Communist Party of Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic

History

Russian Bolsheviks in Ukraine

The party traces its beginning to committees and party's cells of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) that existed at the end of the 19th century in all bigger cities and industrial centers on Ukrainian territory which was part of the Russian Empire. Under influence from the League of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class in Saint Petersburg, in 1897 such organization was also formed in Kyiv and Yekaterinoslav which also were taking part in preparation and convocation of the 1st Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1898. With release of newspaper Iskra in December 1900 in Germany, on territory of Ukraine spread out a network of the Lenin's Iskra group and organizations.

Among the most notable activists in Ukraine during that period were Ivan Babushkin, Rosalia Zemlyachka, Pyotr Krasikov, Isaak Lalayants, Friedrichs Lengniks, Maxim Litvinov, Grigory Petrovsky, Mykola Skrypnyk (Nikolay Skripnik), Dmitry Ulyanov, Vasiliy Shelgunov, Alexander Schlichter, Alexander Tsiurupa, and others. Following the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (1903) in social-democratic organizations has developed a struggle between Mensheviks and Bolsheviks. On behalf of Vladimir Lenin, in 1904 Vatslav Vorovsky with Lalayants and Levitskiy created in Odessa the Southern Bureau of the RSDLP that led activities of Odessa, Yekaterinoslav, Nikolayev committees, brought together around itself Bolshevik organizations of the South, conducted great deal of work in preparation to the 3rd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1905.

During the 1905 Russian Revolution, Bolsheviks in Ukraine played only a minor role. In more than 50 cities and settlements Soviets of working deputies were created. In December 1905, Bolsheviks led number of armed uprisings in Ukraine, among which were in Horlivka, Alexandrovsk (Zaporizhia), Kharkiv. Kyiv, Mykolaiv and many other cities were covered with strike action. In course of the revolution the RSDLP organizations in Ukraine grew significantly and in 1907 they were accounted for over 20,000 men. In 1905, the Ukrainian Social Democratic Spilka joined the RSDLP. Organizers and leaders of party's activities during this time were Comrade Artyom (Fyodor Sergeev), Vladimir Bonch-Bruyevich, Miron Vladimirov, Kliment Voroshilov, Serafima Gopner, Sergey Gusev, Lidia Knipovich, Gleb Krzhizhanovsky, Grigory Petrovsky, Nikolay Skripnik, Alexander Schlichter, Yemelyan Yaroslavsky, and others.

During the following period of government reaction in 1907–10, Bolshevik organizations in Ukraine have suffered significant losses, yet continued their revolutionary activities. Guided by decisions of the 1912 Prague Conference, those Bolsheviks carried out work to expand and strengthen ties with the masses, their international upbringing, preparing workers to new revolutionary battles, were exposing supporters of what was labeled as "liquidationism", "otzovizm" (recalling representatives from the State Duma), and bourgeois nationalism. During the years of World War I (1914–18), the Bolsheviks of Ukraine propagated the Lenin's slogan of transforming the imperialist war into a civil war and fought against "social chauvinism and revolutionary defeatism."

Struggle for establishment of the Soviet power in Ukraine

Following the "July Days" and the semi-legal 6th Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, Bolsheviks of Ukraine began to prepare the workers for an armed uprising "for Soviet power" (Ukrainian: за владу Рад, Russian: за власть Советов). Big help was provided to them by the Central Committee of the Petrograd-based RSDLP(b) that maintained connection with more than 50 of its party organizations in Ukraine. Active role in the preparation process of the masses to the "Socialist Revolution" (October Revolution) was conducted by Vasiliy Averin, Yevgenia Bosch, Kliment Voroshilov, Yan Gamarnik, Serafima Gopner, Vladimir Zatonsky, Andrei Ivanov, Emanuel Kviring, Yuriy Kotsiubynsky, Dmitriy Lebed, Grigory Petrovsky, Vitaly Primakov, Fyodor Sergeyev, Ivan Smirnov, and others. During the summer of 1917 on territory of modern Ukraine were formed two regional (oblast) branches of the RSDLP(b) of Southwestern Krai and Donets-Krivoi Rog Basin and later in the fall the bureau of the RSDLP(b) military organizations of the Southwestern Front (due to ongoing World War I). According to Yevgenia Bosch, the regional branch of the RSDLP(b) was supposed to consist of 7 guberniyas (Governorates): Kyiv, Chernihiv, Podolia, Volhynia, Poltava, Kherson, and Yekaterinoslav. Also membership of the party in Ukraine grew significantly in 1917 from 7,000 in April to 50,000 in October. Following the October Revolution in Petrograd, at the 2nd All-Russian Congress of Soviets among its delegates, there were 65 Bolsheviks from Ukraine.

