DECREE OF THE GOVERNMENT OF THE USSR CONDEMNING UKRAINIZATION
FOR DIFFICULTIES IN GRAIN PROCUREMENT

Dec. 14, 1932

Secret.
Not for publication.

On hearing the reports of comrades Rumiantsev, Secretary of the Western Oblast (Province) Party Committee; Kosior, Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (Bolshevik) of Ukraine [CC KP(b)U]; Stroganov, Secretary of the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Party Committee; and Sheboldaev, Secretary of the North Caucasus Territory Party Committee, the Central Committee of the All-Russian Communist Party (Bolshevik) [CC VKP(b)] and the Council of People's Commissars [SNK] of the USSR decree the following:

1. Oblige the CC KP(b)U and the Sovnarkom [SNK] of the Ukrainian SSR, on the personal responsibility of comrades Kosior and Chubar, to fully complete the grain and sunflower seed procurement plan by the end of January, 1933.

2. Oblige the North Caucasus Territory Party and [State] Executive Committees, on the personal responsibility of comrades Sheboldaev and Larin, to fully complete the procurement plan for grain by January 10-15, 1933, and for sunflower seeds by the end of January, 1933.

3. Oblige the Western Oblast Party and [State] Executive Committees, on the personal responsibility of comrades Rumiantsev and Shelekhes, to fully complete the procurement plan for grain by January 1, 1933, and for flax by February 1, 1933.

4. Due to extremely poor efforts and the absence of revolutionary vigilance in a number of local party organizations in Ukraine and the North Caucasus, a significant part of their raions (districts) has been infiltrated by counterrevolutionary elements-kulaks, former officers, Petliurites, supporters of the Kuban Rada, etc. They have managed to find their way into collective farms as directors and other influential administration members, accountants, storekeepers, foremen at threshing floors, etc. They have succeeded in infiltrating village soviets, land management bodies, and cooperative societies, and are now trying to direct the work of these organizations contrary to the interests of the proletarian state and party policy, as well as trying to organize a counterrevolutionary movement and sabotage of the harvest and sowing campaigns. The CC VKP(b) and SNK USSR oblige the CC KP(b)U, North Caucasus Territory Party and [ State ] Executive Committees, and the SNK of Ukraine to resolutely root out these counterrevolutionary elements by means of arrests and long-term deportations to concentration camps, without stopping short of capital punishment for the most malicious of these elements.

5. The CC and SNK instruct party and government organizations of the Soviet Union that the worst enemies of the party, working class, and collective farm peasantry are saboteurs of grain procurement who have party membership cards in their pockets. To please kulaks and other anti-Soviet elements, they organize state fraud, double-dealing, and the failure of completing tasks set by the party and government. The CC and SNK oblige appropriate bodies to apply to these renegades and enemies of Soviet power and collective farms, who still have party membership cards in their pockets, severe repressions, 5-10 year deportations to concentration camps, and, under certain circumstances, execution by shooting.

6. The CC and SNK point out that instead of correct Bolshevik-style implementation of the national policy, in a number of raions of Ukraine, Ukrainization was carried out mechanically, without taking into consideration the peculiarities of every raion and without meticulous selection of Bolshevik cadre. This made it easier for bourgeois-nationalist elements, Petliurites and others to create their legal cover-ups and counterrevolutionary cells and organizations.

7. In particular, the CC and SNK point out to the Party and [ State ] Executive Committees of the North Caucasus Territory that the irresponsible, non-Bolshevik "Ukrainization", which affected nearly half of the raions in the North Caucasus, was at variance with the cultural interests of the population. It was carried out with a complete lack of supervision on the part of territorial agencies over the Ukrainization of schools and the press, and provided the enemies of Soviet power with a legal cover for organizing resistance to the endeavors of Soviet authorities, as well as a legal cover for undertakings on the part of kulaks, officers, Cossack resettlers, members of the Kuban Rada, etc.

In order to crush the resistance to grain procurement by kulak elements and their "party" and non-party flunkeys, the CC and SNK USSR decree the following:

a. Immediately transfer to the northern oblasts of the USSR the entire population of the most counterrevolutionary Poltavs'ka stanitsa [Cossack village], North Caucasus, with the exception of collective and individual farmers who are truly loyal to Soviet power and have not been implicated in grain procurement sabotage. Populate this stanitsa with conscientious collective farmers who have served in the Red Army and are now working in other territories that suffer from the shortage and poor quality of land. Transfer to these settlers all the lands, winter crops, buildings, equipment and cattle of the farmers being expelled.

Comrades Yagoda, Gamarnik (with Bulygin as substitute), Sheboldaev and Yevdokimov shall be responsible for implementing this resolution (section a).

b. Prosecute and sentence to 5-10 years in concentration camps traitors of the party who were arrested in Ukraine for organizing the sabotage of grain procurement: former raion secretaries, chairmen of executive committees, directors of land management bodies, and chairmen of raion associations of collective farms. Namely: for Orikhiv raion - Golovin, Pryhoda, Palamarchuk, Ordelian and Lutsenko; for Balakliia raion - Khoroshko, Us and Fishman; for Nosiv raion -Yaremenko; for Kobeliaky raion - Liashenko; for Velykyi Tokmak raion - Lensky, Kosiachenko, Dvornik, Zyka and Dolgov.

c. On a level with the kulaks, exile to northern oblasts all former communists who were expelled from the party for sabotaging the sowing and grain procurement campaigns.v

d. Make a proposal to the CC KP(b)U and SNK of Ukraine to pay serious attention to the proper implementation of Ukrainization, to eliminate its mechanical implementation, to expel Petliurite and other bourgeois-nationalist elements from party and government organizations, to meticulously select and train Ukrainian Bolshevik cadre, and to ensure systematic party management and supervision over Ukrainization.

e. Immediately change the language used in offices of Soviet bodies and cooperative societies, as well as all newspapers and magazines in the Ukrainianized raions of the North Caucasus, from Ukrainian to Russian, explaining that Russian is more understandable to Kuban residents. Also, prepare to change the language of instruction in schools to Russian by the autumn. The CC and SNK oblige the Territory Party and [ State ] Executive Committees to urgently examine and improve the composition of school teachers in the Ukrainianized raions.

f. In cancellation of the old resolution, allow the delivery of goods to Ukrainian villages and grant comrades Kosior and Chubar the right to suspend the delivery of goods to especially backward raions until they fulfill the grain procurement plan.

Chairman of the SNK USSR Viacheslav Molotov (Skriabin)
Secretary of the CC VKP(b) Joseph Stalin

Original document in Russian archives: RGASPI. F. 17, op. 3. d. 2025, l. 42-34.
Published version: Tragedia sovetskoi derevni. Vol. 3. Pp. 576-577.