172-570: Civilian leaders Military organisations Political organisations The Makhnovshchina ( Ukrainian : Махновщина , romanized : Makhnovshchyna ) was a mass movement to establish anarchist communism in southern and eastern Ukraine during the Ukrainian War of Independence of 1917–1921. Named after Nestor Makhno , the commander-in-chief of the Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine , its aim
344-581: A Military Revolutionary Council being established as the movement's de facto executive organ . Surrounded on all sides by different enemies, the Makhnovist line in the battle for the Donbas eventually fell to the advancing White movement in June 1919. The Makhnovists were subsequently driven into a retreat to Kherson , where they reorganised their military and led a successful counteroffensive against
516-415: A "freelance medical service" in order to tend to wounded and sick insurgents and established an enquiry to investigate abuses of power by the Makhnovist security service, which was being accused of arbitrary arrests, executions and torture. After that, Congress appointed a commission for the preparation of further congresses and conferences, in order to reconstruct the region's economy and wider society. On
688-590: A Bolshevik delegate, who rejected calls for anarchy . By December 1919, the Makhnovshchina was struck by an outbreak of epidemic typhus , which incapacitated the Makhnovist forces, allowing the White movement to briefly recapture Katerynoslav and the Red Army to invade the region. By the end of January 1920, the territory of the Makhnovshchina had been overrun by the Red Army. The Cheka set about disarming
860-525: A Constituent Assembly, accusing the delegates in question of working for Anton Denikin . Other resolutions passed at the Oleksandrivsk Congress included one that prohibited drunkenness amongst the armed insurgents, by penalty of execution by firing squad , and another that levied an expropriation against the local banks and bourgeoisie , resulting in the seizure and redistribution of millions of rubles. Plans were also made to convene
1032-636: A body of national literature, institute a Ukrainian-language educational system, and form an independent state (the Ukrainian People's Republic , shortly joined by the West Ukrainian People's Republic ). During this brief independent statehood the stature and use of Ukrainian greatly improved. In the Russian Empire Census of 1897 the following picture emerged, with Ukrainian being the second most spoken language of
1204-465: A campaign of " revolutionary terror " against them, assassinating one nationalist leader before being forced to the negotiating table by Nestor Makhno . The nationalists subsequently began planning a coup, threatening pogroms against the local Jewish community in order to bring them on side. On the night of 15–16 April, the Ukrainian nationalists carried out the coup, launching a surprise attack against
1376-701: A definitive Fourth Regional Congress of Peasants, Workers and Insurgents at Katerynoslav in December 1919, but this was unable to proceed, as the city was attacked by White Cossacks, forcing the insurgents to evacuate the city. With the Whites falling back to Crimea , on 7 January 1920, the Insurgent Army called for an All-Ukrainian Congress of Workers and Peasants to be convoked as soon as possible. The Insurgent Army even offered to lay down their arms, should an All-Ukrainian Congress instruct them to. However,
1548-827: A dispute between the majority of Ukrainian nationalists and the minority of revolutionary socialists at the Congress. Following the October Revolution , increasing hostilities between the nationalists and the socialists ignited a civil war in Ukraine. On 22 December 1918, a Provincial Congress of Soviets was due to meet in Kharkiv , but was banned by the Ukrainian nationalist Petro Bolbochan . Other Soviet elections resulted in street fighting between nationalists and socialists. The advancing Ukrainian People's Army eventually pushed Nestor Makhno's insurgents back to
1720-622: A guerrilla war against the forces of the Red Terror and war communism , supported in large part by their peasant base. Although a peace was briefly secured by the two factions with the Starobilsk agreement (in order to combat the remnants of the White movement), the Makhnovists were again attacked by the Red Army and eventually defeated by August 1921. Leading Makhnovists were either driven into exile, defeated or captured and killed by
1892-545: A letter to Kharkiv requesting an end to persecution against the Makhnovists, asking that they be extended the right to participate in congresses and soviets, in exchange for laying down their arms. But this request was rejected by the Ukrainian Soviet government. Following the conflict, the Congresses became a point of criticism by a number of anarchist authors, with some comparing them to legislatures such as
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#17327723601662064-536: A militia force with a centralized command structure was established. On the issue of land reform , the Congress called for the formation of local land committees to redistribute privately-held land, along with seeds and other materials, to poor and landless peasants. The result of the Second Congress was a continuation of the military pact with the Red Army , while maintaining an adversarial stance towards
2236-600: A network of trade unions , factory committees , peasant committees and popular assemblies . The assemblies were used by the local citizens as a form of referendums , where decisions were made through direct democracy , and became the basis for civil law . The vast majority of the Makhnovshchina's decisions were made independently, through a system of local self-governance at the village and district level. Networks of " free soviets " acted as institutions of participatory democracy , where issues would be discussed and dealt with directly. The free soviets were conceived of as
2408-591: A policy of defending Ukraine's interests within the Soviet Union. He proudly promoted the beauty of the Ukrainian language and developed plans to expand the role of Ukrainian in higher education. He was removed, however, after only a brief tenure, for being too lenient on Ukrainian nationalism. The new party boss from 1972 to 1989, Volodymyr Shcherbytsky , purged the local party, was fierce in suppressing dissent, and insisted Russian be spoken at all official functions, even at local levels. His policy of Russification
2580-710: A quarter of the Russian Empire's agricultural machinery and developed the region's settlements into small industrial centers. The development of industry brought together the peasantry and proletariat for the first time, with peasants often moving to centers of industry to become wage-earners and then back to their villages during times of industrial crisis. This also caused the region to become quite ethnically diverse, with Ukrainians , Russians , Germans , Jews and Greeks all settled alongside each other. The region's common language soon became Russian and eventually, much of its Ukrainian population stopped speaking
2752-527: A regional congress, which would determine how to solve the issues at hand. From 27 October to 2 November 1919, a Fourth Regional Congress of Peasants, Workers and Insurgents was held in Oleksandrivsk . It brought together 300 delegates that each represented roughly 3,000 people, including 180 peasant delegates, 20 worker delegates and 100 delegates from insurgents units and the various "left-wing revolutionary organizations", with Volin being elected as
2924-565: A result of close Slavic contacts with the remnants of the Scythian and Sarmatian population north of the Black Sea , lasting into the early Middle Ages , the appearance of the voiced fricative γ/г (romanized "h"), in modern Ukrainian and some southern Russian dialects is explained by the assumption that it initially emerged in Scythian and related eastern Iranian dialects, from earlier common Proto-Indo-European *g and *gʰ . During
3096-607: A result of the Ukrainian workers' self-determination . Around this time, the Bolsheviks finally broke the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk and ordered the Red Army to invade Ukraine , with Christian Rakovsky proclaiming the establishment of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in Kharkiv . As the Makhnovshchina had found itself surrounded by the Ukrainian People's Republic and South Russia ,
3268-644: A self-aware Ukrainian nation would threaten the unity of the empire. In 1804 Ukrainian as a subject and language of instruction was banned from schools. In 1811, by order of the Russian government, the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy was closed. In 1847 the Brotherhood of St Cyril and Methodius was terminated. The same year Taras Shevchenko was arrested, exiled for ten years, and banned for political reasons from writing and painting. In 1862 Pavlo Chubynsky
3440-509: A series of strike actions by sympathetic industrial workers. On 7 November 1917, the Central Council declared the autonomy of Ukraine , which brought Katerynoslav back within its borders. Although the Central Council safely controlled right-bank , its new territorial claims in the left-bank were met with indifference from the more ethnically mixed population. By December 1917, Eastern Ukraine had come under Soviet influence, with
3612-523: A series of attacks by the Red Army and White Cossacks, which definitively prevented the Congress from taking place. Considering the proscription of the Congress to be a "direct and shameless infringement of the workers' rights", Nestor Makhno relinquished his command of the 7th Ukrainian Soviet Division , reaffirming his commitment to the "inalienable right of workers and peasants, a right won by revolution , to themselves organize congresses to discuss and decide upon their private and general affairs." Over