The very next day after the October Revolution, on 8–13 November (26–31 October by old style), 1917 Bolsheviks in Kyiv, who have been headquartered at the Mariinskyi Palace, attempted to secure power in Kyiv with less success and, after the Bolshevik's victory over the Kyiv Military District garrison, the authority in Kyiv was secured by the liberal democratic Regional Committee in Protection of Revolution in Ukraine where important role played the Central Council of Ukraine. In a week the Central Council adopted its "Third Universal" where it condemned the Bolshevik coup-d'état and declared Ukraine in federative union with the social democratic Russian Republic (instead of the communist Soviet Russia). In response to that on 26 November 1917, the Bolshevik Sovnarkom published its manifesto to the all population "About struggle with counter-revolutionary insurgency of Kaledin, Kornilov, Dutov, and supported by the Central Rada (О борьбе с контрреволюционным восстанием Каледина, Корнилова, Дутова, поддерживаемым Центральной Радой)".

On 16—18 December (3—5 by old style), 1917, the regional congress of the RSDLP(b) of the South-West region was held in Kyiv, and on 18—19 December (5—6), the regional conference of the RSDLP(b) of the Donets-Kryvyi Rih basin was held in Kharkiv. They called on the workers to fight against the Ukrainian Central Council.

Communist Party of Ukraine

Ideas of establishing a separate Ukrainian Bolshevik party were first expressed by Poltava activists Vasyl Shakhrai and Serhii Mazlakh in late 1917. Similar views were supported by a group of Kyiv Bolsheviks including Volodymyr Zatonsky and Yuri Lapchynsky, who were eventually joined by Mykola Skrypnyk. Most of the party's constituent members were former Russian Bolsheviks who in 1917 proclaimed themselves "RSDRP(b) – Social-Democracy of Ukraine" and with the help of the Antonov-Ovseyenko expeditionary forces of Petrograd and Moscow Red Guards instigated a civil war in Ukraine by routing local Red Guards. Some Ukrainian politicians from left faction of the Ukrainian Social Democratic Labour Party (also known as Left Ukrainian Social Democrats or unofficially as "Ukrainian Bolsheviks") joined the Bolsheviks in January 1918.

After the signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, the Bolshevik faction of Ukraine was forced to dissolve as all Bolsheviks were forced out of Ukraine. Following the 1918 Central Powers occupation of Ukraine in the aftermath of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, Ukrainian Bolsheviks had to retreat to Taganrog, where a conference was held by their leadership on 18-20 April 1918 with the involvement of representatives of the Donetsk-Krivoi Rog Soviet Republic. At that conference, a resolution to create a separate Ukrainian Bolshevik party under the name Communist Party (Bolshevik) of Ukraine was adopted on the proposal of Skrypnyk. An organizational bureau of the party was formed, composed of Georgy Pyatakov, Mykola Skrypnyk, Stanislav Kosior, Volodymyr Zatonsky, Yan Gamarnik, Andrei Bubnov and Isaak Kreisberg.

Upon the creation of the party there were two points of view on the party's structure and relationship with the Russian Communist Party: one idea proposed by the Kiev faction leader Mykola Skrypnyk included relationship with the Russian Communist Party through Comintern, while the other one proposed by the Yekaterinoslav and Donbas leader Emmanuel Kviring included relationship with the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party. On 5–12 July 1918 in Moscow the 1st Party Congress of the Communist Party of Ukraine took place. During the congress, Ukrainian Bolsheviks were forced to abandon the notion of their party's independence, and it was included into the structure of Russian Bolshevik Party as its regional branch. During the congress there the central committee consisting of 15 members and 6 candidates to membership was established: Ivan Amosov, Andrei Bubnov, Afanasi Butsenko, Shulim Gruzman, Vladimir Zatonski, Lavreti Kartvelishvili, Emmanuel Kviring, Stanisław Kosior, Isaak Kreisberg, Iuri Lutovinov, Georgi Piatakov, Rafail Farbman, Pinkhus Rovner, Leonid Tarski, Isaak Shvarts; Yan Gamarnik, Dmitri Lebed, Mikhail Maiorov, Mykola Skrypnyk, Petro Slynko, Iakov Iakovlev. At the time of the party's creation, only 7% of its members identified as ethnic Ukrainians.

