In this paper I analyze national communist ideology in Ukraine during the early 1920s.
Ukrainian national communism is argued to be one of the earliest attempts in European intellectual history to adapt Marxist theory to local conditions and to make the national state an area for socialist revolution. The main argument of this paper is that Ukrainian national communism influenced from below the implementation of Soviet policy in the early 1920s, and especially after 1923. My analysis is divided in three sections, in which I discuss, respectively, the historical context in which Ukrainian communism emerged, its political representation, and the Soviet reaction to it. One of my conclusions is that Ukrainian communism was not a deviation from Marxism-Leninism, but an original quest for an appropriate local model for implementing Marxism. From this point of view, Ukrainian national communism at the beginning of 1920s should be seen as another case of the worldwide perception and development of Marxism rather than merely a part of the ideological history of the USSR.
I also argue that after Ukraine had become a part of the USSR, it was the advocates of Ukrainian national communism who implemented Bolshevik policy in Ukraine until the early 1930s and contributed to its popularity and effectiveness.
