SOURCES FOR RESEARCHING POLITICAL TERROR IN ODESA HUBERNIA IN 1920-1922 (MAIN ASPECTS)

Abstract

Until 2005, the protocols of the meetings of the Odesa Provincial Commission Extraordinary Committee were kept in the archive unit of the Office of the Security Service of Ukraine in Odesa oblast as "completely secret" and were not issued to researchers. In 2005, these documents were transferred to the Branch State Archive of the SBU. The archival and investigative cases, which are in temporary storage in the archival unit of the Ukrainian Security Service in Odessa Oblast, belong to two funds: "Main" and "Suspended".There are no descriptions of these funds, so the exact number of cases that they contain is unknown. Until 2015, the cases of the "Main" fund have not been available to researchers; access to the "Suspended" fund cases was limited and complicated. The main thesis of the article is that without the study of these archival materials, a comprehensive analysis of political terror is impossible.Of particular importance are the minutes of the meetings of the OHNK Board, which cover the period from February 28, 1920 to March 25, 1922.They include four main categories: "Present", "Reviewed", "Resolved" and "Marked as completed". The list of the present persons included the head of the OHNK, the secretary and members of the OHNK board. In the category "Reviewed", the full name, patronymic of the person, and their age were indicated.The obligatory attribute of this part of the protocol was the indication of what the particular person or group of individuals were accused of. The category "Resolved" contained the surname and initials of the person with their sentence. The last category, “Marked as completed” contained information on the implementation of the board decision.The basis of the sources are archival and investigative cases of the "Main" and "Suspended" funds, which include materials that were mandatory to be included in each case and variable materials. Almost without exception, each case has an arrest warrant. The ruling contained the charges against the arrested person. On the day of the decision statement, a questionnaire was filled in which were indicated the name, surname and patronymic, citizenship, nationality, place of residence, age or birth year, education, family composition, party affiliation, profession and membership in the trade union with indication of the number ticket, place of work, property status, when and by whom was arrested and the warrant number, place of arrest, when and by whom was questioned, whether the charges were brought, the place of residence before arrest, etc. As a rule, all archival and investigative cases contain protocols of interrogations of arrested persons and witnesses, sometimes confrontations.Of particular importance are personal archival and investigative cases, which were grouped into two group cases No. 14759-p and No. 27120-p, which show the consequences of the terror against the members of the "Polish military organization". And the cases 12006-p and 5522-p show how terror affected the members of the Odessa Committee of the RSDLP (m).The archival materials of the former punitive bodies of the communist regime form the basis of the study of political terror in 1920–1922, since they provide the opportunity to establish the surnames, names and patronymics of persons against whom the decisions were taken regarding capital punishment, imprisonment in concentration camps for varying periods, and other penalties and determine the total number of such persons. In addition, archival and investigative cases reveal the tragic fate of a each particular person and, at the same time, the tragedy of the entire Ukrainian people who find themselves in unnatural conditions of sociopolitical and economic existence.