ... Moreover, after the “unification”, the ZUNR continued to wage its war against the Poles, later finding it possible to cooperate with the “Muscovites” ”- first with whites, and then with reds.
The UNR, in fact, did not control its territory, since, besides itself, the quasi-state of Father Makhno, the White Guard state-army, was located on it, in the end, the Ukrainian Socialist Soviet Republic created in March 1919. It was not for nothing that it was said that "in the car - the Directory, under the car - the territory."
Petliura, by the way, ended up cooperating with the Poles, finally refusing both the “evil” from the ZUNR and the territory of Western Ukraine.
In the end, in 1920-1922, most of the Ukrainian lands (including Transnistria) were united as part of the Ukrainian SSR, which, in turn, became part of the USSR. Part of the Ukrainian lands remained under Polish and Romanian occupation.
Since 1939, a new stage of the unification of Ukrainian lands began.
In September 1939, the USSR liberated the territories of Western Ukraine, previously captured by Poland. Now Soviet Union they criticize for "aggression" against Poland, condemn "cooperation" with Hitler and condemn the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, but, for some reason, they do not propose to draw legal conclusions from this. The legal conclusions should be to return the territory of Galicia, Volhynia and part of Podolia to Poland, which “innocently suffered from Soviet aggression”. Strange - we condemn the annexation of Galicia to Ukraine, but we are in no hurry to give it back.
Something else is even more surprising… The same people who condemn the “Soviet occupation” of Western Ukraine are also simultaneously condemning the Polish occupation of the same territories in 1918. However, they are at least tolerant of their re-occupation by the Poles in 1920...
In 1940, the USSR delivered an ultimatum to Romania, demanding the return of the lands occupied in 1918. Romania ceded the territories of Northern Bukovina and Bessarabia.
A separate story took place in Transcarpathia, which, after the collapse of Czechoslovakia, proclaimed its independence in the status of Carpathian Ukraine (not at all striving, of course, to join Soviet Ukraine - there was no other at that time). It lasted only a few days, being occupied by Hungary.
In 1945, Transcarpathia was liberated from the German-Hungarian invaders, returned to Czechoslovakia, and then passed to the USSR.
Note that we are talking about a region that historically for several centuries was part of Hungary and even now does not territorially associate itself with Ukraine (a common expression for Transcarpathians is “to go to Ukraine”, for example, to Lviv).
And, finally, in 1954 Crimea was transferred from the RSFSR to the Ukrainian SSR. The official reason is "considering the commonality of the economy, territorial proximity and close economic and cultural ties between the Crimean region and the Ukrainian SSR." Together with Crimea, Sevastopol also became part of Ukraine, although the legal grounds for the transfer of the city of republican subordination were not obvious. However, until the first half of the 90s, the issue of the status of the city was not raised, and later it was decided in favor of Ukraine.
However, the process also went in other directions. In 1940, Transnistria (Moldavian ASSR) was transferred to Moldova. In 1945, part of the territory of Western Ukraine, including the cities of Przemysl and Kholm, went to Poland. When clarifying the administrative boundaries within the USSR, some areas were transferred to Russia, and some, on the contrary, to Ukraine.
Borders of Ukraine in independence
However, in the name of Euro-Atlantic integration, Viktor Yushchenko sacrificed part of the continental shelf in favor of Romania. Although there were every reason not to give up the shelf with energy deposits. To do this, it was enough not to recognize the territory as disputed ...
conclusions
Historically, the territory of Ukraine is represented by approximately 8 regions of central Ukraine.
Western Ukraine (including Transcarpathia) could not be annexed and held by any Ukrainian authorities - there were not enough forces. Even when separate Ukrainian states were created on this territory, they could not maintain control over the territory. It turned out to be on the shoulder tsarist Russia and the Stalinist USSR.
South of Ukraine, Donbass and Crimea annexed Russian Empire and transferred to Ukraine by the USSR. Actually, the territory of the "largest state in Europe" was formed by Catherine II and Stalin, and the relative independence, which generally allowed talking about some kind of "borders of Ukraine", she received from the hands of Lenin.
So people who talk about "Russian" and "Soviet" occupation should be ready to revise the borders of Ukraine - in favor of other victims of the "Russian" and "Soviet" "occupation". For, so to speak, our and your freedom... Or, nevertheless, "Freedom"?
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