Formation of preliminary prerequisites for Ukraine’s entry into the Soviet federal state in 1917–1920 (historical and state studies essay)

Abstract

Background. The timeliness of writing the article is due to the urgency of the Ukrainian topic, aggravated by many pro-Western anti-Russian myths, and the importance of federal issues. The purpose of the publication is to demonstrate the circumstances sur-rounding Ukraine's participation in the formation of the Soviet federal state. Materials and methods. Statistical materials and the latest publications on the history of Ukrainian lands and the Civil War were used. A geopolitical and historical, ideological, political and ethnic analysis of the situation was carried out, the concept of “buffer space” and “buffer state” was formulated. Results. The author draws attention to the complex ethnic situation on the Ukrainian lands during the late Russian Empire, which was by no means reduced to the dichotomy of Little Russians – Great Russians, but was aggravated by the presence of other ethnic groups living mainly in an inclave. Novorossiya had a particularly stable Russian identity. At the same time, the population of rural areas and especially cities did not identify themselves with Ukrainians. Nationalist ferment was stimulated by the February and Octo-ber revolutions. They brought to the forefront of public life Ukrainian nationalists of the left (V. Vinnychenko) and authoritarian adventurers (S. Petlyura), peasant atamans (N.I. Ma-khno). The Bolsheviks, under the conditions of the temporary German occupation and the hetmanship of P. Skoropadsky, the offensive of the White Guards and the passivity of for-eign interventionists, and the military unpreparedness of the White Poles, turned out to be the best suited to receive public support in a fragmentarily organized territory. Conclusions. The pace and features of involvement in the construction of the Eurasian Soviet empire were determined by the entire sum of objective and subjective circumstances. At the same time, the Bolshevik leadership, in which the dogmatism of internationalism is clearly strong, clearly overestimated the importance of the national agenda and set a course for hasty Ukrainization. Stalin’s plan of autonomization was largely abandoned and replaced with Lenin's federalization due to the nationalist biases of the Ukrainian party leadership.

Keywords

• history of ukraine’s entry into the ussr
• the birth of ukrainian national sepa-ratism
• civil war in ukraine
• the national question and the rcp(b)
• nationalists in the communist party of ukraine (b)