The program of resettlement of Ukrainians to the Far East. Primorsky Krai, the Amur Region or the Green Wedge? The Far East was settled, for the most part, by Ukrainians! Ukrainian political movement after the Revolution

Based on the materials of the scientific-practical conference "Multinational Primorye: history and modernity."

Although the population census conducted in 1989 recorded 185,000 Ukrainians in Primorye, which is only 8.2% of the population, they are nevertheless the second largest ethnic group in the region. However, in the public consciousness of Primorye there is a different idea of ​​the share of Ukrainians in the population of the region and especially in rural areas. Many believe that there are at least half of the population here. And this opinion is not accidental. It is probably difficult to find a native Primorye who did not have Ukrainian ancestors along at least one line. This is determined by the peculiarities of the development and historical development of the region.

It is difficult to reliably judge when the first Ukrainians appeared in Primorye, but it is possible that they could also be among the members of the detachment O. Stepanova, penetrated the river. Ussuri back in 1655, and as part of the crew of the Manjur transport, and as part of the ensign's team Komarova who founded the post of Vladivostok in 1860, and among the settlers who founded the first settlements on the territory of the region back in the 1850s-60s.

The mass resettlement of Ukrainians to the territory of the former South Ussuri Territory begins in 1883, when a regular mass resettlement of peasants by sea from Odessa to Vladivostok was established on Dobroflot steamships. It is known that on April 13, 1883, the first steamship arrived in Vladivostok, carrying 724 settlers from the Chernihiv province (1).

As you know, the Ukrainian peasantry was one of the leading colonization elements that settled and developed the territory of the present Primorsky Territory, which the Ukrainian settlers called the Green Wedge. In total, during the period from 1883 to 1917, 179,757 migrants from Ukraine arrived in the then Primorsky region, who became the core of the rural population of Primorye (2). According to statistics from the beginning of the 20th century, Ukrainians accounted for 81.26% of all settlers in the South Ussuri region (3).

In the conditions of a tough assimilation, Russification policy pursued by the tsarist government in relation to national minorities, when even the Ukrainian language was subjected to severe censorship and persecution and the very existence of the Ukrainian people was not recognized, Ukrainians, finding themselves in a new region, thousands of miles away from their native land, having no national schools, a church, a printed word, were doomed to assimilation and loss of ethnic identity. As a result, despite the high natural increase, according to the 1923 census, only 219,462 thousand Ukrainians (and 223,018 Russians) lived in the Primorsky province (4).

Under these conditions, the theater remained the only legal form of national public activity for the Ukrainians of the Russian Empire for a number of decades. Therefore, the impetus for the awakening of Ukrainians to national social activities in the Green Klin was the arrival and activity here at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries. the first Ukrainian theater troupes. The result of these tours was the emergence of amateur theatrical circles, which united mainly representatives of the Ukrainian intelligentsia, the military, and employees. The activities of these circles contributed to the development of national identity, the preservation of the native language. In particular, such circles actively worked among the sailors of Vladivostok (5).

The liberalization of the regime in Tsarist Russia as a result of the revolution of 1905 led to the emergence in Primorye of the first legal Ukrainian organization - the Vladivostok Student Ukrainian Community, which united Ukrainian students from the Oriental Institute, which was created in October 1907. True, it did not last long and already in 1909 was banned in accordance with the order of the Minister of Public Education. However, it was precisely with its creation that the beginning of organized Ukrainian activity was connected not only in the territory of Primorye, but also in the entire Far East (6).

After the dissolution of the student community in Vladivostok, a semi-legal Ukrainian circle was formed at the People's House, whose main task was to promote the national enlightenment of the Ukrainian masses through Ukrainian performances and the distribution of Ukrainian literature in the region. Starting from 1909, the Ukrainian community of Vladivostok annually organized "Shevchenko's Saints" dedicated to the memory of the great Ukrainian poet, other literary and musical events, concerts, performances, in which the best artistic forces of the city participated.

In February 1910, an attempt was made to register the charter of the Ukrainian cultural and educational society that arose in Nikolsk-Ussuriysky "Enlightenment", but in connection with the reactionary tendencies that prevailed in the domestic policy of tsarism at that time, its registration was denied (7). In the subsequent period, in connection with the outbreak of the First World War and the further tightening of the internal political course, Ukrainian public activity declined and manifested itself mainly only in theatrical activities. In the Far East, in particular, during these years, the Ukrainian troupe actively toured K. Karmelyuk-Kamensky who also performed in Japan and China.

The February Revolution, which overthrew tsarism, eliminated the numerous restrictions that existed in Russia on the national rights of various peoples and ethnic groups, initiating the rapid development of Ukrainian public life in the Far East, which manifested itself in the creation of a whole network of Ukrainian national organizations here. Their main form was Ukrainian communities, uniting the widest sections of the Ukrainian population, regardless of social status, occupation or political views. They were called upon to defend the national interests of the Ukrainian population, seeking the realization of its rights as an ethnic community. In Vladivostok, the Gromada was already established on March 26, 1917, and by the summer of that year it united about three thousand members (8). Soon Ukrainian communities were created in Nikolsk-Ussuriysky, Iman, Spassk, Posyet, Knevichi, Novokievsk, at the station of Muravyov-Amursky, the villages of Osinovka, Monastyrishche, Mikhailovka, Grigorievka, Olginskoe, Feodosievka, Novopokrovka, Zenkovka, Avdeevka, Goncharovka, Ussuriyskoe, Drozdovskoe, Vinograd ovovka and others (9).

