Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic Research Articles

Celebration of 125th anniversary of birth of Taras Shevchenko by Academy of Sciences of Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic

Celebration of 125th anniversary of birth of Taras Shevchenko by Academy of Sciences of Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic

Kharkiv Modernism

In 2022, Docomomo International launched a call for papers on Modern Movement in Ukraine together with Docomomo Ukraine. More than 20 proposals were received, most of them from authors based in Ukraine itself—despite the difficult circumstances. The Docomomo Journal 67 presented a first selection of those articles to display regional and architectural particularities and current challenges of archiving, documenting, protecting, and preserving the modern heritage. Nearly 100 examples of Ukrainian modern buildings were presented in a graphical overview. The modern Ukranian architecture was dominated by Constructivism from the mid-1920s to the early 1930s, with Kharkiv as the epicenter of production, while Socialist Realism with the Stalin Empire emerged from 1932, lasting until 1955, with Kyiv as the capital of Ukraine. From December 1919 to January 1934, Kharkiv was the first capital of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic and the cultural, economic, and educational center of the new Ukrainian Republic. The status as new capital led to prestigious master plans and construction projects, among them the world-famous Derzhprom building at Freedom Square–as a symbol of Constructivism–or the Kharkiv Tractor Factory–as a symbol of the industrialization of agriculture. The leading role of Kharkiv as a forerunner and capital of Constructivism is often expressed by the famous State Industry House (Derzhprom) built from 1925 to 1928. Being the only modern ensemble in Ukraine nominated as UNESCO World Heritage, it became and still is the focus of identification and pride—despite the many controversial reflections and discussions about the conservation efforts and changes carried out since the original construction in the 1950s and after the year 2000. This explains the many articles dealing with Freedom Square and Dherzprom as a reaction to the call for papers in 2022 and also Docomomo International’s commitment to dedicate this special issue of the Docomomo Journal to Kharkiv under the title From Constructivism to Modernism in Kharkiv.

ПЕРСОНІФІКОВАНИЙ ПІДХІД ДО ВИВЧЕННЯ ПРОБЛЕМИ ОСВІТНЬО-ПЕДАГОГІЧНОГО ПРОГНОЗУВАННЯ В УКРАЇНСЬКІЙ СОЦІАЛІСТИЧНІЙ РАДЯНСЬКІЙ РЕСПУБЛІЦІ (1930 – 1940 рр.)

The article highlights a personalized approach to the study of the problem of educational and pedagogical prognostication in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic of the period 1930 – 1940. The author emphasizes that the analysis of the theory and practice of education and upbringing in the conditions of various socio-economic formations from the point of view of a personalized approach contributes to the deepening and expansion of the worldview, provides full information about important concepts and education systems of the past. In the context of the research problem, the author singles out the experience of the following educators S. Kh. Chavdarov, S. A. Lytvynov, P. P. Blonskyi, Ya. A. Mamontov, O. S. Zaluzhnyi, S. A. Ananin. S. Kh. Chavdarov developed the general questions of the methodology of teaching the Ukrainian language, the methodology of teaching phonetics and grammar, the teaching of spelling, punctuation, and the methodology of students' speech development in Ukrainian language lessons. The study of the theoretical heritage of the scientist-educator S. A. Lytvynov allows us to understand the past experience from the standpoint of modernity, to reveal its place in the general gradual process of development of domestic pedagogical science. The basic pedagogical principles of mass incomplete secondary education on the basis of polytechnicism and the connection of education with labour as factors of social development of the individual were formulated by P. P. Blonskyi. The educator Ya. A. Mamontov gave special importance to the problems of aesthetic education, the goal of which he believed was the development of a person's aesthetic perception of the world. Ukrainian educator, reflexologist, pedologist O. S. Zaluzhnyi mainly researched children's teams, issues of children's interests, school success, labour training in children's groups. Ukrainian educator and psychologist S. A. Ananin gave the main place to labour education, considering it an important factor in the country's economic development and an effective means of forming a person.

