iiS HUMAN LIFE IN RUSSIA
ment" and to build up "a Ukrainian Soviet culture" under
Bolshevist guidance. Postyschev had not only a negative aim—-
to destroy the old nationalist movement^ which included the
elimination of the Skrypnik group; he had also a positive
ambition—to build up a Ukrainian Soviet culture by new
methods. He has stated precisely what he means by this3 and
I shall deal with this matter later.
According to Postyschev the national-cultural ambitions of a
people are incompatible with the ideal of the Communist
International. He is apparently not aware that this admission
removes at one blow all foundation for his charge that the
machinations of foreign counter-revolutionaries are the cause
of the protest movement in the Ukraine. In discussing Skryp-
nik's sins, he says: " Skrypnik has shown clearly that any attempt
by a Communist to harmonize proletarian internationalism
with nationalism must lead him into the camp of nationalist
counter-revolutionaries." In other words, Postyschev admits
that his campaign in the Ukraine is intended to prevent the
recurrence of attempts to bring nationalist aspirations into
harmony with proletarian internationalism, as Skrypnik sought
to do on grounds of the deepest conviction. His declaration
further implies that any movement intended to foster the
national individuality of the Ukraine, its art and literature, will
henceforth meet with the most rigorous repression, since in
his view all compromises lead only to separatism and counter-
revolution.
An exhaustive description of all the steps taken by Moscow
during its fight against the Ukrainian population would lead
us too far. It is not my task to describe this struggle. I must
confine myself to the description of those steps which were
particularly far-reaching and of direct bearing on the subject
under discussion. The most important of these was the purging
of the Communist Party of all unreliable elements. This purge
was carried out all over the Soviet Union; but it had quite a
special object in the Ukraine, White Russia and other districts