However, in addition to the Hromadas, national organizations that are narrower in their composition and tasks arise - professional (associations of Ukrainian teachers, artists, railway workers, postal and telegraph employees), political (in the summer of 1917, organizations of Ukrainian parties of Social Democrats and Socialist-Revolutionaries were created in Vladivostok, uniting about 200 and 150 members, respectively (10).

Active cultural and educational activities were carried out by the "Prosvita" societies that existed in Vladivostok (with branches in Kiparisovo, Osinovka, Vladimir-Aleksandrovsky, Grodekovo, Khorol, Spassk and on Russky Island) and Nikolsk-Ussuriysky (11). It should be noted that in the period 1917-1922. 6 Ukrainian newspapers were published in Primorye (4 in Vladivostok and 2 in Nikolsk-Ussuriysky), there were two Ukrainian publishing houses. The Ukrainian cooperative movement was widely developed, headed by the regional Ukrainian cooperative "Chumak".

On the initiative of the Far Eastern Ukrainian Teachers' Union, in June 1917, the 1st Far Eastern Ukrainian Congress was convened in Nikolsk-Ussuriysky, at which more than 20 Ukrainian organizations of the Far East were represented. The congress outlined a plan of activity for the development of a network of Ukrainian national organizations, the creation of a national school, libraries, etc., aimed at the national enlightenment of the Ukrainian people. The congress proposed to develop a draft charter for the Far Eastern Ukrainian Rada as the central administrative, political and social center of the Ukrainians of the Green Wedge. To manage current activities until the next congress, a Provisional Executive Committee was elected, consisting of A. Stupak, P. Vasilenko, N. Prokopets, I. Ignatenko and A. Popovich (12).

In accordance with the decisions of the III Ukrainian Far Eastern Congress, held in April 1918 in Khabarovsk, the Vladivostok, Nikolsk-Ussuriysk and Imansk Ukrainian Okruzhny Radas were created on the territory of Primorye, uniting local Ukrainian organizations that existed respectively on the territory of Olginsky, Nikolsk-Ussuriysky and Imansky counties. Representatives of the Okruzhny Radas formed the Regional Rada, at the sessions of which decisions were made on the most important issues relating to the life of the Ukrainian population of the Far East. The Secretariat (13) elected at its sessions became the executive body of the Regional Council.

After the IV (Extraordinary) Ukrainian Far Eastern Congress, which was held at the end of October 1918 in Vladivostok, the Ukrainian Far Eastern Secretariat was elected at it, which was headed by the former chairman of the Vladivostok "Enlightenment" and the Vladivostok District Rada Yu.Glushko-Mova, is located in Vladivostok, which from now on becomes the true center of Ukrainian public life in the Far East.

At the aforementioned IV Congress, a draft Constitution of the national-cultural autonomy of the Ukrainians of the Far East was developed, which was adopted at the second session of the Ukrainian Far Eastern Regional Council in May 1919 (14). With the adoption of the Constitution, the Ukrainians of the Far East tried, in fact, to de facto implement the principle of national-cultural autonomy - the most democratic principle for resolving the national issue, guaranteeing the observance of the national rights of various ethnic groups, especially those dispersed.

National-cultural autonomy was supposed to provide the most favorable conditions for the development of the original national culture of the Ukrainian people in the Far East. This was the goal that the Ukrainian organizations of the Far East aspired to in their activities at that time, whose activities were aimed primarily at protecting the interests of the Ukrainian population of the Far East. In this regard, they tried not to associate themselves with one or another political force opposing in the civil war that broke out in Russia. Various documents of the Far Eastern Ukrainian national movement have repeatedly emphasized that Ukrainians will recognize and support only those local authorities that recognize as their special act the national rights of the Ukrainian population and allocate seats in its composition for its representatives (15). However, in these aspirations, the Ukrainians did not find mutual understanding and support from the often changing local authorities of various political colors and were subjected to repression both from the Whites (Alekseevsky's government in the Amur Region, Rozanov - in Primorskaya) and from the Reds. And only in the Far East did the Ukrainians find mutual understanding, first of all, on the part of the Mensheviks, who headed the Ministry of National Affairs.

The legislation of the Far East, which regulated interethnic relations, was one of the most democratic for its time. The Constitution of the Far East and the "Law on National-Cultural Autonomy" developed in the Republic guaranteed broad rights for the national minorities that inhabited it. It is in the Far East that a network of Ukrainian schools is being created for the first time in the Far East (16).

But the year 1922 came, the FER was liquidated, with the establishment of Soviet power in Primorye, all Ukrainian organizations were liquidated, their leaders and activists were arrested, and the property created by painstaking work was confiscated. Thus, organized Ukrainian public life in the Far East was terminated. The repressions against the Ukrainian social movement showed the Ukrainian population that Ukrainianism is not welcomed by the new government, that it is simply dangerous, especially considering that not only public figures were arrested, but even teachers of Ukrainian schools that arose in the Far East.

Therefore, in the subsequent period, in the 1920s, local functionaries answered inquiries from Moscow about working among national minorities with a clear conscience that the Ukrainians were almost completely Russified and did not want anything. Nevertheless, the local authorities were forced to reckon with the party's course in the field of national policy, and in 1931 the policy of "Ukrainization" began to be implemented in the Far East, during which the Chernigov, Khankai, Spassky, Kalinin regions, with the highest proportion of the Ukrainian population, were transformed into Ukrainian national regions, in which all office work and the system of cultural and educational institutions, including the education system, were translated into Ukrainian. In four more districts - Ivanovsky, Shmakovsky, Yakovlevsky and Mikhailovsky, conditions were to be created for serving the Ukrainian population in their native language (17). In Spassk, a Ukrainian pedagogical college was created, which was supposed to be transformed into a Ukrainian pedagogical institute. Spassk was also supposed to become a permanent base for the Ukrainian regional mobile theater, created in those years.