Wybrane przejawy sowietyzacji Ukraińskiej Socjalistycznej Republiki Radzieckiej na początku lat trzydziestych XX wieku w rozpoznaniu Oddziału II Sztabu Głównego Wojska Polskiego i władz politycznych II RP — część II

The aim of this article is to expand upon the considerations initiated in the first part of the article on the manifestations of the progressive sovietization of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in the early 1930s. The article addresses a thesis according to which the sovietization of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in the years in question prevented the implementation of Ukrainian national liberation slogans. It was also an unfavorable direction in the broader context of Poland’s security in regard to the policy pursued by Moscow as well as the proximity of the Second Polish Republic to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. The presented arguments have led to the conclusion that the sovietization of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in the early 1930s nullified the chance for implementing Ukrainian national liberation slogans. The policy pursued by the Soviet Union led to full integration of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in the structures of the Soviet state. The sovietization methods limited the right to self-determination of the Ukrainian people. The diversity of methods and spheres covered by the phenomenon of sovietization in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic was one of the most important determinants of the effectiveness of this process in the early 1930s.

Bishop Sofron Mudryi and the Ukrainian Department of Vatican Radio: Based on Interviews and Memoirs (1965-1994)

This article considers activities of Bishop Sophron the Wise in the Ukrainian department of Vatican Radio. His achievements and contribution to the development of the Ukrainian edition of Vatican Radio, the contribution of novelty to radio broadcasting, style, genre and the expansion of the time interval of radio broadcasts for Ukrainians in the diaspora and in ethnic lands. The role of "Vatican" radio in the formation and preservation of Ukrainian identity as a mouthpiece of the Christian world in the communist Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. The specifics of the broadcasting of the Ukrainian edition were considered.

Cultural and Educational Work in The Corrective Labor System of the Ukrainian SSR in 1926-1930

The paper highlights the state of cultural and educational work with prisoners and convicts in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR) in the 1926-1930s based on the analysis of archival and contemporary normative-legal documents. Previously unknown interesting and important facts on the researched topic have been introduced into scientific circulation. The author arrived at the following conclusions: 1. Cultural and educational work by the Soviet authorities was considered through the prism of ideological work as a secondary means after compulsory labor, together forming the basis of the regime in corrective labor institutions. 2. There existed both school and extracurricular cultural and educational as well as professional-production work, implemented in general education and vocational schools. 3. School attendance was mandatory for all illiterate and poorly literate prisoners up to the age of 50. 4. As of the beginning in November 1928, approximately 40,000 individuals were held in corrective labor institutions of the Ukrainian SSR, of which 26,000 were peasants (65% of all prisoners). 5. In 1926/1927, illiteracy and low literacy were eliminated through school work in 14,796 individuals, 17 corrective labor institutions were equipped with cinemas, 24 had radios, and the library stock of corrective labor institutions amounted to 55,504 books. Wall newspapers were published almost everywhere, as well as the newspaper "Away with Crime." 6. In 1928, as part of accelerated industrialization and mass exploitation of labor, it was legislatively allowed to use the labor of convicts in many cases free of charge or for symbolic payment in many administrative positions in corrective labor institutions (in fact, this had been done much earlier). 7. The theoretical education of prisoners in vocational schools of a production nature lasted 3-6 months in the evening, but not more than 3 hours per day (72 hours per month). Practical training took place directly in workshops for a total of 2 working hours according to the course program. Each group should have no more than 35 individuals. 8. The typical curriculum of vocational courses of a production nature for workshops of corrective labor institutions was designed for 3 months (144 educational hours) and included the study of 5 disciplines: social studies, Ukrainian language, arithmetic, graphical literacy, and materials technology and tool science. 9. Distance learning and self-education of prisoners were encouraged, with prisoners forming study groups where they independently carried out the corresponding work, using only the services of a consultant. Distance learning was paid. The authorities made efforts to diversify sources of funding and reduce the cost of education. 10. In practice, funding for cultural and educational work was carried out on a "residual" basis with a tendency to decrease, corresponding to the general punitive-repressive policy of the Soviet authorities towards prisoners. For example, in the agricultural corrective labor institution of the Kharkiv Unified Agricultural-Industrial State Farm as of October 1, 1927, expenses for cultural and educational needs of prisoners accounted for 5%, whereas as of October 1, 1928, only 0.6%. 11. The annual cost of maintaining 1 prisoner in the House of Forced Public Works in 1928/1929 amounted to almost 65 krb., which was not so cheap considering the conditions of the food crisis and famine of 1928-1929.

