The name Green Wedge appeared in the late 19th - early 20th centuries due to the mass migration of Ukrainians to the south of the Far East region Russian Empire. Previously, there was also another Ukrainian name this region - Zachinayshchyna. Initially, the Green Wedge meant the territory of the Amur Region and the Ussuri Territory, which became the main object of resettlement of Ukrainians in the Far East in the second half of the 19th - early 20th centuries.

According to the census of the Russian Empire in 1897, out of 223 thousand inhabitants of the Primorsky region, 33 thousand (15% of the population) indicated Little Russian as their native language. According to the Soviet historian V. M. Kabuzan, in 1883-1905, 172,876 people moved to the Far East, 109,510 people, or 63.4% of the settlers, from the Little Russian provinces. With the continuation of resettlement to the Far East by 1912, according to the Russian researcher A. Menshikov, out of 22,122 families who moved in 1858-1914 to the Primorsky region, 15,475 (70%) were from Ukraine. According to the All-Union Population Census of 1926, 315,203 people in the Far Eastern Territory identified themselves as Ukrainians, which accounted for 18.1% of the region's population.

One of the correspondents of that time, I. Illich-Svitych, described, for example, the city of Ussuriysk in 1905:

This is a large little Russian village. The main and oldest street is Nikolskaya. Along the entire street, on both sides, stretched out white huts, in some places still covered with straw. At the end of the city, at the confluence of Rakovka with Suputinka, as is often the case in native Ukraine, a "stay" is arranged, near which the "milk" nestled picturesquely, so that the picture would turn out in which the "old did" in one song confuses the "young a maiden" - "and stakes, and a milk, and a cherry garden," if this latter were present. Among the Russian population, not counting the Cossacks, the Little Russians are so prevalent that the rural residents of the city, the so-called intelligent, call nothing more than "Khokhls." And indeed, among the Poltava, Chernigov, Kyiv, Volyn and other Ukrainians, the settlers from the Great Russian provinces are completely lost, being, as it were, interspersed with the main Little Russian element. The bazaar on a trading day, for example, in Nikolsk-Ussuriysky is very reminiscent of some place in Ukraine; the same mass of hard-horned oxen lazily chewing their cud beside wagons filled with sacks of flour, cereals, lard, pig carcasses, etc.; the same Ukrainian clothes in public. Everywhere you hear a cheerful, lively, lively Little Russian dialect, and on a hot summer day you might think that you are somewhere in Mirgorod, Reshetilovka or Sorochintsy from the time of Gogol.

Far Eastern Ukraine.

Ukrainian village at the beginning of the 20th century.

A century ago, Ukrainians made up two-thirds of the population of the Far East, and during the years of the Civil War they made an unsuccessful attempt to create their own statehood there.

At the end of the 19th century, the first peasants who settled in Primorye were people from the Chernigov and Poltava provinces. On the eve of 1917, Ukrainian villages surrounded Vladivostok; censuses showed 83% of the Ukrainian population in the region. During the years of the revolution and the Civil War, along with the whites, reds and various interventionists, Ukrainian “kuren” units also arose here. But after the creation of the USSR, all Ukrainians of Primorye quickly became Russians.

"Primorshchina"

When in 1858-60 the Russian Empire took away the northern coast of the Amur and Primorye from the Qing Empire, these lands were not inhabited and remained so for the first quarter of a century of Russian rule. Vladivostok was a small fleet base in the middle of deserted spaces. Only on April 13 and 20, 1883, the first two passenger steamships "Russia" and "Petersburg" arrived here from Odessa, on board of which there were 1504 migrant peasants from the Chernigov province. They founded the first nine villages in the south of Primorye.

It was from 1883 that the route of passenger-and-freight steamships from Odessa to Vladivostok began to work. There were still 20 years left before the completion of the construction of the Trans-Siberian railway. And the long, one and a half month route from Odessa, through Beaufort and the Suez Canal, past India, China, Korea and Japan to Vladivostok, remained much faster, easier and cheaper than nine thousand miles of unpaved Siberian highway and off-road Transbaikal.

Odessa has long been the main link with the Russian Far East. Therefore, it is not surprising that immigrants from Ukraine dominated among the migrants. First of all, landless peasants moved to distant lands. The provinces closest to Odessa with the greatest "agrarian overpopulation" were Chernigov and Poltava. It was they who gave the main flow of the first colonists to distant Primorye.

In the Far East, peasants were provided with a 100-tithe plot of land (109 hectares) free of charge. For comparison, in central Russia the average peasant allotment was 3.3 acres, and in the Chernigov province - 8 acres. But it was more difficult for peasants from Russia to get to Odessa than for residents of villages from the nearest Ukrainian provinces. In addition, communal land ownership did not exist in Ukraine, so it was easier for local peasants to sell their individual allotments and set off on a long journey. The peasants in the Russian provinces were deprived of this opportunity right up to the Stolypin agrarian reforms.

Therefore, during the first decade of the Russian colonization of Primorye, from 1883 to 1892, immigrants from Ukraine accounted for 89.2% of all immigrants. Of these, 74% are peasants from the Chernihiv province, the rest - from Poltava and Kharkov.

By the beginning of the 20th century, the resettlement of Ukrainians in Primorye was becoming even more widespread. From 1892 to 1901, over 40 thousand Ukrainian peasants came here, who accounted for 91.8% of all the colonists of Primorye. The famine that engulfed the northern provinces of Ukraine in 1891-1892 contributed to the intensification of such migration.

In 1903, the Trans-Siberian Railway was launched, connecting central Russia with the Far East. This opened a new stage in the settlement of Primorye and divided the entire population of the region into "watchmen" - those who arrived here on steamboats from Odessa, and "new settlers" who had already arrived by rail.

By 1909, the "old-timer" population of the Primorsky region numbered 110,448 people, of which 81.4% were Ukrainians, 9.5% were Russians, and 5.6% came from Belarusian provinces.

In the last decade before 1917, 167,547 people moved to Primorye. But even after the creation of the Trans-Siberian Railway and the Stolypin agrarian reforms, which abolished communal land ownership in the Russian provinces, over 76% of the settlers were Ukrainian peasants. Of these, almost a third of the settlers were given by the Chernihiv province, a fifth by Kyiv and a tenth by Poltava.

In total, according to statistics, from 1883 to 1916, over 276 thousand people, 57% of all immigrants, moved to Primorye and the Amur region from Ukraine. Ukrainian peasants settled in the South of Primorye and the Zeya Valley near the Amur, which, by nature and landscape, very much resembled the forest-steppe regions of Chernihiv and Poltava regions. In the more northern taiga regions of the region, they almost did not settle.

The arrival of settlers in Blagoveshchensk, 1905-1910. Source: pastvu.com

As a result, the cosmopolitan Vladivostok of the beginning of the 20th century was surrounded entirely by Ukrainian villages, and according to eyewitnesses, the townspeople called all the rural residents of the region "nothing but crests." Ukrainians gave rise to a mass in Primorye geographical names in honor of the cities and localities of Ukraine - the river and the village of Kievka, the villages of Chernigovka, Chuguevka, Slavyanka, Khorol and others.

The territories of the Primorsky and Amur regions, most densely populated by immigrants from Ukraine, were remembered in the Ukrainian ethnic consciousness under the name "Green Wedge". The origin of this name is associated with the lush green vegetation of Primorye, as well as geographic location South Ussuri Territory, a "wedge" squeezed between China and the Sea of Japan. Also, the word "wedge" was used in the meaning of a certain part of the earth's surface, land ("land wedge"), because it was here that the Ukrainian peasant received huge allotments by European standards.

In relation to the Ukrainian settlement lands in the south of the Far East, along with the name "Green Wedge", the names "New Ukraine", "Far Eastern Ukraine", "Green Ukraine" were also used. In local history literature, the use of the name "Far Eastern Ukraine" was recorded already in 1905, in relation to the southern part of the Ussuri Territory.

