Ukrainization in North Caucasus Krai of the RSFSR (1923–1932): Plans, Public Reaction, Results
Authors: Баранов А.В. 
Published: October 2021

Автор статьи определяет причины и цели украинизации в Северо-Кавказском крае РСФСР и анализирует реакцию населения на реформы и результаты такого политического курса. Исследование выполнено в рамках конструктивистской парадигмы, основано на документах Центров документации новейшей истории Ростовской области и Краснодарского края, Государственного архива Ростовской области, материалах Всесоюзной переписи населения 1926 г. Украинизация была составной частью этнополитики «позитивной дискриминации» («коренизации»), принятой РКП(б) в 1923 г. Она включала в себя задачи распространения в Северо-Кавказском крае, Центрально-Черноземной области РСФСР и других макрорегионах украинского литературного языка, формирования украинской идентичности, обеспечения представительства украинцев в партийных и государственных органах власти, общественных организациях. Реформы встретили сопротивление местных чиновников и населения, были оправданно прекращены в условиях коллективизации и военной угрозы.

The author of the article aims to determine the plans of Ukrainization in relation to North Caucasus Krai of the RSFSR, the reaction of the regional community to the reforms, and the results of the course of Ukrainization. The work is prepared within the framework of the constructivist paradigm of ethno-historical research. The main directions of the problem analysis in historiography are determined: analysis of the goals of the party-state course, Ukrainization of the government apparatus, educational and language policy, comparative analysis of processes in the districts of North Caucasus Krai. The article is based on the documents of the Centers for Documentation of Contemporary History of Rostov Oblast and Krasnodar Krai, the State Archive of Rostov Oblast, the materials of the All-Union population censuses of 1926 and 1939. The circumstances of the beginning of Ukrainization on the scale of the USSR are described; the interrelation of the reforms with the policy course “Face to the Village” is noted. The institutions, regulatory legal acts and resources for the implementation of modernization in North Caucasus Krai are considered. The reasons for the slow implementation of Ukrainization in the region are analyzed. The measures of Ukrainization adopted by the North Caucasus Regional Committee of the Russian/All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks and the district committees of the ruling party are described. The author has determined that the population, without objecting to the cultural policy in the Ukrainian language (the elimination of illiteracy, secondary education, libraries, theater), resisted the imposition of Ukrainian as an official language, mandatory for office work and employment in party and state agencies. Dissatisfaction was expressed with the introduction of the Ukrainian literary language (“Galician dialect”), residents preferred local dialects (“Kuban language”, “Balachka”). The author has established that Ukrainization was an integral part of the ethnopolitics of “positive discrimination” (“korenizatsiya” [indigenization]) adopted by the Russian Communist Party of Bolsheviks in 1923 and was carried out until the end of 1932. Ukrainization included the tasks of spreading the Ukrainian literary language in North Caucasus Krai, the Central Black Earth Region of the RSFSR and other macro-regions; forming the Ukrainian identity; ensuring the representation of Ukrainians in party and state agencies, and in public organizations. The author has found that the reforms met the resistance of the local officials and the population, and were justifiably stopped due to collectivization, the military threat, and the imperatives of the integration of the state.