[A map of Russia from Quora]

Ivan Novoselov

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Russian, interested in history and politics Updated Sep 1

https://www.quora.com/

JB: I found this article hard to follow, 

but -- as an ignorant American -- read it with considerable interest.

Why did Stalin perceive Ukrainians as a threat, leading to the reversal of Ukrainization, and what were the consequences of this shift?

In 1952, my great-uncle graduated from Kharkov university as a medic. Yet, when he wanted to find job in Kharkov, he was told by high-ranked party members that the jobs are reserved only for Ukrainians. As the result, he moved to Belarus where he worked and lived for the rest of his life and made a spectacular career in medicine.

Ukrainization was never actually reversed. Even in East Ukraine. Especially considering that for 30 years after Stalin’s death the USSR was governed by Ukrainians.

Khrutschev often wore Ukrainian ethnic clothing. He wasn't a bad leader for his time, but many of his situational decisions and experiments have caused serious problems in the long run.

As for Stalin, had he considered Ukrainians a threat, there would be no Ukrainian SSR. Maybe it would be the best choice at the time. Stalin didn’t hesitate to split Transcaucasia and Central Asia into many Soviet Republics, so splitting the Ukrainian SSR into more republics wouldn’t be the slightest problem. Instead, Stalin expanded the territory of the Ukrainian SSR with virtually all territories conquered and reconquered after World War 2. Territories that were conquered and reconquered by the Soviet Union at the cost of the lives of Soviet people from all republics, especially Russia.

"Teal" territory was granted to the Ukrainian SSR by Stalin's decision. That was the worst way to prevent "Ukrainization", as a large part of this territory had never been under Russian control.

Had there been some reversal of Ukrainization, purple territory (Novorossiya, with predominant Russian language / Russian-Ukrainian dialect, that was granted to the Ukrainian SSR by Lenin) would instead be transformed into a separate SSR with Crimea, or simply returned to the RSFSR.

This map is provided only for reference, as it highlights areas added after WW2 and distinguishes the Novorossiya lands conquered by the Russian Empire in the 18th century from the Crimean Khanate / the Ottoman Empire. Lands conquered from Poland were not given to Ukraine because there was no “Ukraine” (I don’t think the Hetmanate should be considered Ukraine, and it was abolished anyway, with Malorossia transformed into regular governorates as the rest of Russia instead of being a separate entity under the Russian crown, like Poland or Finland)

“Purple” territory is marked as granted to Ukraine by Lenin. In fact, it’s not entirely correct. It’s territory claimed by the self-proclaimed Ukrainian People’s Republic (a German protectorate) that was not under its actual control.

This territory had other self-proclaimed republics that aligned with Soviet Russia, and after the Civil War ended, Lenin, Stalin, and other Bolshevik leaders decided to merge them all into the Ukrainian SSR to balance counter-revolutionary bourgeoisie and farmers of Ukraine with revolutionary miners and workers of Donbass.

Within USSR, the borders of republics didn’t really mean much. They often changed, but these changes were like changes of province borders.

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