Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic

The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic or in short, the Ukrainian SSR (Ukrainian: Українська Радянська Соціалістична Республіка, Українська РСР; Russian: Украинская Советская Социалистическая Республика, Украинская ССР; See Name section) was a sovereign Soviet Socialist state (Article 68, Constitution of Ukraine 1978) and one of the fifteen constituent republics of the Soviet Union lasting from its inception in 1922 (the Ukrainian SSR was formally established in 1919) to the breakup in 1991. Although the Ukrainian SSR was a founding member of the United Nations formed after the end of World War II,^[4] it practically had no say in its foreign affairs, which was tightly controlled by Moscow authorities. Upon the Soviet Union's dissolution and perestroika, the Ukrainian SSR was transformed into the modern nation-state of Ukraine.

Throughout its 72-year history, the republic's borders changed many times, with a significant portion of what is now Western Ukraine being annexed by Soviet forces in 1939 and the addition of formerly Russian Crimea in 1954. From the start, the eastern city of Kharkiv served as the republic's capital. However, in 1934, the seat of government was subsequently moved to the city of Kiev, which remained the capital of newly-independent Ukraine.

Geographically, the Ukrainian SSR was situated in Eastern Europe to the north of the Black Sea, bordered by the Soviet republics of Moldova, Belarus, and Russia. The Ukrainian SSR's border with Czechoslovakia formed the Soviet Union's western-most border point. With the Soviet Census of 1989, the republic's population consisted of 51,706,746 inhabitants, although the population would fall sharply after the breakup of the Soviet Union.

Name

The first Bolshevik republic in Ukraine was declared on December 24–25, 1917 and was called either the "Republic of Soviets of Workers', Soldiers', and Peasants' Deputies"^[5] or the "Ukrainian People's Republic [of Soviets]."^[6] However, that republic was only recognized by another non-recognized country, the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, and with the signing of the Brest-Litovsk Treaty was ultimately defeated by mid-1918 and eventually dissolved. The last session of the government took place in the 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 the defeat of the Central Powers in World War I, Bolshevik Russia resumed its hostilities towards the Ukrainian People's Republic fighting for Ukrainian independence and organized another Soviet government in Kursk, Russia. On March 10, 1919, according to the 3rd Congress of Soviets in Ukraine (conducted March 6–10, 1919) the name of the state was changed to the "Ukrainian Socialist Soviet Republic" (abbreviated "УСРР" in Ukrainian as opposed to the later "УРСР").^[6]

After the ratification of the 1936 Soviet Constitution, the names of all Soviet republics was changed, transposing the second ("socialist") and third ("soviet" or "radianska" in Ukrainian) words. In accordance, on December 5, 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 the 14th Extraordinary Congress of Soviets in Ukrainian SSR on January 31, 1937.^[6]

History

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 National Republic (UNR) among which were Bolsheviks, Mensheviks, Socialists-Revolutionaries, and many others. The most popular faction was initially the local Socialist-Revolutionary that composed the local government together with Federalists and Mensheviks. The Bolsheviks boycotted any government initiatives most of the time, instigating several armed riots in order to establish the Soviet power without any intent for consensus.

Right after the October Revolution in Petrograd Bolsheviks instigated the Kiev Bolshevik Uprising in support to the Revolution and to secure Kiev in their hands, but surprisingly it did not go as planned. Due to lack of adequate support from the local population and anti-revolutionary Central Rada, the Bolshevik split and most of them moved to Kharkiv where they were supported in big cities and industrial centers of the eastern Ukraine. Later this move was recognized as a misstep by some of the People's Commissars (Yevgenia Bosch). They issued an ultimatum to the Central Rada on 17 December to recognize the Soviet regime of which the Rada was very critical. The Bolsheviks convened a separate congress and declared the first Soviet Republic of Ukraine on 24 December 1917 claiming the Central Rada and its supporters outlaws that need to be eradicated. Warfare ensued against the Ukrainian National Republic (UNR) for the installation of the Soviet regime in the country and with the direct support from the Soviet Russia the Ukrainian National forces were practically overran. The government of Ukraine appealed to the World Community finding the support in the face of the Central Powers as the others refused to recognize 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 the Soviet Ukraine was dissolved after its last session on 20 November 1918.

