Supreme Revolutionary Tribunal of the All-Ukrainian Central Executive Committee

Supreme Revolutionary Tribunal of the All-Ukrainian Central Executive Committee (Верховний революційний трибунал при ВУЦК; Verkhovnyi revoliutsiinyi trybunal pry VUTsK). A Soviet judicial body established 15 April 1919 to deal with the gravest cases of ‘counterrevolutionary’ activity referred to it by the All-Ukrainian Central Executive Committee, the Council of People's Commissars, and the People's Commissariat of Justice. Its decisions were final. From April 1921 the tribunal helped the newly formed Supreme Appeal Tribunal direct and oversee the work of all the revolutionary tribunals in Ukraine. In June 1921 the two tribunals were merged to form the Unified Supreme Tribunal of the Ukrainian SSR, which in 1922 was replaced by the Supreme Court of the Ukrainian SSR.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 5 (1993).]