View source for Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic

{{Short description|Soviet republic from 1919 to 1991}}
{{Distinguish|text=the [[Ukrainian People's Republic of Soviets]] and [[Ukrainian Soviet Republic]] that existed in 1917–18 within Russia}}
{{Redirect|Communist Ukraine|the anarcho-communist society in Ukraine|Makhnovshchina}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2021}}
{{Infobox country
| conventional_long_name = Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic{{no bold|{{small|}}<br/>{{native name|uk|Українська Радянська Соціалістична Республіка|italics=off}}<br />{{native name|ru|Украинская Советская Социалистическая Республика|italics=off}}<ref>Historical names:
* 1919–1936: Ukrainian Socialist Soviet Republic ({{lang|uk|Українська Соціалістична Радянська Республіка}}; ''Украинская Социалистическая Советская Республика)''</ref>}}
| common_name            = Ukrainian SSR
| status                 = '''1919–1922:'''<br />Nominally independent state (satellite state of the [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic|Russian SFSR]])<br />'''1922–1990''':<br />[[Republics of the Soviet Union|Union Republic]] of the Soviet Union<br/>'''1990–1991''':<br/>Union Republic with priority of [[Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic|Ukrainian legislation]]
| p1                     = Ukrainian People's Republic
| flag_p1                = Flag of Ukraine (1917–1921).svg
| s1                     = Post-Soviet transition in Ukraine{{!}}Ukraine
| today                  = [[Ukraine]]<br />''[[Russia]]'' ([[Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine|disputed]])
| flag_s1                = Flag of Ukraine (1991–1992).svg
| image_flag             = Flag of Ukrainian SSR.svg
| flag_type              = [[Flag of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic|Flag]]<br/>(1950–1991)
| image_coat             = Coat of arms of Ukrainian SSR.svg
| symbol_type            = [[Emblem of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic|State emblem]]<br />(1949–1991)
| image_map              = Soviet Union - Ukrainian SSR.svg
| image_map_caption      = Location of the Ukrainian SSR (red) within the [[Soviet Union]] (red and light yellow) between 1956 and 1991
| national_motto         = {{native phrase|uk|Пролетарі всіх країн, єднайтеся!|italics=off}}<br/>{{transliteration|uk|Proletari vsikh krain, yednaitesia!}}{{nbsp|2}}([[Romanization of Ukrainian|transliteration]])<br/>"[[Workers of the world, unite!]]"
| national_anthem        = {{native name|uk|Державний гімн Української Радянської Соціалістичної Республіки|italics=off|nolink=yes}}<br/>{{transliteration|uk|Derzhavnyi himn Ukrainskoi Radianskoi Sotsialistychnoi Respubliky}} (transliteration)<br/>"[[Anthem of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic|State Anthem of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic]]"{{parabr}}{{center|[[File:Anthem of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (Instrumental).oga]]}}
| capital                = [[Kharkiv|Kharkov]] (1919–1934)<ref>{{cite web |title=History |url=http://kharkivoda.gov.ua/uk/article/view/id/4/ |publisher=[[Kharkov Oblast]] Government Administration |access-date=16 April 2011 |language=uk |archive-date=7 January 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190107090622/https://kharkivoda.gov.ua/uk/article/view/id/4/article/view/id/4 |url-status=live }}</ref><br/>[[Kyiv|Kiev]]<!--Do not change per WP:KYIV--> (1934–1991)<ref>{{cite book |title=Soviet encyclopedia of the History of Ukraine |year=1969–1972 |publisher=Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR |language=uk }}</ref>
| largest_city           = Kiev
| official_languages     = [[Russian language|Russian]]<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Nn3xDTiL0PQC&q=%22official+language%22&pg=PA1 |title=Language Policy in the Soviet Union |author=[[Lenore Grenoble]] |publisher=[[Springer Science & Business Media]] |year=2003 |isbn=978-1-4020-1298-3 |access-date=19 March 2021 |archive-date=22 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230922165542/https://books.google.com/books?id=Nn3xDTiL0PQC&q=%22official+language%22&pg=PA1 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=KP20180406>Mariya Kapinos. ''[https://www.kyivpost.com/ukraine-politics/honest-history-episode-2-ukrainians-speak-russian-language-kremlin-uses-stoke-conflict-ukraine.html Honest History: Where, why Ukrainians speak Russian language (and how Kremlin uses it to stoke conflict in Ukraine)] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201109034344/https://www.kyivpost.com/ukraine-politics/honest-history-episode-2-ukrainians-speak-russian-language-kremlin-uses-stoke-conflict-ukraine.html |date=9 November 2020 }}''. [[Kyiv Post]]. 6 April 2018</ref><br/>[[Ukrainian language|Ukrainian]]<ref name=KP20180406/><ref>{{cite web |url=https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/cgi-bin/laws/main.cgi?nreg=888-09&ed=19780420#Text |title=Constitution of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic adopted in 1978 |access-date=20 May 2022 |language=uk |archive-date=7 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220407150540/https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/cgi-bin/laws/main.cgi?nreg=888-09&ed=19780420#Text |url-status=live }}</ref><br />(Ukrainian declared as sole official language in 1990)<ref>Law of Ukraine "About languages of the Ukrainian SSR"</ref>
| recognised_languages   = [[Belarusian language|Belarusian]], [[Crimean Tatar language|Crimean Tatar]], [[Hungarian language|Hungarian]], [[Romanian language|Romanian]], [[Polish language|Polish]]
| religion               = {{ubli|[[Secular state]] (''de jure'')|[[State atheism]] (''de facto'')}}[[Russian Orthodox Church]] ''(majority)'' {{small|(through [[Ukrainian Exarchate]])}}
| government_type        = '''1919–1990:'''<br/>Unitary [[communist state]]<br/>'''1990–1991:'''<br/>[[Unitary parliamentary republic]]
| title_leader           = [[First Secretary of the Communist Party of Ukraine|First Secretary]]
| leader1                = [[Emanuel Kviring]]
| year_leader1           = 1918–1919 (first)
| leader2                = [[Stanislav Hurenko]]
| year_leader2           = 1990 (last)<ref>On 24 October 1990, article 6 on the monopoly of the Communist Party of Ukraine on power was excluded from the Constitution of the Ukrainian SSR</ref>
| title_representative   = [[President of Ukraine#History|Head of state]]
| representative1        = [[Grigory Petrovsky]]
| year_representative1   = 1919–1938 (first)
| representative2        = [[Leonid Kravchuk]]
| year_representative2   = 1990–1991 (last)
| title_deputy           = [[List of Prime Ministers of Ukraine|Head of government]]
| deputy1                = [[Georgy Pyatakov]]
| year_deputy1           = 1918–1919 (first)
| deputy2                = [[Vitold Fokin]]
| year_deputy2           = 1988–1991 (last)
| legislature            = [[All-Ukrainian Congress of Soviets|Congress of Soviets]] (1919–1938)<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20160206110557/http://leksika.com.ua/15831202/ure/vseukrayinskiy_zyizd_rad All-Ukrainian Congress of Soviets] in the [[Ukrainian Soviet Encyclopedia]]</ref> <br/>[[Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic|Supreme Soviet]] (1938–1991){{sfn|Magocsi|2010|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=TA1zVKTTsXUC&pg=PA722 722]}}
| area_km2               = 603,700
| era                    = 
| event_start            = [[Treaty on the Creation of the USSR|Admitted to USSR]]
| life_span              = 1919–1991{{efn|Occupied by [[Nazi Germany]] during [[World War II]] from August 1941–October 1944, it was [[Reichskommissariat Ukraine]] during the Nazi occupation.}}
| date_pre               = 10 March 1919
| event_pre              = Declaration of the Ukrainian Socialist Soviet Republic
| date_start             = 30 December
| year_start             = 1922
| event1                 = [[Soviet annexation of Western Ukraine, 1939–1940|Annexation territories]] from [[Second Polish Republic|Poland]]
| date_event1            = 15 November 1939
| event2                 = [[Soviet occupation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina|Annexation territories]] from [[Kingdom of Romania|Romania]]
| date_event2            = 2 August 1940
| event3                 = [[1954 transfer of Crimea|Received Crimea]] from [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic|Russian SFSR]]
| date_event3            = 19 February 1954
| event4                 = [[Declaration of State Sovereignty of Ukraine|Priority of Ukrainian laws declared]], partial abolition of the [[Soviet republic (system of government)|Soviet form of government]]
| date_event4            = 16 July 1990
| event5                 = [[Declaration of Independence of Ukraine|Declaration of independence]], Ukrainian SSR renamed to Ukraine
| date_event5            = 24 August 1991
| event6                 = [[1991 Ukrainian independence referendum|Ukrainian independence referendum]]
| date_event6            = 1 December 1991
| event_end              = [[Dissolution of the Soviet Union]] (Ukraine's independence formally recognized)
| date_end               = 26 December
| year_end               = 1991
| event_post             = [[Constitution of Ukraine|Full abolition]] of the [[Soviet republic (system of government)|Soviet form of government]]
| date_post              = 28 June 1996
| stat_year1             = [[Soviet Census (1989)|1989 census]]
| stat_pop1              = 51,706,746
| currency               = [[Soviet ruble]] (руб)
| currency_code          = SUR
| footnote_a             = 
| demonym                = [[Ukrainians|Ukrainian]], [[Soviet people|Soviet]]
| HDI                    = 0.731
| HDI_year               = 1990
| cctld                  = [[.su]]
}}
{{Ukrainian statehood}}
The '''Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic''',{{efn|{{langx|uk|Українська Радянська Соціалістична Республіка|Ukrainska Radianska Sotsialistychna Respublika}};{{Efn|Ukrainian-language acronym: {{Langx|uk|УРСР|translit=URSR|label=none}}|group=note}} {{langx|ru|Украинская Советская Социалистическая Республика|Ukrainskaya Sovetskaya Sotsialisticheskaya Respublika}}{{Efn|Russian-language acronym: {{langx|ru|УССР|USSR}}|group=note}}}} abbreviated as the '''Ukrainian SSR''', '''UkrSSR''', and also known as '''Soviet Ukraine''' or just '''Ukraine''',<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/ua/elib.exe?&I21DBN=UKRLIB&P21DBN=UKRLIB&S21STN=1&S21REF=10&S21FMT=fullwebr&C21COM=S&S21CNR=20&S21P01=0&S21P02=0&S21P03=I=&S21STR=%2D498008 |title=Українська радянська енциклопедія : &#91;в 12 т.&#93; / голов. редкол.: М. П. Бажан (голов. ред.) &#91;та ін.&#93;. - Київ : Голов. ред. УРЕ, 1977 - 1985. |access-date=28 August 2023 |archive-date=29 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230829004917/http://irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/ua/elib.exe?&I21DBN=UKRLIB&P21DBN=UKRLIB&S21STN=1&S21REF=10&S21FMT=fullwebr&C21COM=S&S21CNR=20&S21P01=0&S21P02=0&S21P03=I=&S21STR=-498008 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CQ0MAAAAIAAJ&q=united+nations+ukraine |title=The Ukraine in the United Nations organization: A study in Soviet foreign policy, 1944-1950 (East European monographs) |isbn=978-0-914710-02-8 |access-date=28 August 2023 |archive-date=22 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230922165542/https://www.google.com.ua/books/edition/The_Ukraine_in_the_United_Nations_Organi/CQ0MAAAAIAAJ?hl=uk&gbpv=1&bsq=united+nations+ukraine&dq=united+nations+ukraine&printsec=frontcover |url-status=live |last1=Sawczuk |first1=Konstantyn |date=21 January 1975 |publisher=East European Quarterly }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xupEAQAAMAAJ&dq=united+nations+ukraine&pg=PA1843 |title=Review of the United Nations Charter Hearings Before the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Subcommittee on the United Nations Charter, Eighty-Third Congress, Second Session |date=21 January 2024 |access-date=28 August 2023 |archive-date=22 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230922165538/https://www.google.com.ua/books/edition/Review_of_the_United_Nations_Charter/xupEAQAAMAAJ?hl=uk&gbpv=1&dq=united+nations+ukraine&pg=PA1843&printsec=frontcover |url-status=live }}</ref> was one of the [[Republics of the Soviet Union|constituent republics]] of the [[Soviet Union]] from 1922 until 1991.<ref>{{cite news |last=Lee |first=Gary |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1986/10/27/soviets-begin-recovery-from-disasters-damage/5ca2e3fa-cced-4395-a6c4-27d2aa1ed108/ |title=Soviets Begin Recovery From Disaster's Damage |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |date=27 October 1986 |access-date=25 April 2017 |archive-date=27 January 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200127234748/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1986/10/27/soviets-begin-recovery-from-disasters-damage/5ca2e3fa-cced-4395-a6c4-27d2aa1ed108/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Under the Soviet [[One-party state|one-party model]], the Ukrainian SSR was governed by the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union]] through its [[Soviet democracy|republican branch]], the [[Communist Party of Ukraine (Soviet Union)|Communist Party of Ukraine]].

