Donets-Krivoy Rog Soviet Republic


The Donetsk–Krivoy Rog Soviet Republic or Donetsk–Kryvyi Rih Soviet Republic was a self-declared Soviet republic of the Russian SFSR founded on 12 February 1918. It was founded three days after the government of Ukraine signed the treaty with the Germans, which recognised the borders of the Ukrainian People's Republic. The republic was never viewed as a separate entity by anyone except for members of the self proclaimed republic. The interest in the republic and its autonomous status was revived with the appearance of the Ukrainian political party Donetsk Republic in 2005 led by Andrei Purgin.
The Donetsk–Krivoy Rog Soviet Republic claimed the territories south of the neighbouring Ukrainian People's Republic, which included the Donbass, Kharkov, Yekaterinoslav, and part of the Kherson Governorates. In the beginning, the republic's capital was the city of Kharkov, but later with the retreat of the Red Guard it was moved to Luhansk. The Soviet government of Russia supported it as the existence of the state set anarchy in the region. The newly created government challenged the authority of the General Secretariat of Ukraine and the People's Secretariat. Some of the commissars held positions as secretaries in another Bolshevik government in Ukraine, the People's Secretariat.
The Republic was disbanded at the second All-Ukrainian Congress of Soviets on 20 March 1918 when the independence of Soviet Ukraine was announced. It failed to achieve recognition, either internationally or by the Russian SFSR and in accordance with the March Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was abolished.
The legacy of the Donetsk–Krivoy Rog Soviet Republic was revived during the War in Donbass that began in 2014. On 5 February 2015, the legislature of the unrecognised separatist Donetsk People's Republic adopted a memorandum declaring the DPR to be the legal successor to the Donetsk–Krivoy Rog Soviet Republic, with Artyom as its founding father. The flag of the Donetsk People's Republic is claimed by the separatist authorities to be based on the flag of Donetsk–Krivoy Rog Soviet Republic. However, there is no proof of any such flag in 1918. The current flag is most likely based on Interdvizheniye Donbasa, an organisation whose roots started only in August 1989, in a lecture theatre of Donetsk University.

Government

After a government crisis and resignation of Vasilchenko, Zhakov and Filov on 29 March 1918, the Sovnarkom relocated from Kharkiv to Luhansk.