Historical Dictionary of the Russian Civil Wars, 1916-1926

With the formation of the USSR (30 December 1922), VTsIK was downgraded to a republican body, with equivalents elected in the other Soviet republics, and a new Central Executive Committee of the USSR was created, also chaired by Kalinin. (Prior to that date, Ukrainian and other congresses of Soviets had elected representatives to VTsIK.) Following the adoption of the 1936 (“Stalin”) Constitution, this in turn was replaced by the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR.

The chairmen of VTsIK (and thereby titular heads of state of Soviet Russia) were L. B. Kamenev (26 October–8 November 1917); Ia. M. Sverdlov (8 November 1917–16 March 1919); M. F. Vladimirskii (acting, 16–30 March 1919); and M. I. Kalinin (30 March 1919–15 July 1938).

VYNNYCHENKO, VOLODYMYR (14 July 1880–6 March 1951). A pivotal figure in the Ukrainian revolution, the Ukrainian author and politician Volodymyr Vynnychenko was born into a peasant family at Veselyi Kut, Kherson guberniia, and schooled at the Elizavetgrad Gymnasium. He enrolled in the Law Faculty of Kiev University in 1900, but was expelled two years later for his political activity among workers of the city and was banned from entering any other educational establishment. In 1905, he became a founding member of the Ukrainian Social-Democratic Labor Party and editor of its journal, Borot′ba (“The Struggle”), but spent the years 1906–1914 abroad (mostly in Paris and Lemberg), so as to escape the attention of the tsarist authorities.

For most of the First World War, Vynnychenko dwelled illegally near Moscow, but in March 1917 he returned to Kiev and was elected vice president of the Ukrainian Central Rada. On 15 June 1917, he was elected head of its executive, the General Secretariat, while at the same time serving as general secretary (i.e., minister) of internal affairs. When the Rada declared Ukraine’s independence from Russia, on 9 January 1918, Vynnychenko became chairman of the Council of People’s Ministers of the Ukrainian National Republic, again retaining control of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, but resigned on 17 January 1918. From 18 September to 14 November 1918, he headed the Ukrainian National Union and was one of the leaders of the revolt against the regime of Hetman P. P. Skoropadskii. On 14 November 1918, he was elected chairman of the Ukrainian National Republic Directory, but resigned again on 10 February 1919, as he was bitterly opposed to what he perceived as the increasingly Rightist, militarist, and pro-Allied policies of the directory in general and of Symon Petliura in particular. He moved thereafter into emigration, basing himself in Vienna, as leader (from February 1920) of the Foreign Group of the Ukrainian Communist Party (UCP) and editor of the newspaper Nova Doba (“The New Era”).

In May 1920, Vynnychenko journeyed to Moscow (later traveling to Khar′kov for talks with Cristian Rakovski) and attempted a reconciliation with the Bolsheviks (who hoped to rally Ukrainian socialists to their cause, as the Soviet–Polish War flared on Ukrainian territory). But after four months of negotiations regarding the future governance and borders of Ukraine proved to be fruitless (as had earlier talks between Vynnychenko and the Soviet government brokered by Béla Kun at Budapest in April 1919), he emigrated permanently in September 1920, initially settling in Vienna, from where he excoriated the Soviet regime for its centralism, bureaucratism, insensitivity to Ukrainian interests, and abandonment of Communist principles. For this he was severely criticized by the UCP leadership and was forced to wind up the Foreign Group and cease publication of its newspaper. Vynnychenko then moved to France, and for the next 30 years largely devoted himself to literary work. During the Second World War, he refused Nazi invitations to collaborate against the USSR, for which he was confined to a concentration camp. This experience had a deleterious impact on his health, and he subsequently died at Mougins (near Cannes).