9 - Scorching the harvest, 1930–1934

Summary

In January 1934, at the very moment when Kharkov achieved clear dominance over Kiev (635,395 for the first vs. 560,000 for the second), Kiev became the capital of the Soviet Ukrainian republic. Delegates to the Twelfth KP(b)U Congress voted unanimously to transfer their governmental and party headquarters from the Russified city of Kharkov to the most important agricultural region of the republic in order to strengthen “Bolshevik Ukrainianization on the basis of industrialization and collectivization.” This shift of capitals represented a new power relationship in the Ukraine and a redefinition of Ukrainianization.

Attacking “bourgeois” nationalists

With the inauguration of the first five-year plan in 1928, Stalin and his allies suspected that former members and sympathizers of the anti-Bolshevik parties of 1917–21 would not be enthused about this brave new world. Their very backgrounds made them suspect. In this increasingly antagonistic environment, proper political credentials became more important than expertise.

To discredit the old order and to popularize the new, the Stalinists staged several spectacular show trials, beginning with the Shakhty Trial of “bourgeois specialists” in May–July 1928. By creating an image of “class enemies” and “capitalist agents” infiltrating all sectors of Soviet society, these trials sought to garner support for Stalin's “revolution from above.” Radical attacks on the vestiges of the “capitalist” past in Soviet society included attacks on “bourgeois nationalists” in the non-Russian republics, especially in the Ukraine.

Renewed attacks on Ukrainian nationalism began in the late 1920s. In April 1929 the OGPU allegedly discovered several small underground organizations, including the National Party for the Liberation of the Ukraine in Vinnytsia.