Akcja H-T 1951 r. Zarys problematyki

In 1951, the communist governments of Poland and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics concluded an agreement to exchange some territories. Poland transferred lands located in the Hrubieszów and Tomaszów counties in the Lublin Voivodeship in the upper Bug basin (the so-called Grzęda Sokalska). The USSR gave up the area in the Bieszczady Mountains east of the upper reaches of the San River, including the town of Ustrzyki Dolne. The mentioned areas were part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. Areas of 480 km2 for each side were exchanged. Poland and the USRS had to evict their citizens from the ceded areas and take away their movable property. Soviet Ukraine resettled 32,066 people. Poland over 14 thousand its citizens. Both sides had to provide care and state assistance to the displaced population. However, the grief for the lost „small homelands” remained among Poles and Ukrainians. Only a few managed to return to their hometowns in the Bieszczady Mountains after 1957, including: to Łobozewo, Teleśnica Oszwarowa and Polana. The return involved a change of citizenship. The exchange of some territories is sometimes referred to as “Action H-T”, from the first letters of the names of the Hrubieszów and Tomaszów counties from which Polish citizens were expelled. In turn, the term “Action-51” appears in Ukrainian literature. The border change made in 1951 was the largest in the post-war history of Poland.

Reader`s face of the special fonds of the Central scientific library of the Academy of sciences of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic of the late 1960s and 1970s

Reader`s face of the special fonds of the Central scientific library of the Academy of sciences of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic of the late 1960s and 1970s

Историческая память и современность: Башкортостан и Донбасс в годы Великой Отечественной войны

This article turns to the relationship between the Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (ASSR) and the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR) to demonstrate the solidarity of Soviet peoples and regions during the Great Patriotic War. This period was a gruelling test of strength and unity for the fraternal peoples of the USSR. Special attention in the study is given to the role of the workers of the Bashkir ASSR in the restoration of the national economy of the Donbass, liberated from the Fascist occupation. Little-studied archival documents are introduced here, covering the extent of the aid, including social assistance, provided by the people of the Bashkir ASSR to the affected territories (machinery and building materials, industrial equipment, livestock, food and consumer goods). It is noted that during the harsh war years, the best qualities of Soviet peoples were drawn forth, which have enduring significance and stay relevant today: solidarity, cooperation and selfless mutual aid, which made an important contribution to the victory. In addition, it is argued that the aid to the liberated regions strengthened the economic and political unity of Soviet society and laid the foundations for the country’s successful post-war reconstruction. The research is based on documents from the National Archives of the Republic of Bashkortostan, which keeps an extensive body of invaluable sources on the history of the relationship between the peoples during the Great Patriotic War (materials on the evacuation of factories and scientific and cultural institutions as well as the population of the Ukrainian SSR, on launching the evacuated industrial plants in the Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, on the cooperation between Ukrainian and Bashkir scientists, writers and cultural figures, as well as on the aid of Bashkir workers to the liberated territories of the Ukrainian SSR).

ОСОБЛИВОСТІ ГРОМАДСЬКИХ ПОВІДОМЛЕНЬ У КДБ УРСР ПЕРШОЇ ПОЛОВИНИ 80-Х РР. ХХ СТ.

The following scholarly exposition aims to comprehensively elucidate and provide a thorough examination of the numerical abundance, multifarious content, and unique defining characteristics that are intrinsic to both the reports authored by individuals and the anonymized submissions forwarded by the citizens of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) to the state security authorities. Moreover, it seeks to delve into the intricate web of legal consequences that invariably followed such submissions. This empirical exploration is underpinned by a meticulous factographic approach, which is grounded in the scrupulous analysis and systematic processing of hitherto undisclosed and highly consequential archival materials originating from the State Security Committee (KGB) of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. These archival materials came into the possession of this academic undertaking during the inaugural half of the 1980s, a temporal epoch, herein referred to as the "Andropov" era, which is distinguished by its relatively uncharted and ephemeral nature. This "Andropov" era stands as a critical precursor to the advent of the "perebydova" era, which constitutes the ultimate and culminating phase in the intricate and protracted narrative of the Soviet Union's organic disintegration.

СОЦІАЛЬНО-ЕКОНОМІЧНЕ СТАНОВИЩЕ ЖИТЕЛІВ ВОЛИНСЬКОЇ ОБЛАСТІ УРСР НА ЗЛАМІ 80–90-Х РР. ХХ СТ.