The Ukrainian peasant colonists themselves in the vicinity of Vladivostok, according to ethnographers, called their new land "Primorshchina" - by analogy with Chernihiv and Poltava regions.

"Ruski" and "Mazepians" of the Far East

Most of the ethnic Ukrainians of Primorye already in the second generation considered themselves Russians. Thus, according to the census of the population of the Russian Empire in 1897, out of 223 thousand inhabitants of the Primorsky region, only 33 thousand, 15% of the total population, indicated "Little Russian" as their native language, although people of Ukrainian origin made up more than half of the population of Primorye and spoke Russian-Ukrainian mixtures. At the same time, ethnographers of those years noted that Russian and Ukrainian villages coexisted with each other without mixing for at least the first two or three generations of settlers. And the Ukrainian dialect dominated here in the villages until the end of the 30s of the XX century.

A contemporary describes the villages around Vladivostok a century ago as follows: “The daubed huts, gardens, flower beds and vegetable gardens near the huts, the layout of the streets, the interior of the huts, household and household property, inventory, and in some places clothing - all this seems to have been completely transferred from Ukraine. .. The bazaar on a trading day, for example, in Nikolsk-Ussuriysky is very reminiscent of some place in Ukraine; the same mass of strong-horned oxen, the same Ukrainian clothes in public. Everywhere you hear a cheerful, lively, lively Little Russian dialect, and on a hot summer day you might think that you are somewhere in Mirgorod, Reshetilovka or Sorochintsy of the times of Gogol.

The picture of “Far Eastern Ukraine” was completed by ubiquitous sunflowers near rural houses, indispensable signs of Ukrainian villages, and the predominant use of oxen, characteristic of Ukraine, as a draft force, rather than horses more familiar to Russian villages. As the Far Eastern ethnographer of those years, V. A. Lopatin, wrote, the Ukrainians “transferred Little Russia with them to the Far East.”

Among the Ukrainians of Primorye at the beginning of the 20th century there was a self-name "Ruski", which was separated and not mixed with the ethnonym "Russians". And in Primorye itself at the beginning of the 20th century, the situation was similar to Ukraine itself - Russian-speaking multinational cities surrounded by Ukrainian villages. In this regard, Vladivostok did not differ much from Kyiv.

Ukrainian village at the beginning of the 20th century. Photo: Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky / Library of Congress

According to official data from the 1897 census, the literacy rate for Ukrainians in Primorye was 26.9% for men and 2.7% for women, while for Russians it was 47.1% for men and 19.1% for women. This was explained by the fact that almost all Ukrainian settlers were from villages, while among Russian settlers the proportion of immigrants from cities was much higher.

From 1863 until 1905, the Russian Empire at the legislative level prohibited the publication of school textbooks in Ukrainian and any other literature, even of a religious nature. By the decree of Alexander II of 1876, the Ukrainian language was allowed only in theatrical productions and plays "from the past of Little Russian life."

Therefore, legal Ukrainian national organizations appear in the Far East only after the 1905 revolution. But the first Ukrainian organization in the Far East was created outside of Russia - in Shanghai. Here, in 1905, the “Shanghai Ukrainian Community” arose, uniting Ukrainians from among the entrepreneurs and employees of various Russian institutions in Shanghai. Information about the activities of the Shanghai Community is very scarce, there is only information that it collected 400 rubles, which were sent to St. Petersburg for the publication of the Gospel in Ukrainian.

On the territory of the Russian Far East, or the Green Wedge itself, the first Ukrainian organization that received the right to legal activity was the Vladivostok Student Ukrainian Community, formed in October 1907 by Ukrainian students of the local Oriental Institute, which trained connoisseurs of Chinese and Japanese languages. "Hromada" - in Ukrainian means society, and, just like in Russian, it means society, as a kind of association of persons, and society in the social sense.

It is curious that, in addition to students of Ukrainian origin, among the first Far Eastern Ukrainophiles, the founders of the Vladivostok "Hromada", was Lieutenant Trofim von Wikken, who came from a family of German nobles who received estates in the Poltava province. The lieutenant studied Japanese, until 1917 he was a Russian intelligence officer in Japan, and after the revolution he worked in the Japanese company Suzuki, and then taught Russian at the Japanese military academy. Actively cooperating in the 1930s and 40s with the Japanese and German special services, Trofim von Wicken remained an inveterate Ukrainian nationalist until the end of his life.

But let us return to the era of the first Russian revolution. On December 7, 1905, the Ukrainian Club was established in Harbin - the first Ukrainian organization in Manchuria. The official opening of the club took place on January 20, 1908, after the registration of its charter by the local authorities. At the same time, the Harbin club became the first Ukrainian club in the Russian Empire to receive official permission for its activities. The second similar club arose somewhat later in St. Petersburg, and only the third in April 1908 was created in Kyiv. The activities of the Ukrainian Club in Harbin were patronized by the head of the CER, General Dmitry Khorvat, who considered himself a Ukrainian descendant of the Serbian nobles who had settled in the Kherson province under Catherine II.

In general, quite a few Ukrainians worked and lived in Harbin and at the Russian-controlled CER stations in Chinese Manchuria, almost 22,000 people, a third of the entire Russian population in this region.

In connection with the defeat of the revolution of 1905-1907 and the beginning of the reaction, legal Ukrainian public organizations in the Far East did not last long. Already in 1909, by order of the Minister of Public Education, the Vladivostok Student Community was closed. The police were given the task of establishing supervision not only of the revolutionaries, but also of the "Mazepians". However, as noted in a police report to the governor of the Primorsky region for 1913, "no connections with any Ukrainian organizations in European Russia or abroad with the aim of uniting the Little Russians in Vladivostok have yet been found."

Until 1917, "Ukrainian" activities in the Far East were limited to cultural events, Little Russian songs and "Shevchenko evenings". It is curious that on February 25, 1914, the 100th anniversary of the birth of T. G. Shevchenko was solemnly celebrated in Vladivostok at the Golden Horn Theater, while holding such events in Kyiv was prohibited by the authorities.

Failed "smoking" of Vladivostok

The revolution of 1917 led to a surge of the Ukrainian movement not only in Kyiv, but also in the Far East.

On March 26, 1917, at a rally, the Ukrainians of Vladivostok and its environs created the "Vladivostok Ukrainian Community". The first chairman of the community was a former political exile, social democrat, journalist from Poltava Nikolai Novitsky. Already in May 1917, the “leftist” Novitsky went to work in the Vladivostok Soviet and the deputy military prosecutor of Vladivostok (and “for the soul” music critic) Lieutenant Colonel Fyodor Steshko, a native of the Chernigov province, took the post of chairman of the community.

Later, Novitsky would become “red” and in the 30s would be a major rank in the press of the Ukrainian SSR, and his colleague in “Ukrainianism” Steshko would become “white”, in 1920 he would reach Ukraine around the globe in order to establish links between the “Green Wedge” and Petliurists. Novitsky was shot in 1938 along with other "Ukrainizers" of the Ukrainian SSR, and Steshko died in exile in Prague.

Russian Vikings. Who were the Khlynov ushkuyns and how they founded Vyatka.

In the spring of 1917, similar "Ukrainian Hromadas" were founded in almost all cities of the Far East. They arose in Khabarovsk, Blagoveshchensk, Nikolsk-Ussuriysk (now Ussuriysk), Iman (now Dalnorechensk), Svobodny, Nikolaevsk-on-Amur, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Chita, Harbin, at many railway stations and in the villages of the Russian Far East and Manchuria. During this period, all Far Eastern Ukrainian organizations advocated the autonomy of Ukraine as part of a "federal democratic Russian state."

In a number of cities of the Far East, "Gromadas" existed almost until their dissolution by the Bolsheviks in November 1922. Some of them were very numerous and influential - for example, in the Ukrainian Community of Khabarovsk by 1921, more than 940 families (more than 3,000 people) were registered. Through the efforts of these "communities" Ukrainian schools, cooperatives were organized, active educational and publishing activities were carried out.

