State-building and legislative activities of the soviet puppet republics in southern Ukraine in 1918-1921

The article examines the peculiarities of the state-building and legislative activity of the puppet Soviet republics on the territory of Ukraine in 1918-1922, in particular, the Donetsk-Kryvorizka Soviet Republic (DKRR), the Tavrida Soviet Socialist Republic (RSRT), the Odessa Soviet Republic (ORR), and the Don Soviet Republic. The author of the article proves that the Bolsheviks, seeking to seize power on the territory of Ukraine and not having popularity among the local population, tried to solve this problem by creating «independent» republics in the South of Ukraine, appointing to leadership positions famous Bolshevik figures who all their actions and decisions were coordinated with the top party leadership. It has been proven that the Bolsheviks used the slogan «the right of a nation to self-recognition», using it through the formation of puppet state entities, the basis of the normative and legal support in them were the decrees of the II and III All­Russian Congresses of Soviets, the Central Central Committee and the Soviet People’s Committee of the RSFSR, instructions and directives of the Russian People’s Commissars . It is substantiated that in these state entities there was no clear division of powers between the Central Committee and People’s Committees, People’s Commissariats, central and local authorities. It was established that in some regions of the South of Ukraine, the real power belonged to the revolutionary commissariats, which were created at the time of the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks at the end of 1917. It is proved that for all the studied state entities there was a characteristic similarity in the deployment of Sovietization processes according to a certain scenario. The author of the article makes an assumption that in the future the Bolsheviks planned to use these puppet republics to organize a general proletarian revolution throughout Ukraine. At the current stage of understanding the processes that took place during the revival of Ukrainian statehood (1917-1921), learning their lessons is quite relevant, as it can help prevent the repetition of past mistakes.