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First Steps of the Ukrainization of Crimea (1954–1955)

Concise summary: initiatives of the CC CPU and the government of the UkrSSR in 1954–1955 to build a Ukrainian-language information, cultural-arts and educational space in Crimea (the newspaper "Radyanskyy Krym", tours of artistic collectives, the Ukrainization of schools, the department of Ukrainian language and literature at the Crimean Pedagogical Institute), which were implemented amid covert sabotage on the part of the local regional party committee led by Dmytro Polyanskyy.

Overview

Following the transfer of Crimea Oblast from the RSFSR to the UkrSSR in 1954, the leadership of the CC CPU and the government in Kyiv initiated a series of important decisions to shape a Ukrainian-language cultural, educational and media environment for hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian settlers. Despite the concerns and veiled resistance of the local party apparatus in Simferopol, expressed at the March 1954 party conference, the republican center pursued a consistent course. This included large-scale summer tours by Ukrainian theaters and choirs, the allocation of film projectors, the retraining of pedagogical cadres, the regional committee's appeal to the CC CPU on the study of the Ukrainian language in grades 2–8 of all schools, the founding of the first Ukrainian-language regional newspaper "Radyanskyy Krym", the creation of a department of Ukrainian language and literature at the Crimean Pedagogical Institute and the Crimean Regional Institute of Teacher Improvement (OIPPO), and the replacement of the oblast's leadership cadres at the end of 1955.

Key Details / Subtopics

  • Party conference of March 1954: Concerns of part of the local party-economic elite about "large-scale Ukrainization", voiced at the closed March party conference, which forced the republican center to act decisively.
  • Cultural-arts landing (1954):
  • Summer tours by the best collectives of the UkrSSR: the Kharkiv Opera and Ballet Theater, the Odesa Theater of Musical Comedy, the State Ukrainian Choir, the Bandurist Capella of the UkrSSR, the Dance Ensemble of the UkrSSR, and the Bukovyna and Zakarpattia folk choirs.
  • A delegation of writers headed by Mykola Bazhan (participation in the 50th anniversary of the death of A. Chekhov) and preparation of the ground for the Crimean branch of the Writers' Union of Ukraine.
  • Creative visits by the Unions of Artists and Composers of Ukraine, followed by the opening of Crimean branches.
  • Free transfer by the Government of the UkrSSR of 99 wide-film and 5 narrow-film mobile film projectors with generators to modernize the oblast's cinema network.
  • The "Agitator's Notebook" and the press (1954–1955): V. Pashko's memo (03.09.1954) on publishing the "Bloknot Ahitatora" ("Agitator's Notebook") in Ukrainian, and the regional committee resolution (08.10.1954) on printing from July 1955 a run of 5,000 copies of the newspaper "Krymskyi komsomolets" in Ukrainian.
  • Creation of the regional newspaper "Radyanskyy Krym" (1954–1955): Decision of the Presidium of the CC CPU of September 20, 1954 on founding a daily Ukrainian-language print organ (20,000 copies). Mykola Pidhornyi's appeal to the CC CPSU in August 1955 to overcome Polyanskyy's sabotage, and the decision of September 30, 1955 on subscription quotas for the districts.
  • School Ukrainization and overcoming the staffing shortage (1954–1956):
  • Memo of the Crimean Regional Committee of the CPU to the CC CPU (1955, Document No. 66) on the mandatory study of Ukrainian language and literature in grades 2–8 of all schools of the oblast from the 1955/1956 school year.
  • Acute staffing shortage: of 2,193 primary-school teachers, only 94 had command of the Ukrainian language. A need for 1,500 Ukrainian-speaking teachers and a request to the CC CPU and the Ministry of Education of the UkrSSR to send 600 language and literature teachers from Ukraine with temporary hourly pay.
  • Retraining in the 1954 school year of nearly 1,500 teachers at the Crimean Pedagogical Institute, the Crimean Regional Institute of Teacher Improvement (OIPPO) and the regional institute of postgraduate education, and of school principals in Kyiv.
  • Creation of positions for 3 inspector-methodologists in the regional public education department (VNO) and 1 inspector-methodologist in each of the 10 city and district public education departments (Simferopol, Sevastopol, Kerch, Yalta, Yevpatoria, Feodosia, Dzhankoy, Bilohirsk, Saky, Krasnohvardiyske), as well as a study room of Ukrainian language and literature at the regional Institute of Teacher Improvement (IPO).
  • Higher Ukrainian studies education (1954–1955): Creation of the Ukrainian language and literature section at the historical-philological faculty of the Crimean Pedagogical Institute (KPI) (1954) and of the first department of Ukrainian language and literature headed by P. M. Kyrychok (1955).
  • Dismissal of Dmytro Polyanskyy (end of 1955): Removal of Polyanskyy from the post of First Secretary of the Crimean Regional Committee for sabotaging Kyiv's humanitarian initiatives. His successor Vasyl Komiakov accelerated the Ukrainization processes.