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#17327723601663784-420: A series of military defeats and the dwindling of insurgent forces. On 28 August 1921, Nestor Makhno 's forces fled to Romania , leaving the country entirely under control of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic . The political system established by the Makhnovshchina was variously described as a " people's commune " or an " anarchist republic ", one based on the theories of anarcho-communism and built on
3956-624: A series of robberies, carried out by a group of young anarchist-communists known as the Union of Poor Peasants . The group was eventually caught and its leading members arrested, with many of them being sentenced to the death penalty or life imprisonment . In the wake of the February Revolution , Ukrainian intellectuals around Mykhailo Hrushevsky established the Central Council of Ukraine , which initially sought freedom of
4128-539: A term used primarily in Soviet historiography . This "Makhnovist territory" or "Makhnovist region" was alternatively referred to as a "liberated zone", "liberated region", "liberated area", or "autonomous area". In June 1919, the Bolsheviks began to refer to the Makhnovist territory as the "independent anarchist republic of Huliaipole", in calls for the Makhnovshchina's abolition. According to Bolshevik sources, that month's Planned Fourth Regional Congress intended to assert
4300-573: A top-down bureaucracy , sidelining the power of local Soviets and bringing the top-down authoritarian communism of the Bolsheviks into conflict with bottom-up libertarian communism of the Makhnovists Despite the political conflict, the military situation was beginning to improve, which led Holovko to summon a Second Congress. On 12 February 1919, the Second Regional Congress of Peasants, Workers and Insurgents
4472-890: A variant name of the Little Russian language . In a private letter from 1854, Taras Shevchenko lauds "our splendid Ukrainian language". Valuyev's decree from 1863 derides the "Little Russian" language throughout, but also mentions "the so-called Ukrainian language" once. In Galicia, the earliest applications of the term Ukrainian to the language were in the hyphenated names Ukrainian-Ruthenian (1866, by Paulin Święcicki ) or Ruthenian-Ukrainian (1871, by Panteleimon Kulish and Ivan Puluj ), with non-hyphenated Ukrainian language appearing shortly thereafter (in 1878, by Mykhailo Drahomanov ). A following ban on Ukrainian books led to Alexander II 's secret Ems Ukaz , which prohibited publication and importation of most Ukrainian-language books, public performances and lectures, and even banned
4644-536: Is a descendant of Old East Slavic , a language spoken in the medieval state of Kievan Rus' . In the Grand Duchy of Lithuania , the language developed into Ruthenian , where it became an official language, before a process of Polonization began in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth . By the 18th century, Ruthenian diverged into regional variants, and the modern Ukrainian language developed in
4816-646: Is based on the character of contemporary written sources, ultimately reflecting socio-historical developments, and he further subdivides the Middle period into three phases: Ukraine annually marks the Day of Ukrainian Writing and Language on 9 November, the Eastern Orthodox feast day of Nestor the Chronicler . The era of Kievan Rus' ( c. 880–1240) is the subject of some linguistic controversy, as
4988-565: Is referred to as "Old Ukrainian", but elsewhere, and in contemporary sources, is known as the Ruthenian language, and from the end of the 18th century to the present what in Ukraine is known as "Modern Ukrainian", but elsewhere is known as just Ukrainian. Regional Congress of Peasants, Workers and Insurgents#Planned Fourth Congress (June 1919) Civilian leaders Military organisations Political organisations The Regional Congresses of Peasants, Workers and Insurgents represented
5160-595: The Austro-German invasion and waged guerrilla warfare against the Central Powers throughout 1918. After the insurgent victory at the Battle of Dibrivka , the Makhnovshchina came to control much of Katerynoslav province and set about constructing anarchist-communist institutions. A Regional Congress of Peasants, Workers and Insurgents was convened to organise the region politically and economically, with
5332-483: The Bolsheviks seized power under the slogan of " all power to the soviets ", the Ukrainian anarchists initially supported it, while remaining critical of political and economic centralisation . As the Makhnovists desired to bring the region under Soviet power, they declared themselves against the new Ukrainian nation state , establishing armed detachments to combat both the forces of the Ukrainian People's Army and
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5504-592: The Directorate or the Bolsheviks , but the largest portion followed either socialist revolutionary Nykyfor Hryhoriv or the anarchist flag of Makhno. On 30 September, insurgent detachments led by Nestor Makhno and Fedir Shchus linked up at Dibrivka [ uk ] and defeated the occupation forces in battle . When the November Revolution brought World War I to an end, the occupation finally began to melt away. In right-bank Ukraine ,
5676-526: The Don Cossacks . An anarchist detachment led by Savelii Makhno aided in the capture of Oleksandrivsk and the reestablishment of Soviet power in the city. By January 1918, Southern Ukraine had largely come under the control of the Soviet Republic, which established revolutionary committees as its local organs of power. In Huliaipole, the local revolutionary committee included members of
5848-576: The February Revolution , but were suspended with the outbreak of the Ukrainian War of Independence , when the territory fell under the sequential control of the Ukrainian State , Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic and South Russia . Following the defeat of the White movement in October 1919 and the subsequent extension of the Makhnovshchina throughout the area, freedom of speech , freedom of
6020-658: The First All-Ukrainian Congress of Soviets establishing the Ukrainian People's Republic of Soviets in Kharkiv . Unable to reconcile their differences, a civil war soon broke out between the forces of the People's Republic and the new Soviet Republic . Before the outbreak of the October Revolution , the Makhnovists had already established "soviet power" in Katerynoslav, implementing initiatives of workers' control and self-management . So when
6192-817: The Imperial German Army to invade Ukraine and oust the Soviets from power. The Red Guards were unable to halt the imperial advance, which within a month forced the Bolsheviks to negotiate their own peace treaty with the Central Powers, ceding control of Ukraine to the German Empire and Austria-Hungary . When the Ukrainian nationalists in Huliaipole began threatening anarchists with reprisals, local anarcho-syndicalists initiated
6364-723: The Latin language. Much of the influence of Poland on the development of the Ukrainian language has been attributed to this period and is reflected in multiple words and constructions used in everyday Ukrainian speech that were taken from Polish or Latin. Examples of Polish words adopted from this period include zavzhdy (always; taken from old Polish word zawżdy ) and obitsiaty (to promise; taken from Polish obiecać ) and from Latin (via Polish) raptom (suddenly) and meta (aim or goal). Significant contact with Tatars and Turks resulted in many Turkic words, particularly those involving military matters and steppe industry, being adopted into
6536-569: The Novgorod Republic did not call themselves Rus ' until the 14th century; earlier Novgorodians reserved the term Rus ' for the Kiev , Pereyaslavl and Chernigov principalities. At the same time as evidenced by contemporary chronicles, the ruling princes and kings of Galicia–Volhynia and Kiev called themselves "people of Rus ' " (in foreign sources called " Ruthenians "), and Galicia–Volhynia has alternately been called
6708-554: The Red Army . The Military Revolutionary Council (VRS) acted as the executive in the interim between sittings of the Regional Congresses. Its powers covered both military and civil matters in the region, although it was also subject to instant recall at the will of the Regional Congress and its activities were limited to those explicitly outlined by the Congresses themselves. At each Regional Congress,
6880-449: The Red Terror . The Bolshevik government implemented war communism in Ukraine, introducing a strict system of rationing and food requisitioning , which confiscated agricultural produce and livestock from the peasantry, and even forbade them from fishing, hunting or collecting lumber. The attacks against the Ukrainian peasantry were justified under the policy of Dekulakization , despite the fact that, by this point in time, only 0.5% of
7052-494: The Sea of Azov . This then being the territory the Makhnovists would go on to expand within. The end of the imperial occupation and the fall of the Ukrainian State allowed the Makhnovshchina to shift its emphasis from military campaigns towards political concerns, transforming the movement "from a destructive peasant uprising to a social revolutionary movement ". In order to restart the construction of an anarchist-communist society,