But the period of "Ukrainization" was short-lived. Already in December 1932, by a special order of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, all Ukrainian cultural and educational institutions on the territory of the RSFSR were liquidated. From this period, Ukrainian schools and newspapers completely disappear in Primorye, and it became a problem to find a Ukrainian book on Zeleny Klin, which was mastered and settled by Ukrainian peasants. The consequence of this was a steady decline in both the share of Ukrainians in the population of Primorsky Krai and their absolute number. And this, despite the constant influx of Ukrainians in Primorye, which continued throughout the 1920-80s.

They arrived here both as military personnel, and as young specialists in distribution after graduation, and as immigrants (to the countryside), and by organizational recruitment to work, primarily in the fishing industry, and simply - in search of romance or high earnings. But the new generations of Ukrainians who constantly arrived here were steadily Russified, their children born here, in the majority, became "Russians". In addition, during the Soviet period, there were facts of purposeful replacement of nationality (Ukrainian by Russian) by the relevant authorities, usually carried out when replacing passports, without the consent of the citizens themselves.

But during the existence of the USSR, the losses from assimilation were replenished by the influx of new migrants from the Ukrainian SSR. With the cessation of this influx after the liquidation of the USSR and the creation of an independent Ukrainian state, with continuing assimilation trends, one has to state the threat of a rapid and complete disappearance of the Ukrainian diaspora in Primorye. Thus, the future of Ukrainian culture and the very existence of the Ukrainian ethnos in the region is called into question.

This is facilitated by both objective reasons (proximity of cultures, language, religions of Russians and Ukrainians) and subjective ones. The latter should include both the lack of appropriate institutions of ethnicization (national schools, the press, professional cultural institutions), and the long-term policy of combating so-called nationalism, when any manifestations of national identity were fraught with the most serious consequences for citizens.

In modern conditions, when the fundamental problems of a significant part of the population are the problems of physical survival, when mercantile and narrowly utilitarian tendencies become the leading ones in society, the problem of preserving national cultures becomes even more urgent. The so-called mass culture, with its unified and primitive values ​​and standards, which has become widespread, also contributes to the erosion of national cultures. This, in particular, is evidenced by the fact that if back in the 1970s. it was difficult to find a family or a company in Primorye where Ukrainian songs were not sung, but now it is already in the past, even in rural areas it is difficult to meet, for example, at a feast a person who could perform more than one or two verses of any popular Ukrainian song. This is especially true for the middle and younger generations.

A particular problem is the existing vacuum of objective information about Ukraine. In Primorye, many citizens, due to these historical reasons, have close family, cultural, historical and other ties with Ukraine and are interested in receiving truthful and reliable information about the processes taking place there.

The Russian diaspora in Ukraine has the opportunity to receive daily information about the life of Russia on Ukrainian television and radio, watch and listen to individual programs and entire Russian channels. In addition, there are local, Ukrainian, Russian-language television and radio channels. There are a lot of Russian-language periodicals in Ukraine, a huge amount of literature in Russian comes out (and is imported from Russia). Ukrainians in Russia are deprived of all this. Today in Russia it is practically impossible to subscribe to Ukrainian periodicals, not to mention the acquisition of Ukrainian literature. The waves of anti-Ukrainian propaganda, periodically poured out by the Russian media and at times turning into hysteria (associated primarily with the problems of Crimea, the Black Sea Fleet, etc.), do little to create an atmosphere in Russian society conducive to the preservation of Ukrainian identity.

For many years, the thin ties that still exist between Primorye and Ukraine are maintained only between close relatives and are based mainly on people of the older generation who were born and raised in Ukraine. Most of them have already left the sphere of business activity and do not play a significant role in the life of society. And with their death, these contacts are cut off. The younger generation, most of whom were born and raised in Primorye, do not speak the language, are not familiar with the national culture and do not have sufficient motivation to maintain contacts with their historical homeland.

These conditions do not contribute to the preservation of the Ukrainian diaspora in Primorye. In the coming years, the number of Ukrainians (and these are mainly people of the middle and older generation) will be reduced tenfold. This will determine the catastrophic decrease in the Ukrainian population.

What can be countered by these destructive tendencies? Our financial capabilities do not allow today to have our own printed publications, to have commercial airtime on radio and television in order to disseminate information about the activities of our organization, to promote the best achievements of national culture. Therefore, it is necessary to develop and create, with the support of the state, a mechanism for the preservation and development of national cultures in Primorye, including Ukrainian culture. The preservation of the national culture will also contribute to the preservation of the diaspora. At the same time, it is necessary to make wider use of the opportunities provided by the federal law on national-cultural autonomy, in accordance with which the state assumes certain obligations to assist in the preservation and development of the national cultures of the peoples of Russia. And in order for this law to work, it is necessary, first of all, to register national-cultural autonomies, in connection with which there are certain difficulties and the allocation of appropriate funds.

It is necessary to establish operational communication with relevant institutions in Ukraine and within the Ukrainian diaspora, expand the network of centers of national culture, and actively inform the widest possible circle of the Ukrainian population about their activities. At the same time, it is necessary to use more actively the new information opportunities provided by the Internet.