The first iterations of the Ukrainian SSR were established during the [[Russian Revolution]], particularly after the [[October Revolution|Bolshevik Revolution]]. The outbreak of the [[Ukrainian–Soviet War]] in the former [[Russian Empire]] saw the [[Bolsheviks]] defeat the independent [[Ukrainian People's Republic]], during the conflict against which they founded the [[Ukrainian People's Republic of Soviets]], which was governed by the [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic]] (RSFSR), in December 1917; it was later succeeded by the [[Ukrainian Soviet Republic]] in 1918.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Emergence of Ukraine: Self-Determination, Occupation, and War in Ukraine, 1917-1922 |publisher=Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies Press |year=2015 |location=Edmonton |translator-last=Fagan |translator-first=Gus }}</ref> Simultaneously with the [[Russian Civil War]], the [[Ukrainian War of Independence]] was being fought among the different Ukrainian republics founded by [[Ukrainian nationalism|Ukrainian nationalists]], [[Anarchism in Ukraine|Ukrainian anarchists]], and Ukrainian separatists – primarily against Soviet Russia and the Ukrainian SSR, with either help or opposition from neighbouring states.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Ukraine/World-War-I-and-the-struggle-for-independence |title=World War I and the struggle for independence |access-date=18 May 2023 |archive-date=15 May 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230515233804/https://www.britannica.com/place/Ukraine/World-War-I-and-the-struggle-for-independence |url-status=live }}</ref> In 1922, it was one of four Soviet republics (with the Russian SFSR, the Byelorussian SSR, and the [[Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic|Transcaucasian SFSR]]) that signed the [[Treaty on the Creation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics|Treaty on the Creation of the Soviet Union]]. As a Soviet [[quasi-state]], the Ukrainian SSR became a [[founding member of the United Nations]] in 1945<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.un.org/depts/dhl/unms/ukraine.shtml |title=Activities of the Member States – Ukraine |access-date=17 January 2011 |work=United Nations |archive-date=29 January 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190129063037/http://www.un.org/depts/dhl/unms/ukraine.shtml |url-status=live }}</ref> alongside the [[Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic|Byelorussian SSR]], in spite of the fact that they were also legally represented by the Soviet Union in foreign affairs. Upon the [[dissolution of the Soviet Union]] in 1991, the Ukrainian SSR emerged as the present-day independent state of [[Ukraine]], although the modified [[1978 Constitution of the Ukrainian SSR|Soviet-era constitution]] remained in use until the adoption of the modern [[Constitution of Ukraine|Ukrainian constitution]] in June 1996.<ref name="Larousse">{{cite web |url=http://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/divers/Ukraine_vie_politique_depuis_1991/187636 |title=Ukraine: vie politique depuis 1991 |publisher=[[Éditions Larousse|Larousse]] |access-date=26 November 2016 |archive-date=27 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200227224521/https://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/divers/Ukraine_vie_politique_depuis_1991/187636 |url-status=live }}</ref>

The republic's borders changed many times, with a general trend toward acquiring lands with ethnic Ukrainian population majority, and losing lands with other ethnic majorities. A significant portion of what is now [[western Ukraine]] was gained via the Soviet-German [[Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact]], with the annexation of [[Soviet annexation of Eastern Galicia and Volhynia|Eastern Galicia and Volhynia]] in 1939, significant portions of Romania in 1940, and [[Carpathian Ruthenia]] in [[Czechoslovakia]] in 1945. From the 1919 establishment of the Ukrainian SSR until 1934, the city of [[Kharkiv|Kharkov]] served as its capital; however, the republic's seat of government was subsequently relocated in 1934 to the city of [[Kyiv|Kiev]], the historic Ukrainian capital, and remained at Kiev for the remainder of its existence.

Geographically, the Ukrainian SSR was situated in [[Eastern Europe]], to the north of the [[Black Sea]], and was bordered by the Soviet republics of [[Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic|Moldavia]] (since 1940), Byelorussia, and Russia, and the countries of Romania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Poland. The republic's border with Czechoslovakia formed the Soviet Union's westernmost border point. According to the [[Soviet Census (1989)|1989 Soviet census]], the republic of Ukraine had a population of 51,706,746 (second after Russia).<ref name="Starostenko1998">Hanna H. Starostenko, [http://www.wumag.kiev.ua/wumag_old/archiv/2_98/economic.htm "Economic and Ecological Factors of Transformations in Demographic Process in Ukraine"] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110515132623/http://www.wumag.kiev.ua/wumag_old/archiv/2_98/economic.htm |date=15 May 2011 }}, ''Uktraine Magazine'' No. 2, 1998.</ref><ref name="worldbank1">{{cite web |url=http://www.worldbank.org/html/prddr/trans/julaug99/pgs3-4.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090720122016/http://www.worldbank.org/html/prddr/trans/julaug99/pgs3-4.htm |archive-date=20 July 2009 |title=What Went Wrong with Foreign Advice in Ukraine? |access-date=16 January 2008 |website=The World Bank Group }}</ref>

==Name==
{{Eastern Bloc sidebar|right}}
{{see also|Name of Ukraine}}

Its original names in 1919 were both '''Ukraine'''<ref>[[Constitutions of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic#Constitution of 1919|1919 Constitution of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic]]</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://lenin.rusarchives.ru/dokumenty/dogovor-o-peremirii-i-preliminarnyh-usloviyah-mira-mezhdu-rossiey-i-ukrainoy-s-odnoy |title=An armistice agreement and preliminary peace conditions between Russia and Ukraine on the one hand and Poland on the other. |access-date=28 August 2023 |archive-date=28 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230828230656/https://lenin.rusarchives.ru/dokumenty/dogovor-o-peremirii-i-preliminarnyh-usloviyah-mira-mezhdu-rossiey-i-ukrainoy-s-odnoy |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jQkEAAAAYAAJ&dq=ukraine+rakovsky&pg=PA368 |title=Rakovsky on the situation in Ukraine |date=21 January 2024 |access-date=28 August 2023 |archive-date=22 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230922165619/https://www.google.com.ua/books/edition/Soviet_Russia/jQkEAAAAYAAJ?hl=uk&gbpv=1&dq=ukraine+rakovsky&pg=PA368&printsec=frontcover |url-status=live }}</ref> and '''Ukrainian Socialist Soviet Republic''' ({{langx|uk|Українська Соціалістична Радянська Республіка|translit=Ukrainska Sotsialistychna Radianska Respublika}}, abbreviated {{Langx|uk|УСРР|translit=USRR|label=none}}). After the ratification of the [[1936 Soviet Constitution]], full official names of all Soviet republics were changed, transposing the second (''socialist'') and third (''sovietskaya'' in Russian or ''radianska'' in Ukrainian) words. In accordance, on 5 December 1936, the 8th Extraordinary Congress Soviets in Soviet Union changed the name of the republic to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, which was ratified by the 14th Extraordinary Congress of Soviets in Ukrainian SSR on 31 January 1937.<ref name="knowbysight" />

The name ''Ukraine'' ({{langx|la|Vkraina}}) is a subject of debate. It is often perceived as being derived from the Slavic word "okraina", meaning "border land". It was first used to define part of the territory of [[Kievan Rus']] ([[Ruthenia]]) in the 12th century, at which point Kiev (now [[Kyiv]]) was the capital of Rus'. The name has been used in a variety of ways since the twelfth century. For example, [[Zaporozhian Cossacks]] called their [[Cossack Hetmanate|hetmanate]] "Ukraine".

Within the [[Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth]], the name carried unofficial status for larger part of [[Kiev Voivodeship]].