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7224-453: The Ukrainian People's Army (UPA) and Volunteer Army . The delegation's propaganda efforts led to mass desertions from the UPA, which allowed the insurgents to capture a number of nationalist-held areas, including the cities of Kharkiv , Katerynoslav and Luhansk . Many of these cities were subsequently occupied by the Red Army , which established the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic as
7396-607: The Ukrainian Socialist-Revolutionary Party and the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries , alongside the anarchists. The rapid capture of territory by the Soviet Republic culminated on 8 February 1918, when the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv was captured by Mikhail Muravyov 's Red Guards . Just one day after the fall of Kyiv, the Central Council of Ukraine signed a peace treaty with the Central Powers , which invited
7568-508: The Ukrainian State . Under the rule of Pavlo Skoropadskyi , the new regime began returning land to the nobility and requisitioning grain from the peasantry, which fomented popular discontent that ignited the Ukrainian War of Independence . At a conference in Taganrog , anarchist insurgents regrouped and agreed to return to Huliaipole in July 1918, in order to carry out an insurrection against
7740-563: The Ukrainian alphabet , a variant of the Cyrillic script . The standard language is studied by the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and Potebnia Institute of Linguistics . Comparisons are often made between Ukrainian and Russian , another East Slavic language, yet there is more mutual intelligibility with Belarusian , and a closer lexical distance to West Slavic Polish and South Slavic Bulgarian . Ukrainian
7912-496: The Ukrainian language . Due in part to the diversity of the region's peasantry, the local Jewish population faced relatively little antisemitism , in comparison to the Jewish communities living in right-bank Ukraine . It was young Jews that eventually formed the nucleus of the nascent Ukrainian anarchist movement , which became a leading force during the 1905 Revolution in Ukraine. The town of Huliaipole saw strike actions and
8084-399: The law of Ukraine "On protecting the functioning of the Ukrainian language as the state language" was approved by the parliament, formalizing rules governing the usage of the language and introducing penalties for violations. The literary Ukrainian language, which was preceded by Old East Slavic literature, may be subdivided into two stages: during the 12th to 18th centuries what in Ukraine
8256-615: The workers' uprising in Petrograd , while the Oleksandrivsk Soviet still supported the Provisional Government . The nascent Makhnovist movement undertook the seizure of land from the pomeshchiks and kulaks in Huliaipole and redistributed it to the peasantry, aiming to abolish the concentration of land ownership . By the summer of 1917, the town's peasants had stopped paying rent and had brought
8428-535: The "highest form of democratic authority" within the political system of the Makhnovshchina . They brought together delegates from the region's peasantry, industrial workers and insurgent soldiers, which would discuss the issues at hand and take their decisions back with them to local popular assemblies . In the wake of the February Revolution , a series of provincial peasant congresses began to be held throughout Ukraine. In May and July 1917, Nestor Makhno
8600-425: The 11th–12th century, but started becoming more similar to them around the 13th–15th centuries. The modern Russian language hence developed from the fusion of this Novgorod dialect and the common dialect spoken by the other Kievan Rus', whereas the modern Ukrainian and Belarusian languages developed from dialects which did not differ from each other in a significant way. Ukrainian linguist Stepan Smal-Stotsky denies
8772-456: The 13th century, eastern parts of Rus (including Moscow) came under Tatar rule until their unification under the Tsardom of Muscovy , whereas the south-western areas (including Kyiv ) were incorporated into the Grand Duchy of Lithuania . For the following four centuries, the languages of the two regions evolved in relative isolation from each other. Direct written evidence of the existence of
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#17327723601668944-680: The 13th century, when German settlers were invited to Ukraine by the princes of the Kingdom of Ruthenia, German words began to appear in the language spoken in Ukraine. Their influence would continue under Poland not only through German colonists but also through the Yiddish-speaking Jews. Often such words involve trade or handicrafts. Examples of words of German or Yiddish origin spoken in Ukraine include dakh ("roof"), rura ("pipe"), rynok ("market"), kushnir ("furrier"), and majster ("master" or "craftsman"). In
9116-695: The 3rd Brigade. With the Bolsheviks attempting to further integrate the Makhnovshchina into the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic , the military alliance between the two factions continued to hold, in spite of the political divisions. It was in this context that the Military Revolutionary Council convened the Third Regional Congress of Peasants, Workers and Insurgents, to be held in Huliaipole on 10 April 1919. It brought together delegates from 72 districts, who together represented over 2 million people, to deal with
9288-506: The Bolsheviks and Makhnovists concluded an alliance that ended hostilities between the two and granted the anarchists some level of autonomy. One of the terms of the Political Pact was that anarchists and Makhnovists would be entitled to freely participation in elections to Soviets and run for election in the upcoming Fifth All-Ukrainian Congress of Soviets . The anarchist author Peter Arshinov would later insist that this term of
9460-491: The Bolsheviks turned against the Makhnovshchina on 26 November 1920. Many prominent Ukrainian anarchists were arrested and shot, while the Makhnovist capital of Huliaipole was itself captured by the Red Army. The Cheka also intensified the Red Terror in Ukraine, ordering the Southern Front to search and disarm peasants, and to shoot any that resisted. They also purged the district of any suspected Makhnovists, arresting
9632-529: The Chairman of the Congress. During the election of delegates, the Makhnovists prohibited official representation for political parties and refused to allow any electoral campaign beforehand, an issue that saw an intervention from members of the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries , who worried that " counter-revolutionaries " would end up being elected. On the Congressional agenda was the: First of all,
9804-435: The Congress called for a "voluntary" mobilization of young people into the Insurgent Army, where those aged 18–25 would be dispatched to the front and those aged 25–45 would undertake the self-defense of their local districts. Congress then decided that the Insurgent Army's provisions would be drawn from supplies captured in battle, requisitions from the wealthy and voluntary contributions from the peasantry. Congress also set up
9976-510: The Congress in outrage. The issue of "free soviets" was also opposed by the Bolshevik delegates in attendance, with one taking the opportunity to denounce Anarchy in its entirety. However, the Bolsheviks did not press the issue further and one of their party members was even elected to the Military Revolutionary Council. Makhno was later forced to clarify on his comments about the Menshevik and SR delegates, publishing an open letter in The Road to Freedom , in which he reiterated his opposition to
10148-423: The Congress to be " counter-revolutionary " and declared its organizers to be outlaws , threatening them with "the most rigorous repressive measures." The delegates sent back an indignant response, informing him for what purpose and under what power the Third Congress had been summoned. Assuming Dybenko to be ignorant of the context, the Congress pointed out that it had come about through a process set into motion by
10320-454: The Congress was to include: The Fourth Regional Congress was to be held in Huliaipole, on 15 June 1919, but it would not end up taking place. The All-Ukrainian Central Executive Committee passed a resolution against the convocation of the Fourth Congress, demanding that the Council of People's Commissars "take ruthless and resolute measures" to prevent the Congress from taking place. The Bolshevik politician Dmitry Lebed even claimed that
10492-431: The Cossack motherland, Ukrajina , as a self-appellation for the nation of Ukrainians, and Ukrajins'ka mova for the language. Many writers published works in the Romantic tradition of Europe demonstrating that Ukrainian was not merely a language of the village but suitable for literary pursuits. However, in the Russian Empire expressions of Ukrainian culture and especially language were repeatedly persecuted for fear that
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#173277236016610664-490: The Insurgent Army retreated into right-bank Ukraine then moved on north, passing through Poltava , Chernihiv and Belgorod , before returning to Katerynoslav in February 1921. Once again on their home turf, they aimed to spread the Makhnovshchina to new territories and to establish reliable insurgent bases throughout Ukraine. However, the Bolshevik government's implementation of the New Economic Policy resulted in many Ukrainian peasants losing their will to fight, leading to
10836-453: The Makhnovists convened a Regional Congress of Peasants, Workers and Insurgents , which would act as the supreme authority of the Makhnovshchina. The Congress declared its intention to create "a society without ruling landowners, without subordinate slaves, without rich or poor", and called on workers and peasants to begin building this society themselves, "without tyrannical decrees and orders, and in defiance of tyrants and oppressors throughout
