The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, abbreviated as the Ukrainian SSR, UkSSR, and also known as Soviet Ukraine or just Ukraine, was one of the constituent republics of the Soviet Union from 1922 until 1991. Under the Soviet one-party model, the Ukrainian SSR was governed by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union through its republican branch, the Communist Party of Ukraine.
The Soviet Union introduced forced collectivization of its agricultural sector between 1928 and 1940 during the ascension of Joseph Stalin. It began during and was part of the first five-year plan. The policy aimed to integrate individual landholdings and labour into nominally collectively-controlled and openly or directly state-controlled farms: Kolkhozes and Sovkhozes accordingly. The Soviet leadership confidently expected that the replacement of individual peasant farms by collective ones would immediately increase the food supply for the urban population, the supply of raw materials for the processing industry, and agricultural exports via state-imposed quotas on individuals working on collective farms. Planners regarded collectivization as the solution to the crisis of agricultural distribution that had developed from 1927. This problem became more acute as the Soviet Union pressed ahead with its ambitious industrialization program, meaning that more food would be needed to keep up with urban demand.
The history of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was generally perceived as covering that of the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party from which it evolved. In 1912, the party formally split, and the predecessor to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union became a distinct entity. Its history since then can roughly be divided into the following periods:
Vlas Yakovlevich Chubar was a Ukrainian Bolshevik revolutionary and a Soviet politician. Chubar was arrested during the Great Terror of 1937–38 and executed early in 1939.
The Makhnovshchina was a mass movement to establish anarchist communism in southern and eastern Ukraine during the Ukrainian War of Independence of 1917–1921. Named after Nestor Makhno, the commander-in-chief of the Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine, its aim was to create a system of free soviets that would manage the transition towards a stateless and classless society.
The Soviet famine of 1930–1933 was a famine in the major grain-producing areas of the Soviet Union, including Ukraine and different parts of Russia, including Kazakhstan, Northern Caucasus, Kuban Region, Volga Region, the South Urals, and West Siberia. Major factors included the forced collectivization of agriculture as a part of the First Five-Year Plan and forced grain procurement from farmers. These factors in conjunction with a massive investment in heavy industry decreased the agricultural workforce. Estimates conclude that 5.7 to 8.7 million people died from starvation across the Soviet Union.
The US Commission on the Ukraine Famine was a commission to study the Holodomor, a 1932–33 man-made famine that killed millions in Ukraine.
The causes of the Holodomor, which was a famine in Soviet Ukraine during 1932 and 1933 that resulted in the death of around 3–5 million people, are the subject of scholarly and political debate, particularly surrounding the Holodomor genocide question. Soviet historians Stephen Wheatcroft and J. Arch Getty believe the famine was the unintended consequence of problems arising from Soviet agricultural collectivization which was designed to accelerate the program of industrialization in the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin. Other academics conclude policies were intentionally designed to cause the famine. Some scholars and political leaders claim that the famine may be classified as a genocide under the definition of genocide that entered international law with the 1948 Genocide Convention.
The All-Union Congress of Soviets was formally the supreme governing body of the Soviet Union from its formation until the adoption of its second constitution in 1936. The Congress of Soviets determined the general direction of all public bodies and elected the Central Executive Committee of the Soviet Union: a body which was accountable to, and held the powers of the Congress when the Congress was not in session. Despite its nominal authority, in practice the Congress served as a rubber-stamp for the Communist Party. With the 1936 Constitution, the All-Union Congress was replaced by the Supreme Soviet.
The All-Ukrainian Congress of Soviets was the supreme governing body of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic from 1917–38. From 1922 to 1938 the Constitution of the Ukrainian SSR, modeled on the 1918 Russian Constitution, mandated that Congress to be convened at least twice a year. The 1926 Constitution lowered the minimum to once a year.
The All-Russian Congress of Soviets evolved from 1917 to become the supreme governing body of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic from 1918 until 1936, effectively. The 1918 Constitution of the Russian SFSR mandated that Congress shall convene at least twice a year, with the duties of defining the principles of the Soviet Constitution and ratifying peace treaties. The October Revolution ousted the provisional government of 1917, making the Congress of Soviets the sole, and supreme governing body. This Congress was not the same as the Congress of Soviets of the Soviet Union which governed the whole Soviet Union after its creation in 1922.
Fifth All-Ukrainian Congress of Soviets was a congress of Soviets (councils) of workers, peasants, Red-army-men deputies that took place in Kharkiv on February 25 - March 3, 1921.
Third All-Ukrainian Congress of Soviets was a congress of Soviets (councils) of workers, peasants, Red-army-men deputies that took place in Kharkiv on March 6–10, 1919. The congress followed the Third Congress of the Communist Party of Ukraine that took place on March 1–6, 1919.
Fourth All-Ukrainian Congress of Soviets was a congress of Soviets of workers, peasants, and Red-army-men deputies, that took place in Kharkiv on May 16–20, 1920. Many of the topics discussed at the congress closely corresponded to the agenda of the Fourth Conference of the Communist Party of Ukraine, that took place two months earlier in March 1920.
Sixth All-Ukrainian Congress of Soviets was a congress of Soviets (councils) of workers, peasants, Red-army-men deputies that took place in Kharkiv on December 14 - 17, 1921.
Eighth All-Ukrainian Congress of Soviets was a congress of Soviets (councils) of workers, peasants, Red-army-men deputies that took place in Kharkiv on January 17 - 20, 1924.
The Ninth All-Ukrainian Congress of Soviets was a congress of Soviets (councils) of workers, peasants, Red-army-men deputies that took place in Kharkiv on May 3 - 10, 1925.
The Tenth All-Ukrainian Congress of Soviets was a congress of Soviets (councils) of workers, peasants, Red-army-men deputies that took place in Kharkiv on April 6 - 13, 1927.
The Eleventh All-Ukrainian Congress of Soviets was a congress of Soviets (councils) of workers, peasants, Red-army-men deputies that took place in Kharkiv on May 7 - 15, 1929.
The 1921–1923 famine in Ukraine was a disaster that mostly occurred in the southern steppe region of Ukraine. The number of fatalities is estimated between 200,000 and 1,000,000, but no systematic records were then made.