"''The'' Ukraine" was once the usual form in English,<ref name="merriam-webster">{{cite web |url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ukraine |title=Ukraine – Definition |publisher=Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary |access-date=4 May 2012 |archive-date=19 May 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200519004512/https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Ukraine |url-status=live }}</ref> despite Ukrainian not having a [[definite article]]. Since the [[Declaration of Independence of Ukraine]], this form has become less common in the [[English-speaking world]], and style-guides warn against its use in professional writing.<ref name=UKrW812991TU>{{cite web |url=http://www.ukrweekly.com/old/archive/1991/499102.shtml |title=The "the" is gone |publisher=[[The Ukrainian Weekly]] |volume=LIX, No. 49 |date=8 December 1991 |access-date=21 October 2015 |archive-date=14 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171014083357/http://www.ukrweekly.com/old/archive/1991/499102.shtml |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |author=Adam Taylor |url=http://www.businessinsider.com/why-ukraine-isnt-the-ukraine-and-why-that-matters-now-2013-12 |title=Why Ukraine Isn't 'The Ukraine,' And Why That Matters Now |website=[[Business Insider]] |date=9 December 2013 |access-date=21 October 2015 |archive-date=9 December 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131209195202/http://www.businessinsider.com/why-ukraine-isnt-the-ukraine-and-why-that-matters-now-2013-12 |url-status=live }}</ref> According to U.S. ambassador [[William B. Taylor, Jr.|William Taylor]], "The Ukraine" implies disregard for the country's sovereignty.<ref>{{cite news |title='Ukraine' or 'the Ukraine'? It's more controversial than you think. |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2014/03/25/ukraine-or-the-ukraine-its-more-controversial-than-you-think/ |access-date=11 August 2016 |newspaper=[[Washington Post]] |date=25 March 2014 |archive-date=3 June 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200603114329/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2014/03/25/ukraine-or-the-ukraine-its-more-controversial-than-you-think/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The Ukrainian position is that the usage of "The Ukraine" is incorrect both grammatically and politically."<ref name="BBC News Magazine">{{citation |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18233844 |publisher=BBC |title=Ukraine or the Ukraine: Why do some country names have 'the'? |last1=Geoghegan |first1=Tom |work=BBC News Magazine |date=7 June 2012 |access-date=27 March 2020 |archive-date=21 April 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200421210141/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18233844 |url-status=live }}</ref>

==History==
{{further|Modern history of Ukraine}}
{{see also|Ukrainian Soviet Republic|Ukrainian People's Republic of Soviets}}
After the abdication of Tsar [[Nicholas II of Russia|Nicholas II]] during the [[February Revolution]] of 1917 in [[Petrograd]], many people in Ukraine wished to establish an autonomous Ukrainian Republic. During a period of the [[Russian Civil War]] from 1917 to 1923, many factions claiming themselves governments of the newly born republic were formed, each with supporters and opponents. The two most prominent of them were an independent government in [[Kyiv|Kiev]] called the [[Ukrainian People's Republic]] (UNR) and a [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic|Soviet Russia]]-aligned government in [[Kharkiv|Kharkov]] called the [[Ukrainian Soviet Republic]] (USR). The Kiev-based UNR was internationally recognized and supported by the [[Central Powers]] following the [[Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (Ukraine–Central Powers)|Treaty of Brest-Litovsk]],<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-02-24 |title=Treaties of Brest-Litovsk {{!}} Russia, Germany, Austria-Hungary {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/event/treaties-of-Brest-Litovsk |access-date=2025-03-27 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref> whereas the Kharkov-based USR was solely supported by the Soviet Russian forces, while neither the UNR nor the USR were explicitly supported by the [[White movement|White Russian]] forces that remained, although there were attempts to establish cooperation during the closing stages of the war with the former.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-03-27 |title=Ukraine - WWI, Independence, Revolution {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Ukraine/World-War-I-and-the-struggle-for-independence |access-date=2025-03-27 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref>

The conflict between the two competing governments, known as the [[Ukrainian–Soviet War]], was part of the ongoing [[Russian Civil War]], as well as a struggle for national independence (known as the [[Ukrainian War of Independence]]), which ended with the territory of pro-independence Ukrainian People's Republic being annexed into a new Ukrainian Socialist Soviet Republic, western Ukraine being annexed into the [[Second Polish Republic]], and the newly stable Ukrainian SSR becoming a founding member of the [[Soviet Union]].

The government of the Ukrainian Soviet Republic was founded on 24–25 December 1917. In its publications, it named itself either the Republic of Soviets of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies<ref>{{cite web |last=Rumyantsev |first=Vyacheslav |title=Revolution of 1917 in Russia |url=http://www.hrono.ru/1917ru.html |work=XRONOS: Worldwide History on the Internet |access-date=16 April 2011 |language=ru |archive-date=21 November 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191121160231/http://hrono.ru/1917ru.html |url-status=live }}</ref> or the [[Ukrainian People's Republic of Soviets]].<ref name="knowbysight">{{cite web |title=Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic |url=http://www.knowbysight.info/1_UKRA/08983.asp |work=Guide to the history of the Communist Party and the Soviet Union in 1898 |access-date=16 April 2011 |language=ru |archive-date=3 October 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191003053252/http://www.knowbysight.info/1_UKRA/08983.asp |url-status=live }}</ref> The 1917 republic was only recognised by another non-recognised country, the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic. With the signing of the [[Treaty of Brest-Litovsk|Brest-Litovsk Treaty]] by Russia, it was ultimately defeated by mid-1918 and eventually dissolved.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-03-27 |title=Ukraine - Interwar, Soviet Union, Independence {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Ukraine/Ukraine-in-the-interwar-period |access-date=2025-03-27 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref>

In July 1918, the former members of the government formed the [[Communist Party of Ukraine (Soviet Union)|Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Ukraine]], the constituent assembly of which took place in [[Moscow]]. With the defeat of the Central Powers in [[World War I]], the [[Bolsheviks]] resumed its hostilities towards the [[Ukrainian People's Republic]] fighting for Ukrainian independence and organised another Soviet Ukrainian government. 

The [[Provisional Workers' and Peasants' Government of Ukraine]] was created on November 28, 1918, in [[Kursk]], with the provisional government assigned to the city of [[Sudzha, Kursk Oblast|Sudzha]]. On 10 March 1919, the [[Third All-Ukrainian Congress of Soviets]] ratified the constitution of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in Kharkiv.<ref>{{Cite book |author-link=Ivan Katchanovski |last1=Katchanovski |first1=Ivan |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/860732450 |title=Historical dictionary of Ukraine |last2=Kohut |first2=Zenon E. |last3=Nebesio |first3=Bohdan Y. |last4=Yurkevich |first4=Myroslav |date=2013 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |isbn=978-0-8108-7845-7 |edition=2nd |location=Latham |pages=714 |oclc=860732450 }}</ref>

===Founding: 1917–1922===
After the [[Russian Revolution|Russian Revolution of 1917]], several factions sought to create an independent Ukrainian state, alternately cooperating and struggling against each other. Numerous more or less socialist-oriented factions participated in the formation of the [[Ukrainian People's Republic]] among which were Bolsheviks, [[Mensheviks]], [[Socialist Revolutionary Party|Socialists-Revolutionaries]] and many others. The most popular faction was initially the local [[Ukrainian Socialist-Revolutionary Party|Socialist Revolutionary Party]] that composed the local government together with Federalists and Mensheviks.

Immediately after the [[October Revolution]] in [[Saint Petersburg|Petrograd]], Bolsheviks instigated the [[Kiev Bolshevik Uprising]] to support the revolution and secure Kiev. Due to a lack of adequate support from the local population and governing anti-communist [[Central Rada]], however, the Kiev Bolshevik group split. Most moved to [[Kharkiv|Kharkov]] and received the support of the eastern Ukrainian cities and industrial centers. Later, this move was regarded as a mistake by some of the [[People's Commissariat|People's Commissars]] ([[Yevgenia Bosch]]). They issued an ultimatum to the Central Rada on 17 December to recognise the [[Council of People's Commissars|Soviet government]] of which the Rada was very critical. The Bolsheviks convened a separate congress and declared the first Soviet Republic of Ukraine on 24 December 1917 claiming the [[Central Council of Ukraine|Central Rada]] and its supporters outlaws that need to be eradicated. Warfare ensued against the Ukrainian People's Republic for the installation of the Soviet regime in the country, and with the direct support from [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic|Soviet Russia]] the Ukrainian National forces were practically overrun. The government of Ukraine appealed to foreign capitals, finding support in the face of the Central Powers as the others refused to recognise it. After the [[Treaty of Brest-Litovsk]], the Russian SFSR yielded all the captured Ukrainian territory as the Bolsheviks were forced out of Ukraine. The government of Soviet Ukraine was dissolved after its last session on 20 November 1918.{{citation needed|date=October 2018}}

After re-taking Kharkov in February 1919, a second Soviet Ukrainian government was formed. The government enforced Russian policies that did not adhere to local needs.{{cn|date=February 2025}} A group of three thousand workers were dispatched from Russia to take grain from local farms to feed Russian cities and were met with resistance. The Ukrainian language was also censured from administrative and educational use. Eventually fighting both White forces in the east and Ukrainian forces in the west, [[Vladimir Lenin|Lenin]] ordered the liquidation of the second Soviet Ukrainian government in August 1919.{{sfn|Subtelny|2000|p=365}}