11008-416: The Makhnovists resolved to form an alliance with the Bolsheviks in order to maintain "soviet power" in the region, although they explicitly ruled out a political alliance and held that their pact was an exclusively military endeavor. Now integrated into the Red Army, the Makhnovists secured and expanded their territory with the capture of Orikhiv , Polohy , Bakhmut , Berdiansk and Volnovakha . However,
11180-402: The Makhnovshchina had been pushed back as far as Uman , the last stronghold of the Ukrainian People's Republic . In order for their wounded to be tended to, the Makhnovists formed a temporary alliance with the Directorate , before turning back around and leading an attack against the General Command of the Armed Forces of South Russia . After the Battle of Peregonovka , the tide turned against
11352-442: The Makhnovshchina, allowing them to establish institutions of workers' self-management and self-government in south-eastern Ukraine, under a federative agreement with the Ukrainian SSR. But this clause was disputed by the Bolshevik delegation, who feared this would limit their access to the Ukrainian rail network and turn the Makhnovshchina into a "magnet for all dissidents and refugees from Bolshevik-held territory." The issue
11524-447: The Makhnovshchina, at a time when the Red Army had not yet arrived in Ukraine. The Delegates concluded their message by asking of Dybenko: "Can there exist laws made by a few people calling themselves revolutionaries, laws that enable them to outlaw en masse people who are more revolutionary than they are themselves?" The Congress vowed to continue its activities unabated, as it considered itself beholden to "the responsibility which
11696-471: The Makhnovshchina, killing a number of the Makhnovist general staff and forcing the insurgents to flee, which began a period of guerrilla warfare in the region. By June 1919, the autonomy of the Makhnovshchina had been suppressed by the successive Red Terror and White Terror . It was at this time that the White movement broke through the Soviet lines in Donbas , with the Kuban Cossacks under Andrei Shkuro leading an attack against Huliaipole, capturing
11868-437: The Makhnovshchina, rejecting the " dictatorship of the proletariat ", denying the legitimacy of the All-Ukrainian Congress of Soviets and calling for the liquidation of all Soviets controlled by the Bolshevik Party. This championing of " anti-state socialism " resulted in a swift reaction by the Bolsheviks, who banned the congress. Near the end of the Congressional session, a telegram arrived from Pavel Dybenko , who pronounced
12040-422: The Makhnovshchina. Composed largely of peasant partisans and generally supported by the wider peasantry, the RIAU was able to capture large amounts of territory throughout southern Ukraine . Within this area, the RIAU's Draft Declaration stated that its aim was to "serve and protect" the social revolution in Ukraine, but also that it would not impose its own ideals upon the Ukrainian people. Nominally overseen by
12212-427: The Nabat having moved its headquarters to Huliaipole, anarchist newspapers such as The Road to Freedom and the Makhnovist Voice quickly began circulating throughout the Makhnovist territory, widely publicizing anarchist ideas. The arrival of these "urban anarchist newcomers" accelerated the development of the Makhnovshchina's anarcho-communist character, which aimed to completely restructure Ukrainian society along
12384-798: The Old East Slavic vowel system into the system found in modern Ukrainian began approximately in the 12th/13th century (that is, still at the time of the Kievan Rus') with a lengthening and raising of the Old East Slavic mid vowels e and o when followed by a consonant and a weak yer vowel that would eventually disappear completely, for example Old East Slavic котъ /kɔtə/ > Ukrainian кіт /kit/ 'cat' (via transitional stages such as /koˑtə̆/, /kuˑt(ə̆)/, /kyˑt/ or similar) or Old East Slavic печь /pʲɛtʃʲə/ > Ukrainian піч /pitʃ/ 'oven' (via transitional stages such as /pʲeˑtʃʲə̆/, /pʲiˑtʃʲ/ or similar). This raising and other phonological developments of
12556-549: The Orthodox church spoke Ruthenian. The 1654 Pereiaslav Agreement between Cossack Hetmanate and Alexis of Russia divided Ukraine between the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Tsardom of Russia. During the following century, both monarchies became increasingly intolerant of Ukrainian own cultural and political aspirations. Ukrainians found themselves in a colonial situation. The Russian centre adopted
12728-520: The Polish anarchist Casimir Teslar, the scars of war ran deep throughout the region. He reported seeing abandoned trenches, demolished houses and a strong presence of insurgent detachments, detailing that even the local children were playing wargames based on recent events. After Semen Karetnyk 's detachment assisted in the siege of Perekop , which had forced the Army of Wrangel to evacuate from Crimea ,
12900-470: The Polish nobility. Many Ukrainian nobles learned the Polish language and converted to Catholicism during that period in order to maintain their lofty aristocratic position. Lower classes were less affected because literacy was common only in the upper class and clergy. The latter were also under significant Polish pressure after the Union with the Catholic Church . Most of the educational system
13072-542: The Principality or Kingdom of Ruthenia. Also according to Andrey Zaliznyak, the Novgorodian dialect differed significantly from that of other dialects of Kievan Rus during the 11th–12th century, but started becoming more similar to them around 13th–15th centuries. The modern Russian language hence developed from the fusion of this Novgorodian dialect and the common dialect spoken by the other Kievan Rus, whereas
13244-605: The Provisional Government's consent. On 8 October [ O.S. 25 September], the Huliaipole Congress of Soviets announced that it would be confiscating all land owned by the nobility and bringing it under common ownership , leading many landlords to flee the region. Attempts to bring the region back under the control of the Provisional Government met with resistance, both from the armed anarchist detachments led by Maria Nikiforova and from
13416-500: The Red Army. The term "Makhnovshchina" ( Ukrainian : Махновщина , romanized : Makhnovshchyna ) can be loosely translated as the "Makhno movement", referring to the mass movement of social revolutionaries that supported the anarchist Nestor Makhno and his Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine (RIAU). The area controlled by the RIAU also came to be known as "Makhnovia" ( Ukrainian : Махновія ; Russian : Махновия ),
13588-557: The Russian Minister of Agriculture , attempted to implement a comprehensive package of land reform in the province, but his efforts were blocked by the Provisional Government. However, the Kornilov affair had resulted in the Provisional Government losing its control over Katerynoslav and the Makhnovists becoming the dominant force in the region. They subsequently resolved to implement land reform directly, without waiting for
13760-620: The Russian Empire. According to the Imperial census's terminology, the Russian language ( Русскій ) was subdivided into Ukrainian (Малорусскій, ' Little Russian '), what is known as Russian today (Великорусскій, ' Great Russian '), and Belarusian (Бѣлорусскій, 'White Russian'). The following table shows the distribution of settlement by native language ( "по родному языку" ) in 1897 in Russian Empire governorates ( guberniyas ) that had more than 100,000 Ukrainian speakers. Although in
13932-460: The Soviet Union and a special term, "a language of inter-ethnic communication", was coined to denote its status. After the death of Stalin (1953), a general policy of relaxing the language policies of the past was implemented (1958 to 1963). The Khrushchev era which followed saw a policy of relatively lenient concessions to development of the languages at the local and republic level, though its results in Ukraine did not go nearly as far as those of
14104-519: The Soviet policy of Ukrainianization in the 1920s. Journals and encyclopedic publications advanced in the Ukrainian language during the Khrushchev era, as well as transfer of Crimea under Ukrainian SSR jurisdiction. Yet, the 1958 school reform that allowed parents to choose the language of primary instruction for their children, unpopular among the circles of the national intelligentsia in parts of
14276-476: The State in the place of the former big landowner." The implementation of war communism thus resulted in a resurgence of peasant revolts. Before the fall of 1920, over 1,000 Bolshevik victualers had been killed by the Ukrainian peasantry. The Makhnovists themselves began to wage a campaign of guerrilla warfare against the Bolsheviks, launching a series of attacks against small Red detachments and infrastructure. In
14448-551: The USSR, meant that non-Russian languages would slowly give way to Russian in light of the pressures of survival and advancement. The gains of the past, already largely reversed by the Stalin era, were offset by the liberal attitude towards the requirement to study the local languages (the requirement to study Russian remained). Parents were usually free to choose the language of study of their children (except in few areas where attending