The preservation of culture presupposes, first of all, its study. Currently, the widest circles of the population of Primorye are characterized by horrendous illiteracy in matters of Ukrainian history and culture, which contributes to the spread of negative stereotypes in society regarding Ukraine and Ukrainians. Often, even among representatives of the local intelligentsia, Ukrainianism is associated only with "lard and vodka", at best - with "dumplings and trousers." While the history, culture and languages ​​of the most diverse peoples of Asia and Europe are being studied in local educational institutions, the history, culture and language of the people who took an active part in the settlement and development of the region and whose descendants make up a very significant proportion of its modern population are almost forgotten, there are almost no specialists in this field. The activities carried out in this direction by the Institute of History, Archeology and Ethnography of the Peoples of the Far East of the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences and by enthusiasts of our society are clearly insufficient. In this regard, it seems necessary to create, first of all, scientific structures designed to concentrate research in the field of Ukrainian studies, as well as organizing the teaching of Ukrainian studies in local universities.

Another problem is school. The school is the destiny of the diaspora, its future. If in Ukraine thousands of Russian schools are supported by state funds, then the last Ukrainian schools in Primorye, in particular, were liquidated at the end of 1932. The main problem is in the very principle that such schools should be in Russia. Further, it would be possible to speak about the forms of organization of the educational process in them. But the fact is that there are no such schools at all, and their appearance is very problematic in the conditions of the crisis that hit the public sector in Russia. Today, the main problem of the national education system is to at least pay off the wage arrears to teachers. The whole problem is solved for a hundred years ahead...

But in order for the problem to begin to be solved, it must first be raised, it must become known, it must become the subject of public discussion. Back in 1991, when the Society of Ukrainian Culture of the Primorsky Territory was created, we advocated that the state and local authorities turn their faces to the problems of national and cultural development, we raised questions about the need to develop in Russia and in the Primorsky Territory our own concept of national policy. Now we have sufficiently developed legislation, including a very democratic law on national-cultural autonomy, we have a structure of state bodies both at the federal and regional levels, designed to implement this national policy. For our part, we stand for close, constructive cooperation with these bodies, since the revival of the original national cultures of the peoples inhabiting Russia and Primorye in particular is in our common interests, as it will contribute to the spiritual enrichment and moral improvement of our entire society. People should remember their origin, because in this way the beginnings of a common culture, culture are laid. The revival of Russia, about which everyone is now talking so much, can only begin with the spiritual revival of society, and it, in turn, is unthinkable without people turning to their roots, to the priceless spiritual treasures of national culture. For many Primorye residents, Ukrainian culture is such a culture.

It should also be noted that, in addition to ethical motives, the preservation of diasporas is also supported by the fact that Russia, as a country that has proclaimed its goal to build a democratic society, must adhere to international norms in the field of ensuring the rights of national minorities. In addition, the presence of diasporas plays a stabilizing role in interstate relations. The disappearance of diasporas, that is, people who are related by blood to another country (in this case, Ukraine) may contribute to the strengthening of confrontational tendencies in relations between the two countries.

As is known, the Russian parliament ratified the so-called "big treaty" between Russia and Ukraine, which, among other things, provides for a guarantee of broad rights for the national and cultural development of Ukrainians in Russia, similar to those rights that Russians have in Ukraine. The Treaty is designed to ensure normal, friendly relations between the two states, to promote the establishment of relations of cooperation, bridges of friendship and mutual understanding.

The problems listed above are problems that need to be solved immediately, but in a good way - yesterday. If we postpone the solution of these problems until better times, then in the near future they will disappear, based on the notorious principle "no people and no problems." If the above tendencies do not change, tomorrow we, as a diaspora, will no longer exist, and there will be no need for the bridges mentioned above, since there will be no one to move across them. Who will benefit from this and whether anyone will benefit from this is the question to be answered...

Vyacheslav CHERNOMAZ

Vladivostok

NOTES.

1. Busse F.F. Resettlement of peasants by sea to the South Ussuri region. St. Petersburg, 1896. P.46.

2. Calculated according to: Kabuzan V.M. Resettlement of Ukrainians near the Faraway Territory // Ukrainian Historical Journal. 1971. No. 2.

3. Argudyaeva Yu.V. Peasant family of Ukrainians in Primorye (80s of the 19th - early 20th centuries). M., 1993. P.32.

4. Economic life of Primorye. 1924 #6-7. P.48.

5. Svit I.V. Ukrainian Far East. Harbin, 1934. S.16-17.

6. Ibid.

7. RGIA DV. F.1. Op.2. D.2053. L.8.

8. Ukrainian on the Green Klini. Vladivostok. 1917. 27 sickles.

9. Svit I.V. Ukrainian Far East. Harbin. 1934. P.19.

11. L-ko M. Ukraine on the Distant Departure // Calendar on the river 1921. Vladivostok. 1921.

12. TsDAVO of Ukraine. F.3696. Op.2. D.381. L.213-214.

13. Ibid. L.214ob.

14. Ibid. L.219.

16. Lvova E.L., Nam I.V., Naumova N.I. National-personal autonomy: idea and implementation.//Polis. 1993. N 2.

17. Districts of the Far Eastern Territory (Materials of the Encyclopedia of the Far Eastern Territory). Khabarovsk, 1931. S.XCV.

Ukrainians in the Far East(ukr. Ukrainians far away) - one of the ethnic communities on the territory of the Far East, which was formed historically, made a significant contribution to the development and development of this region. The Ukrainian community also entered the history of active political activity in the Far East after the Revolution of 1917. The majority of the modern Ukrainian diaspora are descendants of the first settlers to the territory of the region in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as well as specialists who moved from the Ukrainian SSR during the industrial development of the region.

According to the 2010 census, the number of Ukrainians is 154,954 people - this is the second largest ethnic group in the Far Eastern Federal District.

