Ukrainian roots of Kuban and Great Famine of 1932-1933.

Here I posted first draft of the Language resistance project. Still be a lot to work on, but here it comes:

           The language of power is an interesting topic. The power represents success. Success in society. It is true that history is written by the winners. Domination over other cultures usually leaves no room for a suppressed culture or ideology to coexist. There are no equality, and this misbalance starts to show in every aspect of the social life. In case of the Kuban Region in Russia, the history tells a tragic story: once conquered by the Ukrainian Cossacks region became not only their home, but also changed their identity forever. Their free spirit was the only thing that kept them from being assimilated for the decades of the Soviet state, despite targeted genocide among with the population of Ukraine.

            Both areas, Ukraine and Kuban, were called the “twin targets.” In the article “Complicating the National Interpretation of the Famine: Reexamining the Case of Kuban” Brian J. Boeck mentions that according to the governmental decrees from 1932 and 1933 these regions singled out due to “their Ukrainian character” (33). The article “Dehumanization: The Change in the moral and ethical Consciousness of Soviet Citizens as a Result of Collectivization and Famine” by Sergey Maksudov mentioned that both Kuban and Ukraine opposed new order of things (131). The population of both had special cast of warriors, noble rebels, in their midst. According to Ja-Jeong Koo in his article “From the Estate to a Cossack Nation: Kuban’ Samostiinost’, 1917”, same as a cast of Cossacks in Ukraine itself, warriors in Kuban region were descendants of the Cossacks of Zaporozh’e Sech, and they were ethnic Ukrainians (1650).  In this matter Ukraine was always removed for its independent spirit and tendency to have things done their way.

            As a part of the Ukrainian or close to Ukrainian identity, the language is also targeted in Kuban region. In the beginning of 1930s the authorities identified resistance to the Communist’s policies in the region with the language of the people (Boeck 33). Since the Cossacks were not really a literate segment of the population, they didn’t pay much attention to the scholarly aspects of the language (Boeck 34). This cast always were warriors, terror of their enemies, renowned for the strict discipline and unquestionable loyalty (Toje 1059). The language rights were not part of their focus. Besides, there existed other circumstances.

            Even before the Socialistic Revolution in the 1917, Russian language was always a language of power and success. An advancement in a career even in the period of the Tsarist Russia was not possible without mastering Russian Language (Boeck 34). This fact explains a neglect of the Cossacks towards the grammar of their mother tongue: they enjoyed speaking it in their settlements, with their families, but the more crucial part of preserving and advancing the language was not important.

            However, a number of Ukrainian schools existed in the Kuban region. There were teachers in those schools who were working towards preserving the legacy of their ascendants (Boeck 41). Literacy and self-awareness became an obvious problem to the authorities: the Kuban region was not ready to completely accept Soviet power. The armed resistance of the Cossacks, free spirited people, lasted here and in Ukraine the longest. Few facts from historic documents point towards dissatisfaction of the authorities with Kuban region.

The authorities found a direct connection between the continuous resistance and Ukrainian identity of Kuban people. One of the assigned governors of the region pointed out to the fact that a lot of population, who were involved in the Civil War of the 1917-1920, fought for the White side (Boeck 38). The Whites represented old Tsarist regime, and the Soviet power was called Reds in this conflict. The whole region at that time was trying to get independent from the Soviet Russia, and/or join Ukraine as their ethnic motherland (Boeck 39). Any of these perspectives and facts were a direct defiance of the Soviet order. Thus, the authorities decided to act.

            Some chronicles mention that Ukrainian schools were specifically targeted. By 1933 approximately 1500 teachers were killed or deported from Kuban (Boeck 42). By 1934 the only language taught in the schools of the region was Russian (Kuzio 2). Ukrainian was banned from Kuban as a written language, language of the press of any open radio transmission. The official ban lasted until the fall of the USSR – end of summer in 1991 (Boeck 42). The Ukrainian language was specifically targeted to be erased from the region, but not only this was done to bring the proud Cossack cast into the submission.

            At the same time most inhuman approach was chosen to suppress any kind of the opposition in connection with the language rights – hunger. The renowned Holodomor of 1932-33 was a final stage of the collectivization – a replacement of personal and private property with the shared assets for the entire community. The Ukraine and Kuban were the areas which most vividly protested against such order of things (Maksudov 131). It is not hard to notice that Holodomor and the cease of the language rights in Kuban happened at the same time. Some historians doesn’t think that it was a mere coincidence.

            The collectivization had few stages: 1) since 1928 the population were no longer allowed to have their own farms; 2) since 1931 most deliberate and active members of the countryside community were pronounced the “enemies of the people” or “kulaks” because of their success; 3) at 1932 land, domestic livestock, poultry, agricultural implements and even preserves were confiscated and added to the shared farms – kolhoz (Maksudov 128-130). The harvest was “bought” by the authorities in a high quantities and fixed low price (Maksudov 127). It became virtually impossible to proposer cultivating the land. The people were left with only one choice – passive resistance. Since all of the values for success were broken by a Soviet Regime, the peasants simply refused to work hard (Maksudov 131). People were refusing to take care of the harvest and often times left it in the field (Maksudov 131). The Great Famine or Holodomor of 1932-33 became a response of the authorities to such protest.