14620-740: The Ukrainian State was overthrown by the Directorate and the Ukrainian People's Republic was reestablished, while the region of Pryazovia quickly fell under the control of the Makhnovshchina. On 27 November, the Makhnovshchina's capital of Huliaipole was definitively retaken by the insurgents, who reestablished the local Soviet and reorganized the town's trade unions . Before long the territory without official authority had expanded as far west as Katerynoslav , as far north as Pavlohrad , as far east as Yuzivka and as far south as
14792-564: The Ukrainian language dates to the late 16th century. By the 16th century, a peculiar official language formed: a mixture of the liturgical standardised language of Old Church Slavonic , Ruthenian and Polish . The influence of the latter gradually increased relative to the former two, as the nobility and rural large-landowning class, known as the szlachta , was largely Polish-speaking. Documents soon took on many Polish characteristics superimposed on Ruthenian phonetics. Polish–Lithuanian rule and education also involved significant exposure to
14964-477: The Ukrainian language held the formal position of the principal local language in the Ukrainian SSR . However, practice was often a different story: Ukrainian always had to compete with Russian, and the attitudes of the Soviet leadership towards Ukrainian varied from encouragement and tolerance to de facto banishment. Officially, there was no state language in the Soviet Union until the very end when it
15136-465: The Ukrainian language. Examples include torba (bag) and tyutyun (tobacco). Because of the substantial number of loanwords from Polish, German, Czech and Latin, early modern vernacular Ukrainian ( prosta mova , " simple speech ") had more lexical similarity with West Slavic languages than with Russian or Church Slavonic. By the mid-17th century, the linguistic divergence between the Ukrainian and Russian languages had become so significant that there
15308-409: The Ukrainian school might have required a long daily commute) and they often chose Russian, which reinforced the resulting Russification. In this sense, some analysts argue that it was not the "oppression" or "persecution", but rather the lack of protection against the expansion of Russian language that contributed to the relative decline of Ukrainian in the 1970s and 1980s. According to this view, it
15480-460: The VRS was to provide detailed reports of its activities and subjected itself to reorganization. When it came to the decisions of local soviets and assemblies , the VRS presented itself as a solely advisory board , with no power over the local bodies of self-government. The Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine (RIAU), commanded by Bat'ko Nestor Makhno , constituted the principal armed force of
15652-431: The Whites as the Makhnovists pushed them back into Katerynoslav , which was brought back under the control of the Makhnovshchina on 11 November 1919. The Makhnovist advance brought with it a second period of reconstruction, during which a system of libertarian socialism was once again implemented throughout the territory of the Makhnovshchina, with all enterprises being directly transferred to workers' control . Wherever
15824-564: The Whites at the Battle of Peregonovka . With the White advance defeated, the Makhnovists came to control most of southern and eastern Ukraine in late 1919, even taking over a number of large industrial cities, despite being a predominantly peasant movement. The Makhnovist control over the region was brought to an end when the Red Army invaded Ukraine in January 1920, initiating the Bolshevik–Makhnovist conflict . The Makhnovists waged
15996-485: The advance of the Red Army into Ukraine and the resumption of hostilities between the Bolsheviks and Makhnovists meant that such a Congress was unable to proceed. In the face of the Red Army invasion, in March 1920, the Insurgent Army called for peasants to convoke clandestine congresses, at both the district and regional levels, in order to discuss and act on the issues brought on by the renewed conflict. By October 1920,
16168-492: The anarchist "free battalion" and disarming them, before arresting leading anarcho-communists. The following day, a demonstration managed to secure the release of the arrested anarchists but were unable to organize any armed defense of the town, which was soon occupied by the Austro-Hungarian Army . Before the end of the month, the Ukrainian People's Republic was overthrown by the Central Powers and replaced with
16340-496: The anarchist movement ceased; anarchists were to be extended a number of civil liberties including freedom of speech , freedom of the press and freedom of association , excluding any anti-Soviet agitation ; and anarchists were to be allowed to freely participate in elections to the Soviets and the upcoming Fifth All-Ukrainian Congress of Soviets . A fourth clause of the political pact would have extended full autonomy to
16512-499: The anarchist movement in Huliaipole established a peasants' union, seized control of the town from the local provisional government and established a Soviet in its place, laying the foundations for the implementation of anarcho-communism . According to Michael Malet, Huliaipole "was moving leftwards at a faster pace than elsewhere", with the town successfully organizing a May Day demonstration and even declaring its support for
16684-473: The areas captured by the Bolsheviks, with residents of Katerynoslav reporting arbitrary political persecution and increased economic hardship. Regiments of the Red Army even began to commit robberies against the local population and carried out a number of antisemitic pogroms , as part of a rising wave of violence against Ukrainian Jews that was perpetrated by the Reds, Whites and nationalists alike. In comparison to
16856-543: The areas which they captured, they abolished war communism and redistributed requisitioned food back to the peasantry, forcing many Bolsheviks in the area back underground. Following a successful White offensive into Northern Taurida , the Makhnovists and Bolsheviks once again formed an alliance. The conditions of the Political Agreement between the two parties stated that: all anarchist political prisoners were to be released and political repression against
17028-409: The basic form of organization in the Makhnovshchina. These soviets acted independently from any Central Authority , excluding all political parties from participation, and met to self-manage the activities of workers and peasants through participatory democracy . The soviets acted as the local organs of self-governance and federated together up to the regional and national levels, resulting in
17200-543: The chair of the congress, proposed that they adopt the anarchist thesis of establishing "free soviets", outside of political party control, throughout the Makhnovist territory. This proposal was objected to by 11 delegates from the Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionary Party , who still desired the reestablishment of the Constituent Assembly and walked out of the congress. Further objections were made by
17372-407: The chancellery and gradually evolved into the Ruthenian language. Polish rule, which came later, was accompanied by a more assimilationist policy. By the 1569 Union of Lublin that formed the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, a significant part of Ukrainian territory was moved from Lithuanian rule to Polish administration, resulting in cultural Polonization and visible attempts to colonize Ukraine by
17544-562: The civil and military issues of the day. One of the resolutions that the Third Congress adopted was the free election of unit commanders within the Insurgent Army , while at the same time recommending that those with military expertise, such as veterans of World War I , be given preference for these positions. Other resolutions adopted by the Third Congress resulted in the endorsement of a specifically anarchist platform for
17716-491: The civilian VRS, the RIAU played a purely military role, with Makhno himself functioning as little more than a military strategist and advisor. According to the Soviet historian Mikhail Kubanin [ ru ] , "neither the overall command of the army nor Makhno himself truly ran the movement; they merely reflected the aspirations of the mass, acting as its ideological and technical agents." Civil liberties were first introduced to southern and eastern Ukraine following
17888-459: The conclusion of the Southern Front against the White movement , fighting once again broke out between the Makhnovists and Bolsheviks, causing this Congress to also be aborted. The Fifth All-Ukrainian Congress of Soviets, which anarchists and Makhnovists had been promised they could participate in, ended up ordering a state campaign against "banditry", dedicated to liquidating the Makhnovshchina. After her flight into exile, Halyna Kouzmenko wrote
18060-548: The convocation of the Fourth Congress was intended to separate the "libertarian republic of Makhnovia" from the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic . By this time, Leon Trotsky was already levying fierce criticisms against the Makhnovshchina and had declared himself unwilling to accept a Fourth Regional Congress being held. On 4 June, he issued Order No. 1824, in which he claimed the Congress to be "wholly directed against soviet power in Ukraine". He therefore ordered
18232-510: The dominant power in the region. Holovko discovered soon after the Congress that Viktor Bilash , without first communicating the decisision the First Regional Congress, had sent Oleksiy Chubenko to form an alliance with the Red Army. The First Congress concluded by appointing a five-member commission to convene the next Congressional session. The establishment of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic brought with it