Eventually, after the creation of the [[Communist Party of Ukraine (Soviet Union)|Communist Party (Bolshevik) of Ukraine]] in Moscow, a third Ukrainian Soviet government was formed on 21 December 1919 that initiated new hostilities against Ukrainian nationalists as they lost their military support from the defeated Central Powers. Eventually, the [[Red Army]] ended up controlling much of the Ukrainian territory after the Polish-Soviet [[Peace of Riga]]. On 30 December 1922, along with the [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic|Russian]], [[Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic|Byelorussian]] and [[Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic|Transcaucasian]] republics, the Ukrainian SSR became one of the founding members of the [[Soviet Union|Union of Soviet Socialist Republics]] (USSR).<ref>{{Cite web |title=Договор об образовании Союза Советских Социалистических Республик — Викитека |url=https://ru.wikisource.org/wiki/%D0%94%D0%BE%D0%B3%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%BE%D1%80_%D0%BE%D0%B1_%D0%BE%D0%B1%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%B7%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%B8_%D0%A1%D0%BE%D1%8E%D0%B7%D0%B0_%D0%A1%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B5%D1%82%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B8%D1%85_%D0%A1%D0%BE%D1%86%D0%B8%D0%B0%D0%BB%D0%B8%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B8%D1%87%D0%B5%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B8%D1%85_%D0%A0%D0%B5%D1%81%D0%BF%D1%83%D0%B1%D0%BB%D0%B8%D0%BA |access-date=10 July 2023 |website=ru.wikisource.org |language=ru |archive-date=19 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230419182258/https://ru.wikisource.org/wiki/%D0%94%D0%BE%D0%B3%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%BE%D1%80_%D0%BE%D0%B1_%D0%BE%D0%B1%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%B7%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%B8_%D0%A1%D0%BE%D1%8E%D0%B7%D0%B0_%D0%A1%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B5%D1%82%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B8%D1%85_%D0%A1%D0%BE%D1%86%D0%B8%D0%B0%D0%BB%D0%B8%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B8%D1%87%D0%B5%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B8%D1%85_%D0%A0%D0%B5%D1%81%D0%BF%D1%83%D0%B1%D0%BB%D0%B8%D0%BA |url-status=live }}</ref>
<gallery widths="220px" heights="160px">
File:Bolsheviks Kharkov Ukraine anrc 04262a.jpg|Bolshevik commissars in Ukraine (1919).
File:Map of Ukraine for Paris Peace Conference.jpg|Territories claimed by the [[Ukrainian People's Republic]] (1917–1920).
File:Europe location UkrSSR 1922.png|Boundaries of the Ukrainian SSR (1922).
File:Soviet Russia in Europe in 1921.jpg|Soviet Russia in Europe.
File:Ukrainian SSR Document 1937.jpg|Draft constitution of the Soviet Union (1937).
File:Bakom Rysslands jarnrid.jpg|Cover page from the book "Behind the Iron Curtain of Russia", printed in Stockholm 1923.
</gallery>

==={{anchor|interbellum}} Interwar years: 1922–1939===<!--Do not change anchor name, a link with articles. WP:ANCHOR-->
During the 1920s, a policy of [[Ukrainization#1923–1931: early years of Soviet Ukraine|Ukrainization]] was pursued in the Ukrainian SSR, as part of the general Soviet [[Korenizatsiya|korenization]] policy; this involved promoting the use and the social status of the Ukrainian language and the elevation of ethnic Ukrainians to leadership positions (see ''[[Ukrainization#Early years of Soviet Ukraine/|Ukrainization – early years of Soviet Ukraine]]'' for more details).

In 1932, the aggressive agricultural policies of [[Joseph Stalin]]'s regime resulted in one of the largest national catastrophes in the modern history for the [[Ukrainians|Ukrainian nation]]. A famine known as the [[Holodomor]] caused a direct loss of human life estimated between 2.6&nbsp;million<ref name=Vallin2005>France Meslé, Gilles Pison, Jacques Vallin [http://www.ined.fr/en/resources_documentation/publications/pop_soc/bdd/publication/47/ France-Ukraine: Demographic Twins Separated by History] {{Webarchive |url=https://archive.today/20120525/http://www.ined.fr/en/resources_documentation/publications/pop_soc/bdd/publication/47/ |date=25 May 2012 }}, ''Population and societies'', N°413, juin 2005</ref><ref name=Vallinbook>ce Meslé, Jacques Vallin Mortalité et causes de décès en Ukraine au XXè siècle + CDRom {{ISBN|2-7332-0152-2}} CD online data (partially – {{cite web |url=http://www.ined.fr/fichier/t_publication/cdrom_mortukraine/cdrom.htm |title=Mortality and Causes of Death in Ukraine for the 20th Century |access-date=5 February 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130912153906/http://www.ined.fr/fichier/t_publication/cdrom_mortukraine/cdrom.htm |archive-date=12 September 2013}})</ref> to 10 million.<ref name="EGCA">{{cite book |last=Shelton |first=Dinah |title=Encyclopedia of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity |url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofge00dina_0 |url-access=registration |pages=1059 |isbn=0-02-865850-7 |year=2005 |publisher=Macmillan Reference, Thomson Gale |location=Detroit; Munich }}</ref> Some scholars and the [[Ukrainian World Congress|World Congress of Free Ukrainians]] assert that this was [[Holodomor genocide question|an act of genocide]].{{citation needed|date=February 2022}} The [[International Commission of Inquiry Into the 1932–1933 Famine in Ukraine]] found no evidence that the famine was part of a preconceived plan to starve Ukrainians, and concluded in 1990 that the famine was caused by a combination of factors, including Soviet policies of compulsory grain requisitions, forced [[Collective farming|collectivization]], [[dekulakization]], and [[Russification]].<ref name=Hobbins2001>{{cite journal |last1=Hobbins |first1=AJ |last2=Boyer |first2=Daniel |title=Seeking Historical Truth: The International Commission of Inquiry into the 1932–33 Famine in Ukraine |journal=Dalhousie Law Journal |volume=24 |issue=2 |pages=139–91 |year=2001 |pmid= |pmc= |doi= |jstor= |url=https://digitalcommons.schulichlaw.dal.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1823&context=dlj |access-date=27 February 2022 |archive-date=27 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220227140352/https://digitalcommons.schulichlaw.dal.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1823&context=dlj |url-status=live }}</ref> The General Assembly of the UN has stopped shy of recognizing the Holodomor as genocide, calling it a "great tragedy" as a [[Holodomor genocide question|compromise between tense positions]] of United Kingdom, United States, Russia, and Ukraine on the matter, while some nations went on to [[Holodomor in modern politics|individually]] categorize it as genocide, including France, Germany, and the United States after the 2022 [[Russian invasion of Ukraine]].

=== World War II: 1939–1945 ===
{{main|Modern history of Ukraine#World War II}}
{{further|Reichskommissariat Ukraine}}
[[File:Dayosh Kiev.jpg|thumb|left|[[Red Army|Soviet soldiers]] preparing rafts to cross the [[Dnieper]] during the [[Battle of the Dnieper]] (1943). The sign in [[Russian language|Russian]] reads: "Let's get Kiev!"]]
[[File:ZakapratskaUkraina1944.png|thumb|left|Front page of the Zakarpattia Ukraine newspaper (1944) with the manifest of unification with Soviet Ukraine (not the Ukrainian SSR)]]
In September 1939, the [[Soviet invasion of Poland|Soviet Union invaded Poland]] and occupied [[Galicia (Eastern Europe)|Galician]] lands inhabited by Ukrainians, Poles and Jews adding it to the territory of the Ukrainian SSR. In 1940, the [[Soviet occupation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina|Soviet Union occupied Bessarabia, Northern Bukovina and the Hertsa region]], lands inhabited by Romanians, Ukrainians, Russians, Jews, Bulgarians and Gagauz, adding them to the territory of the Ukrainian SSR and the newly formed [[Moldavian SSR]]. In 1945, these lands were permanently annexed, and the [[Carpathian Ruthenia|Transcarpathia]] region was added as well, by treaty with the post-war administration of Czechoslovakia. Following eastward Soviet retreat in 1941, [[Ufa]] became the wartime seat of the Soviet Ukrainian government.{{citation needed|date=October 2018}}

=== {{anchor|postwar}}Post-war years: 1945–1953 ===<!--Do not change anchor name, a link with articles. WP:TARGET-->
While [[World War II]] (called the [[Great Patriotic War (term)|Great Patriotic War]] by the Soviet government) did not end before May 1945, the Germans were driven out of Ukraine between February 1943 and October 1944. The first task of the Soviet authorities was to reestablish political control over the republic which had been entirely lost during the war. This was an immense task, considering the widespread human and material losses. During World War II [[World War II casualties of the Soviet Union|the Soviet Union lost]] about 8.6&nbsp;million combatants and around 18 million civilians, of these, 6.8&nbsp;million were Ukrainian civilians and military personnel. Also, an estimated 3.9&nbsp;million Ukrainians were evacuated to the [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic]] during the war, and 2.2&nbsp;million Ukrainians were sent to forced labour camps by the Germans.{{citation needed|date=October 2018}}

The material devastation was huge; [[Adolf Hitler]]'s orders to create "a zone of annihilation" in 1943, coupled with the Soviet military's [[scorched-earth]] policy in 1941, meant Ukraine lay in ruins. These two policies led to the destruction of more than 28,000 villages and 714 cities and towns. 85 percent of [[Kyiv|Kiev]]'s city centre was destroyed, as was 70 percent of the city centre of the second-largest city in Ukraine, [[Kharkiv|Kharkov]]. Because of this, 19 million people were left homeless after the war.{{sfn|Magocsi|1996|p=684}} The republic's industrial base, as so much else, was destroyed.{{sfn|Magocsi|1996|pp=684–685}} The Soviet government had managed to evacuate 544 industrial enterprises between July and November 1941, but the rapid German advance led to the destruction or the partial destruction of 16,150 enterprises. 27,910 [[Collective farming|collective farms]], 1,300 machine tractor stations and 872 state farms were destroyed by the Germans.{{sfn|Magocsi|1996|p=685}}

[[File:Curzon line en.svg|thumb|The [[Curzon Line]] expanded the territory of the Ukrainian SSR to include western Ukraine, previously controlled by [[Second Polish Republic|Poland]].]]
While the war brought to Ukraine an enormous physical destruction, victory also led to territorial expansion. As a victor, the Soviet Union gained new prestige and more land. The Ukrainian border was expanded to the [[Curzon Line]]. Ukraine was also expanded southwards, near the area [[Izmail]], previously part of [[Romania]].{{sfn|Magocsi|1996|p=685}} An agreement was signed by the Soviet Union and [[Czechoslovakia]] whereby [[Carpathian Ruthenia]] was handed over to Ukraine.{{sfn|Magocsi|1996|p=687}} The territory of Ukraine expanded by {{convert|64500|sqmi|km2|order=flip}} and increased its population by an estimated 11 million.{{sfn|Magocsi|1996|p=688}}

After World War II, amendments to the Constitution of the Ukrainian SSR were accepted, which allowed it to act as a separate subject of [[international law]] in some cases and to a certain extent, remaining a part of the Soviet Union at the same time. In particular, these amendments allowed the Ukrainian SSR to become one of the founding members of the United Nations (UN) together with the Soviet Union and the [[Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic|Byelorussian SSR]]. This was part of a deal with the United States to ensure a degree of balance in the [[United Nations General Assembly|General Assembly]], which, the USSR opined, was unbalanced in favor of the Western Bloc. In its capacity as a member of the UN, the Ukrainian SSR was [[List of members of the United Nations Security Council|an elected member]] of the [[United Nations Security Council]] in 1948–1949 and 1984–1985.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Countries Elected Members {{!}} Security Council |url=https://main.un.org/securitycouncil/en/content/countries-elected-members |access-date=2025-03-14 |website=main.un.org}}</ref>

