Ukrainization and the Power Elite
Although party leaders pursued the promotion of the Ukrainian language in the public sphere vigorously, this policy failed to make significant progress in government, industry, and higher education.
After 1925, the authorities demanded that government employees interact with the public in Ukrainian and employ the language in their workplaces. But language examinations revealed that members of the party and even the Communist Youth League (Komsomol) did not achieve a sufficient level of fluency in Ukrainian to pass the tests. Passive resistance remained a major obstacle. All-Union economic institutions, especially those in Ukraine’s eastern industrial regions, refused to Ukrainize themselves and primarily hired Russian-speaking specialists.60The dominance of Russian-language speakers within the urban-based Communist Party of Ukraine, the Komsomol, trade unions, and government - the very agencies that would push for and implement the Ukrainization program - may help explain Ukrainization’s mixed record. In 1922, Ukrainians constituted 22.3 per cent of the membership of the CP(b)U, but only 11.3 per cent professed Ukrainian as their primary language.61 Approximately five years later, on 10 January 1927, Ukrainians constituted 51.9 per cent of the membership and candidate-membership of its party, but only 30.7 per cent identified Ukrainian as their primary language.62 Although the number of self-identified Ukrainians more than doubled and became the majority of the party in this five-year period, the number of Ukrainians claiming Ukrainian as their native language never exceeded one-third of the party.
Although the Communist Party of Ukraine grew dramatically in the 1920s and 1930s, it remained a small, elite institution, unrepresentative of the Ukrainian people. Although the largest political organization in Ukraine, the party attracted only a small percentage of the total population.
The CP(b)U grew from 37,968 members at the end of 1920 to 636,914 members and candidate-members in May 1940. In 1920 only 19 per cent of its members identified themselves as Ukrainians; in 1940, 63.1 per cent did. Between July 1926 and January 1927, Ukrainians achieved a majority in the CP(b)U.63 But inasmuch as the Communist Party represented a hierarchical, not a democratic, institution, a majority within the party did not necessarily translate into majority rule.Although they increased in number, Ukrainians also remained underrepresented in the Communist Youth League (Komsomol) and in the trade unions. The number of Ukrainians in the Youth League increased from 59 per cent in 1925 to 72 per cent in 1933.64 In 1930, 56 per cent of the trade union members described themselves as Ukrainians, but only 43.3 per cent declared Ukrainian as their native language.65 In 1930, 58.6 per cent of the government’s bureaucracy recognized themselves as Ukrainians.66 As in other cases, the number of Ukrainians claiming Ukrainian as their native language would be much smaller. Thus, native-speaking Ukrainians in the 1923-33 period never dominated the centres of power in the Ukrainian SSR. The native-speaking group would most likely constitute the core that demanded implementation of the Ukrainization program within the party and the government, but it possessed a weak base of support.