Story

Ukrainian colonization of the Far East

At the end of the 19th century, the first peasants who settled in Primorye were people from Chernigov and Poltava provinces. On the eve of 1917 Ukrainian villages surrounded Vladivostok, censuses showed 83% of the Ukrainian population in the region. During the years of the revolution and the Civil War, along with white, red and various interventionists, Ukrainian “smoking” units also arose here.

In 1858-60, the Russian Empire annexed the northern coast of the Amur and Primorye, these lands were not inhabited and remained so for the first quarter of a century of Russian rule. Vladivostok was a small fleet base in the middle of deserted spaces. Only on April 13 and 20, 1883, the first two passenger steamships "Russia" and "Petersburg" arrived here from Odessa, on board of which there were 1504 migrant peasants from the Chernigov province. They founded the first nine villages in the south of Primorye.

Odessa has long been the main link with the Russian Far East. Therefore, it is not surprising that immigrants from Ukraine dominated among the migrants. First of all, landless peasants moved to distant lands. The provinces closest to Odessa with the greatest "agrarian overpopulation" were Chernigov and Poltava. It was they who gave the main flow of the first colonists to distant Primorye.

Therefore, during the first decade of the Russian colonization of Primorye, from 1883 to 1892, immigrants from Ukraine accounted for 89.2% of all immigrants. Of these, 74% are peasants from Chernihiv Governorate, the rest from Poltava and Kharkov.

By the beginning of the 20th century, the resettlement of Ukrainians in Primorye was becoming even more widespread. From 1892 to 1901, over 40 thousand Ukrainian peasants came here, who accounted for 91.8% of all the colonists of Primorye. The famine that engulfed the northern provinces of Ukraine in 1891-1892 contributed to the intensification of such migration.

In total, according to statistics, from 1883 to 1916, over 276 thousand people, 57% of all immigrants, moved to Primorye and the Amur region from Ukraine. Ukrainian peasants settled in the South of Primorye and the Zeya Valley near the Amur, which, by nature and landscape, very much resembled the forest-steppe regions of Chernihiv and Poltava regions. In the more northern taiga regions of the region, they almost did not settle.

As a result, the cosmopolitan Vladivostok of the beginning of the 20th century was surrounded entirely by Ukrainian villages, and according to eyewitnesses, the townspeople called all the rural residents of the region "nothing but crests." Ukrainians gave birth to a lot of geographical names in Primorye in honor of cities and localities of Ukraine - the river  Kievka, the village of Kievka, the villages of Chernigovka, Chuguevka, Slavyanka, Khorol and others.

In relation to the Ukrainian settlement lands in the south of the Far East, along with the name "Green" Klin, the names "New Ukraine", "Far Eastern Ukraine", "Green Ukraine" were also used. In local history literature, the use of the name "Far Eastern Ukraine" was recorded as early as 1905, in relation to the southern part of the Ussuri region.

The Ukrainian peasant colonists themselves in the vicinity of Vladivostok, according to ethnographers, called the region "Primorshchina" - by analogy with Chernihiv and Poltava regions.

A contemporary describes the villages around Vladivostok a century ago:

The picture of “Far Eastern Ukraine” was completed by ubiquitous sunflowers near rural houses, indispensable signs of Ukrainian villages, and the predominant use of oxen, characteristic of Ukraine, rather than horses more familiar to Russian villages, as a draft force. As the Far Eastern ethnographer of those years, V. A. Lopatin, wrote, the Ukrainians “transferred Little Russia with them to the Far East”.

Ukrainian political movement after the Revolution

The revolution of 1917 led to a surge of the Ukrainian movement not only in Kyiv, but also in the Far East.

On March 26, 1917, at a rally, the Ukrainians of Vladivostok and its environs created "Vladivostok Ukrainian Community". The first chairman of the community was a former political exile, social democrat, journalist from Poltava Nikolai Novitsky. Already in May 1917, the “leftist” Novitsky went to work in the Vladivostok Soviet and the deputy military prosecutor of Vladivostok (and “for the soul” music critic) Lieutenant Colonel Fyodor Steshko, a native of the Chernigov province, took the post of chairman of the community.

In the spring of 1917, almost all the cities of the Far East were founded similar "Ukrainian communities". They originated in Khabarovsk, Blagoveshchensk, Nikolsk-Ussuriysk (now Ussuriysk), Iman (now Dalnorechensk), Svobodny, Nikolaevsk-on-Amur, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Chita, Harbin, at many railway stations and in the villages of the Russian Far East and Manchuria. During this period, all Far Eastern Ukrainian organizations advocated the autonomy of Ukraine as part of a "federal democratic Russian state".

In a number of cities of the Far East, "Gromadas" existed almost until their dissolution by the Bolsheviks in November 1922. Some of them were very numerous and influential - for example, in the Ukrainian Community of Khabarovsk by 1921, more than 940 families (more than 3,000 people) were registered. Through the efforts of these "communities" Ukrainian schools, cooperatives were organized, active educational and publishing activities were carried out.

In 1917, newspapers in the Ukrainian language appeared in the Far East - "Ukrainian on the Green Wedge" (Vladivostok), "Ukrainian Amur on the Right" (Blagoveshchensk), "Hvili Ukrainy" (Khabarovsk), "News of the Ukrainian Club" (Kharbin). The All-Russian agricultural census conducted in the summer of 1917 recorded 421,000 Ukrainians here, which accounted for 39.9% of the total population of the region.

