Katerynoslav group

Katerynoslav group (Ukrainian: Катеринославці; Katerynoslavtsi). The popular name for the Donbas–Kryvyi Rih Iron-ore Basin regional organization of the Russian Social Democratic Workers' party (Bolshevik) (RSDRP[B]), created in the summer of 1917 with centers in Kharkiv and Katerynoslav. The largest Bolshevik organization in Ukraine, its leaders included Emmanuil Kviring, Ya. Yakovlev, and Artem (Fedor Sergeev). Located in the industrial center of Ukraine, with its concentration of Russian or Russified workers, the group consistently and adamantly defended a centralist position on the question of Party and state organization. It considered Ukraine to be an integral part of Russia and opposed the idea of a separate Soviet Ukrainian republic and the establishment of an autonomous Ukrainian Communist party with a single party center. In 1918 it was behind the formation of the Donets–Kryvyi Rih Soviet Republic. Throughout the Revolution the members had serious disagreements with the Kyiv-based wing of the Bolshevik party, which was generally more conscious of the strength of Ukrainian national sentiment and therefore recognized the need to compromise with pro-Ukrainian forces and establish a distinct all-Ukrainian party. When the Moscow Bolshevik leadership eventually sided with the Kyivan wing, the Katerynoslav group was forced to dissolve and was incorporated into the Communist Party (Bolshevik) of Ukraine.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 2 (1989).]