The examination of Soviet statistical materials has revealed an intriguing and significant revelation regarding the Volhynia region, which was located within the boundaries of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (Ukrainian SSR). This revelation points to the Volhynia region's rather prominent standing, often attributed to it as securing the “second place”, when considering a provisional rating of production potentials among the seven regions that comprised the Western Ukrainian region. It is crucial to underscore that the Volhynia region was second only to the Lviv region in this assessment, which lends importance to our inquiry. The primary objective of this scholarly article is to provide an in-depth understanding of the root causes, the intricate course, and the far-reaching consequences associated with the rapid deepening of various crisis-related phenomena within the economic complex of the Volhynia region. This phenomenon was particularly salient during a timeframe that is commonly pinpointed at the juncture of the 1980s and 1990s. This historical epoch witnessed significant transformations, both within the Soviet Union and on the global stage. One of the central focal points of this study revolves around the examination of the natural progression of the collapse of the Russian-Soviet planned economy. This process of disintegration is illuminated as a logical consequence of the comprehensive nationalization of economic structures within the Soviet Union. This nationalization represented a distinctive feature of the Soviet economic system, and its impact on the Volhynia region and the Ukrainian SSR more broadly merits a meticulous analysis. This feature, while offering certain advantages, notably in terms of equal distribution and access to resources, carried inherent limitations that manifested in the form of a persistently low material standard of living experienced by the citizens of the USSR. In particular, the late 20th century changes, marked by “perebudova” or restructuring policies, witnessed the intensification of socio-economic challenges within the Volhynia region and the broader context of the Soviet Union. This restructuring sought to introduce elements of market-oriented reforms, but it was faced with several hurdles and limitations that ultimately impacted the region's socio-economic landscape. This academic endeavor aspires to provide a multifaceted understanding of the complex interplay of factors, events, and policies that converged to shape the trajectory of the Volhynia region within the larger framework of the Ukrainian SSR during this critical juncture in history. The findings of this study hold relevance not only for historians and economists but also for those interested in the socio-economic evolution of regions within planned economies and the intricacies of managing such extensive nationalized systems.

Pedagogical Discourse on the Reform of General Secondary Education in Soviet Ukraine through the Prism of Child Protection in the 1920s: the Struggle against Unification

The article reveals the leading ideas of Ukrainian teachers and civil leaders (V. Arnautov, Ya. Chepiha, T. Harbuz, H. Ivanytsia, Ya. Riappo, M. Skrypnyk, O. Zaluzhnyi, etc.) on reforming school education for the sake of development and protection of a child in the Ukrainian Socialist Soviet Republic (USSR) in the 1920s. It has been proven that after the defeat of the Ukrainian Revolution (1917–1921) and the capture of the territory of Ukraine by the Bolsheviks, the pedagogical discourse focused on the idea of creating a new labour school. It should be based on the following principles: labour, active, social education to protect the child, communist, the principle of Ukrainization and at the same time the imposition of Russification, etc. Ukrainian educators, looking for active methods of teaching children in a labour school, turned mainly to European and world pedagogical science (A. Binet, J. Dewey, F. Freeman, G. Kerschensteiner, E. Meumann, P. Natorp, F. Seidel, Ch. Spearman, W. Stern, L. Terman, E. Thorndike etc.). Pedagogical discourse was aimed at opposing the unification of school education according to the Russian model. The policy of Ukrainization was effective, so the all-Union authorities intensified ideological pressure, seeking to curtail this process. The struggle for the Ukrainian school ended tragically for Ukrainian teachers. This eloquently testifies to how the Soviet ideology during the reform used the ideas of social protection of the child, Ukrainization of the educational process to establish its own ideological and socio-political goals of the totalitarian society.

Human Losses of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in the Great Patriotic War

Human Losses of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in the Great Patriotic War

Сравнительный анализ политики украинизации в 1920–1930-е годы на территории юго-восточных округов УССР и Кубанского округа Северо-Кавказского края РСФСР