However, at the end of 1918, the idea of ​​Ukrainian troops became more popular, but for a completely "pacifist" reason. When the Siberian Provisional Government tried to start mobilizing the Ukrainians of the Amur and Primorye to the front for the war against the Bolsheviks, the local "Little Russians" began to refuse under the pretext that they wanted to fight only in the national Ukrainian units.

On May 15, 1919, Admiral Kolchak, who had already become the "Supreme Ruler", issued an instruction about the inadmissibility of the formation of Ukrainian units. The “1st Novo-Zaporozhye Volunteer Plastunsky Kuren” (battalion) just created in Vladivostok was arrested by white counterintelligence in full force under the pretext of “pro-Bolshevik sentiments”.

Ukrainian activists again tried to create their troops in January 1920, when Kolchak's power, which had collapsed under the blows of the Reds, was overthrown in Vladivostok. The "Ukrainian Far Eastern Secretariat" even turned to the Bolsheviks for help in this matter, but the Bolshevik Military Council of Primorye refused.

Ukrainian activists were asked to support their units at their own expense, but donations from the Ukrainian population for these needs were not enough. Under these conditions, the Ukrainian military units, lacking the most necessary and, above all, food, could not survive for a long time even in the conditions of virtual anarchy that prevailed in Primorye.

During the upheavals of the civil war in Khabarovsk, a former member of the "Ukrainian Far Eastern Secretariat" Yaremenko became the chairman of the local Bolshevik Revolutionary Committee. The Revolutionary Committee recognized the expediency of forming Ukrainian units, however, under pressure from the Vladivostok Bolsheviks, it was forced to abandon the implementation of this idea.

On the Amur, several units formed from local anti-Kolchak partisans from peasants of Ukrainian origin, and one of them entered the city of Svobodny under the yellow-blue flag (until 1917 the city was called Alekseevsk, in honor of the heir and son of Nicholas II). However, the local Bolsheviks demanded the disarmament of this detachment, threatening otherwise to use military force against it.

On the night of April 4-5, 1920, the Japanese began an open occupation of Vladivostok and Primorye. In Vladivostok, a Japanese military detachment seized weapons and ammunition from the premises of the so-called "Ukrainian revolutionary headquarters". As a result of these events, the few formed Ukrainian units of Vladivostok withdrew into the forests, where they eventually merged with the Red partisans.

population

The number of Ukrainians in the districts of the Far Eastern Territory according to the 1926 census :

Dynamics of the number of Ukrainians in the regions of the Far East in 1959-2010, according to population censuses:

Ukrainians make up the second largest ethnic group in the population of the Far East. This is explained by the fact that the first settlers in Primorye in 1895, when the construction of the Chinese Eastern Railway began, were landless and land-poor peasants of Little Russia, mainly from the Chernihiv province. The conditions for the resettlement movement were laid down thanks to the activities of Count N.P. Ignatiev, who contributed to the signing of the Beijing Treaty in 1860. This treaty defined the eastern border of the Russian Empire and contributed to the development of the richest lands of Primorye and the Amur region.

For the first time, the issue of immigrants N.P. Ignatiev raised in 1862, but Alexander II postponed his decision. When the construction of the Trans-Siberian route and the CER began, the same question was raised by the Minister of Railways S.Yu. Witte. For the laying of rails, the construction of stations, settlements, workers were required. It was impossible to recruit settlers from the Trans-Urals and Western Siberia, since these areas were sparsely populated. Then it was decided to involve the population of Little Russia in this.

Two areas were allocated for settlement - in the Amur Region north of Blagoveshchensk and in the Primorsky Region on the border with Korea and Manchuria. Later, the settlers themselves gave this corner of the Russian Empire the name Green Wedge. The new settlers were allocated at least 20 acres of land, timber for buildings, one horse and one cow per family, seeds, agricultural implements and basic necessities.

Chairman of the Committee of Ministers I.N. Durnovo instructed the Volunteer Fleet to organize the delivery of immigrants from Odessa to Vladivostok at public expense. During the period from 1895 to 1899, more than 1,500 families of immigrants were transported - from 15 to 23 thousand people (according to various sources). Beginning in 1897, settlers arrived in the Far East not only from the Chernihiv region, but also from the Poltava, Kiev, and Sloboda regions.

In 1899, the population of the South Ussuri Territory exceeded 46 thousand people living in 118 settlements on the Prikhankiyskaya lowland: in Chernigovka, Chuguevka, Novochuguevka, Priluki, Khorol, Kievka, Novoselishche, Barabash-Levada, Gaivoron, Mikhailovka, Vasilkovka, Andreevka, Yablonovka, Monastery, Sinelnikov, Galenki and others . Over time, Khorol, Chuguevka and Chernigovka became the regional centers of Primorye.

To protect the border with Manchuria, the male population from among the settlers joined the Amur Cossack army and, together with their families, settled in the villages. In 1899, the Special Ussuri Cossack Army was separated from the Amur Cossacks in the South Ussuri Territory and in the Primorsky Region.

In March 1900, a peasant uprising broke out in Beijing against the colonialists - the British, French and Germans, which initiated the secret religious society "Ihequan" ("Fist in the name of justice and harmony"). The rebel groups sought to destroy everything and everyone who disturbed the peace of the good spirits of the Chinese land. Workers and employees of the Chinese Eastern Railway began to be forced out of China. Russia began to prepare for war, in connection with which it was decided to conduct the second stage of resettlement.

