Today’s Russo-Ukrainian border is a product of territorialization processes in the early years of the Soviet state. Documents of relevant commissions in the Russian and Ukrainian State Archives (GARF and TsDAVOU) clearly indicate that its creation was not a means to divide and rule the population, but rather a strategy of managing the diversity of the Soviet space. Whereas the party leadership provided the rough framework on a macro level, the republican and local cadres would shape the processes on a meso level. Once confronted with these top-down decisions, activists in the border regions entered the debate on a micro level. They began to link basic economic needs with national-ethnographic self-perception. In the case that they gained support of a ‘patron’ on the Ukrainian or the Russian side, they had the chance to change the border. In the end, the borders established in the time period between 1919 and 1928 were the product of a complex interaction among all three of these levels.

中文翻译：

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从太空到领土：谈判俄乌边界，1919-1928

今天的俄乌边界是苏维埃国家早期领土化进程的产物。俄罗斯和乌克兰国家档案馆（GARF 和 TsDAVOU）中相关委员会的文件清楚地表明，它的创建不是分裂和统治人口的手段，而是一种管理苏联空间多样性的策略。党的领导层在宏观层面提供了粗略的框架，而共和党和地方干部将在中观层面塑造流程。一旦面对这些自上而下的决定，边境地区的激进分子就进入了微观层面的辩论。他们开始将基本的经济需求与民族民族志的自我认知联系起来。如果他们获得了乌克兰或俄罗斯方面的“赞助人”的支持，他们就有机会改变边界。