Eventually after creation of the Communist Party (Bolshevik) of Ukraine in Moscow a new Ukrainian Soviet government was formed on 21 December 1919 that initiate new hostilities against Ukraine as it lost its military support from 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 was one of the founding members of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).

In 1932 the Soviet government inflicted one of the largest national catastrophes in modern history of the Ukrainian nation. A man-made famine known as the Holodomor caused a direct loss of human life estimated between 2.6 million^[7][8] to 10 million.^[9]

In September 1939 the Soviet Union invaded Poland, and added Galician lands inhabited by Ukrainians to the territory of the Ukrainian SSR. In 1945, these lands were permanently annexed, and the Transcarpathia region was added as well, by treaty with the post-war administration of Czechoslovakia. Following eastward Soviet retreat in 1941, Ufa became the wartime seat of the Soviet Ukrainian government. After World War II some amendments to the Constitution of the Ukrainian SSR were accepted, which allowed it to act as a separate subject of international law in some cases and to a certain extent, remaining a part of the Soviet Union at the same time. In particular, these amendments allowed the Ukrainian SSR to become one of founding members of the United Nations (UN) together with the Soviet Union and the Byelorussian SSR. This was part of a deal with the United States to ensure a degree of balance in the General Assembly, which, the USSR opined, was unbalanced in favor of the Western Bloc. In its capacity as a member of the UN, the Ukrainian SSR was an elected member of the United Nations Security Council in 1948-1949 and 1984-1985.

The Ukrainian SSR was also the site of the Chernobyl disaster in 1986, when a reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant melted down and exploded, subjecting countless multitudes to radiological effects.

Politics and government

The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic's system of government was based on a socialist single-party communist system ruled by the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Ukraine that was part of the Communist Party of Soviet Union (KPSS). The republic was one of 15 constituent republics composing the Soviet Union from its entry into the union in 1922 till 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 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.^[10]

Originally the legislative authority was vested in the Central Executive Committee of Ukraine that for many years was headed by Grigoriy Petrovsky. Soon after publishing the Stalin Constitution, the Central Executive Committee was transformed into the Supreme Council (Verkhovna Rada), which consisted of 450 deputies.^[b] The Supreme Council 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.^[11] In addition, parliament also had to authority to elect 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 a couple of other government members to carry out the official functions and duties in between legislative sessions.^[11] 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,^[11] 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 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,^[11] providing little opportunity for political change, since all political authority was directly subordinate to the higher level above it.

With the beginning of Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev's perestroika reforms towards the mid-late 1980s, electoral reform laws were passed in 1989, liberalizing the nominating procedures and allowing multiple candidates to stand for election in a district. Accordingly, the first relatively free elections^[12] 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 the parliament.^[13] 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.

On the international front, the Ukrainian SSR, along with the rest of the 15 republics, virtually had no say in their own foreign affairs. It is, however, important to note that in 1944 the Ukrainian SSR was permitted to establish bilateral relations with countries and maintain its own standing army.^[10] This clause was used to permit the republic's membership in the United Nations. Accordingly, representatives from the "Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic" and 50 other nations founded the UN on October 24, 1945. In effect, this provided the Soviet Union (a permanent Security Council member with veto powers) with another vote in the General Assembly.^[c] The latter aspect of the 1944 clauses, however, 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 the Soviet republics to secede from the union,^[14] 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."^[15] However, a republic's theoretical secession from the union was virtually impossible and unrealistic^[10] in many ways until after Gorbachev's perestroika reforms.

