When the year was 1917, the Donetsk-Kryvyi Rih Soviet Republic was founded as a form of government. It was a kind of reaction to the constitution of the People's Republic of Ukraine (UNR), based on historical and ethnic criteria, in contrast to the criteria of internationalism or pan-Slavism. The latter indicates the absence of large ethnic differences between Russians and Ukrainians, as well as a single historical genesis.
The class question is more than relevant in this multinational region. Today, the territory remains multinational. The population considers themselves to be Russian-speaking or bilingual (Ukrainian and Russian).
Genesis
Initially, the teachings of Marx, with its controversial internal controversial questions, brought different positions on complex national problems. This topic has never been forgotten or ignored. It is worth recalling also the inclusion of a large Ukrainian anarcho-communist contingent (headed by Makhno) in revolutionary disagreements, in the case of which the question of changing the national state and social organization was also critically discussed.
Background
In fact, in revolutionary Ukraine there were two more communist parties that later merged. This is the Bolshevik party of Ukraine and the equivalent Marxist, but more nationalist communist party of Ukraine. At that time, Marxists were very different from each other and often conflicted. However, some authors have simplified the Marxist debate of the time, reducing the role of discursive pluralism.
Brief Proclamation History
The DKSR was not recognized by the Central Executive Committee (All-Russian Central Executive Committee) of the Party of Soviets or by any other country. Proclaimed in February 1918, it was registered in March as part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic with a certain degree of autonomy.
During World War I, German troops advanced into the region proclaimed a republic. An attempt was made to establish the borders of independent Ukraine under a German protectorate with the intention of creating a number of states on the territory subordinate to the old Imperial Russia.
With the capture of Kharkov by German troops, the capital of the republic was moved to Lugansk. In connection with these events, it was abolished.
Even after Germany left the war, the Bolsheviks decided to include the Donetsk-Kryvyi Rih Soviet Republic in the Ukrainian SSR, officially dismissing it in February 1919.
Proclamation history
On August 4, 1917, the Provisional Government of Russia, under the leadership of Kerensky, issued an Interim Instruction for the General Secretariat of the Provisional Government of Ukraine.
Despite the heated debate in the Malaya Rada, as well as in the Verkhovna Rada (parliament) of Ukraine, this document was nevertheless approved by the Provisional Government.
The Third Universal Declaration of November 7, 1917 established that the Kharkov province and the Yekaterinoslav region are unconditional and integral parts of the territory of Ukraine. Nevertheless, some territories controlled by the Communists refused to join Ukraine.
In 1917, the idea of the constitution and flag of the Donetsk-Krivorozhsky Soviet Republic was already ready. The reason for the emergence of the new state was rooted in the difference in the economic structure between “Ukraine from the left border” (Left Bank) and the rest of Ukraine (Krivoy Rog and Donbass basins). In the latter territories, an advisory referendum is needed to determine the degree of their integration with Ukraine.
Further development
In November 1917, the Bolsheviks from the south and east of Ukraine attended the All-Ukrainian Congress of Soviets to make decisions on the current problems of that time.
While the Territorial Congress of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) was held in Kiev and Kharkov, the delegates met separately in another party congress other than Kiev. Some historians conclude that this meeting aimed to implement in the near future a call to take into account the territories of Krivoy Rog, Donetsk and the south-west, but not for integration, but for the development of a common plan for agitation and struggle.
At the suggestion of Comrade Artyom, the plenary meeting decided to conduct Bolshevik agitation across the entire width of the Krivoy Rog-Donetsk Basin, united with Kharkov, and within the Russian Republic (as a single territory with an autonomous administration).
The idea of not joining the territory of the so-called Donetsk-Kryvyi Rih Soviet Republic to the Ukrainian People’s Republic follows from the resolution of the General Council, assembled in Kharkov on November 24, 1917. So, on November 29, the Bolshevik E. Luganovsky confirmed that the Kharkov province and the Donbass basin do not belong to Ukraine. He insisted that the accession of these regions to Ukraine is economically detrimental, as it will lead to the disintegration of the Donbass basin.