=== Khrushchev and Brezhnev: 1953–1985 ===
<!-- Deleted image removed: [[File:Naveki.jpg|thumb|upright|"Eternally Together": a Soviet poster made for the 300th anniversary of the [[Treaty of Pereyaslav]] in 1954.]] -->
[[File:1954. 300-летие воссоединения Украины с Россией.jpg|thumb|left|Soviet [[Postage stamp|postal stamp]], 1954, in honour of the 300th anniversary of Ukraine re-unification with Russia (Soviet name for the [[Pereiaslav Agreement]]), {{langx|ru|link=no|300-летие Воссоединения Украины с Россией}}).]]
[[File:Хрущёв и Брежнев.jpg|thumb|Three Soviet [[General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|general secretaries]] were either born or raised in Ukraine: [[Nikita Khrushchev]] and [[Leonid Brezhnev]] (depicted here together), and [[Konstantin Chernenko]].{{fact|date=September 2023}}]]
When Stalin died on 5 March 1953, the [[collective leadership]] of Khrushchev, [[Georgy Malenkov]], [[Vyacheslav Molotov]] and [[Lavrentiy Beria]] took power and a period of [[de-Stalinization]] began.{{sfn|Magocsi|1996|p=701}} Change came as early as 1953, when officials were allowed to criticise Stalin's policy of [[russification]]. The Central Committee of the [[Communist Party of Ukraine (Soviet Union)|Communist Party of Ukraine]] (CPU) openly criticised Stalin's russification policies in a meeting in June 1953. On 4 June 1953, [[Aleksey Kirichenko]] succeeded [[Leonid Melnikov]] as First Secretary of the CPU; this was significant since Kyrychenko was the first ethnic Ukrainian to lead the CPU since the 1920s. The policy of de-Stalinization took two main features, that of centralisation and decentralisation from the centre. In February 1954, the [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic]] (RSFSR) [[Transfer of Crimea in the Soviet Union|transferred Crimea]] to Ukraine during the celebrations of the 300th anniversary of Ukraine's reunification with Russia (Soviet name for the [[Pereiaslav Agreement]]).{{sfn|Magocsi|1996|pp=702–703}} The massive festivities lasted throughout 1954, commemorating ({{langx|uk|Переяславська рада}}), the treaty which brought Ukraine under Russian rule three centuries before. The event was celebrated to prove the old and brotherly love between [[Ukrainians]] and [[Russians]], and proof of the Soviet Union as a "family of nations"; it was also another way of legitimising [[Marxism–Leninism]].{{sfn|Magocsi|1996|p=703}} On 23 June 1954, the civilian [[oil tanker]] ''[[Capture of the Tuapse|Tuapse]]'' of the [[Black Sea Shipping Company]] based in [[Odessa]] was hijacked by a fleet of [[Republic of China Navy]] in the [[International waters|high sea]] of ''19°35′N, 120°39′E'', west of [[Balintang Channel]] near [[Philippines]], whereas the 49 Ukrainian, Russian and Moldovan crew were detained by the [[Kuomintang]] regime in various terms up to 34 years in [[captivity]] with three deaths.<ref>{{Cite web |title="Tuapse" Oil Tanker Episode in the History of Taiwan-Russia Relations |url=http://taiwanfellowship.ncl.edu.tw/files/scholar_publish/1794-aihhlpmnhgxpzbc.pdf |author=Prof. Sergey Vradiy |publisher=Taiwan Fellowship, Center for Chinese Studies, [[National Central Library]] |date=20 February 2020 |access-date=24 September 2021 |archive-date=6 October 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211006184937/http://taiwanfellowship.ncl.edu.tw/files/scholar_publish/1794-aihhlpmnhgxpzbc.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |author=Andrey Slyusarenko |title=Плавание длиною в полжизни |trans-title=Floating for half a life |url=https://odessa-life.od.ua/article/264-plavanie-dlinoyu-v-polzhizni |publisher=Odessa Life |date=11 November 2009 |access-date=24 September 2021 |language=uk-UA |archive-date=23 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220223221423/https://odessa-life.od.ua/article/264-plavanie-dlinoyu-v-polzhizni |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Танкер "Туапсе", или возвращение из тайваньского плена |trans-title=Tanker "Tuapse" returns from Taiwanese captivity |url=http://odesskiy.com/chisto-fakti-iz-zhizni-i-istorii/tanker-tuapse-ili-vozvraschenie-iz-tajvanskogo-plena.html |author=Oleg Bulovich |location=Odesa, Ukraine |publisher=Odesskiy |access-date=24 September 2021 |language=uk-UA |archive-date=24 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220224010629/http://odesskiy.com/chisto-fakti-iz-zhizni-i-istorii/tanker-tuapse-ili-vozvraschenie-iz-tajvanskogo-plena.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

The [[Khrushchev Thaw|"Thaw"]]{{spaced ndash}}the policy of deliberate liberalisation{{spaced ndash}}was characterised by four points: amnesty for some convicted of state crime during the war or the immediate post-war years; amnesties for one-third of those convicted of state crime during Stalin's rule; the establishment of the first Ukrainian mission to the United Nations in 1958; and the steady increase of Ukrainians in the rank of the CPU and government of the Ukrainian SSR. Not only were the majority of CPU Central Committee and Politburo members ethnic Ukrainians, three-quarters of the highest ranking party and state officials were ethnic Ukrainians too. The policy of partial [[Ukrainisation]] also led to a cultural thaw within Ukraine.{{sfn|Magocsi|1996|p=703}}

[[File:Soviet Union Administrative Divisions 1989.jpg|thumb|250px|Location of the Ukrainian SSR (yellow) within the [[Soviet Union]] in 1954–1991]]
In October 1964, Khrushchev was deposed by a joint Central Committee and Politburo plenum and succeeded by another collective leadership, this time led by [[Leonid Brezhnev]], born in Ukraine, as First Secretary and [[Alexei Kosygin]] as [[Premier of the Soviet Union|Chairman]] of the [[Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union|Council of Ministers]].{{sfn|Magocsi|1996|p=708}} Brezhnev's rule would be marked by social and economic stagnation, a period often referred to as the [[Era of Stagnation]].{{sfn|Magocsi|1996|pp=708–709}} The new regime introduced the policy of ''rastsvet'', ''sblizhenie'' and ''sliianie'' ("flowering", "drawing together" and "merging"/"fusion"), which was the policy of uniting the different Soviet nationalities into one [[Soviet people|Soviet nationality]] by merging the best elements of each nationality into the new one. This policy turned out to be, in fact, the reintroduction of the russification policy.{{sfn|Magocsi|1996|p=709}}

=== Gorbachev and dissolution: 1985–1991 ===
[[File:Ukraine presidential elections 1991.png|thumb|The [[1991 Ukrainian presidential election]]. Former dissident [[Viacheslav Chornovil]] gained 23.3 percent of the vote, compared to 61.6 percent for then Acting President [[Leonid Kravchuk]].]]
Gorbachev's policies of ''[[perestroika]]'' and ''[[glasnost]]'' (English: ''restructuring'' and ''openness'') failed to reach Ukraine as early as other Soviet republics because of the influence of [[Volodymyr Shcherbytsky]], a conservative communist appointed by Brezhnev and the First Secretary of the Ukrainian Communist Party.{{sfn|Magocsi|1996|p=717}} The [[Chernobyl disaster]] of 1986, the russification policies, and the apparent social and economic stagnation led several Ukrainians to oppose Soviet rule. Gorbachev's policy of ''perestroika'' was also never introduced into practice, 95 percent of industry and agriculture was still owned by the Soviet state in 1990. The talk of reform, but the lack of introducing reform into practice, led to confusion which in turn evolved into opposition to the Soviet state itself.{{sfn|Magocsi|1996|pp=718–719}} The policy of ''glasnost'', which ended [[Censorship in the Soviet Union|state censorship]], led the [[Ukrainian diaspora]] to reconnect with their compatriots in Ukraine, the revitalisation of religious practices by destroying the monopoly of the [[Russian Orthodox Church]] and led to the establishment of several opposition pamphlets, journals and newspapers.{{sfn|Magocsi|1996|pp=720–721}}

Following the failed [[1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt|August Coup]] in Moscow on 19–21 August 1991, the [[Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic|Supreme Soviet of Ukraine]] [[Declaration of Independence of Ukraine|declared independence]] on 24 August 1991 and renamed the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic as '''[[Ukraine]]'''. 

A [[1991 Ukrainian independence referendum|referendum on independence]] was held on 1 December 1991. 92.3% of voters voted for independence nationwide. The referendum carried in the majority of all oblasts, including [[Crimea]] where 54% voted for independence, and those in [[Eastern Ukraine]] where more than 80% voted for independence.

In the [[1991 Ukrainian presidential election]] held on the same day as the independence referendum, 62 percent of voters voted for Verkhovna Rada chairman [[Leonid Kravchuk]], who had been vested with presidential powers since the Supreme Soviet's declaration of independence.{{sfn|Magocsi|1996|p=724}} Kravchuk and the other presidential candidates all supported independence and campaigned for a “yes” vote in the independence referendum.

