THE PECULIARITIES OF NATIONAL POLICY IN THE UKRAINIAN SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLIC IN 1920-S ON THE EXAMPLE OF THE POLISH AND GERMAN MINORITIES

Abstract

An integral part of the history of Ukraine is a history of certain national groups that lived in its territory. From long ago, the people of Ukraine, besides titular ethnic group, was composed of Russians, Jews, Poles, Germans, Greeks, Armenians and other national groups. The events that took place at the final stage and after the First World War became a special milestone in the history of Ukraine. The beginning of 1920s in Ukraine was marked by an explosive aggravation of interethnic relations caused by the catastrophic deterioration in the economic conditions and famine affecting all the ethnic groups¹. The consequences of the First World War, “war communism” policy, civil war against own “kith and kin” and the unresolved agrarian question were evident. Ukrainian historiography has not yet systematically and comprehensively studied the peculiarities of social, economic and cultural development of the Ukrainian society in the context of the national policy of the Soviet state, role of village councils in the social and political, social and economic transformations in the rural areas; besides, it has not been determined a function of village council as a main structural element in the development of the Soviet regime. The transition to the New Economic Policy, transfer of governmental powers to the village councils in rural areas and the Soviet “localization policy” were intended to prepare a background for impro- ving the situation in the field of management of the agricultural sector of economy and the political line of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) in rural areas. Support of these changes by the legislation and specific actions of central and local governmental bodies will be considered on the example of the Polish and German national minorities in the USSR in 1923–1929 and the role of village councils in the process of “sovietisation” of the village.

Keywords: “sovietisation” of the village, New Economic Policy, German national minority, Polish national minority.