ETHNONATIONAL POLICY OF THE USSR IN THE UKRAINIAN SSR (1923–1933) AND ITS IMPACT ON CONTEMPORARY INTERETHNIC RELATIONS

This article attempts to analyze the nature of the Bolshevik national policy in the Ukrainian SSR from 1923 to 1933 and to demonstrate how Soviet ethnonational policy influenced the linguistic, cultural, and ethnopolitical situation in the Ukrainian SSR (hereafter Ukraine).For this reason, new sources are not introduced into scientific circulation.The study also seeks to examine the territorial and interethnic conflicts that arose due to the policies of indigenization, Russification, deportations, and border changes and to consider how this legacy affects society in contemporary Ukraine.The research is based on macrohistorical and alternative approaches, which made it possible to identify new aspects of the Ukrainization process in the restructuring of society based on utopian ideas of building communism.The main goal of the publication is to draw attention to unpredictable scenarios.In the early 1920s, the Bolshevik leadership of the USSR introduced the policy of Ukrainization with the aim of:1. Creating an impression in the global community of the remarkable development of Soviet republics.2. Finding common ground with the Ukrainian peasantry.3. Addressing growing social contradictions.4. Controlling the national revival process. 5. Compensating for the loss of political influence.However, in the 1930s, when the national revival extended beyond the command-administrative system, this policy was terminated.Repressions then intensified with renewed force.The administrative redrawing of borders in the Soviet Union was an important part of its ethnonational policy, which had a significant impact on interethnic relations in post-Soviet countries.This redrawing was carried out for several reasons: to strengthen control over regions, to satisfy political or economic interests, and to achieve ideological goals.The redrawing of borders often led to ethnic and territorial conflicts that are still felt today.The Soviet authorities sometimes altered borders to increase their influence over certain territories or national minorities, integrating them into Soviet republics.This allowed the Kremlin to create greater unity within the USSR and suppress any nationalist movements.For example, in Western Ukraine, during the formation of Soviet republics, administrative border changes influenced their political and social structure.Mass deportations, particularly of the Crimean Tatars, were carried out to prevent the concentration of certain national groups in a single area.Consequences of Border Redrawing: Interethnic Conflicts -The redrawing of borders led to numerous territorial disputes between states that emerged after the collapse of the USSR.Classic examples include conflicts in Nagorno-Karabakh, Transnistria, Donbas, Crimea, and the Caucasus.Population Imbalance -Administrative boundaries often did not correspond to the actual ethnic composition of the population, leading to situations where certain ethnic groups became minorities in areas where they had previously been the majority.This caused social and political problems in the republics after they declared independence.The redrawing of borders by the Soviet Union created complex ethnopolitical conditions for post-Soviet countries, which continue to influence contemporary interethnic relations, territorial conflicts, and political processes in these states.