For most of the Soviet Union's existence, Ukraine had been second only to Russia in economic and political power, and its secession ended any realistic chance of the Soviet Union staying together even on a limited scale. 8 December 1991, Kravchuk joined his Russian and Belarusian counterparts in signing the [[Belovezha Accords|Belovezh Accords]], which declared that the Soviet Union had effectively ceased to exist and founded the [[Commonwealth of Independent States]] as a quasi-replacement.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2016-12-24 |title=How three men signed the USSR's death warrant |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-38416657 |access-date=2025-03-08 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB}}</ref> On 21 December 1991, all the former Soviet republics (except Estonia, Georgia, Lithuania and Latvia) signed the [[Alma-Ata Protocol]] which reiterated that the Soviet Union had functionally ceased to exist and formally established the CIS. The Soviet Union formally dissolved on 26 December 1991.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2016-12-24 |title=How three men signed the USSR's death warrant |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-38416657 |access-date=2025-03-08 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB}}</ref>
<!--=== Post-Soviet transition: 1992–1996 ===
{{see also|Autonomous Republic of Crimea|Ukrainian presidential election, 1994}}
In 1994, Kravchuk was defeated for reelection by [[Leonid Kuchma]], who received 52% of the vote. He started implementing certain economic reforms paving the way for aid by the [[International Monetary Fund]]. However, Kuchma failed to obtain a majority in [[1994 Ukrainian parliamentary election|the following legislative election]] by parliament and had to share power with the opposition. The 13th legislation was issued by parliament on 28 June 1996, where a constitution was adopted and took effect immediately afterwards. The country's official name became "Ukraine".<ref name="Larousse"/>-->

== Politics and government ==
{{further|Constitution of the Ukrainian SSR|Politics of the Soviet Union|Leaders of Soviet Ukraine}}

The Ukrainian SSR's system of government was based on a [[one-party state|one-party]] [[State communism|communist system]] ruled by the [[Communist Party of Ukraine (Soviet Union)|Communist Party of Ukraine]], a branch of the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union]] (KPSS). The republic was one of 15 constituent republics composing the Soviet Union from its entry into the union in 1922 until its dissolution in 1991. All of the political power and authority in the USSR was in the hands of Communist Party authorities, with little real power being concentrated in official government bodies and organs. In such a system, lower-level authorities directly reported to higher level authorities and so on, with the bulk of the power being held at the highest echelons of the Communist Party.<ref name=eou-c>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Yurchenko |first=Oleksander |url=http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?AddButton=pages%5CC%5CO%5CConstitutionoftheUkrainianSovietSocialistRepublic.htm |title=Constitution of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopedia of Ukraine]] |access-date=20 April 2011 |year=1984 |archive-date=24 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210624205814/http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?AddButton=pages%5CC%5CO%5CConstitutionoftheUkrainianSovietSocialistRepublic.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[File:Akt nezalezhnosti.jpg|thumb|upright|left|The [[Declaration of Independence of Ukraine|Declaration of Independence]], as printed on the ballot for the [[1991 Ukrainian independence referendum|referendum on 1 December 1991]]]]
Originally, the legislative authority was vested in the [[All-Ukrainian Congress of Soviets|Congress of Soviets of Ukraine]], whose [[All-Ukrainian Central Executive Committee|Central Executive Committee]] was for many years headed by [[Grigory Petrovsky]]. Soon after publishing a [[Constitution of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic#Constitution of 1937|Stalinist constitution]], the Congress of Soviets was transformed into the [[Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic|Supreme Soviet]] (and the Central Executive Committee into [[Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic|its Presidium]]), which consisted of 450 deputies.{{refn|The number of Supreme Soviet deputies varied from 435 in 1955, to 650 in 1977, then finally down to 450 by 1990.|group=note}} The Supreme Soviet had the authority to enact legislation, amend the [[Constitutions of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic|constitution]], adopt new administrative and territorial boundaries, adopt the budget, and establish political and economic development plans.<ref name=eou>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Balan |first=Borys |title=Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR |url=http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?AddButton=pages%5CS%5CU%5CSupremeSovietoftheUkrainianSSR.htm |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopedia of Ukraine]] |access-date=19 April 2011 |year=1993 |archive-date=24 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210624204646/http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?AddButton=pages%5CS%5CU%5CSupremeSovietoftheUkrainianSSR.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> In addition, parliament also had to authority to elect the republic's executive branch, the [[Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR|Council of Ministers]] as well as the power to appoint judges to the Supreme Court. Legislative sessions were short and were conducted for only a few weeks out of the year. In spite of this, the Supreme Soviet elected the Presidium, the [[Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada|Chairman]], three deputy chairmen, a secretary, and couple of other government members to carry out the official functions and duties in between legislative sessions.<ref name=eou/> Chairman of the Presidium was a powerful position in the republic's higher echelons of power, and could nominally be considered the equivalent of [[head of state]],<ref name=eou/> although most executive authority would be concentrated in the Communist Party's [[politburo]] and [[First Secretary of the Communist Party of Ukraine|its First Secretary]].

Full [[universal suffrage]] was granted for all eligible citizens aged 18 and over, excluding prisoners and those deprived of freedom. Although they could not be considered free and were [[Show election|of a symbolic nature]], elections to the Supreme Soviet were contested every five years. Nominees from electoral districts from around the republic, typically consisting of an average of 110,000 inhabitants, were directly chosen by party authorities,<ref name=eou/> providing little opportunity for political change, since all political authority was directly subordinate to the higher level above it.

With the beginning of Soviet [[General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|General Secretary]] [[Mikhail Gorbachev]]'s ''[[perestroika]]'' reforms towards the mid-late 1980s, electoral reform laws were passed in 1989, liberalising the nominating procedures and allowing multiple candidates to stand for election in a district. Accordingly, the [[1990 Ukrainian Supreme Soviet election|first relatively free elections]]{{sfn|Subtelny|2000|p=[https://archive.org/details/ukrainehistory00subt_0/page/576 576]}} in the Ukrainian SSR were contested in March 1990. 111 deputies from the [[Democratic Bloc (Ukraine)|Democratic Bloc]], a loose association of small pro-Ukrainian and pro-sovereignty parties and the instrumental [[People's Movement of Ukraine]] (colloquially known as ''Rukh'' in Ukrainian) were elected to the parliament.<ref>{{cite web |script-title=uk:КАЛІНІЧЕНКО В.В., РИБАЛКА І.К. ІСТОРІЯ УКРАЇНИ. ЧАСТИНА ІІІ: 1917–2003 |trans-title=KALINICHENKO V.V., RYBALKA I.K. HISTORY OF UKRAINE. PART III: 1917–2003 |url=http://www-history.univer.kharkov.ua/e-library/kalinichenko_textbook/Kalinichenko_10.2.htm |language=uk |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080512070738/http://www-history.univer.kharkov.ua/e-library/kalinichenko_textbook/Kalinichenko_10.2.htm |archive-date=12 May 2008 }}</ref> Although the Communist Party retained its majority with 331 deputies, large support for the Democratic Bloc demonstrated the people's distrust of the Communist authorities, which would eventually boil down to Ukrainian independence in 1991.
[[File:Хід м. Запоріжжя. 500 років українському козацтву. 1990. 8.JPG|thumb|[[Anti-Sovietism|Anti-Soviet]] protesters with [[Flag of Ukraine|Ukrainian flags]] in [[Zaporizhzhia]] in 1990]]
Ukraine is the legal successor of the Ukrainian SSR and it stated to fulfill "those rights and duties pursuant to international agreements of Union SSR which do not contradict the [[Constitution of Ukraine]] and interests of the Republic" on 5 October 1991.<ref>[http://zakon.rada.gov.ua/cgi-bin/laws/anot.cgi?nreg=1543-12 The Law of Ukraine on Succession of Ukraine] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181105221154/http://zakon.rada.gov.ua/cgi-bin/laws/anot.cgi?nreg=1543-12 |date=5 November 2018 }}, [[Verkhovna Rada]] (5 October 1991).</ref> After [[Ukrainian independence]] the Ukrainian SSR's parliament was changed from ''Supreme Soviet'' to its current name [[Verkhovna Rada]], the Verkhovna Rada is still Ukraine's parliament.{{sfn|Magocsi|2010|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=TA1zVKTTsXUC&pg=PA722 722]}}<ref>[http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n81080529.html Ukraine. Verkhovna Rada] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140304031344/http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n81080529.html |date=4 March 2014 }}, [[Library of Congress]]</ref> Ukraine also has refused to recognize exclusive Russian claims to succession of the Soviet Union and claimed such status for Ukraine as well, which was stated in Articles 7 and 8 of [[Law on the Succession of Ukraine|On Legal Succession of Ukraine]], issued in 1991. Following independence, Ukraine has continued to pursue claims against the Russian Federation in foreign courts, seeking to recover its share of the foreign property that was owned by the Soviet Union. It also retained [[Ukraine and the United Nations|its seat in the United Nations]], held since 1945.

=== Foreign relations ===
{{See also|Foreign relations of Ukraine|International membership of Ukraine}}
On the international front, the Ukrainian SSR, along with the rest of the 15 republics, had virtually no say in their own foreign affairs. However, since 1944, the Ukrainian SSR was permitted to establish bilateral relations with countries and maintain its own standing army.<ref name=eou-c/> This clause was used to permit the republic's membership in the United Nations, alongside the Byelorussian SSR. Accordingly, representatives from the "Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic" and 50 other states founded the UN on 24 October 1945. In effect, this provided the Soviet Union (a permanent [[United Nations Security Council|Security Council]] member with veto powers) with another two votes in the [[United Nations General Assembly|General Assembly]].{{refn|The [[Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic]] was in the same such situation, being a signatory to [[United Nations Charter]], although not being independent until 1991.|group=note}} The latter aspect of the 1944 clauses was never fulfilled and the republic's defense matters were managed by the [[Soviet Armed Forces]] and the Defense Ministry. Another right that was granted but never used until 1991 was the right of the Soviet republics to secede from the union,{{sfn|Subtelny|2000|p=421}} which was codified in each of the [[Constitution of the Soviet Union|Soviet constitutions]]. Accordingly, Article 69 of the Constitution of the Ukrainian SSR stated: "The Ukrainian SSR retains the right to willfully secede from the USSR."<ref>{{cite web |title=Constitution of the Ukrainian SSR 1978 |publisher=[[Verkhovna Rada]] of Ukraine |url=http://gska2.rada.gov.ua/site/const/istoriya/1978.html |access-date=20 April 2011 |language=uk |archive-date=15 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210215233218/http://gska2.rada.gov.ua/site/const/istoriya/1978.html |url-status=live }}</ref> However, a republic's theoretical secession from the union was virtually impossible and unrealistic<ref name=eou-c/> in many ways until after Gorbachev's [[perestroika]] reforms.

The Ukrainian SSR was a member of the [[United Nations Economic and Social Council|UN Economic and Social Council]], [[UNICEF]], [[International Labour Organization]], [[Universal Postal Union]], [[World Health Organization]], [[UNESCO]], [[International Telecommunication Union]], [[United Nations Economic Commission for Europe]], [[World Intellectual Property Organization]] and the [[International Atomic Energy Agency]]. It was not separately a member of the [[Warsaw Pact]], [[Comecon]], the [[World Federation of Trade Unions]] and the [[World Federation of Democratic Youth]], and since 1949, the [[International Olympic Committee]].

