Shuliavka Workers' Republic Proclaimed, Kiev December 11, 1905

Soviet Monument to the uprising in Kiev

On December 11, 1905 the Shuliavka Workers' Republic was proclaimed by the Council of Workers’ Deputies in Kiev, Ukraine. It was named after a working class district in the city where it was centered and was meant to both show solidarity with and aid the uprising occurring in Moscow at the time. A general uprising was planned for the next day.

The manifesto of the uprising included a passage that read:

"Citizens of the Shuliavka republic protest for the abolition of absolute monarchy, for the freedom of speech and assembly, for social services, for amnesty of political prisoners, for a national emancipation of Ukrainians, Poles, and Jews, and other nationalities of the Russian Empire, for the immediate end to the Jewish pogroms, which embarrasses our people."

Organized, armed detachments of workers seized large parts of the city and held it for 4 days until the insurrection was put down by Czarist military detachments.

While it was short-lived the Shuliavka Workers' Republic would prove a dress rehearsal of sorts for the seizure of power by workers 12 years later with the triumph of the Great October Socialist Revolution and the eventual formation of the USSR.