In 1917, newspapers in the Ukrainian language appeared in the Far East - "Ukrainets na Zeleny Klini" (Vladivostok), "Ukrainska Amurska Right" (Blagoveshchensk), "Khvili Ukrainy" (Khabarovsk), "News of the Ukrainian Club" (Kharbin). The All-Russian agricultural census conducted in the summer of 1917 recorded 421,000 Ukrainians here, which accounted for 39.9% of the total population of the region.

In the summer of 1917, a number of "District Councils" arose in the Far East - analogues of the revolutionary Soviets, but built on an ethnic basis. These "Okruzhny Radas" have already claimed not only for social activities, but also for the political leadership of local Ukrainians. For example, from 1917 until the early 1920s, the Manchurian Okrug Rada with its center in Harbin was active. Since 1918, this Rada has been issuing passports to citizens of "independent" Ukraine to Far Eastern Ukrainians (the text of such documents was printed in three languages - Ukrainian, Russian and English).

After the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, Soviet Moscow for some time even recognized the Far Eastern District Councils as consulates of independent Ukraine. But since 1922, when the Bolsheviks created a buffer Far Eastern Republic in the Far East, they refused to recognize the Rada and the "Ukrainian passports" issued by them. The Blagoveshchensk and Khabarovsk Okrug Councils themselves received the status of bodies of national-cultural autonomy within the FER.

In 1917-1919, several general congresses of Ukrainians from the Far East were held in Vladivostok. At the third such congress in April 1918, the “Ukrainian Far Eastern Secretariat” was elected, claiming the status of the government of the “Far Eastern Ukraine”. However, this "government" had neither the means nor the mass support after it tried to take a neutral position in the escalating civil war. However, the Secretariat operated until the arrest of its members by the Soviet authorities in November 1922.

In addition to public “communities” and “district councils” claiming the status of local authorities, at least two Ukrainian political parties have been active in the Far East since the summer of 1917 - the Ukrainian Social Democratic Labor Party (USDRP) and the Ukrainian Party of Socialist Revolutionaries. The Vladivostok branch of the USDRP immediately stood in opposition to the "bourgeois" Vladivostok Gromada.

In the elections to the Constituent Assembly, held in November 1917, the "Amur Regional Ukrainian Rada" put forward its own list of candidates. In the election campaign, these candidates were defined as "Ukrainian Trudoviks-Socialist-Revolutionaries." They had to defend in the Constituent Assembly "the Land and the Will of the working people, the eight-hour working day and the Federal Democratic Russian Republic."

But, despite the fact that the list of the "Amur Ukrainian Regional Rada" was supported by all Ukrainian organizations in the Far East, he collected only 3265 votes (1.4%). Accordingly, it was not possible to get a Ukrainian candidate from the Far East into the Constituent Assembly - the Far Eastern Ukrainians preferred candidates of all-Russian parties.

In March 1920, the Vladivostok organization of the USDRP announced the "recognition of Soviet power", but with a reservation about the independence of Soviet Ukraine and "the need to ensure national and cultural rights Ukrainian people in the Far East". In fact, by 1920 all the Ukrainian socialists of the "Far Eastern Ukraine" had joined the Bolshevik coalition.

During the Civil War, naturally, the military organizations played the main role. Back in July 1917, the Provisional Government, yielding to the demands of the Kyiv Central Rada, agreed to the creation within the framework of Russian army individual Ukrainian units. As a result, in the summer of 1917, 8 "Ukrainian companies" were created in the Vladivostok garrison. Although the Vladivostok garrison consisted of two thirds of Ukrainians and people of Ukrainian origin, the idea of a "Ukrainian army" in the Far East did not gain much popularity.

However, at the end of 1918, the idea of Ukrainian troops became more popular, but for a completely "pacifist" reason. When the Siberian Provisional Government tried to start mobilizing the Ukrainians of the Amur and Primorye to the front for the war against the Bolsheviks, the local "Little Russians" began to refuse under the pretext that they wanted to fight only in the national Ukrainian units.

Created in Omsk on the bayonets of the Czechoslovak legion, the "All-Russian Provisional Government" on November 4, 1918 issued a separate declaration on the creation of Ukrainian military units as part of the "white" armies. In Vladivostok, a Ukrainian headquarters was organized to form Ukrainian units. A certain Yesaul Kharchenko became his chief, and then General Khreschatitsky, the former commander of the Ussuri Cossack division. The plans were Napoleonic - to create a 40,000-strong Ukrainian corps of "free Cossacks".

But all these attempts were mired in the intrigues and squabbles of various white power structures, and most importantly, they did not find unanimous support from foreign masters - if the head of the Entente military mission in Siberia, French General Janin, was supportive of the idea of a "Far Eastern Ukrainian army", then the Japanese categorically opposed.

As a result, on May 15, 1919, Admiral Kolchak, who had already become the "Supreme Ruler", issued an instruction about the inadmissibility of the formation of Ukrainian units. The “1st Novo-Zaporozhye Volunteer Plastunsky Kuren” (battalion) just created in Vladivostok was arrested by white counterintelligence in full force under the pretext of “pro-Bolshevik sentiments”.

Ukrainian nationalists again tried to create their troops in January 1920, when Kolchak's power, which had collapsed under the blows of the Reds, was overthrown in Vladivostok. The "Ukrainian Far Eastern Secretariat" even turned to the Bolsheviks for help in this matter, but the Bolshevik Military Council of Primorye declared that it could not give "Russian money to foreign Ukrainian troops."

Ukrainian activists were asked to support their units at their own expense, but donations from the Ukrainian population for these needs were not enough. Under these conditions, the Ukrainian military units, lacking the most necessary and, above all, food, could not survive for a long time even in the conditions of virtual anarchy that prevailed in Primorye.

During the perturbations civil war in Khabarovsk, a former member of the "Ukrainian Far Eastern Secretariat" Yaremenko became the chairman of the local Bolshevik Revolutionary Committee. The Revolutionary Committee recognized the expediency of forming Ukrainian units, however, under pressure from the Vladivostok Bolsheviks, it was forced to abandon the implementation of this idea.

On the Amur, several units were formed from local anti-Kolchak partisans from peasants of Ukrainian origin, and one of them entered the city of Svobodny under the yellow-blue flag (until 1917 the city was called Alekseevsk, in honor of the heir and son of Nicholas II). However, the local Bolsheviks demanded the disarmament of this detachment, threatening otherwise to use military force against it.

By the way, numerous Ukrainian organizations of the Far East then could not agree on the flag of "Far Eastern Ukraine" - options were offered for a yellow-blue flag with a green triangle or a green flag with a yellow-blue insert.

On the night of April 4-5, 1920, the Japanese began an open occupation of Vladivostok and Primorye. In Vladivostok, a Japanese military detachment seized weapons and ammunition from the premises of the so-called "Ukrainian revolutionary headquarters". As a result of these events, the few formed Ukrainian units of Vladivostok went into the forests, where they eventually merged with the Red partisans.

At the end of the civil war, in the summer of 1922, a number of Far Eastern "Ukrainian Radas" took part in the elections to the People's Assembly of the "buffer" Far Eastern Republic, put forward their lists of candidates, but by that time the population of all nationalities was already clearly oriented towards the Bolsheviks and their allies. Only one "Ukrainian candidate" from the "Zavitinskaya Rada" (Zavitinsk is a regional center in the Amur Region) entered the People's Assembly of the Far Eastern Republic.

In October 1922, the Red Army occupied Vladivostok and by December all the most active figures of the Far Eastern "Mazepianism" were arrested by the Cheka. In January 1924, the so-called "Chita trial" began - the trial of the arrested leaders of the Far Eastern Ukrainian nationalists.

