ARCHIVE (All issues) / Content (2021, Issue 4)
Chura V., Marchuk V. Participation of the Party-State Establishment of the Ukrainian SSR Western Regions in the Putsch of the State Committee on the State of Emergency (August 1991)Section: Historical Articles Abstract: The purpose of the study is to find out the reasons for the support of the leading communist party apparatus of the western regions of the UkrSSR for the Moscow putsch led by the State Committee on the State of Emergency (SCSE), as well as factual reconstruction of the events and consequences of the coup failure in the context of restoring Ukrainian independence. The methodological basis of scientific intelligence is based on a rational step in compliance with the principle of historical objectivity. The study used methods of critical and structural analysis and classification, systematization and verification of unpublished archival sources and field material. The scientific novelty of the obtained results is formed on the documents of one republican and seven regional archives, as well as the columns of communist and democratic periodicals and interviews with contemporaries and participants of the events. Based on them, the littleknown facts related to the reception of the coup at various levels of the then Soviet society were reconstructed. The key attention is paid to the unexplored perception by local communist elites of an attempt at armed revenge in the face of their loss of pro-government status. Conclusions. After the liberation of the western Ukrainian regions from the communist monopoly on political power as a result of the defeat of party nominees in the 1990 elections, the local party apparatus retained hope for revenge only with the forceful support of the union center. Therefore, unlike ordinary communists and supporters of the National Communist Democratic Platform, after the illegal proclamation of power by the SCSE in August 1991, the top regional leadership became the focal points for the implementation of the insurgents’ instructions. It was the only one to receive their first secret orders, recognize the state of emergency and call on the public to avoid acts of disobedience. Moreover, local party elites made plans to carry out the orders of the putschists and encouraged the heads of law enforcement, administrative and economic institutions to obey them. However, the anti-communist resistance, led by democratic councils, national parties and public associations, stood in the way. He positioned himself as a state-builder, as last year’s local elections were won by Ukrainian political forces, which saw the Declaration of State Sovereignty of Ukraine as a restoration of its state independence. Thus, the coup attempt led by the SCSE in the western Ukrainian regions was a priori doomed to failure. The participation of the leading partocracy in the putsch outlawed the Communist Party of Ukraine, completed the disintegration of grassroots structures, caused the nationalization of property and transformed it into a criminal political union that opposed the restoration of Ukraine’s independence. Keywords: western regions of the UkrSSR, communist authorities, State Committee on the State of Emergency (SCSE), putsch, national movement, statehood. Author(s) citation:
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