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 the Constitution of Ukraine and interests of the Republic" on 5 October 1991.^[16]

Administrative divisions

Although technically speaking the Soviet Union and the 15 republics that formed it was a federal system, it was also very much a centralized state, with major decision-making taking place at the Kremlin, the capital and seat of government of the country. The constituent republic were essentially unitary states, with lower levels of power being directly subordinate to higher ones. Throughout its 72-year existence, the administrative divisions of the Ukrainian SSR changed numerous times, often incorporating regional reorganization 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 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 in Crimea, treated separately because it housed an underground nuclear submarine base, were designated "cities with special status." This meant that they were directly subordinate to the central Ukrainian SSR authorities and not the provincial authorities surrounding them.

Historical formation

However, the history of administrative divisions in the republic was not so clear cut. At the time of the republic's formation, Kiev was the capital of the pro-independence Ukrainian People's Republic, which fought against the Ukrainian SSR government in the Ukrainian Civil War. Accordingly, the eastern city of Kharkiv was chosen as the republic's seat of government, colloquially named in the media as "the first capital" with implication to the era of Soviet regime.^[17] Kharkiv 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 Kharkiv to Kiev, which remains the capital of Ukraine today, although at first Kharkiv retained some government offices and buildings for some time after the move.

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 the republic's three largest minority groups, which were the Jews, Russians, and Poles.^[18] Other ethnic groups, however, were allowed to petition the government for their own national autonomy. From 1924-1940, Ukrainian Soviet authorities also retained control over the Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, until it was upgraded to that of a constituent Soviet republic in 1940.

A controversial territorial reorganization that occurred was Soviet Leader Nikita Khrushchev's transfer of Crimea from the Russian SFSR to Ukraine in 1954. After the transfer, the Crimean Oblast that was previously created after the World War II in place of the Crimean ASSR, the native population of which was deported by the Stalin's regime to the Central Asia. With the fall of the Soviet Union the Crimean Oblast was reconstituted as the Autonomous Republic of Crimea in 1996 with a high degree of autonomy compared to the rest of the post-independence subdivisions.

Economy

In the post-war years the industrial productivity of Ukraine had doubled over the pre-war level. From 1965 until the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the industrial capacity of Ukraine decreased, and by the 1970s, it started to stagnate. Significant economic decline did not become apparent before the 1970s. During the Fifth Five-Year Plan (1951–1955), industrial development in Ukraine grew by 13.5 percent, while, during the Eleventh Five-Year Plan (1981–1985) industry grew by a modest 3.5 percent. The double digit growth seen in all branches of the economy in the post-war years, had by the 1980s disappeared, and entirely replaced by low growth figures. An ongoing problem throughout the republic's existence was the planner's emphasise on heavy industry over consumer goods.^[19]

The urbanization of Ukrainian society in the post-war years led to an increase in energy consumption. Between 1956 and 1972, to meet this increasing demand, the government built five water reservoirs along the Dnieper River. Aside from improving Soviet-Ukrainian water transport, the reservoirs became the site for new power stations, and hydroelectric energy flourished in Ukraine because of it. The gas industry flourished as well, and Ukraine became the site of the first post-war production of gas in the Soviet Union; by the 1960s Ukraine's biggest gas field was producing 30 percent of the USSR's total gas production. The government was not able to meet the people's ever increasing demand for energy consumption, but by the 1970s, the Soviet government had conceived an intensive nuclear power program. According to the plan, the Soviet government would build 8 nuclear power plants by the 1980s in Ukraine. As a result of these efforts, Ukraine became highly diversified in energy consumption.^[20]

The increase of agricultural production was tremendous, however, the Soviet-Ukrainians still experienced food shortages due to the inefficiencies of a highly-centralized economy. During the peak of Soviet-Ukrainian agriculture output in the 1950s and early-to-mid 1960s, human consumption in Ukraine, and 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 the one purchaser and producer market system created by Joseph Stalin.^[20]

Footnotes

References

Notes

External links

• "Governments of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic". Government portal. http://www.kmu.gov.ua/control%5Cen%5Cpublish%5Carticle?art_id=1334334&cat_id=1290711. Retrieved 2008-06-11. 
• "Constitution of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic" (in Ukrainian). Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. 1978. http://gska2.rada.gov.ua/site/const/istoriya/1978.html. Retrieved 2008-06-11.