The defendants, almost 200 people in all, were accused, as they would now say, of separatism - in an effort to tear the Far East away from the USSR, orientation towards neighboring capitalist countries and in cooperation with the "Petliurist" Central Rada. The main defendant was the head of the failed Ukrainian government of the Far East - the "Ukrainian Regional Secretariat of the Green Wedge" - a native of the Chernigov province, Vladivostok engineer Yuri Galushko. He was accused in particular of receiving large sums of money from the Japanese. By the way, in 1919, Galushko was arrested by Kolchak's counterintelligence on essentially the same charges of separatism.

The defendants of the "Chita trial" received relatively light sentences, Galushko was given five years in prison. He successfully survived the repressions of the 30s, returned to Ukraine, in 1941 tried to cooperate with Ukrainian collaborators, but they did not need him, and died in 1942 from starvation in occupied Kyiv.

The Chita process of 1924 actually eliminated the Ukrainian nationalism of the Green Wedge. Even earlier, all "Ukrainian communities" and "District Councils" were dissolved. It is curious that this "Russification" of the Far East was carried out by the Bolsheviks simultaneously with the "Ukrainization" of Ukraine itself.

According to the 1926 census, only 42.6% of the Ukrainian population of Primorye were literate, while only 6691 people could read and write in Ukrainian - 2.1% of all Far Eastern Ukrainians. As a result, universal education in schools introduced by the 1930s was conducted in the Far East in Russian and became an important tool for the "Russification" of the region.

In the following decades, the Ukrainians of the Far East became Russians. This process within only two or three generations is clearly shown by dry statistics. In 1917, the census recorded 421,000 Ukrainians here, which accounted for 39.9% of the population of the region. According to the 1923 census, there were 346,000 Ukrainians in the Far East (33.7% of the population). According to the results of the 2010 census in Primorsky Krai, populated mainly by descendants of immigrants from Ukrainian provinces, 86% considered themselves Russians, and only 2.55% considered themselves Ukrainians.

Based on the materials of the scientific-practical conference "Multinational Primorye: history and modernity."

Although the population census conducted in 1989 recorded 185,000 Ukrainians in Primorye, which is only 8.2% of the population, they are nevertheless the second largest ethnic group in the region. However, in the public consciousness of Primorye there is a different idea of the share of Ukrainians in the population of the region and especially in rural areas. Many believe that there are at least half of the population here. And this opinion is not accidental. It is probably difficult to find a native Primorye who did not have Ukrainian ancestors along at least one line. This is determined by the features of development and historical development the edges.

It is difficult to reliably judge when the first Ukrainians appeared in Primorye, but it is possible that they could also be among the members of the detachment O. Stepanova, penetrated the river. Ussuri back in 1655, and as part of the crew of the Manjur transport, and as part of the ensign's team Komarova who founded the post of Vladivostok in 1860, and among the settlers who founded the first settlements on the territory of the region back in the 1850s-60s.

The mass resettlement of Ukrainians to the territory of the former South Ussuri Territory begins in 1883, when a regular mass resettlement of peasants by sea from Odessa to Vladivostok was established on Dobroflot steamships. It is known that on April 13, 1883, the first steamship arrived in Vladivostok, carrying 724 settlers from the Chernihiv province (1).

As you know, the Ukrainian peasantry was one of the leading colonization elements that settled and developed the territory of the present Primorsky Territory, which the Ukrainian settlers called the Green Wedge. In total, during the period from 1883 to 1917, 179,757 migrants from Ukraine arrived in the then Primorsky region, who became the core of the rural population of Primorye (2). According to statistics from the beginning of the 20th century, Ukrainians accounted for 81.26% of all settlers in the South Ussuri region (3).

In the conditions of a tough assimilation, Russification policy pursued by the tsarist government in relation to national minorities, when even the Ukrainian language was subjected to severe censorship and persecution and the very existence of the Ukrainian people was not recognized, Ukrainians, finding themselves in a new region, thousands of miles from their native land, without having national schools, churches, the printed word, were doomed to assimilation and loss of ethnic identity. As a result, despite the high natural increase, according to the 1923 census, only 219,462 thousand Ukrainians (and 223,018 Russians) lived in the Primorsky province (4).

Under these conditions, the theater remained the only legal form of national public activity for the Ukrainians of the Russian Empire for a number of decades. Therefore, the impetus for the awakening of Ukrainians to national social activities in the Green Klin was the arrival and activity here at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries. the first Ukrainian theater troupes. The result of these tours was the emergence of amateur theatrical circles, which united mainly representatives of the Ukrainian intelligentsia, the military, and employees. The activities of these circles contributed to the development of national identity, the preservation of the native language. In particular, such circles actively worked among the sailors of Vladivostok (5).

Liberalization of the regime in tsarist Russia as a result of the revolution of 1905, led to the emergence in Primorye of the first legal Ukrainian organization - the Vladivostok Student Ukrainian Community, which united Ukrainian students of the Oriental Institute, which was created in October 1907. True, it did not last long and already in 1909 was banned in in accordance with the order of the Minister of Public Education. However, it was precisely with its creation that the beginning of organized Ukrainian activity was connected not only in the territory of Primorye, but also in the entire Far East (6).

After the dissolution of the student community in Vladivostok, a semi-legal Ukrainian circle was formed at the People's House, whose main task was to promote the national enlightenment of the Ukrainian masses through Ukrainian performances and the distribution of Ukrainian literature in the region. Starting from 1909, the Ukrainian community of Vladivostok annually organized "Shevchenko's Saints", dedicated to the memory of the great Ukrainian poet, other literary and musical events, concerts, performances, in which the best artistic forces of the city participated.

In February 1910, an attempt was made to register the charter of the Ukrainian cultural and educational society that arose in Nikolsk-Ussuriysky "Enlightenment", but in connection with the prevailing in this period in domestic politics tsarism with reactionary tendencies, its registration was denied (7). In the subsequent period, in connection with the outbreak of the First World War and the further tightening of the internal political course, Ukrainian public activity declined and manifested itself mainly in theatrical activities. In the Far East, in particular, during these years, the Ukrainian troupe actively toured K. Karmelyuk-Kamensky who also performed in Japan and China.

The February Revolution, which overthrew tsarism, eliminated the numerous restrictions that existed in Russia on the national rights of various peoples and ethnic groups, initiating the rapid development of Ukrainian public life in the Far East, which manifested itself in the creation of a whole network of Ukrainian national organizations here. Their main form was Ukrainian communities, uniting the widest sections of the Ukrainian population, regardless of social status, occupation or political views. They were called upon to defend the national interests of the Ukrainian population, seeking the realization of its rights as an ethnic community. In Vladivostok, the Gromada was already established on March 26, 1917, and by the summer of that year it united about three thousand members (8). Soon Ukrainian communities were created in Nikolsk-Ussuriysk, Iman, Spassk, Posyet, Knevichi, Novokievsk, at the station of Muravyov-Amursky, the villages of Osinovka, Monastyrishche, Mikhailovka, Grigorievka, Olginskoe, Feodosievka, Novopokrovka, Zenkovka, Avdeevka, Goncharovka, Ussuriyskoe, Drozdovskoe, Vinogradovka and others (9).

However, in addition to the Hromadas, national organizations that are narrower in their composition and tasks arise - professional (associations of Ukrainian teachers, artists, railway workers, postal and telegraph employees), political (in the summer of 1917, organizations of Ukrainian parties of Social Democrats and Socialist-Revolutionaries were created in Vladivostok , uniting about 200 and 150 members, respectively (10).

Active cultural and educational activities were carried out by the "Prosvita" societies that existed in Vladivostok (with branches in Kiparisovo, Osinovka, Vladimir-Aleksandrovsky, Grodekovo, Khorol, Spassk and on Russky Island) and Nikolsk-Ussuriysky (11). It should be noted that in the period 1917-1922. 6 Ukrainian newspapers were published in Primorye (4 in Vladivostok and 2 in Nikolsk-Ussuriysky), there were two Ukrainian publishing houses. The Ukrainian cooperative movement was widely developed, headed by the regional Ukrainian cooperative "Chumak".