18404-457: The entire revolutionary committee in Polohy and executing a number of its members for allegedly collaborating with the Makhnovists during the Ukrainian War of Independence in 1918. In the place of the liquidated free soviets , the Bolsheviks established committees of Poor Peasants to take over local administration of Ukrainian villages. Hoping to keep the Makhnovshchina safe from reprisals,
18576-407: The existence of a common Old East Slavic language at any time in the past. Similar points of view were shared by Yevhen Tymchenko , Vsevolod Hantsov , Olena Kurylo , Ivan Ohienko and others. According to this theory, the dialects of East Slavic tribes evolved gradually from the common Proto-Slavic language without any intermediate stages during the 6th through 9th centuries. The Ukrainian language
18748-437: The final day, the issue of "free soviets" was raised by Volin and Nestor Makhno , with Congress adopting a resolution that called for the immediate construction of "free soviets". This was opposed by delegates from the Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionary Party , who supported a Constituent Assembly , to which Makhno responded by denouncing them a "counter-revolutionaries", which led to 11 trade union delegates walking out of
18920-408: The implementation of Bolshevik rule in Ukraine was soon followed by repression . As the Bolsheviks favored the proletariat over the peasantry , on 13 April, the Ukrainian Soviet government implemented food requisitioning in order to supply its urban centers, shooting any peasants that resisted, which caused a resurgence of peasant revolts in Ukraine. The Cheka also carried out its Red Terror in
19092-525: The insurgents captured, the locals were invited to elect their own trade union delegates and Soviets , which would then convoke a regional congress that would form the decision-making body for the region. Regional workers' conferences were subsequently held in Oleksandrivsk between 27 October and 2 November, bringing together 180 peasant delegates, 20 worker delegates and 100 delegates from left-wing political organizations and insurgent units. Volin ,
19264-621: The issue of "free soviets" and whether or not they were compatible with a one-party state , with representatives from the Nabat and Left Socialist-Revolutionaries condemning Bolshevik moves to monopolize control over the Soviets. The delegate for Novopavlovsk, Ivan Chernoknizhny , gave a speech denouncing the Ukrainian Soviet government and single-party rule: "The Ukrainian provisional government stood by, first in Moscow and then in Kursk , until
19436-643: The land largely under the control of a land trust , which prevented landlords from selling off livestock or farming equipment. In August 1917, the Ukrainian Central Council and Russian Provisional Government reached an agreement on the position of the Russia–Ukraine border , which placed Katerynoslav within the territory of the Russian Republic , a decision which was rejected by the province's anarchist movement. Viktor Chernov ,
19608-417: The language of much of the literature was purely or heavily Old Church Slavonic . Some theorists see an early Ukrainian stage in language development here, calling it Old Ruthenian; others term this era Old East Slavic . Russian theorists tend to amalgamate Rus' to the modern nation of Russia, and call this linguistic era Old Russian. However, according to Russian linguist Andrey Zaliznyak (2012), people from
19780-442: The lines of " free soviets ". These soviets, independent of all political parties, began to be set up by industrial workers, with some even receiving financing from the Makhnovists in order to make up for lost wages, which hadn't been paid due to the conditions of war. The end goal of the free soviet system was to eventually convene an "all-Ukrainian labour congress", which would become the new central organ of an independent Ukraine, as
19952-560: The local populace, taking villagers hostage while their troops set about searching homes, killing the hostages if they found any unreported weaponry. Petro Grigorenko would later state that "there was no end of bloodshed", drawing attention to reports of one massacre in the Makhnovist town of Novospasivka , where the Cheka had "shot down one in every two able-bodied men". In what Alexandre Skirda described as an act of "outright genocide", an estimated 200,000 Ukrainian peasants were killed during
20124-462: The modern Ukrainian and Belarusian languages developed from the dialects which did not differ from each other in a significant way. After the fall of the Kingdom of Ruthenia, Ukrainians mainly fell under the rule of Lithuania and then Poland . Local autonomy of both rule and language was a marked feature of Lithuanian rule. In the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Old East Slavic became the language of
20296-469: The most cultured centres of Novorossiya ." The VRS also instituted adult educational programs and extended a number of civil liberties to the population, including freedom of speech , press and association , even allowing the Bolsheviks to agitate amongst the local populace. During this period, the peasants of the Makhnovshchina implemented a system of common ownership where "land belongs to no one, and only those who work it may use it." The largest of
20468-508: The name Little Russia for Ukraine and Little Russian for the language, an expression that originated in Byzantine Greek and may originally have meant "old, original, fundamental Russia", and had been in use since the 14th century. Ukrainian high culture went into a long period of steady decline. The Kyiv-Mohyla Academy was taken over by the Russian Empire. Most of the remaining Ukrainian schools also switched to Polish or Russian in
20640-463: The native language for the majority in the nation on the eve of Ukrainian independence, a significant share of ethnic Ukrainians were russified. In Donetsk there were no Ukrainian language schools and in Kyiv only a quarter of children went to Ukrainian language schools. The Russian language was the dominant vehicle, not just of government function, but of the media, commerce, and modernity itself. This
20812-417: The occupation forces. By the time they returned to Ukraine, the country was already in revolt against the Ukrainian State, with hundreds of thousands participating in armed uprisings and rail strikes, even in the face of harsh reprisals by the occupation forces. Peasant bands under various self-appointed otamans now attacked the occupation forces and eventually came to dominate the countryside; some defected to
20984-533: The pact was only made "as a precaution on the insurgents' part against a surprise attack from the Bolsheviks." With anarchists once again able to freely organize, an Anarchist General Congress was planned to take place at the end of November 1920 in the Ukrainian Soviet capital of Kharkiv . The Makhnovists also made plans for a Fifth Regional Congress of Peasants, Workers and Insurgents, scheduling it to be held at Oleksandrivsk in November 1920. However, following
21156-516: The peasant communes was one named after the Polish communist Rosa Luxemburg , which, in May 1919, counted 285 members and 125 hectares of land. While in the Ukrainian Soviet capital of Kharkiv , the insurgent commander Viktor Bilash met with the Nabat and requested they begin producing anarchist propaganda for the Makhnovshchina, securing the passage of numerous Russian anarchist intellectuals to Ukraine, including Peter Arshinov and Aron Baron . With
21328-403: The peasantry owned more than 10 hectares of land. The sovkhozes also collapsed, with the number of state-owned farms halving and their land area reducing to a third, over the course of 1920. Even the Soviet historian Mikhail Kubanin [ ru ] noted that to most of the Ukrainian peasantry: "the Soviet economy was a new and abhorrent form of rule [...] which in reality had merely set
21500-420: The peasantry's general shift towards left-wing politics . On 8 October [ O.S. 25 September] 1917, a regional congress was held in Huliaipole to pursue land reform , resulting in the confiscation of all privately held land and its transferral to public ownership . In December 1917, Makhno attended another Provincial Congress of Soviets in Katerynoslav, during which he successfully mediated
21672-448: The people had delegated onto its shoulders." With tensions between the Makhnovists and Bolsheviks beginning to reach a head, on 31 May 1919, the Military Revolutionary Council decided to convene an extraordinary Fourth Regional Congress of Peasants, Workers and Insurgents. It was to bring together delegates from 90 districts, across the provinces of Donetsk , Katerynoslav , Kharkiv , Kherson and Taurida . Each congressional delegate
21844-555: The political policies of the Bolshevik Party. Despite this, the Bolshevik leadership took the military pact as a formal recognition of the Ukrainian Soviet government, which set the groundwork for increased tensions between the two factions. Within days of the Congress ending, the Makhnovist insurgent detachments were inducted into the 1st Zadneprovsk Ukrainian Soviet Division , with Nestor Makhno himself assuming command over
22016-412: The political system of the Makhnovshchina. They brought together delegates from the region's peasantry, industrial workers and insurgent soldiers, which would discuss the issues at hand and take their decisions back with them to local popular assemblies . Four Congresses were held over the course of 1919, while one was banned by the Bolsheviks and another was unable to convene due to renewed conflict with
22188-425: The population said Ukrainian was their native language. Until the 1920s the urban population in Ukraine grew faster than the number of Ukrainian speakers. This implies that there was a (relative) decline in the use of Ukrainian language. For example, in Kyiv, the number of people stating that Ukrainian was their native language declined from 30.3% in 1874 to 16.6% in 1917. During the seven-decade-long Soviet era ,
