#dksr

February 12, 1918: Donetsk-Krivoy Rog Soviet Republic (DKSR) declared by the IV Congress of Soviets of Workers’ Deputies of Donetsk and Krivoy Rog basin.

Map 1: Despite not having a defined borders, the coalfields of Krivoy Rog and Donbass can give us an idea of the territory encompassing the DKSR.

February 4, 2015

We, the members of the People’s Soviet of the Donetsk People's Republic first convocation, elected in the general democratic and free elections of Nov. 2, 2014, taking into account the principles of international law embodied in the United Nations Charter, proclaim a memorandum on fundamentals of state-building, political and historical continuity.

Based on the will of the people of Donbass, expressed in the referendum of May 11, 2014, in the Act on the Proclamation of Independence from Ukraine of the Donetsk People's Republic, the Declaration of Sovereignty of the Donetsk People's Republic on April 7, 2014, and recognizing the need for the progressive development of law-making and the process of nation-building, we affirm the historic bond between the state entities of the Donetsk-Krivoy Rog Republic and the Donetsk People's Republic.

On February 12, 1918, at the IV Congress of Soviets of the Donetsk-Krivoy Rog basin, the Donetsk-Krivoy Rog Republic (DKSR) was created, based on the idea of ​​economic integration. At the head of the construction of a multi-ethnic national state was Fedor Sergeev (Artem). The structure of the Republic included the territory of Kharkov and Yekaterinoslav provinces, Krivoy Rog (Dnepropetrovsk), Kherson province, part of the Tauride province and industrial areas of the region of the Don Cossacks.

The Donetsk-Krivoy Rog Republic never officially ceased to exist, despite the German occupation, war and other social upheavals. Its ideas have lived in the hearts and souls of millions of people.

At the end of the 1980s, the “International Movement of Donbass" was created, led by Dmitry Kornilov, which in 1991 raised the black, blue and red flag of the DKSR. In March 1994, the people of Donbass called for a federal structure of the state. Federal ideas were expressed at the Severodonetsk Convention in 2004, where it was decided that referenda should be held in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions on gaining the status of independent republics. Such attempts to rebuild the state were declared criminal by the Kiev authorities. Grassroots protest resulted in the creation of the political movement "Donetsk Republic.” The choice of the people of Donbass was finally confirmed by a referendum in 2014.

We, the deputies of the People’s Soviet of the Donetsk People's Republic, conscious of our responsibility to the past and paving the way for the future:

On February 8, under artillery fire near the village of Komissarovka, one of the writers of our publication was killed --Vsevolod Petrovsky, a Marxist historian, organizer of the anti-fascist movement, and one of the best left-wing journalists of Donbass and Ukraine. 

LIVA directs your attention to this article written by him exactly one year before his death, appealing to the principles of proletarian internationalism and brotherhood of the working class of Donbass, Ukraine and all over the world.

On February 9, 1918, the IV Congress of Soviets of Workers' Deputies of Donetsk and Krivoy Rog basin opened in Kharkov. On February 12, the Congress proclaimed the establishment of the Donetsk-Krivoy Rog Soviet Republic (DKSR). The territory of the autonomous entity was defined not by ethnicity but on industrial-economic principles: the republic included the industrialized areas of the east and south of present-day Ukraine. 

Soon after the creation of the DKSR, the Donbass Red Army began fighting against German and Austrian invaders, supported by Ukraine’s bourgeois Central Rada. In May 1918, after fierce battles against an enemy of superior strength, the Red Army was forced to leave the territory of the republic. In February 1919, the Donetsk-Krivoy Rog republic was liquidated; after its territory was liberated from interventionists and the Whites, it became part of the Ukrainian SSR.