Ukrainization of the Voronezh region in 1923-1932

In the 1920s and 1930s, Ukrainians constituted more than 30 percent of population of the Voronezh region. The corenization policy conducted by the Bolsheviks included the transfer of administration, courts and educational institutions to the language that was native for the dominant population of the region. Ukrainization was an option of corenization implemented in the Voronezh region. The existing studies converge in the evaluation of the results of Ukrainization which are evaluated as unsuccessful, but the researchers diverge speaking of the reasons of the failure. Some researchers state about the passivity of the local population, the others insist that the disruption of Ukrainianization is the guilt of the local and central authorities. In the study, the author focuses on resolving this contradiction based on the analysis of ukrainization. Ukrainization was organized in three stages in the region. In 1923-1925, the results were zero and the local authorities reported the reluctance of the local population to implement the process. The Government of Ukraine announced the weak position of the Voronezh Region in the process of Ukrainization and required the transfer of its southern part to the Ukrainian SSR. In 1925, their request was denied by the central government, but the process of Ukrainization in the region was intensified. The documents demonstrate that the local authorities had achieved higher growth rates due to the partial refusal to evaluate the opinion of the local population. By 1928, the hundreds of schools have been ukrainized; however, progress in the sphere of management and trial was extremely insignificant. This year, due to new territorial claims of Ukraine, the government of the Voronezh region forced the process of Ukrainization and completely refused to take into account the opinion of the local population, but in 1932, Ukrainization was stopped. The author concludes that the support of Ukrainization by the local population was insignificant, and Ukrainization was carried only by pressure from the USSR government.