Establishment and Activities of the Black Sea Ukrainian Community in the City Of Sevastopol in 1917

Abstract

This study, dedicated to the activities of the Black Sea Ukrainian Community of the city of Sevastopol, is an attempt to find out and organize the chronology and factology of the activities of one of the leading organizations of the military-civilian Ukrainian movement in Sevastopol in 1917.Occasionally, little-known data on personalities associated with the specified organization and contemporary events is provided. The research used data from the Ukrainian press for the specified period and the memoirs of participants and eyewitnesses of the events. It is noted that the basis of the organization was the illegal circle “Kobzar”, which operated in Sevastopol in 1900–1917 and was formed mainly from officers of the Black Sea Fleet and representatives of the intelligentsia, in particular, educators. The change in the organizational form was caused by the revolutionary events in the Russian Empire in March 1917 and the onset of a new phase of the Ukrainian national liberation movement. The largest number of members of the community, which acted as a coordination center for Ukrainian formations on ships and in coastal parts of the Black Sea Fleet, were officers and sailors, but the organization also aimed primarily at educational work with the aim of raising awareness among the masses, continuing the work of the “Kobzar” circle. At the beginning of the community activity, the bearers of the idea of Ukrainianization of the army and navy were mainly a few representatives of the youth, who later formed an opposition to the older members of the community but acted in a constructive direction; later, the community adopted a resolution calling for the Ukrainianization of the Black Sea Fleet. Also, the Black Sea Ukrainian community of the city of Sevastopol established contacts with representatives of the Ukrainian authorities for the purpose of joint coordination of actions. The organization stopped its main activities approximately at the end of 1917 due to the Red Terror in Sevastopol, but approximately in the 1920s, “The Union of Members of the Black Sea Ukrainian Community of the City of Sevastopol in Emigration” was formed in the Czechoslovak Republic.