On the initiative of the Far Eastern Ukrainian Teachers' Union, in June 1917, the 1st Far Eastern Ukrainian Congress was convened in Nikolsk-Ussuriysky, at which more than 20 Ukrainian organizations of the Far East were represented. The congress outlined a plan of activity for the development of a network of Ukrainian national organizations, the creation of a national school, libraries, etc., aimed at the national enlightenment of the Ukrainian people. The congress proposed to develop a draft charter for the Far Eastern Ukrainian Rada as the central administrative, political and social center of the Ukrainians of the Green Wedge. To manage current activities until the next congress, a Provisional Executive Committee was elected, consisting of A. Stupak, P. Vasilenko, N. Prokopets, I. Ignatenko and A. Popovich (12).

In accordance with the decisions of the III Ukrainian Far Eastern Congress, held in April 1918 in Khabarovsk, Vladivostok, Nikolsk-Ussuriysk and Imansk Ukrainian Okruzhny Radas were created on the territory of Primorye, uniting local Ukrainian organizations that existed respectively on the territory of Olginsky, Nikolsk-Ussuriysky and Iman districts. Representatives of the Okruzhny Radas formed the Regional Rada, at the sessions of which decisions were made on the most important issues relating to the life of the Ukrainian population of the Far East. executive body The Secretariat elected at its sessions became the Regional Rada (13).

After the IV (Extraordinary) Ukrainian Far Eastern Congress, which was held at the end of October 1918 in Vladivostok, the Ukrainian Far Eastern Secretariat was elected at it, which was headed by the former chairman of the Vladivostok "Enlightenment" and the Vladivostok District Rada Yu.Glushko-Mova, is located in Vladivostok, which from now on becomes the true center of Ukrainian public life in the Far East.

At the aforementioned 4th congress, a draft Constitution of the national-cultural autonomy of the Ukrainians of the Far East was developed, which was adopted at the second session of the Ukrainian Far Eastern Regional Council in May 1919 (14) The final approval of the Constitution was to take place at V-th Ukrainian The Far Eastern Congress, the convocation of which was twice appointed, but it never took place due to the unfavorable political situation that developed at that time. With the adoption of the Constitution, the Ukrainians of the Far East tried, in fact, to de facto implement the principle of national-cultural autonomy - the most democratic principle for resolving the national issue, guaranteeing the observance of the national rights of various ethnic groups, especially those dispersed.

National-cultural autonomy was supposed to provide the most favorable conditions for the development of the original national culture of the Ukrainian people in the Far East. This was the goal that the Ukrainian organizations of the Far East aspired to in their activities at that time, whose activities were aimed primarily at protecting the interests of the Ukrainian population of the Far East. In this regard, they tried not to associate themselves with one or another political force opposing in the civil war that broke out in Russia. Various documents of the Far Eastern Ukrainian national movement have repeatedly emphasized that Ukrainians will recognize and support only those local authorities that recognize as their special act the national rights of the Ukrainian population and allocate places in its composition for its representatives (15). However, in these aspirations, the Ukrainians did not find mutual understanding and support from the often changing local authorities of various political colors and were subjected to repression both from the Whites (Alekseevsky's government in the Amur Region, Rozanov - in Primorskaya) and from the Reds. And only in the Far East did the Ukrainians find mutual understanding, first of all, on the part of the Mensheviks, who headed the Ministry of National Affairs.

The legislation of the Far East, which regulated interethnic relations, was one of the most democratic for its time. The Constitution of the Far East and the "Law on National-Cultural Autonomy" developed in the Republic guaranteed broad rights for the national minorities that inhabited it. It is in the Far East that a network of Ukrainian schools is being created for the first time in the Far East (16).

But 1922 came, the FER was liquidated, with the establishment of Soviet power in Primorye, all Ukrainian organizations were liquidated, their leaders and activists were arrested, and the property created by painstaking labor was confiscated. Thus, organized Ukrainian public life in the Far East was terminated. Repressions against Ukrainian social movement showed the Ukrainian population that Ukrainianism is not welcomed by the new government, that it is simply dangerous, especially considering that not only were arrested public figures, but even teachers of Ukrainian schools that arose in the Far East.

Therefore, in the subsequent period, in the 1920s, local functionaries answered inquiries from Moscow about working among national minorities with a clear conscience that the Ukrainians were almost completely Russified and did not want anything. Nevertheless, the local authorities were forced to reckon with the party's course in the field of national policy, and in 1931 the policy of "Ukrainization" began to be implemented in the Far East, during which the Chernigov, Khankai, Spassky, Kalinin regions, with the highest share of the Ukrainian population, were transformed into Ukrainian national regions, in which all office work and the system of cultural and educational institutions, including the education system, were translated into Ukrainian. In four more districts - Ivanovsky, Shmakovsky, Yakovlevsky and Mikhailovsky, conditions were to be created for serving the Ukrainian population in their native language (17). In Spassk, a Ukrainian pedagogical college was created, which was supposed to be transformed into a Ukrainian pedagogical institute. Spassk was also supposed to become a permanent base for the Ukrainian regional mobile theater, created in those years.

But the period of "Ukrainization" was short-lived. Already in December 1932, by a special order of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, all Ukrainian cultural and educational institutions on the territory of the RSFSR were liquidated. From this period, Ukrainian schools and newspapers completely disappear in Primorye, and it became a problem to find a Ukrainian book on Zeleny Klin, which was mastered and settled by Ukrainian peasants. The consequence of this was a steady decline in both the share of Ukrainians in the population of Primorsky Krai and their absolute number. And this, despite the constant influx of Ukrainians in Primorye, which continued throughout the 1920-80s.

They arrived here both as military personnel, and as young specialists in distribution after graduation, and as immigrants (to the countryside), and by organizational recruitment to work, primarily in the fishing industry, and simply - in search of romance or high earnings. But the new generations of Ukrainians who constantly arrived here were steadily Russified, their children born here, in the majority, became "Russians". In addition, during the Soviet period, there were also cases of deliberate replacement of nationality (Ukrainian by Russian) by the relevant authorities, usually carried out when replacing passports, without the consent of the citizens themselves.

But during the existence of the USSR, the losses from assimilation were replenished by the influx of new migrants from the Ukrainian SSR. With the cessation of this influx after the liquidation of the USSR and the creation of an independent Ukrainian state, with continuing assimilation trends, one has to state the threat of a rapid and complete disappearance of the Ukrainian diaspora in Primorye. Thus, the future of Ukrainian culture and the very existence of the Ukrainian ethnos in the region is called into question.

This is facilitated by both objective reasons (proximity of cultures, language, religions of Russians and Ukrainians) and subjective ones. The latter should include both the lack of appropriate institutions of ethnicization (national schools, the press, professional cultural institutions), and the long-term policy of combating so-called nationalism, when any manifestations of national identity were fraught with the most serious consequences for citizens.

In modern conditions, when the fundamental problems of a significant part of the population are the problems of physical survival, when mercantile and narrowly utilitarian tendencies become leading in society, the problem of preserving national cultures becomes even more urgent. The erosion of national cultures is also promoted by the so-called Mass culture with its unified and primitive values and standards. This, in particular, is evidenced by the fact that if back in the 1970s. it was difficult to find a family or a company in Primorye where Ukrainian songs were not sung, but now it is already in the past, even in rural areas it is difficult to meet, for example, at a feast a person who could perform more than one or two verses of some popular Ukrainian songs. This is especially true for the middle and younger generations.

A particular problem is the existing vacuum of objective information about Ukraine. There are many citizens in Primorye, due to the indicated historical reasons, have close family, cultural, historical and other ties with Ukraine and are interested in receiving truthful and reliable information about the processes taking place there.

