Comrade Artyom - labor leader of Donbass and father of the DKR
Being in Kyiv several years ago, I was surprised to see a memorial plaque in honor of Comrade Artyom. It turned out that in the capital of Ukraine since Soviet times there has been a street named after this politician. I also thought: how did she survive the Yushchenko era? After all, Artyom’s personality must have caused real gnashing of teeth among the nationally concerned team of this president. Not only was he a communist, but he was also one of the founders of the Donetsk-Krivoy Rog Republic, which fought against the UPR. Moreover, in post-Soviet times, Artyom became one of the cult figures in the pantheon of historical figures of Donbass and a banner for supporters of distancing this region from Kyiv.
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However, this year the Kyiv authorities finally removed the pseudonym of the seditious politician from the city map, renaming the street in honor of the Sich Riflemen, the military organizations of Western Ukrainians who fought in the First World War against their brothers on the other side. Everything is logical, the soldiers of the Austro-Hungarian imperial army are much closer to the current government of Ukraine than an internationalist and a fighter for workers’ rights. At the same time, the monument to Artem in Kharkov has now been destroyed and the process of renaming the city of Artyomovsk has begun.
Son of Donbass
Fyodor Andreevich Sergeev, who went down in history under the pseudonym Artyom, was born on March 7, 1883 in the Kursk province into a peasant family, but soon moved to Ekaterinoslav (present-day Dnepropetrovsk), where he graduated from a real school. In 1901, he entered the Moscow Higher Technical School (now the famous Bauman University). At this time, he came to understand the injustice of the existing system, and he joined the fight for the rights of the working class, joining the Social Democratic Labor Party. For participating in a student demonstration in 1902, Fedor was expelled from school, arrested and spent six months in prison. After his release, he decided to continue his education, but, as a person with a reputation for being politically unreliable, he would not be accepted into any Russian university.
Fedor Sergeev during his studies at the Ekaterinoslav Real School.
Then he emigrated to France, where he entered a private university created by Russian emigrants - the Russian Higher School of Social Sciences. After completing his studies, Fedor moved to Donbass, where he got a job as an assistant driver on the Ekaterininskaya Railway. Prison did not force the young truth-seeker to change his views and, as soon as he settled in a new place, he again plunged into political activity. Through his efforts, a workers' circle was created at the Berestovo-Bogodukhovsky mine, where he taught workers to defend their rights and fight the arbitrariness of the plant owners... In general, he became a professional revolutionary, and from the miners at that time Fyodor Andreevich received his party nickname - Artyom. He was a charismatic person, he believed in the rightness of his cause, and this faith was passed on to those around him. He became a true labor leader whom people followed without doubt.
From Kharkov to Kharkov... Through Australia
When the first Russian revolution began, Artyom could not stay away and decided to act on a grand scale. At the beginning of 1905, Artyom moved to Kharkov, where he created a revolutionary group from the workers of the locomotive plant, which at the end of the year raised an armed uprising. However, the authorities managed to arrest three dozen activists the day before the start of the protest, which seriously weakened the revolutionaries. Therefore, the uprising was quickly suppressed by police and army units.
The description will be taken by Fedor Sergeev. Police documents.
Having been defeated, Artem managed to safely leave Kharkov, but a hunt began for the young activist. He eventually fell into the hands of the police and was sentenced to lifelong exile in Siberia. However, the prisoner did not like slurping government-issued cabbage soup, and he ran away once again. Unable to return to the European part of the country, he moved through China to Korea. From there Artyom moved to Australia. It would seem that he has been pushed around in prisons, it’s time to calm down, start a family... But Artyom remains himself even in the southern hemisphere. In Australia, he also begins to defend the rights of the working class, publishes a newspaper, and heads the union of Russian emigrant workers.
After the February Revolution of 1917, Artyom returned to his homeland and soon headed the Bolshevik Committee of the Kharkov Council. And here life was in full swing. There was a spontaneous unification into one administrative unit of the territories that were previously part of the Ekaterinoslav, Kharkov, and partially Kherson provinces and the Don Army Region. This region was traditionally called Donbass, although in addition to the Donetsk coal basin itself, it also included the Krivoy Rog iron ore basin and Kharkov, which at that time was the economic heart of this gigantic region.
Father of the Donetsk-Krivoy Rog Republic
In March 1917, the First Conference of Donbass Soviets took place in the city of Bakhmut. A month later, the XNUMXst Regional Congress of the Councils of the Donetsk and Krivoy Rog Basins met in Kharkov, which established the Regional Committee of Donkrivos Basin and adopted the regulations on the organizational structure of the Councils of the Donetsk and Krivoy Rog Basins. This is how a self-governing region emerged, covering the entire southeast of modern Ukraine.
