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

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.