The Bolshevik Nationalism Approach and the Ukraine

Soviet Politics and the Ukraine BY ROBERT S. SULLIVANT Columbia University Press NEW YORK -4ND LONDON To My Mother and Father COPYRIGHT @ 1962 COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS Library of Congress Catalogue Number: 62-10155 Printed in the United States of America PREFACE This book is an effort to place in some perspective the rather uncertain problem posed by the Soviet system as it functions at the regional level. There is little need to justify a regional study of this kind. Despite its modest dramatic impact when contrasted with political studies at the Union level, it offers compensations of its own. Because of the centralized nature of the Soviet federal system, ties between republic and Union politics are much closer than in the American system, and study of the first provides suggestions useful to studies of the second. Moreover, the political process-again unlike the American system-appears re- markably similar at the two levels, and generalizations can be applied appropriately to both. Further, the circumspect fashion in which political events at the center have characteristically been reported in most periods has been less typical in areas removed from Moscow and at regional and local levels; instructive material and interpretations may be found in these places which would not, because of more careful scrutiny, be released at the center. And finally. the regional and nationality attitudes of the people living in the Soviet border areas have posed peculiar problems for Soviet leaders and forced significant modifications of Soviet practices; these special problems and modifications alike are of considerable interest to the West. Of the Soviet border regions, the Ukraine has played, historically as well as politically, the most important role. Its population is largest and its economic level is highest in the Soviet Union outside the Russian core. Ajart from the Georgian republic it has developed perhaps the richest national literature and strongest national movement. ~ithou~hits party organization has never assumed a central, dominating role as have the Moscow and Leningrad organizations, it has grown to be the largest subdivision of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and has been linked in- V I PREFACE creasingly with Moscow and Leningrad as a principal basis of political power and support. Because of Khrushchev's personal identification with the Ukraine, the region has become a reservoir supplying highest leadership to the center. In the future the Ukraine may lose importance in the eyes of new Soviet leaders who will be less closely tied to it as a region. But it seems likely to continue to play a major role in Soviet political life. The scope of the study is broad, covering the whole of the Soviet period until 1957. It is intended, therefore, to serve as an introduction to the problem rather than as a definitive statement. The treatment too is uneven, chiefly because Soviet sources--on which the study is principally based-are rich in some years, lean in others. Without question, the best source material has en- compassed the periods of the Revolution and the twenties: in these ycars there is an abundant literature both in the form of works published at the time and, more recently, in the form of excellent Soviet monographs-many of them unpublished dis- sertations-based on archival materials not yet available directly in the West. Less complete information is available for the periods of World War I1 and the years after Stalin's death. The leanest years are those of the purges, 1934 to 1941, and the last of the Stalin years, 1945 to 1952. The list of those who have influenced and supported and molded the direction of this study is long. Among those who have read and offered suggestions on the manuscript are Quincy Wright, Hans Morgenthau, Leopold Haimson, and Richard Pipes. John Armstrong of the University of \Yisconsin provided especially valuable assistance through comments and discussion. A grant from the Inter-University Committee on Travel Grants supported a six-month stay at Moscow State University where materials not available in the United States were found. Publication was sub- sidized by a generous subvention from the Social Science Research Council. My most grateful thanks go also to the staff of the Co- lumbia University Press, and to my wife whose assistance left its impress on the work at every stage. June. 1962 ROBERTS. SULLIVANT SOTE ON TRANSLITERATION The Library of Congress transliteration system for Russian and Ukrainian words is used throughout this study, but diacritical marks and ligatures are omitted. Certain Russian words such as kolkhoz (collective farm), oblasl' (region), and raion (district) are treated as though they were English words. Place names are given their commonly accepted English spellings which, in most cases, are derived from Russian rather than Ukrain- ian names. The names of personages are spelled according to the preferred listing in the Library of Congress catalog. For the sake of uniformity and consistency, certain errors which result, snch as the Russian spelling Grin'ko for the Ukrainian name Hryn'ko, are not corrected. CONTENTS Introduction The Bolshevik Approach to Nationalism and the Ukraine Bolsheviks and the Revolution, 191 7-1920 Federalism and Ukrainian Cultural Nationalism, 1921- 1927 Centralization and the Demand for Uniformity, 1927- 1934 v The New Loyalty and National Rights, 1934-1944 0 v1 The Culmination of National Restrictions, 1944-1953 VII The New Leadership, 1953-1957 VIII Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index Implicit in most discussions of state authority is a general acceptance of the state as an organism unique in the broad indepen- dence it displays in the face of other communities. As noted by one observer, the state is distinguished by its overwhelming super- iority over other groups in the territory it controls. "It issues orders to all men and all associations within that area; it receives orders from none of them. Its will is subject to no limitation of any kind. What it purposes is right by the mere announcement of intention."' The essence of political society, it is suggested, is the authority or ultimate power wielded by some members of society to control or direct other members. To emphasize in this way the self-determining and self-interpret- ing aspects of political authority is to affirm the importance of leadership roles in the formation and execution of public policy. Yet it is clear that state authority, even in the most docile and effectively organized societies, is not independent of other-group pressures. At times the state may appear as a separate force- as an independent giant dispensing orders and resolutions to its citizens. But at other moments it is clear that state authority, even when the state appears to define its rules and regulations with precision and finality, "is not final or prezise socially unless it is acceptable to the so~iety."~The wielder of political power may exercise authority only when the authority in some measure serves the common values of the community. ,rhus the essence of political society is not the superior-dependent structure which political societies display so persistently and strikingly, but is the rather uncertain and fluid relationship which develops informally between the wielders of political power, on the one hand, and the communities, individuals, and groups comprising the state, on the other. The importance of this concept of the social acceptability of authority is most obvious in societies in which there are one or more 2 INTRODUCTION large "out" groups with distinct feelings of apartness. A band of immigrants, a religious sect, an ethnic minority, an embittered class-all challenge the authority of the state to the extent that they reject the behavior patterns officially established as norms. In some instances the members of these groups may conceal their rejection behind a facade of loyalty-a loyalty which the whole political environment prompts them to avow-but on occasion they may see with acute consciousness that there is little in state- prescribed traditions and aims with which they can identify. "The bonds that bind other men to the inclusive community no longer hold them. The basis of their law-abidingness is undermined."= Their willingness to oppose the requirements of the state grows to the point of violence, and state authority is challenged. Where a dissenting group issues such a challenge to the state, political leaders may adopt any of three policies to reweave the community fabric and reassert state authority. They may adopt a policy of repression, countering each measure of rebellion with a greater measure of restriction. If the policy is successful, the dis- senters are destroyed or their effectiveness is limited during the interval when group values are modified. Or state leaders may accommodate group values by permitting local expressions of deviation in particular areas in return for acceptance of state values in others. Conflict is not ended-merely transferred to the diffi- cult question of defining areas subject to official control and areas in which deviation is permitted-but state authority and the habit of law-abidingness are preserved, for deviation is exercised in ac- cordance with state directive rather than in opposition. Or, finally, state authorities may work to re-form unacceptable beliefs and aims, drawing them into harmony with official values. Through the school, the community, through mass-action groups and the media of communications, the dissenting group may be weaned from its traditional views to an acceptance of official policies. Where successful, the policy becomes the most effective of all, for with the development of agreement conflict wholly disappears. In Marxist and Leninist writings the opposition between authority and leadership, on the olie hand, mass aspirations and values on the other, is much discussed but never reconciled.

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