The nationality policy that was implemented in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR) in the 1920s and 1930s led to major changes in the field of culture and education. However, this policy had not always been successful in the Ukrainian SSR and some other regions of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR), e.g. in the south-eastern areas of the Ukrainian SSR and in the Kuban Area of the North Caucasus Territory of the RSFSR. In this regard, the purpose of thе article was to perform a comparative analysis of the content, directions and results of the policy of Ukrainization in the south-eastern areas of the Ukrainian SSR and in the Kuban Area of the North Caucasus Territory. In the course of the research, the author studied the historiography of Ukrainization in general: articles, monographs of modern Russian and Ukrainian scholars, as well as the periodical press published in the Ukrainian SSR between 1925 and 1933. Based on the data obtained, the author concludes that, in spite of the rapid and successful Ukrainization in these regions, it was implemented through administrative pressure, which formed a negative attitude towards this kind of ethno-cultural transformations on the ground, in particular, in some south-eastern areas of the Ukrainian SSR and in the Kuban Area of the North Caucasus Territory of the RSFSR, whose population differed significantly from the Ukrainian ethnic group in terms of language and self-consciousness. In the Kuban Area, neither the local population nor local authorities were interested in this policy, which slowed the process of Ukrainization and made the mechanisms for its implementation rather ineffective, even compared to the south-east of the Ukrainian SSR. As a result, the population in the south of the RSFSR became part of the Russian nation.

Ideological aspects of the educational process in schools of the Ukrainian SSR in the conditions of liberalization 1985-1991

The need for a complete cleansing of Ukraine's socio-cultural space from Soviet ideological narratives today highlights the necessity to analyse key ideological concepts that were instilled in the younger generation through the system of general secondary education of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. The purpose of the article is to analyse the ideological aspects of filling the educational process in schools of the Ukrainian SSR in the conditions of liberalization in 1985-1991, the search for an educational paradigm in the process of school reform. The research methodology is based on the principles of historicism, scientificity, objectivity; analytical, descriptive methods, as well as the method of systematization and critical analysis were applied in the work. The article analyses the peculiarities of the ideological content filling of the educational process in schools of the Ukrainian SSR and the features of Soviet ideological education in the conditions of the proclaimed course of “perestroika” in 1985-1991, the search for an educational paradigm in the process of school reform. The ideological and educational strategy of the initial process, the main ideological narratives of the content filling of educational subjects, which were supposed to form “Soviet” patriotism and political consciousness of Soviet citizens, are analysed. It is established that an exclusive role in the educational process was assigned to the political education of teachers, and the unity of views in strategically important directions for the communist regime was ensured by censorship, which controlled the publication of educational and other literature. It is noted that the democratization of socio-political life, which intensified after the XXVII Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and the liberalization of the educational sphere became irreversible. Progressive teachers introduced new methods into school education, sought means of updating the educational process, experimented with new materials in the lessons of periodical publications. The special demand and need for updating were caused by disciplines of the Ukrainian studies cycle, and the most relevant in the educational environment became historical themes and previously banned topics of Ukraine's national life. The materials of this article can be practically applied for further research of the history of general education schools of the Soviet Ukraine in the complex period of socio-political and socio-cultural transformations of the “perestroika” era

Waste for the Soviet Economy: Recycling of Rags in Ukraine in the 1920s

This article, based on previously unexplored archival documents, examines the recycling of rags in the early Soviet Union, using the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR) as a case study. Within the context of the early Soviet waste regime, the characteristics of the Ukrainian rag market, its key participants, the challenges they encountered, and the strategies they devised in a republic with limited textile waste are investigated. The article asserts that in the Ukrainian SSR during the 1920s, the paper industry emerged as the primary consumer of rags. Consequently, the secondary utilization of rags in this sector should be regarded as the authorities’ endeavor to extensively utilize substitutes in light of the limited reserves of cellulose and timber in the republic. Rags were also an important export resource, driven more by ideological reasons than purely economic ones. The article demonstrates the specificities of waste management policies during the New Economic Policy period, characterized by the authorities’ directive methods of regulating the market, attributable to the strategic significance of this type of raw material for Soviet enterprises. It contends that the transition to a centralized waste collection model in the early 1930s was a natural outcome of the implementation of the planned economy. However, intense competition for various waste materials, particularly rags, contributed to this transition.

Constitutional basic of state sovereignty of the USSR in 1922–1935: formal and legal aspect

