The policy of korenization in the 1920s and 1930s in Ukraine and certain regions of Russia: triumph and tragedy of the Ukrainian revival

The aim of the article is to analyse the origins of the national policy of the Bolsheviks after their victory, its forced and temporary nature, the evolution of the processes of Ukrainization and their transformation in the direction of Russification, the suppression of any forms of national revival. The methodological basis of the study is the principles of historicism, scientific content and objectivity, which helped to achieve impartiality and reliability in the interpretation of specific facts, and to provide a comprehensive study of the problem. The scientific novelty of the article is that the materials used in it allow to adopt a new approach to assessing the current socio-political situation in Ukraine and to better understand the origins of the Russification policy of the former USSR, the forced nature of the so-called “Ukrainization”on the territory of the Ukrainian SSR and in places of residence of Ukrainians in other republics, its causes and consequences. Conclusions. Having seized power in Ukraine, at first the Bolsheviks did not want to hear about the Ukrainian language. But from about mid-1919 it became clear that without taking into account the scope and strength of the Ukrainian national movement, the establishment of Soviet power in Ukraine was impossible. Therefore, the Kremlin took a new approach to the tactics of conquering Ukraine. The goal was to build communism in a multinational country and to subordinate the efforts of “local people” to the chosen goal. The policy of “Korenization” proclaimed at the 12th Congress of the RussianCommunist Party (Bolsheviks) in 1923 was aimed at achieving this goal. Over time, it had become clear that“Korenization” in Ukraine was temporary and after the achievement of the set goal any manifestations of the national movement were brutally suppressed. The Bolshevik leadership did everything possible to ensure that the ethnic revival in Ukraine and the regions of Russia with a compact Ukrainian population did not evolve into a national-state one. Thus, the real facts of the insidious strategy of the Bolsheviks in the sphere of the national policy of the 1920s and early 1930s clearly demonstrated the assimilation, Russification tendencies of the Moscow leadership.