The Donetsk–Krivoy Rog Soviet Republic or Donetsk–Kryvyi Rih Soviet Republic (Russian: Донецко-Криворожская советская республика, romanized: Donetsko-Krivorozhskaya sovyetskaya respublika; Ukrainian: Донецько-Криворізька Радянська Республіка, romanized: Donetsko-Kryvorizka Radianska Respublika) was a self-declared Soviet republic of the Russian SFSR proclaimed on 12 February 1918. It was founded three days after the government of the Ukrainian People's Republic (UPR) signed its Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with the Central Powers, which recognised the borders of the UPR. Lenin did not support the creation of the entity and neither did Sverdlov.[6] Some other Bolsheviks like Elena Stasova, however, sent a telegraph of best wishes.
The Donetsk–Krivoy Rog Soviet Republic was disbanded at the second All-Ukrainian Congress of Soviets on 20 March 1918 when the independence of Soviet Ukraine was announced. The Donetsk–Krivoy Rog Soviet Republic failed to achieve recognition, either internationally or by the Russian SFSR, and in accordance with the March 1918 second Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was abolished.
The Donetsk–Krivoy Rog Soviet Republic was invoked during the war in Donbas (started 2014), when the legislature of the unrecognised separatist Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) adopted a memorandum on 5 February 2015 declaring itself the successor to the Donetsk–Krivoy Rog Soviet Republic, and Artyom as founding father.[7]
^James Ivan Clem: The Life of the Parties: Party Activism in Lʹviv and Donetsk, Ukraine, Ann Arbor (MA): University of Michigan Press 1995, p. 52.
^Edwards, Maxim (9 June 2014). "Symbolism of the Donetsk People's Republic". openDemocracy. Retrieved 3 June 2017. But Vladimir Kornilov, the world's leading – and only – specialist on the short-lived state (and author of The Assassinated Dream, a book on its history), does not agree. The myths that grew around the Republic, [Kornilov] added, led to distorted views of its history, and 'pictures of some flag which was never actually used.' In fact, the flag used by the Donetsk People's Republic is, with alterations, that of the International Movement for Donbas or the Interdvizheniye Donbasa, an organisation whose roots started only in August 1989, in a lecture theatre of Donetsk University.
^Compare:
Donets–Kryvoi Rog Soviet Republic (ДОНЕЦЬКО- КРИВОРІЗЬКА РАДЯНСЬКА РЕСПУБЛІКА). Ukrainian Soviet Encyclopedia at leksika. - "ЦК РКП(б) під головуванням В. І. Леніна розглянув на своєму засіданні питання про становище на Україні, підтвердив, що 'Донецький басейн розглядається як частина України' і зобов'язав парт. орг-ції Д.-К. р. р. взяти активну участь у створенні єдиного фронту оборони і роботі 2-го Всеукр. з'їзду Рад, щоб 'створити один уряд для всієї України' (Большевистские организации Украины в период установления и укрепления Советской власти.., с. 66)."