THE FORMATION OF THE URBAN ADMINISTRATIVE APPARATUS OF SOVIET POWER (1920–1921): A CASE STUDY OF SLAVUTA

Abstract

Research Objective. The aim of this study is to analyze the formation and operation of themunicipal administrative apparatus in the borderland towns of the Ukrainian SSR during the first years ofSoviet state-building (1920–1921). The town of Slavuta (present-day Shepetivka district, Khmelnytskyi region) was chosen as the object of the study, as it represented one of the most active centers of early Soviet institutional implementation within the border zone. Methodology. The research methodology is grounded in the principles of historicism and an interdisciplinary approach. The study employs methods of historical and source-critical analysis to examine archival materials, including statistical documents and administrative records produced by local and district authorities. Originality. The scholarly novelty of this work lies in its comprehensive anal-ysis of a wide array of archival sources to reconstruct, for the first time, the processes through which Bolshevik(Soviet) institutions of local governance emerged, as well as the strategies and mechanisms these institutionsemployed in managing urban affairs. The article contributes to a deeper understanding of the introductionof the Bolshevik administrative system and the formation of the Soviet bureaucratic apparatus in Ukrainian territories. Conclusions. Following the final occupation of Right-Bank Ukraine in 1920 and the establishment of the Soviet-Polish border, the towns situated within the frontier zone became sites of active formation of Bolshevik local authorities. As in other settlements across Ukraine, this process aimed to construct a rigid vertical hierarchy of administrative bodies, in which lower institutions were subordinated to a single highergoverning authority. However, the borderland status of these towns introduced specific modifications to thishierarchy by establishing dual – and at times even triple – subordination of local authorities to civil councils, revolutionary committees, and the command of military units stationed in the area. A defining feature of governance in these border towns was that volost executive committees and town councils in 1920–1921 effectivelyoperated as departmental subdivisions of local revolutionary committees. Another characteristic aspect oflocal administration during this period was the formation of staffing structures not according to standardizednorms imposed from above, but rather on the basis of the personnel available on the ground.