page_title: Modern history of Ukraine
section_title: Soviet Ukraine
hierarchical_section_title: Modern history of Ukraine / Interbellum / Soviet Ukraine
caption_attribution_description: English: Poster in the Ukrainian language about the beginning of the indigenization policy (Korenizatsiya in Russian, meaning "indigenization", literally "putting down roots") in Ukraine. The text translates to: "Son! Enroll in the school of w:Red Army commanders, and the defense of Soviet Ukraine will be ensured." First published in the USSR in 1921. Français&#160;: «&#160;Fils, rejoins l'école des officiers de l'armée rouge et la défense de l'Ukraine soviétique sera assurée!&#160;» Affiche soviétique de 1921 en langue ukrainienne. Română: Afiș în limba ucraineană, de la începuturile politicii de indigenizare (korenizația) în Ucraina. Textul se traduce prin: „Fiule! Înrolează-te în școala Comandanților roșii, iar apărarea Ucrainei Sovietice va fi asigurată.” Anul primei publicări în URSS: 1921. Українська: "Сину! Вступи до школи червоних старшин i захист радянськоi Украiни забеспечен!" (Коренізація.) 1921. Русский: Плакат Школы красных старшин. Перевод: "Сын, поступи в школу красных старшин и защита советской Украины обеспечена"
context_page_description: Ukraine emerges as the concept of a nation, and the Ukrainians as a nationality, with the Ukrainian National Revival which is believed started sometime at the end of 18th and the beginning of 19th century. According to Ukrainian historian Yaroslav Hrytsak, the first wave of national revival is traditionally connected with publication of the first part of "Eneyida" by Ivan Kotlyarevsky. In 1846, in Moscow the "Istoriya Rusov ili Maloi Rossii" was published. During the Spring of Nations, in 1848 in Lemberg the Supreme Ruthenian Council was created which declared that Galician Ruthenians are part of the bigger Ukrainian nation. The council adopted the yellow and blue flag.
  Ukraine first declared its independence with the invasion of Bolsheviks in late 1917. Following the conclusion of the World War I and with the peace of Riga, Ukraine was partitioned once again between Poland and the Bolshevik Russia. The Bolshevik occupied territory was made a puppet state of its pocket Communist Party, the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.
context_section_description: The Ukrainian national idea lived on during the inter-war years and was even spread to a large territory with traditionally mixed population in the east and south that became part of the Ukrainian Soviet republic. The Ukrainian culture even enjoyed a revival due to Bolshevik concessions in the early Soviet years (until the early-1930s) known as the policy of Korenization ("indigenisation"). In these years, an impressive Ukrainization program was implemented throughout the republic. Alongside this a number of national territorial units  were set aside for non Ukrainian ethnic  groups. As well as an autonomous republic in the west for Ukraine's  Molovian people  several national raions including 8 Russian, 7 German, 4 Greek, 4 Bulgarian, 3 Jewish and 1 Polish national raion existed in this period.
  The rapidly developed Ukrainian language based education system dramatically raised the literacy of the Ukrainophone rural population. Simultaneously, the newly-literate ethnic Ukrainians migrated to the cities, which became rapidly largely Ukrainianised—in both population and in education. Similarly expansive was an increase in Ukrainian language publishing and overall eruption of Ukrainian cultural life.
  At the same time, the usage of Ukrainian was continuously encouraged in the workplace and in the government affairs as the recruitment of indigenous cadre was implemented as part of the korenisation policies. While initially, the party and government apparatus was mostly Russian-speaking, by the end of the 1920s the ethnic Ukrainians composed over one half of the membership in the Ukrainian communist party, the number strengthened by accession of Borotbists, a formerly indigenously Ukrainian "independentist" and non-Bolshevik communist party.
  Despite the ongoing Soviet Union-wide antireligious campaign, the Ukrainian national Orthodox church was created called the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC). The Bolshevik government initially saw the national church as a tool in their goal to suppress the Russian Orthodox Church always viewed with the great suspicion by the regime for its being the cornerstone of pre-revolutionary Russian Empire and the initially strong opposition it took towards the regime change. Therefore, the government tolerated the new Ukrainian national church for some time and the UAOC gained a wide following among the Ukrainian peasantry.
  The change in the Soviet economic policies towards the fast-pace industrialisation was marked by the 1928 introduction of Joseph Stalin's first piatiletka (a five-year plan). The industrialisation brought about a dramatic economic and social transformation in traditionally agricultural Ukraine. In the first piatiletkas the industrial output of Ukraine quadrupled as the republic underwent a record industrial development. The massive influx of the rural population to the industrial centres increased the urban population from 19% to 34%.
caption: The Ukrainianization program aimed at fostering Ukrainian ethnic identity among the population of Ukraine. This 1921 recruitment poster uses Ukrainian orthography to convey its message, "Son, join the school of Red commanders, and the defense of the Soviet Ukraine will be ensured".
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