Organizational structure

Central Committees

Initial composition of the committee was elected at the 1st party Congress on 12 July 1918 and consisted of the following people: Ivan Amosov, Andrei Bubnov, Afanasiy Butsenko, Shulim Gruzman, Vladimir Zatonsky, Lavrentiy Kartvelishvili, Emmanuil Kviring, Stanislav Kosior, Isaak Kreisberg, Yuriy Lutovinov, Yuriy Pyatakov, Rafail Farbman, Pinkhus Rovner, Leonid Tarsky (Sokolovsky), Isaak Shvarts. Beside full members there also were candidate to the committee. The initial composition included Yan Hamarnik (Yakov Pudikovich), Dmitriy Lebed, Mikhail Mayorov (Meyer Biberman), Mykola Skrypnyk, Petro Slynko, Yakov Yakovlev (Epshtein). On 9 September 1918 Mayorov and Slynko replaced Kertvelishvili and Farbman as full members, while the last two lost their membership.

During World War II on 2 October 1942 there was created the Illegal Central Committee of the Party consisting of 17 members. The committee was dissolved on 29 June 1943. Among the members of the committee were such personalities as Sydir Kovpak, Leonid Korniets, Oleksiy Fedorov, and others.

Politburo

The party had its own Politburo created on 6 March 1919. On 25 September 1952, the committee was renamed into the Bureau of the Central Committee (CC) of CP(b)U, and in October the same year as the Bureau of the CC CPU. On 10 October 1952 it became the Presidium of the CC CPU. On 26 June 1966 again the bureau was finally left with its original name as the Politburo of the CC CPU.

At first it consisted of five members and later another one was added. The first Politburo included Andriy Bubnov, Emanuel Kviring, Vladimir Mescheryakov, Georgiy Pyatakov, Christian Rakovsky, and later Stanislav Kosior, all centrists.

From 23 March until 15 April 1920, there was elected a Provisional Bureau which the next day was ratified by the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks).

Orgburo

Along with Politburo the party like its Russian counterpart had its own Orgburo that was created the same day as Politburo.

Party leader

The party was headed by its secretary. The position was highly influential and often was considered to be more important than the head of state (see Ukrainian SSR).

The following list is composed of the secretary of the Central Committee of the party who were the leaders of the Party. The position also was changing names between being called the First Secretary or the General Secretary, depending on a political atmosphere in the Soviet Union. The position was not officially of the head of state, but certainly was very influential, especially within the republic. The longest serving secretary was Vladimir Shcherbitsky with some 17 years as the head of the Communist Party, the second best is split between Stanislav Kosior and Nikita Khrushchev, both of which have 11 years.

Party Congresses and Conferences

There were 28 Congresses with the last one consisting out of two stages. There also were three consolidated conferences of the party from 1926 to 1932.

List of the party congresses and conferences (on equal rights as congresses)

1st Congress of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Ukraine — Moscow, 5—12 July 1918

2nd Congress of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Ukraine — Moscow, 17—22 October 1918

3rd Congress of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Ukraine — Kharkiv, 1—6 March 1919

4th Conference of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Ukraine — Kharkiv, 17—23 March 1920

5th Conference of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Ukraine — Kharkiv, 17—22 November 1920

6th All-Ukrainian Conference of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Ukraine — Kharkiv, 9—14 December 1921

7th All-Ukrainian Conference of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Ukraine — Kharkiv, 6—10 April 1923

8th All-Ukrainian Conference of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Ukraine — Kharkiv, 12—16 May 1924

9th Congress of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Ukraine — Kharkiv, 6—12 December 1925

10th Congress of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Ukraine — Kharkiv, 20—29 November 1927

11th Congress of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Ukraine — Kharkiv, 5—15 June 1930

12th Congress of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Ukraine — Kharkiv, 18—23 January 1934

List of the party conferences

1st Conference of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Ukraine — Kharkiv, 17—21 October 1926

2nd Conference of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Ukraine — Kharkiv, 9—14 April 1929

3rd Conference of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Ukraine — Kharkiv, 6—9 July 1932

Party newspapers

Central newspapers

Silski Visti (1920–1991)

Ukraina Moloda (1991)

Regional newspapers

Bilshovyk Poltavshchyny (1917-1941)