Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic

"Communist Ukraine" redirects here. Not to be confused with Ukrainian People's Republic of Soviets or Ukrainian Soviet Republic. For the anarcho-communist society in Ukraine, see Makhnovshchina.

Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic Українська Радянська Соціалістична Республіка (Ukrainian) Украинская Советская Социалистическая Республика (Russian)
1919–1991
Flag (1950–1991) State emblem (1949–1991)
Motto: Пролетарі всіх країн, єднайтеся! (Ukrainian) Proletari vsikh krain, yednaitesia!  (transliteration) "Workers of the world, unite!"
Anthem: Державний гімн Української Радянської Соціалістичної Республіки (Ukrainian) Derzhavnyi himn Ukrainskoi Radianskoi Sotsialistychnoi Respubliky (transliteration) "State Anthem of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic" (1949–1991)
Location of the Ukrainian SSR (red) within the Soviet Union (red and light yellow) between 1956 and 1991
Status	1919–1922: Nominally independent state (satellite state of the Russian SFSR) 1922–1990: Union Republic of the Soviet Union 1990–1991: Union Republic with priority of the Ukrainian legislation
Capital	Kharkov (1919–1934) Kiev (1934–1991)
Largest city	Kiev
Official languages	Russian Ukrainian (Ukrainian declared as sole official language in 1990)
Recognised languages	Belarusian, Crimean Tatar, Hungarian, Romanian, Polish
Religion	Secular state (de jure) State atheism (de facto) Russian Orthodox Church (majority) (through Ukrainian Exarchate)
Demonyms	Ukrainian, Soviet
Government	1919–1990: Unitary communist state 1990–1991: Unitary parliamentary republic
First Secretary
• 1918–1919 (first)	Emanuel Kviring
• 1990 (last)	Stanislav Hurenko
Head of state
• 1919–1938 (first)	Grigory Petrovsky
• 1990–1991 (last)	Leonid Kravchuk
Head of government
• 1918–1919 (first)	Georgy Pyatakov
• 1988–1991 (last)	Vitold Fokin
Legislature	Congress of Soviets (1919–1938) Supreme Soviet (1938–1991)
History
• Republic proclaimed	10 March 1919
• USSR created	30 December 1922
• Annexation of territories from Poland	15 November 1939
• Annexation of territories from Romania	2 August 1940
• Annexation of territories from Czechoslovakia	29 June 1945
• UN membership	24 October 1945
• Crimea transferred from the Russian SFSR	19 February 1954
• State sovereignty	16 July 1990
• Declaration of Ukrainian independence	24 August 1991
• Ukrainian independence referendum	1 December 1991
• Ukraine’s international recognition (dissolution of the Soviet Union)	26 December 1991
Area
• Total	603,700 km2 (233,100 sq mi)
Population
• 1989 census	51,706,746
• 1990 estimate	52,054,092
GDP (PPP)	1990 estimate
• Total	~$395.12 billion
• Per capita	~$7,590.5
GDP (nominal)	1990 estimate
• Total	~$81.4 billion
• Per capita	~$1,563.6
HDI (1990)	0.750 high
Currency	Soviet ruble (руб) (SUR)
Internet TLD	.su
Preceded by Succeeded by Ukrainian People's Republic Ukraine
Today part of	Ukraine

The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, abbreviated as the Ukrainian SSR, UkrSSR, UkSSR and also known as Soviet Ukraine or just Ukraine, was one of the constituent republics of the Soviet Union from 1922 until 1991. Under the Soviet one-party model, the Ukrainian SSR was governed by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union through its republican branch, the Communist Party of Ukraine.

The first iterations of the Ukrainian SSR were established during the Russian Revolution, particularly after the Bolshevik Revolution. The outbreak of the Ukrainian–Soviet War in the former Russian Empire saw the Bolsheviks defeat the independent Ukrainian People's Republic, during the conflict against which they founded the Ukrainian People's Republic of Soviets, which was governed by the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR), in December 1917; it was later succeeded by the Ukrainian Soviet Republic in 1918. Simultaneously with the Russian Civil War, the Ukrainian War of Independence was being fought among the different Ukrainian republics founded by Ukrainian nationalists, Ukrainian anarchists, and Ukrainian separatists – primarily against Soviet Russia and the Ukrainian SSR, with either help or opposition from neighbouring states. In 1922, it was one of four Soviet republics (with the Russian SFSR, the Byelorussian SSR, and the Transcaucasian SFSR) that signed the Treaty on the Creation of the Soviet Union. As a Soviet quasi-state, the Ukrainian SSR became a founding member of the United Nations in 1945 alongside the Byelorussian SSR, in spite of the fact that they were also legally represented by the Soviet Union in foreign affairs. Upon the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Ukraine declared independence and became the present-day independent state of Ukraine.

The republic's borders changed many times, with a general trend toward acquiring lands with ethnic Ukrainian population majority, and losing lands with other ethnic majorities. A significant portion of what is now western Ukraine was gained via the Soviet-German Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, with the annexation of Eastern Galicia and Volhynia in 1939, significant portions of Romania in 1940, and Carpathian Ruthenia in Czechoslovakia in 1945. From the 1919 establishment of the Ukrainian SSR until 1934, the city of Kharkov served as its capital; however, the republic's seat of government was subsequently relocated in 1934 to the city of Kiev, the historic Ukrainian capital, and remained at Kiev for the remainder of its existence.

Geographically, the Ukrainian SSR was situated in Eastern Europe, to the north of the Black Sea, and was bordered by the Soviet republics of Moldavia (since 1940), Byelorussia, and Russia, and the countries of Romania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Poland. The republic's border with Czechoslovakia formed the Soviet Union's westernmost border point. According to the 1989 Soviet census, the republic of Ukraine had a population of 51,706,746 (second after Russia).