22360-516: The present-day reflex is /ɣ/. Ahatanhel Krymsky and Aleksey Shakhmatov assumed the existence of the common spoken language of Eastern Slavs only in prehistoric times. According to their point of view, the diversification of the Old East Slavic language took place in the 8th or early 9th century. Russian linguist Andrey Zaliznyak stated that the Old Novgorod dialect differed significantly from that of other dialects of Kievan Rus' during
22532-462: The press and education in the Ukrainian language , and eventually declared the autonomy of the Ukrainian People's Republic . In concert with the emergence of the movement for Ukrainian nationalism , largely made up of social democrats and socialist revolutionaries , the Ukrainian anarchist movement also began to experience a revival, catalyzed by the return of Nestor Makhno from his imprisonment in Moscow . With Makhno as its leading figure,
22704-583: The press and freedom of association were all reintroduced. Ukrainian language Ukrainian ( українська мова , ukrainska mova , IPA: [ʊkrɐˈjinʲsʲkɐ ˈmɔʋɐ] ) is one of the East Slavic languages in the Indo-European languages family, and it is spoken primarily in Ukraine . It is the first (native) language of a large majority of Ukrainians . Written Ukrainian uses
22876-461: The price of land was raised in order to prevent poor peasants from buying it, they became actively hostile to the concentration of land ownership by the pomeshchiks and kulaks . Supported by their local governments , peasants resolved to found their own agricultural cooperatives and began trading their grain in a system of market socialism . This eventually led to the development of an agricultural industry in Katerynoslav, which produced almost
23048-589: The printing of Ukrainian texts accompanying musical scores. A period of leniency after 1905 was followed by another strict ban in 1914, which also affected Russian-occupied Galicia. For much of the 19th century the Austrian authorities demonstrated some preference for Polish culture, but the Ukrainians were relatively free to partake in their own cultural pursuits in Halychyna and Bukovina , where Ukrainian
23220-473: The prohibition of the Congress, deemed participation in it as amounting to high treason , and ordered the arrest and court martial of all congressional delegates. On 6 June, Trotsky specified that the punishment for participation in the banned congress was to be execution by firing squad . Before long, a number of peasants who were caught discussing the Congress had been brought before the 14th Army 's revolutionary tribunal and shot. Huliaipole itself faced
23392-508: The quarter whence it may come!" The Congress thus passed a resolution, in defiance of the Bolshevik government, which declared its intention to establish a regime of "freely elected, anti-authoritarian soviets". With its stated goal being to "defend land, truth and freedom", the Congress called on "their peasant and worker comrades to undertake by their own efforts to build a new, free society in their locale, without tyrannical decrees and orders, and in defiance of tyrants and oppressors throughout
23564-490: The ranks of the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries and the Maximalists . Chaired by the local peasant Holovko, the discussion was solely concerned with strengthening the frontlines against the Ukrainian nationalists and White movement. As a result, the Congress called up a voluntary mobilization of World War I veterans and appointed a delegation with the task of securing the release of conscripted peasants from service in
23736-467: The region around Huliaipole, where they regrouped and resolved to organise a pair of congresses. On 3 January 1919, Viktor Bilash convoked an insurgent congress at Polohy , during which forty delegates from the insurgent units resolved to reorganize their detachments and elected an operational command, with Bilash heading it as chief of staff . Meanwhile, the Makhnovists also began to organize another congress, one which would bring together delegates from
23908-413: The region's independence and establish the " Priazov - Donets Republic" or a "libertarian republic of Makhnovia". What became the territory of the Makhnovshchina was centered in the region of Zaporizhzhia , which had previously been inhabited by Cossacks before its conquest by the Russian Empire . Rechristened as the province of Katerynoslav , land largely came to be used for agriculture, leading to
24080-576: The region's peasantry, industrial workers and insurgents. With the Makhnovshchina caught between the advancing fronts of the Ukrainian nationalists in the north and the White movement in the south, it was decided to convene a General Congress to discuss and take action on the situation. On 23 January 1919, the First Congress of Peasants, Workers and Insurgents was held at Dibrivka . It brought together 100 delegates, each representing their own districts or insurgent units, most of whom came from
24252-440: The relatively horizontal organization of the soviets. However, the conditions of the war meant that the Soviet model could only be implemented at scale during "periods of relative peace and territorial stability", as the populace was largely concerned with securing food or staying safe from the advancing armies. The Regional Congress of Peasants, Workers and Insurgents represented the "highest form of democratic authority" within
24424-415: The rise of a landed nobility and a middle-peasant class known as the kulaks , many of whom were Black Sea Germans . The region's poor peasants attempted to resist Pyotr Stolypin 's agrarian reforms , which threatened to break up their traditional communes , but by the 20th century the region had been thoroughly integrated into the grain market and came to export nearly half of its wheat each year. As
24596-577: The rural regions of the Ukrainian provinces, 80% of the inhabitants said that Ukrainian was their native language in the Census of 1897 (for which the results are given above), in the urban regions only 32.5% of the population claimed Ukrainian as their native language. For example, in Odesa (then part of the Russian Empire), at the time the largest city in the territory of current Ukraine, only 5.6% of
24768-687: The sixteenth and first half of the 17th century, when Ukraine was part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, albeit in spite of being part of the PLC, not as a result. Among many schools established in that time, the Kyiv-Mohyla Collegium (the predecessor of the modern Kyiv-Mohyla Academy ), founded by the Orthodox Metropolitan Peter Mogila , was the most important. At that time languages were associated more with religions: Catholics spoke Polish, and members of
24940-435: The subsequent weeks, even more people were arrested and shot for supporting the Fourth Congress, including members of the Makhnovist general staff and a number of Huliaipole's peasants. Following the insurgent victory over the White movement , the Makhnovshchina experienced a rapid growth. The local populations of the insurgent-occupied territory were invited to elect their own delegates from trade unions and Soviets to
25112-429: The surrounding states, the Makhnovshchina "represented a relatively peaceful model", given the ethnically diverse makeup of the Makhnovists, who severely punished acts of antisemitism. The Bolsheviks' implementation of bureaucratic collectivism and their authoritarianism brought them into opposition with the Makhnovshchina, which still upheld soviet democracy and libertarian socialism . In May 1919, tensions between
25284-462: The term native language may not necessarily associate with the language they use more frequently. The overwhelming majority of ethnic Ukrainians consider the Ukrainian language native , including those who often speak Russian. According to the official 2001 census data, 92.3% of Kyiv region population responded "Ukrainian" to the native language ( ridna mova ) census question, compared with 88.4% in 1989, and 7.2% responded "Russian". In 2019,
25456-558: The territories controlled by these respective countries, which was followed by a new wave of Polonization and Russification of the native nobility. Gradually the official language of Ukrainian provinces under Poland was changed to Polish, while the upper classes in the Russian part of Ukraine used Russian. During the 19th century, a revival of Ukrainian self-identification manifested in the literary classes of both Russian-Empire Dnieper Ukraine and Austrian Galicia . The Brotherhood of Sts Cyril and Methodius in Kyiv applied an old word for
25628-532: The territory of present-day Ukraine. Russification saw the Ukrainian language banned as a subject from schools and as a language of instruction in the Russian Empire , and continued in various ways in the Soviet Union . Even so, the language continued to see use throughout the country, and remained particularly strong in Western Ukraine . Specific developments that led to a gradual change of
25800-492: The territory of the Makhnovshchina. But tensions between the two parties only increased with time, eventually resulting in the Makhnovists completely breaking from their Bolshevik commanders. When the Military Revolutionary Council called an extraordinary Regional Congress, it was considered to be an act of treason by the Bolshevik government, which ordered the Congress be prohibited and that any of its participants be executed by firing squad . The Bolsheviks subsequently attacked