The emergence of the Ukrainian SSR
From December 11 to 12, 1917, the All-Ukrainian Congress of Soviets was held in Kharkov, which proclaimed the People's Republic of Ukraine (Soviet), establishing the People's Secretariat as the first Soviet government. Ukraine. A third of those elected to the People’s Secretariat were representatives of the Donetsk-Kryvyi Rih Soviet Republic, including Comrade Artem.
M. Skrypnik, the people's commissar for the work of the People's Secretariat of the Councils of Ukraine, objected to the construction of a separate Soviet republic. He said that the proclamation of the Donetsk-Kryvyi Rih Soviet Republic is a premature decision, the region needs autonomy, despite the fact that it was part of the Ukrainian Federation. These allegations were confirmed only by the Socialist Revolutionaries, in particular, Golubovsky. Fedor Sergeyev, better known as Artyom, accused M. Skrypnik of nationalism while the latter charged Artyom with a penchant for separatism. Artem emphasized that the mission of the Council of People’s Commissars of Donetsk and Krivoy Rog should implement the decrees of the Central People’s Committee of the Russian Republic and the Central Committee of Soviet Ukraine, as well as take part in the construction of the state of the Soviets in the entire South of Russia - these are Ukraine, Don, Kuban and Terik.
National disputes
Both F. Serguev and S. Vasilchenko understood that the Soviet Russian Republic should be a federation of economically homogeneous regions, and not national (ethnic) Soviet republics.
Although the Donetsk-Kryvyi Rih Soviet Republic did not comply with the Brest-Litovsk Treaty, which the Germans relied on during their intervention, and the constitution of then-Ukraine as an independent country, the DKR was legally defined as part of Ukraine. On the other hand, the Austro-German command did not think so, accepting as the borders of Ukraine what was spelled out in the Universal Declaration of the Central Ukrainian Rada.
Conflict with Ukraine
The DKSR Councils ignored the calls of the President of the Ukrainian People’s Secretariat, Mykola Skrypnik (appointed to this post on March 4, 1918) to unite all the armed forces of the republics of the Soviet Union.
Then it almost came to war. The DKSR did not recognize itself as a part of either the UNR or the Ukrainian SSR; therefore, their relationship did not develop. All this went on for quite some time by the standards of the time - the DKSR opposed unification with the Ukrainian SSR. However, the Bolsheviks believed that the peasant mass of Ukraine should be washed away by the proletarian mass of Donbass, which in general was much more loyal to Soviet power and communism. Therefore, the fate of the independent state of Donetsk and Krivoy Rog was a foregone conclusion.
The merger of all Soviet entities on the territory of Ukraine, proclaimed at the II All-Ukrainian Congress of Soviets, occurred despite the strong and active opposition of delegates from Krivoy Rog. Some of them were expelled from the party for publicly expressing their opposition (for example, V. Filov was called an "anti-party" member).
Conclusion
The separatist will of the Bolsheviks of Krivoy Rog-Donetsk contradicted the needs of state building. Such ideas about the division of the territory did not have much influence on the masses, they had limited distribution not only among the Bolsheviks, but also among the whole population.
Some historians, by contrast, argue that the DKSR had great support among the population, but had, as the main opponents, Ukrainian nationalists, Soviet Bolsheviks, and Russian White Guards. Whatever the case, in the end this state was integrated into the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. The creation of the Donetsk-Kryvyi Rih Soviet Republic did not end with anything.
As a result, the proletarian-mining Donbass became a reliable insurance, ensuring the connection of peasant Ukraine with the Soviet Union. This region later suffered from hunger strike, Stalinist repression and war (like all other regions of our country). In short, the proclamation of the Donetsk-Kryvyi Rih Soviet Republic was only a short episode in the long-suffering history of the Donbass.