Borotbists

The Borotba Party was a peasant based left-nationalist political party in Ukraine. It arose in May 1918 after the split in the Ukrainian Socialist-Revolutionary Party on the basis of supporting Soviet power in Ukraine. It got its name from the central organ of the party—the newspaper "Borot’ba" (Struggle). In March 1919 it assumed the name Ukrainian Party of Socialist-Revolutionary-Borotbists (Communists) ( _uk. Українська партія соціалістів-революціонерів-боротьбістів (комуністів), "Ukrayins’ka partiya sotsialistiv-revolyutsioneriv-borot’bistiv (komunistiv)") , and in August the same year the name was changed to Ukrainian Communist Party (Borotbists) ( _uk. Українська комуністична партія (боротьбистів), "Ukrayins’ka komunistychna partiya (borot’bistiv)"). Its leaders, among others, were Vasyl Blakytnyy, Hryhoriy Hrynko and Oleksander Shumskyy. [Lenin, V.I. ( [1920] 1945). [http://www.marx.org/archive/lenin/works/1920/feb/06b.htm Draft Resolution on the Ukrainian Borotbist Party] ]

The Borotbists twice applied to the Executive Committee of the Communist International to be allowed to affiliate with the Communist International. On February 26, 1920, the Communist International by a special decision called on the Borotbists to dissolve their party and merge with the Communist Party (bolshevik) of Ukraine, the CP(b)U.

At the Borotbists' conference in the middle of March 1920, a decision was passed to dissolve the party. A decision to admit the Borotbists to membership of the CP(b)U was adopted at the Fourth All-Ukraine Conference of the CP(b)U, which was held in Kharkiv on March 17–23. [Lenin, V.I. ( [1920] 1933). [http://marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1920/mar/16b.htm Telegram to the presidium of the All-Ukraine Conference of borotbists] ] [Lenin, V.I. ( [1920] 1965). [http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1920/mar/24.htm Telephone message to J.V. Stalin] ] After the dissolution, many Borotbists joined the Ukrainian Communist Party (Ukapists), rather than the Bolshevik party which was more closely tied to Moscow [ [http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=jTghoDgDxkYC&pg=PA40&lpg=PA40&dq=Azeri+Hummet&source=web&ots=VfNf_9H2_I&sig=w7GksMe3Eea2KD2qneoPWJ6LCxg&hl=en#PPA214,M1 "Muslim National Communism in the Soviet Union: A Revolutionary Strategy for the Colonial World"] by Alexandre Bennigsen and S.Enders Wimbush, 1980, University of Chicago Press] .

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