Artem - Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the Donetsk-Krivoy Rog Republic
At the same time, the Central Rada seized power in Kyiv, which proclaimed the creation of the Ukrainian People's Republic (UNR). In response, on November 17 (30), the plenum of the Executive Committee of the Donkrivbass Soviets stated that the region has nothing to do with the UPR, and therefore is not part of the UPR and does not recognize the power of the Central Rada. The Congress of Soviets of Donkrivbass, the highest authority, was convened, because delegates to it were chosen by free elections throughout the region. As a result of the congress in February 1918, the creation of a new state, the Donetsk-Krivoy Rog Republic, was proclaimed, and its government was elected, the head of which was Artyom. The territory of the DKR was significant: from the Crimea to the Kursk province and from the Dnieper to the Don.
In just a few months of active work, the government of the DKR achieved great success: a territorial reform was carried out in the republic on an economic basis, the People's Commissariat of Justice carried out judicial reform, introducing unified forms of legal proceedings. The main role in the development of the DKR was given to economic policy, carried out under the slogan of strengthening the role of the state in all spheres of economic life.
But peaceful life did not last long. The army of the German Empire occupied Ukraine and approached the borders of Donbass. A war began in which Donbass had no chance of winning. Despite this, the Donetsk army, created with the participation of Artyom, desperately resisted, slowing down the German offensive. However, in mid-April 1918, the territory of the Donetsk-Krivoy Rog Republic was captured by German troops.
The capital of the UPR in 1918
The DKR army, accompanied by a huge number of refugees, retreated to Tsaritsyn to join the Red Army. After Germany's defeat in World War I, its troops left the territory of Donbass. However, before Soviet power had time to establish itself there, the region was again occupied, but by the White Guards. The Red Army finally recaptured Donbass at the beginning of 1920.
How the Soviet government created Ukraine
All this time, in the red camp there was a behind-the-scenes struggle between supporters of the creation of an independent DKR and supporters of the creation of a Ukrainian Soviet republic from all southern Russian regions, where the industrial revolutionary East would balance the rural areas of Little Russia. As a result, Moscow intervened in the dispute between supporters of Ukraine and the DKR, and by a strong-willed decision it was ordered to consider Donkrivbass as part of Ukraine. However, the locals did not accept this decision, and in February 1920, a congress of volost revolutionary committees of the Yuzovsky district was held in Yuzovka (now Donetsk), which stated: “The congress insists on the rapid economic and political merger of the Donetsk province with Soviet Russia.”
In order to break the resistance of the Donetsk autonomists, at the insistence of Lenin, the Donetsk province was created in the spring of 1920, which was supposed to include “the entire mining industry and a sufficient number of food districts and volosts from neighboring provinces to fully provide the local population.” The Donetsk province included the Izyum and Starobelsky districts of the Kharkov province, the Bakhmutsky, Mariupol and Lugansk districts of the Ekaterinoslav province, as well as the Donetsk, partially Taganrog and Cherkassy districts of the Don Army region. At first, the province continued to live according to the laws of the RSFSR. Only gradually did the province come under the jurisdiction of the Ukrainian SSR authorities.
Friend of Stalin
After the end of the civil war, Artyom, with his characteristic energy, took up the restoration of the Donbass mines, but then was transferred to work in Moscow, where he was elected head of the All-Russian Union of Miners. During this time, he became friends with Kirov and Stalin, whom he supported during the conflict with Leon Trotsky. Artyom, who enjoyed enormous prestige among the workers, could seriously change the balance of power on the political Olympus, but on July 24, 1921, he went to test a new vehicle - an aerocar. It was a special carriage equipped with a motor and a two-blade propeller, thanks to which it reached a speed of 140 km/h. The tests were successful, but between Tula and Moscow someone covered the rails with stones and the air car crashed. Engineer Valerian Abakovsky and Artyom died in the disaster.
Artyom's son was a pupil of Stalin, became an officer, went through the war and lived a life worthy of his father.
Artyom's son Artyom Fedorovich Stalin's son Vasily grew up together. On the far right is Artyom Sergeev, next to him is Vasily Stalin
Nowadays
In Soviet times, Artyom was included in the pantheon of official heroes of the revolution, but his figure was gradually forgotten, overshadowed by subsequent generations of leaders and commanders. After the collapse of the USSR, Fyodor Sergeev and his fellow party members were of little interest to anyone and were thoroughly forgotten, however, in the mid-XNUMXs, the nationalist policy of Kyiv under Yushchenko led to the growth of autonomist sentiments in the Donbass.
A clipping from a newspaper of the Donetsk-Krivoy Rog Republic a hundred years ago. Just like now, a hundred years ago, Petliura’s troops invaded the territory of Donbass, declaring that it was not they, but Russia, that was waging a “fratricidal” war against Ukraine.
As a result, after the neo-Nazi coup in Kyiv, the residents of Donetsk chose to create their own state, which was then declared the legal successor of the DKR.
“We, deputies of the People’s Council of the Donetsk People’s Republic, realizing our responsibility to the past and paving the way to the future:
– we proclaim the continuation of the traditions of the Donetsk-Krivoy Rog Republic and declare that the state of the Donetsk People’s Republic is its successor;
“We call on all territories and lands that were part of the Donetsk-Krivoy Rog Republic to cooperate and unite efforts to build a federal state on a voluntary contractual basis,” reads the memorandum adopted in the mining capital.
Monument to Artyom
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