The third, most massive wave of the resettlement movement occurred in the period from November 1908 to August 1909. More than 6,000 families, or about 18,000 men, women and children, arrived on the territory of the modern Amur and Sakhalin regions, Khabarovsk and Primorsky territories. In 1906, the villages of Andreevka and Slavyanka appeared in the area of ​​Posyet Bay (near the border with China), and the settlements of Tavrichanka, Livadia and Kiparisovo were founded in Peter the Great Bay. Among the settlers of the third stage were not only landless peasants, but also workers, craftsmen, petty officials and employees. According to the data of 1916, more than 245 thousand people already lived in the Amur and Primorsky regions (modern Amur region, Khabarovsk and Primorsky territories), of which 55% were immigrants.

Ukrainian refugees will be offered to resettle in Siberia and the Far East. The Russian Ministry for the Development of the Russian Far East supported the initiative of a group of State Duma deputies from the Communist Party headed by Sergei Obukhov, who asked for the development of a federal target program for the voluntary resettlement of people who were forced to leave Ukraine to the territory of Siberia and the Far East. According to the agency, by 2020 more than 50,000 jobs will be created in the Far Eastern Federal District (FEFD) that could be occupied by Ukrainians (Izvestia has the answer from the Ministry for the Development of the Far East). The agency notified the Federal Migration Service (FMS) of Russia of its position for further study of the issue.

The Deputy Minister of the Russian Federation for the Development of the Far East, Sergey Kachaev, in his response expresses support for the initiative of the State Duma deputies and says that "the corresponding position has been sent to the FMS." The Ministry for the Development of the Far East notes that by 2020 more than 50 thousand jobs will be created in the territories of socio-economic development and in investment projects.

“The list of territories for priority settlement includes the Republic of Buryatia, the Trans-Baikal Territory, the Kamchatka Territory, the Primorsky Territory, the Khabarovsk Territory, the Amur Region, the Irkutsk Region, the Magadan Region, the Sakhalin Region and the Jewish Autonomous Region,” they say in the Ministry for the Development of the Far East.

Sergey Obukhov at the end of 2015 sent appeals to the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev, the Federal Migration Service and the Ministry for the Development of the Far East with a request to develop a federal target program "Voluntary resettlement of people who were forced to leave Ukraine to the territory of Siberia and the Far East."

The deputies remind that on October 31, 2015, the preferential stay of Ukrainians in Russia ended (except for refugees from the Luhansk and Donetsk republics). In the period from 1 to 30 November 2015, Ukrainian migrants had to obtain a legal legal status on a general basis, otherwise they would face administrative expulsion. According to parliamentarians, Ukrainians who have not received documents can be offered to voluntarily move to Siberia and the Far East in order to accelerate the development of these territories.

Thus, in the Far Eastern Federal District, according to Rosstat, in 2011, 6,284,900 people lived, and as of January 1, 2015 - 6,211,021 people. At the same time, according to the state program "Socio-economic development of the Far East and the Baikal region", by 2025 the population in the region is expected to grow to 10.75 million people. This task "is difficult to consider fully realistic while maintaining the identified trends."

Despite the fact that Russia has a state program to assist the voluntary resettlement of compatriots living abroad in the Russian Federation, according to Sergei Obukhov, the pace of its implementation does not meet expectations and the tasks set are not being solved.

At the same time, the FMS believes that at present there is no need to develop a program for the resettlement of Ukrainians in Siberia and the Far East, since this task is being implemented with the help of the existing state program to assist voluntary resettlement in the Russian Federation of compatriots living abroad. At the same time, for Ukrainians who have received temporary asylum, the list of documents and the period for their consideration for participation in the program have been reduced.

Today, the reception of compatriots within the framework of regional resettlement programs is carried out by 59 subjects of the Russian Federation, including 9 subjects included in the Siberian Federal District (the republics of Buryatia and Khakassia, Altai, Zabaikalsky and Krasnoyarsk Territories, Irkutsk, Kemerovo, Novosibirsk, Omsk Regions), and 7 subjects included in the Far Eastern Federal District (Kamchatsky, Primorsky and Khabarovsk Territories, Amur, Magadan, Sakhalin Region, Jewish Autonomous Region). The Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) and the Tomsk Region are preparing to start accepting migrants, the press service of the FMS explains.

As of January 1, 2016 (since 2007 - the beginning of the practical implementation of the state program), about 440 thousand compatriots moved to Russia, of which more than 106.8 thousand people arrived in the regions of the Siberian Federal District and the Far Eastern Federal District.

According to the FMS, the number of Ukrainians participating in the program has increased in the last 2 years.

In 2014, more than 106 thousand people moved to Russia, of which 41.7 thousand are compatriots from Ukraine. 29.6 thousand people arrived in the regions of Siberia and the Far East, including 10.8 thousand from Ukraine. In 2015, the number of program participants and members of their families amounted to more than 183 thousand people, of which about 111 thousand were immigrants from Ukraine. 38.8 thousand people arrived in the regions of the Siberian Federal District and the Far Eastern Federal District, including about 18.5 thousand Ukrainian compatriots, the press service noted.

The FMS emphasized that the subjects that are part of the Far Eastern Federal District are among the territories of priority settlement, therefore, those who want to move to the Far East are provided with state support - compensation for travel, paperwork, accommodation allowance (240 thousand rubles), etc.

Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Regional Policy and Problems of the North and the Far East Petr Romanov believes that the population must be financially motivated to move to Siberia and the Far East.

You can have a great idea, but the government will say that there is no money for its implementation, especially at the present time, he says. - The very idea of ​​settling Siberia and the Far East is very relevant. We have lands, but they have not been developed, people work on them in exceptional cases, for example, they extract coal in the Kemerovo region, oil - in the Tyumen region, the Khanty-Mansiysk district, gas - in the Yamalo-Nenets region. Without a perspective, people cannot be attracted to these regions. Another thing is if they say that you will get an apartment and a decent salary.