25972-560: The time, such as the merger of the Old East Slavic vowel phonemes и /i/ and ы /ɨ/ into the specifically Ukrainian phoneme /ɪ ~ e/, spelled with и (in the 13th/14th centuries), and the fricativisation of the Old East Slavic consonant г /g/, probably first to /ɣ/ (in the 13th century), with /ɦ/ as a reflex in Modern Ukrainian, did not happen in Russian. Only the fricativisation of Old East Slavic г /g/ occurred in Belarusian, where
26144-402: The town from the Makhnovists. As the Red Army had also declared war against the Makhnovshchina, labelling Huliaipole as a "paradise on earth for cowards and good-for-nothings," the local insurgents were left without Bolshevik support and many peasants were forced to defend the town themselves, armed only with farming tools and a few rifles. The Cossacks massacred the peasant rebels and raped 800 of
26316-416: The town's women, before restoring the property rights of the former landowners, causing a mass exodus of the town's peasantry. The Makhnovists fled to right-bank Ukraine and linked up with Nykyfor Hryhoriv 's green army . But after revelations of the otaman having committed antisemitic pogroms, the Makhnovists assassinated Hryhoriv and began rebuilding their forces to take on the Whites. By September 1919,
26488-411: The two were exacerbated when Nykyfor Hryhoriv led an anti-Bolshevik uprising in right-bank Ukraine , during which his green army carried out a series of antisemitic pogroms and anti-communist purges. The Makhnovists decided to take up arms against Hryhoriv and maintain their alliance with the Bolsheviks, hoping that talks between the two parties would result in the official extension of autonomy to
26660-516: The use of Ukrainian. The educational system in Ukraine has been transformed over the first decade of independence from a system that is partly Ukrainian to one that is overwhelmingly so. The government has also mandated a progressively increased role for Ukrainian in the media and commerce. In the 2001 census , 67.5% of the country's population named Ukrainian as their native language (a 2.8% increase from 1989), while 29.6% named Russian (a 3.2% decrease). For many Ukrainians (of various ethnic origins),
26832-402: The workers and peasants of Ukraine had liberated the territory of enemies. [...] Now that the enemy is beaten [...] some government appears in our midst describing itself as Bolshevik and aiming to impose its party dictatorship upon us. Is that to be countenanced? [...] We are non-party insurgents, and we have revolted against all our oppressors; we will not countenance a new enslavement, no matter
27004-455: The world." Under the direction of the democratically elected Military Revolutionary Council (VRS), the Makhnovshchina began to establish a new system of education, redistributed land and set up a number of agricultural cooperatives . The Ukrainian Soviet Army commander Vladimir Antonov-Ovseenko reported that the Makhnovists had established a number of schools, hospitals and "children's communes", which had transformed Huliaipole into "one of
27176-530: The world: a society without ruling landowners, without subordinate slaves, without rich or poor." The Second Congress concluded with the election of a Military Revolutionary Council (VRS), which would act as the executive in the interim between Congressional sessions. It also established a supply section to distribute supplies throughout the front and called for a "general voluntary and egalitarian mobilization" of laborers and fighters, to respectively ensure that essential agricultural tasks continued and that
27348-535: Was a need for translators during negotiations for the Treaty of Pereyaslav , between Bohdan Khmelnytsky , head of the Zaporozhian Host , and the Russian state. By the 18th century, Ruthenian had diverged into regional variants, developing into the modern Belarusian , Rusyn , and Ukrainian languages. The accepted chronology of Ukrainian divides the language into Old Ukrainian, Middle Ukrainian, and Modern Ukrainian. Shevelov explains that much of this
27520-556: Was exiled for seven years to Arkhangelsk . The Ukrainian magazine Osnova was discontinued. In 1863, the tsarist interior minister Pyotr Valuyev proclaimed in his decree that "there never has been, is not, and never can be a separate Little Russian language". Although the name of Ukraine is known since 1187, it was not applied to the language until the mid-19th century. The linguonym Ukrainian language appears in Yakub Holovatsky 's book from 1849, listed there as
27692-448: Was formed by convergence of tribal dialects, mostly due to an intensive migration of the population within the territory of today's Ukraine in later historical periods. This point of view was also supported by George Shevelov 's phonological studies, which argue that specific features were already recognizable in the southern dialects of Old East Slavic (seen as ancestors to Ukrainian) as far back as these varieties can be documented. As
27864-407: Was gradually Polonized. In Ruthenia, the language of administrative documents gradually shifted towards Polish. Polish has had heavy influences on Ukrainian (particularly in Western Ukraine ). The southwestern Ukrainian dialects are transitional to Polish. As the Ukrainian language developed further, some borrowings from Tatar and Turkish occurred. Ukrainian culture and language flourished in
28036-431: Was held at Huliaipole . It brought together 245 delegates, representing 350 districts between them. With Nestor Makhno elected as the honorary chairman of the Congress, a delegation from the Soviet capital of Kharkiv gave its report on the negotiations with the Ukrainian Soviet government, declaring that the Bolsheviks "had no intention of opening hostilities against the Makhnovist movement." The Congress then debated
28208-644: Was himself a delegate to peasant congresses in Oleksandrivsk , where he became disillusioned with party politics, due to the dominance of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party and a tendency to discussion and debate, without taking action. In August 1917, Makhno attended the First Provincial Congress of Soviets and Peasant Unions, which was being held in Katerynoslav , but encountered similar problems, despite noting
28380-562: Was inevitable that successful careers required a good command of Russian, while knowledge of Ukrainian was not vital, so it was common for Ukrainian parents to send their children to Russian-language schools, even though Ukrainian-language schools were usually available. The number of students in Russian-language in Ukraine schools was constantly increasing, from 14 percent in 1939 to more than 30 percent in 1962. The Communist Party leader from 1963 to 1972, Petro Shelest , pursued
28552-490: Was lessened only slightly after 1985. The management of dissent by the local Ukrainian Communist Party was more fierce and thorough than in other parts of the Soviet Union. As a result, at the start of the Mikhail Gorbachev reforms perebudova and hlasnist’ (Ukrainian for perestroika and glasnost ), Ukraine under Shcherbytsky was slower to liberalize than Russia itself. Although Ukrainian still remained
28724-580: Was postponed indefinitely. But now that Ukrainian anarchists were once again free to operate, they quickly pushed the Russian Army out of Huliaipole and Makhnovshchina control was once again reestablished. Having once again regained control of their home territory, the Makhnovists drew up a program to reorganize the economy and society along anarchist lines. By mid-November, the free soviets were being reconstituted, libertarian schools were established and theater shows were put on daily. According to
28896-549: Was proclaimed in 1990 that Russian language was the all-Union state language and that the constituent republics had rights to declare additional state languages within their jurisdictions. Still it was implicitly understood in the hopes of minority nations that Ukrainian would be used in the Ukrainian SSR, Uzbek would be used in the Uzbek SSR , and so on. However, Russian was used as the lingua franca in all parts of
29068-400: Was substantially less the case for western Ukraine, which escaped the artificial famine , Great Purge , and most of Stalinism . And this region became the center of a hearty, if only partial, renaissance of the Ukrainian language during independence. Since 1991, Ukrainian has been the official state language in Ukraine, and the state administration implemented government policies to broaden
29240-531: Was to create a system of free soviets that would manage the transition towards a stateless and classless society . The Makhnovist movement first gained ground in the wake of the February Revolution , when it established a number of agricultural communes in Makhno's home town of Huliaipole . After siding with the Bolsheviks during the Ukrainian–Soviet War , the Makhnovists were driven underground by
29412-412: Was to represent 3,000 workers or peasants, with representatives also being drawn from each insurgent unit of the Red Army and others from the insurgent general staff, while also allowing pro-Soviet political parties to field one delegate for each of their district branches. Their summons declared that "only the working masses themselves can find a solution, and not parties or individuals." The agenda for
29584-547: Was widely used in education and official documents. The suppression by Russia hampered the literary development of the Ukrainian language in Dnipro Ukraine, but there was a constant exchange with Halychyna, and many works were published under Austria and smuggled to the east. By the time of the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the collapse of Austro-Hungary in 1918, Ukrainians were ready to openly develop
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