The Russian diaspora in Ukraine has the opportunity to receive daily information about the life of Russia on Ukrainian television and radio, watch and listen to individual programs and entire Russian channels. In addition, there are local, Ukrainian, Russian-language television and radio channels. There are a lot of Russian-language periodicals in Ukraine, a huge amount of literature in Russian comes out (and is imported from Russia). Ukrainians in Russia are deprived of all this. Today in Russia it is practically impossible to subscribe to Ukrainian periodicals, not to mention the acquisition of Ukrainian literature. Waves of anti-Ukrainian propaganda, periodically poured out by the Russian media and at times turning into hysteria (related primarily to the problems of Crimea, Black Sea Fleet etc.), do little to create an atmosphere in Russian society conducive to the preservation of Ukrainian identity.

For many years, the thin ties that still exist between Primorye and Ukraine are maintained only between close relatives and are based mainly on people of the older generation who were born and raised in Ukraine. Most of them have already left the sphere of business activity and do not play a significant role in the life of society. And with their death, these contacts are cut off. The younger generation, most of whom were born and raised in Primorye, do not speak the language, are not familiar with the national culture and do not have sufficient motivation to maintain contacts with their historical homeland.

These conditions do not contribute to the preservation of the Ukrainian diaspora in Primorye. In the coming years, the number of Ukrainians (and these are mainly people of the middle and older generation) will be reduced tenfold. This will determine the catastrophic decrease in the Ukrainian population.

What can be countered by these destructive tendencies? Our financial capabilities do not allow today to have our own printed publications, to have commercial airtime on radio and television in order to disseminate information about the activities of our organization, propaganda best achievements national culture. Therefore, it is necessary to develop and create, with the support of the state, a mechanism for the preservation and development of national cultures in Primorye, including Ukrainian culture. The preservation of the national culture will also contribute to the preservation of the diaspora. At the same time, it is necessary to make wider use of the opportunities provided by the federal law on national-cultural autonomy, in accordance with which the state assumes certain obligations to assist in the preservation and development of the national cultures of the peoples of Russia. And in order for this law to work, it is necessary, first of all, to register national-cultural autonomies, in connection with which certain difficulties arise and the allocation of appropriate funds.

It is necessary to establish operational communication with relevant institutions in Ukraine and within the Ukrainian diaspora, expand the network of centers of national culture, and actively inform the widest possible circle of the Ukrainian population about their activities. At the same time, it is necessary to use more actively the new information opportunities provided by the Internet.

The preservation of culture presupposes, first of all, its study. At present, the widest circles of the population of Primorye are characterized by horrendous illiteracy in matters of Ukrainian history and culture, which contributes to the spread of negative stereotypes in society regarding Ukraine and Ukrainians. Often, even among representatives of the local intelligentsia, Ukrainianism is associated only with "lard and vodka", at best - with "dumplings and trousers." While in local educational institutions the history, culture and languages of the most diverse peoples of Asia and Europe are studied, the history, culture and language of the people who took an active part in the settlement and development of the region and whose descendants make up a very significant proportion of its modern population are almost forgotten, there are almost no specialists in this area. The activities carried out in this direction by the Institute of History, Archeology and Ethnography of the Peoples of the Far East of the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the enthusiasts of our society are clearly insufficient. In this regard, it seems necessary to create, first of all, scientific structures designed to concentrate research in the field of Ukrainian studies, as well as organizing the teaching of Ukrainian studies in local universities.

Another problem is school. The school is the destiny of the diaspora, its future. If in Ukraine thousands of Russian schools are supported by state funds, then the last Ukrainian schools in Primorye, in particular, were liquidated at the end of 1932. The main problem is in the very principle that such schools should be in Russia. Further, it would be possible to speak about the forms of organization educational process in them. But the fact is that there are no such schools at all, and their appearance is very problematic in the conditions of the crisis that hit the public sector in Russia. Today, the main problem of the domestic education system is to at least pay off the wage arrears to teachers. The whole problem is solved for a hundred years ahead...

But in order for the problem to begin to be solved, it must first be raised, it must become known, it must become the subject of public discussion. Back in 1991, when the Society of Ukrainian Culture of the Primorsky Territory was created, we advocated that the state and local authorities turn their faces to the problems of national and cultural development, we raised questions about the need to develop in Russia and in the Primorsky Territory our own concept of national politicians. Now we have sufficiently developed legislation, including a very democratic law on national-cultural autonomy, we have a structure of state bodies both at the federal and regional levels, designed to implement this national policy. For our part, we stand for close, constructive cooperation with these bodies, since the revival of the original national cultures of the peoples inhabiting Russia and Primorye in particular is in our common interests, as it will contribute to the spiritual enrichment and moral improvement of our entire society. People should remember their origin, because in this way the beginnings of a common culture, culture are laid. The revival of Russia, about which everyone is now talking so much, can only begin with the spiritual revival of society, and it, in turn, is unthinkable without people turning to their roots, to the priceless spiritual treasures of national culture. For many Primorye residents, Ukrainian culture is such a culture.

It should also be noted that, in addition to ethical motives, the preservation of diasporas is also supported by the fact that Russia, as a country that has proclaimed its goal to build a democratic society, must adhere to international norms in the field of ensuring the rights of national minorities. In addition, the presence of diasporas plays a stabilizing role in interstate relations. The disappearance of diasporas, that is, people who are related by blood to another country (in this case- Ukraine) can contribute to the strengthening of confrontational tendencies in relations between the two countries.

As is known, the Russian parliament ratified the so-called "big treaty" between Russia and Ukraine, which, among other things, provides for a guarantee of broad rights for the national and cultural development of Ukrainians in Russia, similar to those rights that Russians have in Ukraine. The Treaty is designed to ensure normal, friendly relations between the two states, to promote the establishment of relations of cooperation, bridges of friendship and mutual understanding.

The problems listed above are problems that need to be solved immediately, but in a good way - yesterday. If we postpone the solution of these problems until better times, then in the near future they will disappear, based on the notorious principle "no people and no problems." If the above tendencies do not change, tomorrow we, as a diaspora, will no longer exist, and there will be no need for the bridges mentioned above, since there will be no one to move across them. Who will benefit from this and whether anyone will benefit from this is the question to be answered...

Vyacheslav CHERNOMAZ

Vladivostok

NOTES.

1. Busse F.F. Resettlement of peasants by sea to the South Ussuri region. St. Petersburg, 1896. P.46.

2. Calculated according to: Kabuzan V.M. Resettlement of Ukrainians near the Faraway Territory // Ukrainian Historical Journal. 1971. No. 2.

3. Argudyaeva Yu.V. Peasant family of Ukrainians in Primorye (80s of the 19th - early 20th centuries). M., 1993. P.32.

4. economic life Primorye. 1924 #6-7. P.48.

5. Svit I.V. Ukrainian Far East. Harbin, 1934. S.16-17.

6. Ibid.

7. RGIA DV. F.1. Op.2. D.2053. L.8.

8. Ukrainian on the Green Klini. Vladivostok. 1917. 27 sickles.

9. Svit I.V. Ukrainian Far East. Harbin. 1934. P.19.

11. L-ko M. Ukraine on the Distant Departure // Calendar on the river 1921. Vladivostok. 1921.

12. TsDAVO of Ukraine. F.3696. Op.2. D.381. L.213-214.

13. Ibid. L.214ob.

14. Ibid. L.219.

16. Lvova E.L., Nam I.V., Naumova N.I. National-personal autonomy: idea and implementation.//Polis. 1993. N 2.

17. Districts of the Far Eastern Territory (Materials of the Encyclopedia of the Far Eastern Territory). Khabarovsk, 1931. S.XCV.

A century ago, Ukrainians made up two-thirds of the population of the Far East, and during the years of the Civil War, they made an unsuccessful attempt to create their own statehood there.

In contact with

Classmates

Alexey Volynets

In 1903, the Trans-Siberian Railway began operating, connecting central Russia with the Far East. This opened a new stage in the settlement of Primorye and divided the entire population of the region into "watchmen" - those who arrived here on steamboats from Odessa, and "new settlers" who had already arrived by rail.

