THE GREEKS OF THE NORTHERN BLACK SEA REGION UNDER CONDITIONS OF “RED TERROR” (1919 – 1921)

Authors

  • Oleksandr TRYGUB PhD hab. (History), Professor, Head of the Department of International Relations and Foreign Policy, Petro Mohyla Black Sea National University, Ukraine https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0610-1702
  • Oleksandr OSYPENKO PhD (History), Head Teacher of Department of Ukrainian Studies, Historical, Law and Linguistic Disciplines, Odesa National Maritime University, Ukraine https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1213-0481

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.24919/2519-058X.23.258986

Abstract

One of the little-studied topics is the mass repressions by the Bolsheviks in 1919 – 1921, which received a well-known name “Red Terror”. If some episodes are well known, in terms of repression against national minorities, this issue remains among the unexplored aspects of the historical past. The purpose of the study is to determine the extent of repression against the Greek minority in the Northern Black Sea region on the materials of Odesa province (hubernia). The methodological basis of the study is a positivist approach to the reconstruction of the historical past using special historical methods: chronological, systematic, historical and biographical, historical and comparative, based on the principles of objectivity and historicism. The scientific novelty of the article consists in reconstruction of the scale of the Bolshevik repression against the Greek national community on the basis of declassified materials of the Soviet punitive authorities.

The Conclusion. In the materials it is shown that in 1917 – 1918 the terror of the revolutionary masses in the south of Ukraine was spontaneous and unsystematic, mostly affecting the wealthy, among whom a certain stratum was the Greek entrepreneurs. The latter agreed to “requisitions” and paid some money to “revolutionary dealers”. The period of “red terror” – 1919 – 1921 can be divided into two periods: 1919 – mass terror of socially hostile elements, which took place mostly without investigation and trial in response to the “white terror”, and 1920 – 1921 – systematic and targeted persecution of the “insurgent element”, underground anti-Bolshevik organizations, citizens, who served in non-Soviet armies. The second period, along with the strengthening of the Soviet government, gradually shifted from a form of terror to systemic political repressions.

In the materials of repressive authorities is shown that the magority of the Greek community members managed to avoid persecution for the participation of the Greek army in the intervention of the Entente troops in 1918 – 1919. During the second wave of the “red terror” of 1920 – 1921, the Greeks, like other citizens, were also victims of the Extraordinary Commission and the Revolutionary Tribunals. At the same time, although the Greeks were among the counter-revolutionaries and members of underground organizations, their participation was not massive and did not express the national character of socio-political resistance to the Soviet system.

Key words: revolution of 1917 – 1921, the Greeks, Southern Ukraine, Greek emigration, red terror, political repressions.

References

Avgitidis, K. (1999). I stratiotiki epemvasi ton kapitalistikon choron enantia sti Sovietiki Rosia kai i Ellada (1918 – 1920) [The military intervention of the capitalist countries against Soviet Russia and Greece (1918 – 1920)]. Athina: Synchroni Epochi, 368 p. [in Greek]

Borotba. (1919). Borotba – The Struggle, 27 lypnia [in Ukrainian]

Chervonyi sud. (1919). Chervonyi sud [Red Court]. Izvestiya Odesskogo soveta rabochikh, krestyanskikh i krasnoarmeyskikh deputatov – Izvestia of the Odesa Council of Workers, Peasants and Red Army Deputies, 25 iunya. No. 70 [in Ukrainian]

Derzhavnyi arkhiv Mykolaivskoi oblasti [The State Archive of Mykolaiv Region – SAMR]

Derzhavnyi arkhiv Odeskoi oblasti [The State Archive of Odesa Region – SAOR]

Golinkov, D. L. (1975). Krushenie antisovetskogo podpolya v SSSR (1917 – 1925 gg.) [The Collapse of the Anti-Soviet Underground in the USSR (1917 – 1925)]. Moskva: Politizdat, 703 p. [in Russian]

Goloborodko, I. (2005). Natsionalnost: grek. Vinoven! [Nationality: Greek. Guilty!]. Odessa: Studiya “Negotsiant”, 528 p. [in Russian]

Haluzevyi derzhavnyi arkhiv Sluzhby bezpeky Ukrainy v Odeskii oblasti [The Sectoral State Archive of the Security Service of Ukraine in Odesa Region – SSA SSU]

Herlihy, P. (1989). The Greek Community in Odessa, 1861 – 1917. Journal of Modern Greek Studies, 7/2 (October), 235–252. Doi: 10.1353/mgs.2010.0171 [in English]

Holichenko, V. (1966). Vartovi revoliutsii: Korotkyi narys z istorii chekistskykh orhaniv Ukrainy vid chasu yikh utvorennia do 1922 r. [Guard Revolutions: A Short Essay on the History of the Chekist Bodies of Ukraine from the Time of Their Formation to 1922]. Kyiv: Politvydav Ukrainy, 163 p. [in Ukrainian]

Itogi i praktika. (1921). Itogi i praktika godichnoy deyatelnosti Odesskoy Gubcheka. 8 fevralya 1920 g. – 8 fevralya 1921 g. [Results and Practice of the Annual Activity of the Odessa Gubcheka. February 8, 1920 – February 8, 1921]. Odessa: Izdanie Odesskoy gubcheka, 128 p. [in Russian]

Izvestiya. (1919). Izvestiya Nikolaevskogo soveta rabochikh, krasnoarmeyskikh i krasnoflotskikh deputatov – Izvestia of the Nikolaev Council of Workers, Red Army and Red Navy Deputies, 4 iyulya. No. 77 [in Russian]