== Administrative divisions ==
[[File:Kharkov 1981 Vedmedik.jpg|thumb|Central [[Kharkiv|Kharkov]] in 1981]]
{{main|Administrative divisions of the Ukrainian SSR}}

Legally, the Soviet Union and its fifteen union republics constituted a [[federal system]], but the country was functionally a highly centralised state, with all major decision-making taking place in the [[Kremlin]], the capital and seat of government of the country. The constituent republics were essentially [[unitary state]]s, with lower levels of power being directly subordinate to higher ones. Throughout its 72-year existence, the administrative divisions of the Ukrainian SSR changed numerous times, often incorporating regional reorganisation and annexation on the part of Soviet authorities during World War II.

The most common administrative division was the [[oblast]] (province), of which there were 25 upon the republic's independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. Provinces were further subdivided into [[raion]]s (districts) which numbered 490. The rest of the administrative division within the provinces consisted of cities, [[urban-type settlement]]s, and villages. Cities in the Ukrainian SSR were a separate exception, which could either be subordinate to either the provincial authorities themselves or the district authorities of which they were the administrative center. Two cities, the capital [[Kyiv|Kiev]], and [[Sevastopol]] (which hosted a large Soviet Navy base in Crimea), were uniquely designated "cities with special status." This meant that they were directly subordinate to the central Ukrainian SSR authorities and not the provincial authorities surrounding them.

=== Historical formation ===
[[File:Map of Ukrainian oblasts (1946–1954).png|thumb|right|The 25 [[oblast]]s of Ukraine through 1946 to 1954. [[Crimean Oblast|Crimea]] would be transferred in 1954 and the [[Drohobych Oblast|Drohobych]] and [[Izmail Oblast|Izmail]] oblasts would be absorbed by, respectively, the [[Lviv Oblast|Lvov]] and [[Odesa Oblast|Odessa]] oblasts.]]
However, the history of administrative divisions in the republic was not so clear cut. At the end of [[World War I]] in 1918, Ukraine was invaded by [[Soviet Russia]] as the Russian puppet government of the Ukrainian SSR and without official declaration it ignited the [[Ukrainian–Soviet War]] {{dubious|date=March 2025}}{{citation needed|date=March 2025}}. Government of the [[Ukrainian SSR]] from very start was managed by the [[Communist Party of Ukraine (Soviet Union)|Communist Party of Ukraine]] that was created in Moscow and was originally formed out of the Bolshevik organisational centers in Ukraine. Occupying the eastern city of [[Kharkiv|Kharkov]], the Soviet forces chose it as the republic's seat of government, colloquially named in the media as "Kharkov – Pervaya Stolitsa (the first capital)" with implication to the era of [[Soviet regime]].<ref>{{cite web |title=My Kharkiv |url=http://www.collegium.kharkov.ua/ua/pg/kharkov/character.html |publisher=Kharkiv Collegium |access-date=20 April 2011 |language=uk |year=2008 |archive-date=13 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200713174220/http://www.collegium.kharkov.ua/ua/pg/kharkov/character.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> Kharkov was also the city where the first Soviet Ukrainian government was created in 1917 with strong support from Russian SFSR authorities. However, in 1934, the capital was moved from Kharkov to [[Kyiv|Kiev]], which remains the capital of Ukraine today.

During the 1930s, there were significant numbers of ethnic minorities living within the Ukrainian SSR. National Districts were formed as separate territorial-administrative units within higher-level provincial authorities. Districts were established for the republic's three largest minority groups, which were the Jews, [[Russians]], and [[Polish people|Poles]].{{sfn|Magocsi|2007|p=229}} Other ethnic groups, however, were allowed to petition the government for their own national autonomy. In 1924 on the territory of Ukrainian SSR was formed the [[Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic]]. Upon the 1940 conquest of Bessarabia and Bukovina by Soviet troops the Moldavian ASSR was passed to the newly formed [[Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic]], while [[Budjak|Budzhak]] and Bukovina were secured by the Ukrainian SSR. Following the creation of the Ukrainian SSR significant numbers of ethnic Ukrainians found themselves living outside the Ukrainian SSR.<ref name="ukrainianweek43727"/> In the 1920s the Ukrainian SSR was forced to cede several territories to Russia in [[Severia]], [[Sloboda Ukraine]] and Azov littoral including such cities like [[Belgorod]], [[Taganrog]] and [[Starodub]]. In the 1920s the administration of the Ukrainian SSR insisted in vain on reviewing the border between the Ukrainian Soviet Republics and the [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic|Russian Soviet Republic]] based on the 1926 [[Soviet Census (1926)|First All-Union Census of the Soviet Union]] that showed that 4.5 millions of Ukrainians were living on Russian territories bordering Ukraine.<ref name="ukrainianweek43727">[http://ukrainianweek.com/History/43727 Unknown Eastern Ukraine] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210628022940/http://ukrainianweek.com/History/43727 |date=28 June 2021 }}, [[The Ukrainian Week]] (14 March 2012)</ref> A forced end to [[Ukrainization|Ukrainisation]] in southern Russian Soviet Republic led to a massive decline of reported Ukrainians in these regions in the [[Soviet Census (1937)|1937 Soviet Census]].<ref name="ukrainianweek43727"/>

Upon signing of the [[Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact]], Nazi Germany and Soviet Union partitioned [[Second Polish Republic|Poland]] and its Eastern Borderlands were secured by the Soviet buffer republics with Ukraine securing the territory of Eastern Galicia. The Soviet September Polish campaign in Soviet propaganda was portrayed as the Golden September for Ukrainians, given the unification of Ukrainian lands on both banks of [[Zbruch|Zbruch River]], until then the border between the Soviet Union and the Polish communities inhabited by Ukrainian speaking families.

== Economy ==
{{further|Economy of the Soviet Union}}
[[File:Moscow VDNKh Ukraine Pavilion asv2018-08.jpg|thumb|Pavilion of Ukraine at the [[Exhibition of Achievements of National Economy|All-Soviet Exhibition Centre]] in Moscow]]

=== Before 1945 ===
{{expand section|date=November 2018}}
At the onset of Soviet Ukraine, having largely inherited conditions from the Tsarist Empire, one of the biggest exporters of wheat in the world, the Ukrainian economy was still centered around [[agriculture]], with over 90% of the workforce being peasants.<ref>{{cite web |title=History of Ukraine - Ukraine in the interwar period |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/history-of-Ukraine/Ukraine-in-the-interwar-period |website=Britannica |access-date=29 March 2024 |archive-date=29 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240329230228/https://www.britannica.com/topic/history-of-Ukraine/Ukraine-in-the-interwar-period |url-status=live }}</ref>

In the 1920s, Soviet policy in Ukraine attached importance to developing the economy. The initial agenda, [[War Communism]], had prescribed total communisation and appropriation per quota of food from the people by force<ref>{{cite book |last1=Pipes |first1=Richard |title=Russia Under The Bolshevik Regime |date=1994 |publisher=Vintage Books |location=New York, US |isbn=0-679-76184-5 |page=374 }}</ref> - further economic damage and a [[1921–1923 famine in Ukraine]] claiming up to one million lives ensued. With the [[New Economic Policy]] and the partial introduction of free markets, an economic recovery followed. After the death of Lenin and the consolidation of his power, Stalin was determined to industrialisation and reversed policy again. As heavy industry and wheat exports boomed, common people in rural areas were bearing a cost. Gradually escalating measures, from raised taxes, dispossession of property, and [[Special settlements in the Soviet Union#Deportations of 1928–1939|forced deportations into Siberia]] culminated in extremely high grain delivery quotas. Even though there is no evidence that agricultural yield could not feed the population at the time, four million Ukrainians were starved to death during the 1932–1933 [[Holodomor]], while Moscow exported over a million tonnes of grain to the West,<ref>{{cite web |title=The famine of 1932–33 (Holodomor) |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/history-of-Ukraine/Ukraine-in-the-interwar-period#ref358788 |website=Britannica |access-date=29 March 2024 |archive-date=29 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240329230228/https://www.britannica.com/topic/history-of-Ukraine/Ukraine-in-the-interwar-period#ref358788 |url-status=live }}</ref> decimating the population.<ref>{{Cite report |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep61511.7 |title=Ukrainian History and Perspective |last1=Grabchak |first1=Volodymyr |last2=Naqvi |first2=Syeda Myra |last3=Nagl |first3=John A. |last4=Crombe |first4=Katie |date=2024 |publisher=Strategic Studies Institute, US Army War College |pages=3}}</ref>

Within a decade, Ukraine's industrial production had quintupled, mainly from facilities in the [[Donets Basin]] and central Ukrainian cities such as [[Mykolaiv]].{{cn|date=October 2025}}

=== After 1945 ===
==== Agriculture ====
In 1945, agricultural production stood at only 40 percent of the 1940 level, even though the republic's territorial expansion had "increased the amount of [[arable land]]".{{sfn|Magocsi|1996|p= 692}} In contrast to the remarkable growth in the industrial sector,{{sfn|Magocsi|1996|pp= 692–693}} agriculture continued in Ukraine, as in the rest of the Soviet Union, to function as the economy's [[Achilles heel]]. Despite the human toll of [[Collectivization|collectivisation of agriculture]] in the Soviet Union, especially in Ukraine,{{citation needed|date=November 2018}} Soviet planners still believed in the effectiveness of collective farming. The old system was reestablished; the numbers of [[kolkhoz|collective farm]]s in Ukraine increased from 28 thousand in 1940 to 33 thousand in 1949, comprising 45 million hectares; the numbers of [[sovkhoz|state farm]]s barely increased, standing at 935 in 1950, comprising 12.1&nbsp;million hectares. By the end of the [[Fourth Five-Year Plan (Soviet Union)|Fourth Five-Year Plan]] (in 1950) and the [[Fifth Five-Year Plan (Soviet Union)|Fifth Five-Year Plan]] (in 1955), agricultural output still stood far lower than the 1940 level. The slow changes in agriculture can be explained by the low productivity in collective farms, and by bad weather-conditions, which the Soviet planning system could not effectively respond to. Grain for human consumption in the post-war years decreased, this in turn led to frequent and severe food shortages.{{sfn|Magocsi|1996|p= 693}}