By 1909, the "old-timer" population of the Primorsky region numbered 110,448 people, of which 81.4% were Ukrainians, 9.5% were Russians, and 5.6% came from Belarusian provinces.

The arrival of settlers in Blagoveshchensk, 1905-1910. Source: pastvu.com

As a result, the cosmopolitan Vladivostok of the beginning of the 20th century was surrounded entirely by Ukrainian villages, and according to eyewitnesses, the townspeople called all the rural residents of the region "nothing but crests." Ukrainians gave rise to a lot of geographical names in Primorye in honor of cities and localities of Ukraine - the river and the village of Kievka, the villages of Chernigovka, Chuguevka, Slavyanka, Khorol and others.

The territories of the Primorsky and Amur regions, most densely populated by immigrants from Ukraine, were remembered in the Ukrainian ethnic consciousness under the name "Green Wedge". The origin of this name is associated with the lush green vegetation of Primorye, as well as the geographical position of the South Ussuri Territory, a “wedge” squeezed between China and the Sea of Japan. Also, the word "wedge" was used in the meaning of a certain part of the earth's surface, land ("land wedge"), because it was here that the Ukrainian peasant received huge allotments by European standards.

The Ukrainian peasant colonists themselves in the vicinity of Vladivostok, according to ethnographers, called their new land "Primorshchina" - by analogy with Chernihiv and Poltava regions.

Ukrainian village at the beginning of the 20th century. Photo: Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky / Library of Congress

Construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway, 1895. Photo: W. H. Jackson / Library of Congress

The revolution of 1917 led to a surge of the Ukrainian movement not only in Kyiv, but also in the Far East.

Flag of the "Green Wedge"

In March 1920, the Vladivostok organization USDRP announced the "recognition of Soviet power", but with a reservation about the independence of Soviet Ukraine and "the need to ensure the national and cultural rights of the Ukrainian people in the Far East." In fact, by 1920 all the Ukrainian socialists of the "Far Eastern Ukraine" had joined the Bolshevik coalition.

During the Civil War, naturally, the military organizations played the main role. Back in July 1917, the Provisional Government, yielding to the demands of the Kyiv Central Rada, agreed to the creation of separate Ukrainian units within the Russian army. As a result, in the summer of 1917, 8 "Ukrainian companies" were created in the Vladivostok garrison. Although the Vladivostok garrison consisted of two thirds of Ukrainians and people of Ukrainian origin, the idea of a "Ukrainian army" in the Far East did not gain much popularity.

During the upheavals of the civil war in Khabarovsk, a former member of the "Ukrainian Far Eastern Secretariat" Yaremenko became the chairman of the local Bolshevik Revolutionary Committee. The Revolutionary Committee recognized the expediency of forming Ukrainian units, however, under pressure from the Vladivostok Bolsheviks, it was forced to abandon the implementation of this idea.

Ukrainian refugees will be offered to resettle in Siberia and the Far East. The Ministry for the Development of the Russian Far East supported the initiative of a group of State Duma deputies from the Communist Party headed by Sergei Obukhov, who asked for the development of a federal target program for the voluntary resettlement of people who were forced to leave Ukraine to the territory of Siberia and the Far East. According to the agency, by 2020, more than 50,000 jobs will be created in the Far Eastern Federal District (FEFD) that could be occupied by Ukrainians (Izvestia has the answer from the Ministry for the Development of the Far East). The agency notified the Federal Migration Service (FMS) of Russia of its position for further study of the issue.

The Deputy Minister of the Russian Federation for the Development of the Far East, Sergey Kachaev, in his response expresses support for the initiative of the State Duma deputies and says that "the corresponding position has been sent to the FMS." The Ministry for the Development of the Far East notes that by 2020 more than 50 thousand jobs will be created in the territories of socio-economic development and in investment projects.

“The list of territories of priority settlement includes the Republic of Buryatia, the Trans-Baikal Territory, the Kamchatka Territory, the Primorsky Territory, the Khabarovsk Territory, the Amur Region, the Irkutsk Region, Magadan Region, the Sakhalin Region and the Jewish Autonomous Region,” they say in the Ministry for the Development of the Far East.

Sergey Obukhov at the end of 2015 sent appeals to the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev, the Federal Migration Service and the Ministry for the Development of the Far East with a request to develop a federal target program "Voluntary resettlement of people who were forced to leave Ukraine to the territory of Siberia and the Far East."

The deputies remind that on October 31, 2015, the preferential stay of Ukrainians in Russia ended (except for refugees from the Luhansk and Donetsk republics). In the period from 1 to 30 November 2015, Ukrainian migrants had to obtain a legal legal status on a general basis, otherwise they would face administrative expulsion. According to parliamentarians, Ukrainians who have not received documents can be offered to voluntarily move to Siberia and the Far East in order to accelerate the development of these territories.

Thus, in the Far Eastern Federal District, according to Rosstat, in 2011, 6,284,900 people lived, and as of January 1, 2015 - 6,211,021 people. At the same time, according to the state program "Socio-economic development of the Far East and the Baikal region", by 2025 the population in the region is expected to grow to 10.75 million people. This task "is difficult to consider fully realistic while maintaining the identified trends."

Despite the fact that Russia has a state program to assist the voluntary resettlement of compatriots living abroad in the Russian Federation, according to Sergei Obukhov, the pace of its implementation does not meet expectations and the tasks set are not being solved.

At the same time, the FMS believes that at present there is no need to develop a program for the resettlement of Ukrainians in Siberia and the Far East, since this task is being implemented with the help of the existing state program to assist voluntary resettlement in the Russian Federation of compatriots living abroad. At the same time, for Ukrainians who have received temporary asylum, the list of documents and the period for their consideration for participation in the program have been reduced.

Today, 59 entities are accepting compatriots within the framework of regional resettlement programs Russian Federation, including 9 subjects included in the Siberian Federal District (the Republics of Buryatia and Khakassia, Altai, Zabaikalsky and Krasnoyarsk Territories, Irkutsk, Kemerovo, Novosibirsk, Omsk Regions), and 7 subjects included in the Far Eastern Federal District (Kamchatsky, Primorsky and Khabarovsk territories, Amur, Magadan, Sakhalin regions, Jewish Autonomous Region). The Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) and the Tomsk Region are preparing to start accepting migrants, the press service of the FMS explains.

As of January 1, 2016 (since 2007 - the beginning of the practical implementation of the state program), about 440 thousand compatriots moved to Russia, of which more than 106.8 thousand people arrived in the regions of the Siberian Federal District and the Far Eastern Federal District.

According to the FMS, the number of Ukrainians participating in the program has increased in the last 2 years.

In 2014, more than 106 thousand people moved to Russia, of which 41.7 thousand are compatriots from Ukraine. 29.6 thousand people arrived in the regions of Siberia and the Far East, including 10.8 thousand from Ukraine. In 2015, the number of program participants and members of their families amounted to more than 183 thousand people, of which about 111 thousand were immigrants from Ukraine. 38.8 thousand people arrived in the regions of the Siberian Federal District and the Far Eastern Federal District, including about 18.5 thousand Ukrainian compatriots, the press service noted.

The FMS stressed that the subjects that are part of the Far Eastern Federal District are among the territories of priority settlement, therefore, those who want to move to the Far East are provided with state support - compensation for travel, paperwork, accommodation allowance (240 thousand rubles), etc. .

Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Regional Policy and Problems of the North and the Far East Petr Romanov believes that the population must be financially motivated to move to Siberia and the Far East.

You can have a great idea, but the government will say that there is no money for its implementation, especially at the present time, he says. - The very idea of settling Siberia and the Far East is very relevant. We have lands, but they have not been developed, they are worked on in exceptional cases, for example, they extract coal in the Kemerovo region, oil - in the Tyumen region, the Khanty-Mansiysk district, gas - in the Yamalo-Nenets region. Without a perspective, people cannot be attracted to these regions. Another thing is if they say that you will get an apartment and a decent salary.