In the proposed article, the author attempts to prove that the legal basis of the Union of the SSR was a treaty concluded and ratified by the allied states, which retained their sovereignty and status as a subject of international law. The Treaty on the Formation of the USSR was included in the second chapter «Treaty on the Formation of the USSR» of the first Union Constitution of 1924. In accordance with the provisions of the Treaty, the USSR entered the Union of the SSR as a sovereign contracting state and retained the right to freely leave the Union. Formally (de jure) subjectivity of the sovereignty of the USSR was enshrined in Art. 1, 5, 6, 7 and 22 of the Constitution of the USSR of 1919, in Art. 3 – 7 of the Constitution of the USSR of 1924, in Art. 6 of the Constitution of the USSR as amended in 1925, in Art. 3 of the Constitution of the USSR of 1929. According to the concept of state sovereignty of the Danish political scientists H. Holm and H. Sorensen, the state sovereignty of the USSR as part of the USSR in 1924–1935 can be defined as negative – the kind that manifests itself in its legal and formal aspects, which assume that the state formal recognized by other states within the framework of international law and at the same time has a certain share of the ability to rule on its territory. Sovereignty in this aspect is negative because the lack of formal recognition of the state by other states would mean the absence of the very fact of sovereignty in this political and legal entity. Key words: Ukraine, history of law, sovereignty, sovereign rights of the state, legal construction of sovereignty, Ukrainian Socialist Soviet Republic, constitutional basic of state sovereignty of the USSR.

Wybrane przejawy sowietyzacji Ukraińskiej Socjalistycznej Republiki Radzieckiej na początku lat trzydziestych XX wieku w rozpoznaniu Oddziału II Sztabu Głównego Wojska Polskiego i władz politycznych II RP — część I

The aim of this article is to present selected facts and tendencies proving the increasing sovietization of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in the early 1930s. The analysis is based on archival material collected in the Józef Piłsudski Institute of America and current scientific literature. A thesis was put forward that the sovietization phenomenon of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic appeared in various forms and proved harmful to the implementation of Ukrainian national slogans in the early 1930s. The presented arguments allow to conclude that at the turn of the 1920s and the 1930s sovietization replaced the earlier policy of Ukrainization in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. The sovietization tendencies were reflected in economic reforms (especially in agriculture and industry), political and administrative transformation, or changes in the spirit of socialist society. The sovietization of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, as an important postulate implemented by the communist authorities, was one of the forms of opposition to nationalist slogans that indicated the need for reconstruction of Ukraine independent of the Soviet Union.

Scientific and legal principles of determining the territorial boundaries of cathedral Ukraine in the light of revolutionary practice (1917–1920)

Formulation of the problem. Recently, issues related to the history of the implementation of the idea of Ukrainian unity have become extremely acute in ideological life. Along with statements about the absence of the phenomenon of the Ukrainian nation, denials of the fact of the existence of a full-fledged statehood of Ukraine, Russian politicians and some scientists are promoting misleading statements that the current Ukraine was the result of unfortunate mistakes of the leaders of the previous stages of social development, turned out to be a conglomerate of artificially "glued together" in the information space. a territory with an ethnically heterogeneous,or even simply predominantly non-Ukrainian, population. The purpose of the article is to highlight the chronologically first attempt at scientific and practical-political determination of the natural boundaries of territories with the predominance of the Ukrainian ethnographic element as an objective, fair, convincing criterion for their regular composition into a single national-state space. Using the methods of scientific objectivity, concrete-historical and analytical comparative research, the processes of ideological-theoretical and legal substantiation of the concepts of achieving Ukrainian unity in the times of the Ukrainian People's Republic, the times of the Central Council and the Directory, the Hetman's Ukrainian State and the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (1917-1920) are reproduced yr.). On the basis of the available documents and real facts, the picture of the implementation of interconnected concepts of the Ukrainian national-democratic revolution and the unification of the branches of Ukrainianism, which had been dispersed until then, is being reconstructed. A convincing conclusion is made that the observance of clear, principled guidelines for the ethnographic principle, as an unshakable legal basis for the formation of an independent cathedral state, brought undeniable practical results, while neglecting this principle, replacing it with other,mostly opportunistic approaches, ended without results. Key words: Ukrainian revolution, national unity, ethnographic principle, national territorial autonomy, independence, regionalism, separatism, Act of Zluka.

Operational Groups of the NKGB and a Reconstruction of the Soviet Security Apparatus in Axis Occupied Ukraine, 1943–44

This article elucidates the reconstruction of the Soviet security apparatus during World War II in what today is western Ukraine. In late 1943 to early 1944, six operational groups of the People’s Commissariat of State Security of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic headed to the Axis occupied territories with orders to re-establish contacts with Soviet secret agents and create a support infrastructure for the deployment of other operational groups, special purposes units, and individual agents, as well as to infiltrate organizations of Polish and Ukrainian nationalists. The essay examines Soviet special operations within the context of state efforts to project power into the Axis occupied territories. It sheds light on the objectives of Soviet security agencies and on the activities of individual units in the field.