Kn. D.G. Mavrokordato. (1919). Kn. D.G. Mavrokordato [Prince D.G. Mavrokordato]. Odesskiy listok – Odessa News-Sheet, 13 (26) oktyabrya. No. 145 [in Russian]

Kotlyar, Yu. & Levchenko, L. (2019). Regionalnyi zriz Ukrainskoi revoliutsii 1917 – 1921 rr.: Mykolaivshchyna [Local Sample of the Ukrainian Revolution of 1917 – 1921: Mykolaiv Region]. Ukrainian Historical Journal, 5, 122–146. Doi: https://doi.org/10.15407/uhj2019.05.122 [in Ukrainian]

Kovalchuk, L.V. & Razumov, G.A. (Comp.). (2005). Odesskiy martirolog: dannye o repressirovannykh Odessy i Odesskoy oblasti za gody sovetskoy vlasti [Odessa Martyrology: Data on the Repressed Odessa and Odessa Region during the Years of the Soviet Power]. Vol. 3. Odessa: OKFA, 896 p. [in Russian]

Levchenko, L. L. (2019). Ukrayinska kampaniya gretskoyi armiyi 1919 r.: vplyv na podalshu dolyu ukrayinskykh grekiv (na prykladi Mykolaeva i Mykolayivshchyny) [Ukrainian Campaign of the Greek Army in 1919: Its Influence on the Future of the Ukrainian Greeks (The Case of Mykolayiv and Nearby Region]. Storinki istoriyi – History Pages, 49, 59–91. Doi: 10.20535/2307-5244.49.2019.189549 [in Ukrainian]

Levchenko, L. (2020). Nimetske gubernatorstvo Mykolaiv u 1918 r.: do postanovky problemy [German Governorship Mykolaiv in 1918: To the Problem Statement]. Ukrainian Historical Journal, 3, 145–162. Doi: 10.15407/uhj2020.03.145 [in Ukrainian]

Likvidatsiya. (1920). Likvidatsiya shpygunskoyi bilogvardiyskoyi organizatsiyi [Liquidation of the White Guard Spy Organization]. Visti Odeskogo Gubernialnogo Revolyutsiynogo Komitetu – News of the Odessa Provincial Revolutionary Committee, 20 lypnya. No. 202. [in Ukrainian]

Odesskie novosti. (1919). Odesskie novosti – Odessa News, 17 (30) avgusta. No. 10970 [in Russian]

Odesskiy listok. (1919a). Odesskiy listok – Odessa News-Sheet, 21 avgusta (3 sentyabrya). No. 94 [in Russian]

Odesskiy listok. (1919b). Odesskiy listok – Odessa News-Sheet, 31 oktyabrya (13 noyabrya). No. 163 [in Russian]

Odesskiy listok. (1919c). Odesskiy listok – Odessa News-Sheet, 26 sentyabrya (9 oktyabrya). No. 128 [in Russian]

Petsalis-Diomidis, N. (1972). Hellenism in Southern Russia and the Ukrainian Campaign: their Effect on the Pontus Question (1919). Balkan Studies, 13(2), 221–263 [in English]

Pokhorony zhertv. (1919). Pokhorony zhertv “chrezvychayki” [The Funeral of the “Cheka”’ Victims]. Odesskiy listok – Odessa News-Sheet, 7 (20) sentyabrya. № 110 [in Russian]

Revtribunal. (1919). Revtribunal [Revolutionary Tribunal]. Izvestiya Odesskogo soveta rabochikh, krestyanskikh i krasnoarmeyskikh deputatov – Izvestia of the Odessa Council of Workers, Peasants and Red Army Deputies, 4 iyunya. No. 54 [in Russian]

Rozkryto monarkhichnu organizatsiyu. (1919). Rozkryto monarkhichnu organizatsiyu [Disclosured Monarchical Organization]. Izvestiya Odesskogo Soveta rabochikh deputatov – Izvestia of the Odessa Council of Workers, Peasants and Red Army Deputies, 16 maia, No. 37 [in Ukrainian]

Savchenko, V. (2013). Proekt “Ukrayina”. Volnaya Odessa – Odesskaya respublika – Yugo-Zapadnyy kray (1917–1919) [Project “Ukraine”. Free Odessa – Odessa Republic – South-Western Territory (1917 – 1919)]. Kharkiv: Folio, 283 p. [in Russian]

Shyshko, O. (2019). Polіtychnyi teror bіlshovytskoi vlady v Odeskіy gubernіyi (sіchen 1918 r. – berezen 1922 r.) [The Political Terror of the Bolshevik Power in Odesa Region (January 1918 – March 1922)]. Odesa: “Osvita Ukrayiny”, 340 p. [in Ukrainian]

Trygub, O. & Osypenko, O. (2021). South Ukraine Greek community under Revolutionary Upheavals and Armed Conflicts (1917 – 1920). Rusin, 63, 156–172. Doi: 10.17223/18572685/63/8 [in English]

Downloads

Published

2022-06-27

How to Cite

TRYGUB, O. ., & OSYPENKO, O. . (2022). THE GREEKS OF THE NORTHERN BLACK SEA REGION UNDER CONDITIONS OF “RED TERROR” (1919 – 1921). EAST EUROPEAN HISTORICAL BULLETIN, (23), 62–73. https://doi.org/10.24919/2519-058X.23.258986

Issue

Section

Articles