Petr Romanov also believes that it is necessary to actively promote the idea of resettlement in the Far East.

There were such slogans in the Soviet Union. The authorities threw ideas to the people, for which people grabbed: the slogans "Five-year plan - ahead of schedule!", "Catch up and overtake the Americans", "The enemy will be defeated, victory will be ours," and so on, he recalled.

The chairman of the Trade Union of Migrant Workers, Renat Karimov, believes that Ukrainians will not want to develop Siberia and the Far East.

If there were many jobs in these regions, then the Russians would not seek to leave there. Probably, these are low-paid vacancies, and Ukrainians will not want to work there either. We have all the money and work concentrated in the Central Federal District, so both Russians and migrants go there,” he says. - The idea sounds beautiful, in fact it is unlikely to be able to competently implement it. If the government wanted and knew how to develop the Far East, then they could do it without the Ukrainians.

According to Renat Karimov, now Ukrainians have no problems with paperwork.

In general, the new requirements are met, especially since it is not so difficult - you need to return to Ukraine, and then go to Russia and go to apply for a patent. At least, there were no appeals to us with any problems, and there was no information about deportations,” he noted.

According to the FMS, there are currently about 2.6 million Ukrainian citizens in Russia, of which about 1.1 million people come from the south-east of Ukraine.

Photo from the website archive

The idea has already been supported by the Ministry for the Development of the Far East

According to Izvestia, an initiative to increase the population beyond the Urals at the expense of Ukrainian refugees was made by a group of State Duma deputies from the Communist Party, headed by presidium member Sergei Obukhov. Previously, they asked to develop a federal target program for the voluntary resettlement of people who were forced to leave Ukraine to the territory of Siberia and the Far East.

From Buryatia to Sakhalin

According to the Ministry for the Development of the Far East, by 2020 more than 50,000 jobs will be created in the Far Eastern Federal District, which could be occupied by Ukrainians. The agency notified the Federal Migration Service (FMS) of Russia of its position for further study of the issue. And Deputy Minister of Russia for the Development of the Far East, Sergei Kachaev, in his response, supported the deputies of the State Duma and said that "the corresponding position was sent to the FMS."

The list of "territories of priority settlement", according to "Izvestia", includes 10 regions. These are Buryatia, Trans-Baikal, Kamchatka, Primorsky and Khabarovsk Territories, Amur, Irkutsk, Magadan, Sakhalin and Jewish regions.

The program is not working?

The deputies remind that on October 31, 2015, the preferential stay regime for Ukrainians in Russia ended - except for refugees from the Luhansk and Donetsk republics, and therefore, from November 1 to November 30, immigrants from Nezalezhnaya had to receive "legal legal status on a common basis." Otherwise, they face administrative expulsion. So, according to parliamentarians, Ukrainians who have not received documents can be offered to voluntarily move to Siberia and the Far East in order to accelerate the development of these territories. Despite the fact that Russia has a state program to assist the voluntary resettlement of compatriots living abroad, according to Sergei Obukhov, the pace of its implementation does not meet expectations, and the tasks set are not being solved, Izvestia notes.

More Ukrainians

The FMS, on the contrary, believes that today there is no need to develop a separate program for the resettlement of Ukrainians in Siberia and the Far East, since this task is being implemented with the help of the existing state program for the resettlement of compatriots living abroad. At the same time, for Ukrainians who have received temporary asylum, the list of documents and the period for their consideration have been reduced.

Today, the reception of compatriots within the framework of regional resettlement programs is carried out by 59 regions of Russia, including 9 regions that are part of the Siberian Federal District (Buryatia, Khakassia, Altai, Zabaikalsky and Krasnoyarsk Territories, Irkutsk, Kemerovo, Novosibirsk, Omsk regions), as well as 7 regions included in the Far Eastern Federal District. Yakutia and the Tomsk region are preparing to start accepting migrants, - the press service of the FMS explains.

Over the entire period of the resettlement program - that is, since 2007 - about 440 thousand compatriots moved to Russia, and about 107 thousand arrived in the regions of Siberia and the Far East. The FMS notes that in the last two years the number of immigrants from Ukraine has doubled. In addition, the migration service reported: the subjects that are part of the Far Eastern Federal District are among the territories of priority settlement. Therefore, those who want to migrate to the Far East are provided with state support (compensation for travel, paperwork and a settling allowance in the amount of 240,000 rubles).

Will slogans help?

Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Regional Policy and Problems of the North and the Far East, Pyotr Romanov, believes that the population must be financially motivated to move to Siberia and the Far East. He called the idea itself "relevant".

You can have a great idea, but the government will say that there is no money for its implementation, especially at the present time, Izvestia quotes him. – The very idea of settling Siberia and the Far East is very relevant. We have lands, but they are not developed. They work in exceptional cases, for example, they extract coal in the Kemerovo region, oil - in the Tyumen region, the Khanty-Mansiysk district, gas - in the Yamalo-Nenets region. Without a perspective, people cannot be attracted to these regions. Another thing is if they say that they will receive an apartment and a decent salary.

Petr Romanov also believes that it is necessary to actively promote the idea of resettlement in the Far East.

There were such slogans in the Soviet Union. The authorities threw ideas to the people, for which people grabbed: “Five-year plan ahead of schedule!”, “Catch up and overtake”, “The enemy will be defeated, victory will be ours,” he recalled.

"Sounds nice"

But the chairman of the trade union of migrant workers, Renat Karimov, told Izvestia that Ukrainians would not want to explore Siberia and the Far East.

If there were many jobs in these regions, then the Russians would not seek to leave there. Probably, these are low-paid vacancies, and Ukrainians will not want to work there either. We have all the money and work concentrated in the Central District. Therefore, both Russians and migrants aspire to go there,” he says. “The idea sounds great, but in reality it is unlikely to be implemented correctly. If the government wanted and knew how to develop the Far East, then they could do it without the Ukrainians.

According to Renat Karimov, now Ukrainians have no problems with paperwork.

In general, the new requirements are met, especially since it is not so difficult: you need to return to Ukraine, and then go to Russia and go to apply for a patent. To us, at least, there were no appeals with any problems, and no information about deportations either, Karimov emphasized.

Arrived "in the wrong place"

Whether Ukrainian migrants want to go to Buryatia for permanent residence is a rhetorical question. Especially when you consider that most of the residents of Nezalezhnaya who arrived in the republic last year hurried to leave it. Someone, as the site has already reported, went to relatives, someone - to other Russian regions.

Recall that the flow of migrants arrived in Buryatia in the summer of 2014. However, at the same time it turned out that some of the refugees arrived by "mistake": people only before boarding the plane, they learned that they were flying to Ulan-Ude.

Prior to this, some thought that they were going to Anapa, others thought that they would settle in Voronezh, and the third - just "next to the house." In addition, upon arrival in Buryatia, some migrants from Donbass simply did not find work in their specialty in the republic. Others wanted to reunite with family members who had already "settled" in other Russian regions.

It happens that the husband is in Chelyabinsk, and the wife with children is in Buryatia. Naturally, they want to reunite their family, especially if the husband is a metallurgist by profession and has already found a job there, - then Anatoly Kirillov, Deputy Minister of Social Protection of Buryatia, explained. - There was such a situation in one family: relatives who live in the Voronezh region sent a telegram here, to Buryatia, “Come, we are ready to receive you.” People gather and leave for Voronezh. And I have not heard such that one of them did not like it in the republic, although more than three hundred people have already arrived.

At one of the press conferences, the head of Buryatia also mentioned this.

They didn't even ask us for money. They lived and lived, then phoned their relatives, bought tickets and moved on their own. Initially, people did not even know where they were going. And I think that it was wrong, - said Vyacheslav Nagovitsyn.

Pregnancy and childbirth