The increase of [[Agriculture of the Soviet Union|Soviet agricultural production]] was tremendous, however, the [[Soviet people|Soviet]]-Ukrainians still experienced food shortages due to the inefficiencies of a [[Planned economy|highly centralised economy]]. During the peak of Soviet-Ukrainian agriculture output in the 1950s and early-to-mid-1960s, human consumption in Ukraine, and in the rest of the [[Soviet Union]], actually experienced short intervals of decrease. There are many reasons for this inefficiency, but its origins can be traced back to the single-purchaser and -producer [[market system]] set up by [[Joseph Stalin]].{{sfn|Magocsi|1996|p= 706}}{{request quotation|date=November 2018}} Khrushchev tried to improve the agricultural situation in the Soviet Union by expanding the total crop size – for instance, in the Ukrainian SSR alone "the amount of land planted with [[maize|corn]] grew by 600 percent". At the height of this policy, between 1959 and 1963, one-third of Ukrainian [[arable land]] grew this crop. This policy decreased the total production of wheat and [[rye]]; Khrushchev had anticipated this, and the production of wheat and rye moved to [[Soviet Central Asia]]{{when|date=November 2018}} as part of the [[Virgin Lands Campaign]]. Khrushchev's agricultural policy failed, and in 1963 the Soviet Union had to import food from abroad. The total level of agricultural productivity in Ukraine decreased sharply during this period, but recovered in the 1970s and 1980s during [[Leonid Brezhnev]]'s rule.{{sfn|Magocsi|1996|p= 708}}

==== Industry ====
During the [[post-war]] years, Ukraine's industrial productivity doubled its pre-war level.{{sfn|Magocsi|1996|p=705}} In 1945 industrial output totalled only 26 percent of the 1940 level. The Soviet Union introduced the Fourth Five-Year Plan in 1946. The Fourth Five-Year Plan would prove to be a remarkable success, and can be likened to the "[[Wirtschaftswunder|wonders of West German]] and Japanese reconstruction", but without foreign capital; the Soviet reconstruction is historically an impressive{{opinion|date=January 2025}} achievement. In 1950 industrial gross output had already surpassed 1940-levels. While the Soviet régime still emphasised [[heavy industry]] over [[light industry]], the light-industry sector also grew. The increase in capital investment and the expansion of the labour force also benefited Ukraine's economic recovery.{{sfn|Magocsi|1996|p= 692}} In the prewar years, 15.9 percent of the Soviet budget went to Ukraine, in 1950, during the Fourth Five-Year Plan this had increased to 19.3 percent. The workforce had increased from 1.2&nbsp;million in 1945 to 2.9&nbsp;million in 1955; an increase of 33.2 percent over the 1940-level.{{sfn|Magocsi|1996|p= 692}} The result of this remarkable growth was that by 1955 Ukraine was producing 2.2 times more than in 1940, and the republic had become one of the leading producers of certain commodities in Europe. Ukraine was the largest per-capita producer in Europe of [[pig iron]] and sugar, and the second-largest per-capita producer of steel and of iron ore, and was the third largest per-capita producer of coal in Europe.{{sfn|Magocsi|1996|p= 693}}

[[File:Chernobyl - power plant - reactor 4 02.jpg|thumbnail|Site of the [[Chernobyl disaster|Chernobyl nuclear disaster]]]]
From 1965 until the [[dissolution of the Soviet Union]] in 1991, industrial growth in Ukraine decreased, and by the 1970s it [[Era of Stagnation|started to stagnate]]. Significant economic decline did not become apparent before the 1970s. During the [[Fifth Five-Year Plan (Soviet Union)|Fifth Five-Year Plan]] (1951–1955), industrial development in Ukraine grew by 13.5 percent, while during the [[Eleventh five-year plan (Soviet Union)|Eleventh Five-Year Plan]] (1981–1985) industry grew by a relatively modest 3.5 percent. The double-digit growth seen in all branches of the economy in the [[post-war]] years had disappeared by the 1980s, entirely replaced by low growth-figures. An ongoing problem throughout the republic's existence was the planners' emphasis on heavy industry over [[Consumer goods in the Soviet Union|consumer goods]].{{sfn|Magocsi|1996|p= 705}}

The urbanisation of Ukrainian society in the post-war years led to an increase in [[World energy resources and consumption|energy consumption]]. Between 1956 and 1972, to meet this increasing demand, the government built five [[Reservoir|water reservoirs]] along the [[Dnieper|Dnieper River]]. Aside from improving Soviet-Ukrainian [[water transport]], the reservoirs became the sites for new [[power stations]], and [[hydroelectric energy]] flourished in Ukraine in consequence. The [[Petroleum industry|natural-gas industry]] flourished as well, and Ukraine became the site of the first post-war production of gas in the Soviet Union; by the 1960s Ukraine's biggest gas field was producing 30 percent of the USSR's total gas production. The government was not able to meet the people's ever-increasing demand for energy consumption, but by the 1970s, the Soviet government had conceived an intensive nuclear power program. According to the Eleventh Five-Year Plan, the Soviet government would build 8 [[nuclear power plant]]s in Ukraine by 1989. As a result of these efforts, Ukraine became highly diversified in energy consumption.<ref>Compare: {{harvnb|Magocsi|2010|loc="Post-Stalinist Soviet Ukraine" p. 706}}.
"[...] the Soviet Union launched an intensive nuclear power program in the 1970s. This resulted in the construction in Soviet Ukraine of four nuclear power plants – near Chernobyl' (1979), at Kuznetsovs'k north of Rivne (1979), at Konstantynivka north of Mykolaiv (1982) and at Enerhodar on the Kakhovka Reservoir (1984) – and in plans for four more plants by the end of the decade. As a result of these efforts, Soviet Ukraine had clearly developed diverse sources of energy for its expanded industrial infrastructure during the six Five-Year Plans that were carried out between 1955 and 1985."</ref>

== Religion ==
{{main|Religion in the Soviet Union}}

Many churches and synagogues were destroyed during the existence of the Ukrainian SSR.<ref>''The Rise of Russia and the Fall of the Soviet Empire'', John B. Dunlop, p. 140.</ref>

== Urbanization ==
[[File:Mykolayiv, Namyv.jpg|thumb|[[Microdistrict]]s, such as this one in [[Mykolaiv]], became common sights throughout the Ukrainian SSR's cities.]]

Urbanisation in post-Stalin Ukraine grew quickly; in 1959, only 25 cities in Ukraine had populations over one hundred thousand, by 1979 the number had grown to 49. During the same period, the growth of cities with a population over one million increased from one to five; Kiev alone nearly doubled its population, from 1.1&nbsp;million in 1959 to 2.1&nbsp;million in 1979. This proved a turning point in Ukrainian society: for the first time in Ukraine's history, the majority of ethnic Ukrainians lived in urban areas; 53 percent of the ethnic Ukrainian population did so in 1979. The majority worked in the non-agricultural sector, in 1970 31 percent of Ukrainians engaged in agriculture, in contrast, 63 percent of Ukrainians were industrial workers and white-collar staff. In 1959, 37 percent of Ukrainians lived in urban areas, in 1989 the proportion had increased to 60 percent.{{sfn|Magocsi|1996|p=713}}

== Notes ==
{{notelist}}
{{NoteFoot}}

== References ==
=== Citations ===
{{Reflist}}

=== Sources ===
{{refbegin}}
* Adams, Arthur E. ''[https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015020676246 Bolsheviks in the Ukraine: The Second Campaign, 1918–1919] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210629163039/https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015020676246 |date=29 June 2021 }}'' (New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 1963).
* Armstrong, John A. ''[https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.b3642424 The Soviet Bureaucratic Elite: A Case Study of the Ukrainian Apparatus] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210630103504/https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.b3642424 |date=30 June 2021 }}'' (New York: Praeger, 1959).
* Dmytryshyn, Basil. ''[https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015020822709 Moscow and the Ukraine, 1918–1953: A Study of Russian Bolshevik Nationality Policy] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210629093918/https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015020822709 |date=29 June 2021 }}'' (New York: Bookman Associates, 1956).
* {{cite book |last=Magocsi |first=Paul R. |author-link=Paul Robert Magocsi |title=A History of Ukraine |year=1996 |publisher=[[University of Toronto Press]] |location=Toronto |isbn=0-8020-0830-5}}
* {{cite book |last=Magocsi |first=Paul R. |author-link=Paul Robert Magocsi |year=2007 |title=Ukraine, An Illustrated History |publisher=[[University of Washington Press]] |location=Seattle |isbn=978-0-295-98723-1}}
* {{cite book |last=Magocsi |first=Paul R. |author-link=Paul Robert Magocsi |year=2010 |orig-year=1996 |title=A History of Ukraine: The Land and Its Peoples |edition=2nd |location=Toronto |publisher=University of Toronto Press |isbn=978-1-4426-1021-7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TA1zVKTTsXUC |access-date=9 November 2018 |archive-date=22 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230922165549/https://books.google.com/books?id=TA1zVKTTsXUC |url-status=live}}
* Manning, Clarence A. ''[https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015034650641 Ukraine under the Soviets] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210629145835/https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015034650641 |date=29 June 2021 }}'' (New York: Bookman Associates, 1953).
* {{cite book |last=Subtelny |first=Orest |author-link=Orest Subtelny |year=2000 |title=Ukraine: A History |isbn=9780802083906 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/ukrainehistory00subt_0}}
* Sullivant, Robert S. ''[https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015005759835 Soviet Politics and the Ukraine, 1917–1957] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210628030729/https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015005759835 |date=28 June 2021 }}'' (New York: Columbia University Press, 1962).
{{refend}}

==Further reading==
{{Main|Bibliography of Ukrainian history}}
{{See also|List of Slavic studies journals}}

== External links ==
{{Wiktionary|Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic}}
* {{cite web |url=http://www.kmu.gov.ua/control%5Cen%5Cpublish%5Carticle?art_id=1334334&cat_id=1290711 |title=Governments of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic |access-date=11 June 2008 |work=Government portal}}
* {{cite web |url=http://gska2.rada.gov.ua/site/const/istoriya/1978.html |title=Constitution of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic |access-date=11 June 2008 |year=1978 |work=[[Verkhovna Rada]] of Ukraine |language=uk}}

{{Ukraine topics}}
{{Years in Ukraine}}
{{Republics of the Soviet Union}}
{{Eastern Bloc}}
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{{Politics in (current) Ukraine between 1917 and 1920}}

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