Disputes about “Little Russians” and “Little Russia” in Soviet Ukraine in the mid-1920s

Abstract

The article is devoted to the analysis of the semantics of the concept of maloross “Little Russian” and its derivatives in the Ukrainian SSR in the interwar period. The Bolsheviks did not use this term in the official speech and replaced it with the ethnonym “Ukrainian.” However, the concept of “Little Russian” did not completely disappear from the public lexicon. During the internal Party discussions about the politics of the Soviet Ukrainization in the mid-1920s, the words “Little Russian” and “Little Russia” were used by supporters of active Ukrainization. The pamphlets of Mykola Khvylovy and the speeches of Olexandr Shums’kyi received great resonance. They defended the expansion of Ukraine’s rights within the Soviet state and claimed greater independence of the republic in national and cultural issues. For them, the concepts of “Little Russian” and “Little Russia” were synonymous with provincialism and second-class. Khvylovy spoke about the prospects for the development of the Ukrainian Soviet culture. He criticized the legacy of the Russification policy of the Tsarist government — malorossijščina “Little Russianness,” imitation and illiteracy. Shums’kyi believed that the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Ukraine “should become Ukrainian in language and culture.” He criticized the “Little Russians,” who were “indifferent to everything Ukrainian.” Other members of the Central Committee of the CP(b)U criticized the opinion of Khvylovy and Shums’kyi. They spoke of the need to take into account the interests and sentiments of representatives of all ethnic groups inhabiting Soviet Ukraine.