Petr Romanov also believes that it is necessary to actively promote the idea of ​​resettlement to the Far East.

There were such slogans in the Soviet Union. The authorities threw ideas to the people, for which people grabbed: the slogans "Five-year plan - ahead of schedule!", "Catch up and overtake the Americans", "The enemy will be defeated, victory will be ours," and so on, he recalled.

The chairman of the Trade Union of Migrant Workers, Renat Karimov, believes that Ukrainians will not want to develop Siberia and the Far East.

If there were many jobs in these regions, then the Russians would not seek to leave there. Probably, these are low-paid vacancies, and Ukrainians will not want to work there either. We have all the money and work concentrated in the Central Federal District, so both Russians and migrants go there,” he says. - The idea sounds beautiful, in fact it is unlikely to be able to competently implement it. If the government wanted and knew how to develop the Far East, then they could do it without the Ukrainians.

According to Renat Karimov, now Ukrainians have no problems with paperwork.

In general, the new requirements are met, especially since it is not so difficult - you need to return to Ukraine, and then go to Russia and go to apply for a patent. At least, there were no appeals to us with any problems, and there was no information about deportations,” he noted.

According to the FMS, there are currently about 2.6 million Ukrainian citizens in Russia, of which about 1.1 million people come from the south-east of Ukraine.

Ukrainians played an important role in the development and industrialization of Russia. The largest flows of immigrants from Little Russia were directed primarily to the eastern regions. So, Primorye at the beginning of the 19th century was called the second Ukraine.

First wave. Exiled nationalists

Although from the very annexation of Siberia to Russia, Ukrainians served in fortresses there, the first large flow of settlers from Ukraine came in the second half of the 17th century, after it was annexed to Russia.

Various figures who spoke out against Moscow, people who were suspected or convicted of treason, were exiled to Siberia. For example, in the 1650s, among others, they were supporters of Hetman Vyhovsky, in the 1660s - opponents of Hetman Bryukhovetsky, etc. After the Battle of Poltava, of course, all like-minded Mazepa, after the liquidation of the Zaporizhzhya Sich - Cossack foremen, as well as participants in the Haidamak movement.

Second wave. Agricultural development

It was a completely agrarian period of colonization of the region, very successful. Fertile Siberian soils made it possible to harvest a good harvest, despite the harsh continental climate. At the end of the 17th century, there were no more than 20 thousand peasants in the region, at the end of the 18th century - already half a million, by the middle of the 19th century - 1.5 million.

By the beginning of the 18th century, Siberia was fully self-sufficient in bread and began trading with Asia and Europe. During this period, not only state-owned, but also much larger numbers of runaway serfs settled in Siberia, who were eventually given the right to settle. According to one of the leading researchers in the development of Siberia, Doctor of Historical Sciences Tamara Mamsik, in percentage terms, the Ukrainian provinces gave almost 40% of the settlers.

During the Stolypin reform, thousands of Ukrainian families moved to lands in Siberia and the Far East. Compact settlements were formed, many toponyms remind of Ukraine: Novokievka, Kharkivka, Poltavka. Until now, in a number of districts of the Tyumen region there are villages in which the descendants of those settlers live. In the neighboring Omsk region there are districts, for example, Kyiv, Poltava, which were settled at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century by immigrants from Ukraine.

Third wave. Stolypin reform

The Amur governor-general Unterberger wrote that the settlers for the Far Eastern regions were selected from Little Russia, "they were supposed to create a stable cadre of Russian farmers on the spot, as a bulwark against the spread of the yellow race." From 1868 to 1914, 22,122 peasant families arrived in Primorye, of which 69.95% were immigrants from Ukraine.

Some tend to divide this period into several: dispossession, flight from hunger, condemned nationalists, military evacuation, but in general the flow was constant and steady, so there is not much point in splitting this stage.

More than half a million Ukrainians were sent to Siberia through the Gulag, a million were evacuated. It was Ukrainian nationalists who made up the majority in the Norilsk Gorlag, where they raised an uprising in 1953. A significant part of this category of migrants returned to their homeland, but many remained.

Fifth wave. Orgnabor

In order to provide Siberian industrial facilities with working hands, a system of organized recruitment of workers worked in the USSR. In the 1960s, people from a union republic with surplus labor resources were sent to a specific place.

So, employees from Ukraine were sent to Siberia and the Far East to work in the forestry and fishing industries, to construction sites. The inter-republican exchange plan was approved annually by the Council of Ministers.

During the existence of the organizational recruitment from the 1930s to the 1970s, at least 5 million Ukrainians were resettled to Siberia. According to the 1989 census, more than 600,000 ethnic Ukrainians lived in the Tyumen region alone - about a third of the region's population at that time. In Tyumen, even the Consulate General of Ukraine is open, the National-cultural autonomy of Ukrainians operates.

Sixth wave. Reverse

In the post-Soviet period, the number of Ukrainians in the population of Siberia has been declining in all regions, and significantly. First of all, in the northern regions. More than 3 times - in the Chita region, almost twice - in the Irkutsk region, Buryatia, Yakutia, Krasnoyarsk Territory, Kemerovo region.

In southwestern Siberia, the reduction was less significant, by about a third. In the Far East, compared with 1989, the number of Ukrainians has halved. It should be emphasized that this wave is not only centrifugal, but also, so to speak, internal: it’s just that Ukrainians in new generations do not consider themselves Ukrainians, many have lost their knowledge of the language and Ukrainian identity.