Ukrainization in the Far East in 1931: The Essence and Difficulties of the Process

In the study, the authors draw attention to the fact that the theme of Ukrainization in Russian and Ukrainian historiography is mostly developed on the materials of the Ukrainian SSR or the Russian-Ukrainian borderland. The article analyzes the regional aspects of the policy of Ukrainization in the first half of the 1930s in the Far East. As a result of migration flows of the second half of the 19th - the first quarter of the 20th centuries, this region also became a place of compact residence of a significant part of Ukrainians. The main sources of the study are archival materials of the Far Eastern archives, as well as documents of the Soviet and party authorities: correspondence on the issues of Ukrainization, statistical materials, reports, references, etc. The main focus of the study is on the specific circumstances of the campaign in 1931 and on the analysis of the reasons for a cautious attitude towards it both on the part of the authorities and the population of the region on the example of two districts of the Far Eastern territory-Shmakovsky and Kalininsky, in which Ukrainians predominated. It is noted that a negative attitude towards Ukrainization was determined by the largely inconsistent zigzag national policies of the Soviet government, not by the assimilation processes that affected the Ukrainian population of the region only. The authors of the study emphasize the specificity of the process of Ukrainization in the early 1930s: it cannot be perceived in isolation from the previous waves of Ukrainization. The first attempt in the 1920s faced with an opposition from local education authorities and communists from the party organizations of the Far Eastern Republic, who saw chauvinistic propaganda and independence in the work of Ukrainian organizations. In the 1930s, Ukrainization in the Far East not only followed the period of Russification, but began when Ukraine had already curtailed it and it threatened serious political consequences. The consequences became a reality after the Chita trial of 1924 in the case of "Ukrainian nationalists". Fears of being accused of bourgeois nationalism and sympathy for "Petliurism" forced either to perceive Ukrainization with hostility, or to delay its implementation. No wonder archival documents often show superficial paperwork-correspondence on the topic by officials at various levels-and a complete lack of practical work. However, in the conditions of the Soviet country of the early 1930s, such behavior seems to be quite a justified everyday pragmatism. Analyzing all the difficulties in implementing the Ukrainianization campaign in the Far East, the authors come to the conclusion that it was initially doomed to failure.

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