The Borotbists () were a left-nationalist

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

that existed from 1918 to 1920. It is not to be confused with its Russian affiliated counterparts – the Ukrainian Party of Left Socialist-Revolutionaries ( Borbysts) and the Ukrainian Communist Party (Ukapists). It arose in May 1918 after the split in the

Ukrainian Socialist-Revolutionary Party Ukrainian Socialist-Revolutionary Party ( ) was a political party in Ukraine and the Russian Republic founded in April 1917,Soviet regime in Ukraine. The Borotbists are often associated with the Russian party of

Left Socialist-Revolutionaries The Party of Left Socialist-Revolutionaries-Internationalists () was a revolutionary socialist political party formed during the Russian Revolution. In 1917, the Socialist Revolutionary Party split between those who supported the Russian Pro ...

who in

also called themselves ''borotbists''. In March 1919 it assumed the name Ukrainian Party of Socialist-Revolutionary-Borotbists (Communists) (, ), and in August the same year the name was changed to Ukrainian Communist Party (Borotbists) (). Its leaders, among others, were Vasyl Ellan-Blakytny, Hryhoriy Hrynko, Ivan Maistrenko and Oleksander Shumsky. The Borotbists twice applied to the Executive Committee of the

Communist International The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern and also known as the Third International, was a political international which existed from 1919 to 1943 and advocated world communism. Emerging from the collapse of the Second Internationa ...

to be allowed to affiliate with the Communist International. On 26 February 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 Kharkiv, also known as Kharkov, is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city in Ukraine.

on 17–23 March. After the dissolution, many Borotbists joined the Ukrainian Communist Party (Ukapists), rather than the Bolshevik party which was more closely tied to Moscow. After 1920 the history of the Borotbists took the form of a struggle between the two trends: the centralist Russophile element, and the 'universal current' of Ukrainian communists. Ukrainization heralded an unprecedented national renaissance in the 1920s. The Ukrainian communists, including prominent ex-Borotbisty, carried forward Ukrainization, a "weapon of cultural revolution in Ukraine". Ukrainization meant efforts to assert autonomy and counter ascendant

Stalinism Stalinism (, ) is the Totalitarianism, totalitarian means of governing and Marxism–Leninism, Marxist–Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union (USSR) from History of the Soviet Union (1927–1953), 1927 to 1953 by dictator Jose ...

. Stalinist centralism and its partner Russian nationalism destroyed senses of equality between the republics. The Ukrainian communists and intelligentsia were annihilated. The Borotbist "co-founders of the Ukrainian SSR" were amongst the last remnants of opposition purged under the guise of the destruction of the fake "Borotbist Center" in 1936. They were still being subjected to official attack in 1938.

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