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  3. Volume 11, Number 3 (43), 2024
  4. Demarcation and Legalisation of the Borders of the Ukrainian SSR with its Neighbours – Establishment and Partial Clarification of Boundaries with the RSFSR in the 1920s

Demarcation and Legalisation of the Borders of the Ukrainian SSR with its Neighbours – Establishment and Partial Clarification of Boundaries with the RSFSR in the 1920s

Law.
2024;
Volume 11, Number 43
: 128-136
https://doi.org/10.23939/law2024.43.128

Цитування за ДСТУ: Макарчук В. (2024) Встановлення та юридичне оформлення кордонів Української РСР з сусідами – встановлення та часткові уточнення кордонів з РСФРР в 1920-х рр. Вісник Національного університету «Львівська політехніка». Серія: "Юридичні науки". Том. 11, № 3 (43), С. 128-136. DOI: https://doi.org/10.23939/law2024.43.128
Citation APA: Makarchuk V. (2024) Demarcation and Legalisation of the Borders of the Ukrainian SSR with its Neighbours – Establishment and Partial Clarification of Boundaries with the RSFSR in the 1920s. Bulletin of Lviv Polytechnic National University. Series: “Legal Sciences”. Vol. 11, № 3 (43), С. 128-136. DOI: https://doi.org/10.23939/law2024.43.128 

Authors:
  1. Volodymyr MAKARCHUK
1
Lviv Polytechnic National University, Educatinoal and Rasearch Institute of Law, Psychology and Innovative Education

This article is the first part of a series of 5 articles dedicated to the establishment of the borders of the
Ukrainian SSR (and its legal continuation under the Union Constitution of 5 December 1936 of the Ukrainian
SSR) with the neighbouring Soviet republics – the RSFSR, the Belorussian SSR (BSSR) and the Moldavian
ASSR (Moldavian Autonomous Socialist Soviet Republic; since 1936 – the Moldavian Autonomous Soviet
Socialist Republic) and the latter's legal successor – the Moldavian SSR. The author points out that the borders
of the Ukrainian SSR and the RSFSR (the then names of the republics) in the 1920s were established not on the
basis of the ethnographic principle, but for reasons of economic expediency, with priority consideration of
Moscow's interests. For example, the city of Sudzha, which at one time was proclaimed by the Bolsheviks as one
of the capitals of “Soviet Ukraine”, became part of the RSFSR. The Russian side emphasised in every possible
way that certain disputed regions were important for providing the RSFSR with bread, coal and labour, not
stopping short of unilateral actions without the consent of the Ukrainian side and acts of sabotage during the
transfer of certain disputed territories to the Ukrainian SSR. The position of the Ukrainians was weakened by
the “international” leadership of the republic, driven by the Communist Party's discipline. At the same time, the
existing border between independent Ukraine and the Russian Federation should not be revised, and Ukraine
does not claim any Russian territories, including Kursk, as stated in a special statement by the Ukrainian
Foreign Ministry in August 2024.

borders of the Ukrainian SSR
modern borders of Ukraine
legal regulation of the national question in the internal policy of the USSR.

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the Establishment of Ukraine's Borders in the 20s of the Twentieth Century]// Pamiatky Ukrainy 1991. №2. P. 11–15.
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istoryko-pravovyi aspekt [Establishment of the Eastern Border of the Ukrainian SSR in 1919-1925: Historical and Legal
Aspect] // http://www.golos.com.ua/article/9455. [In Ukrainian].
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the First Decade (1919-1928)]/ S. Kulchytskyi. Kyiv: Osnovy, 1996. 396 p. [In Ukrainian].

11. Mykhailovych A. Yak ukrains’ki regiony opynylys’a po toi bik kordonu. [How Ukrainian regions
ended up on the other side of the border] https://www.obozrevatel.com/ukr/novosti-obschestvo/yak-ukrainski-regioni-
opinilisya-po-rosijskij-storoni-kordonu.htm. [In Ukrainian].