Editing Donbas (section)

===Russian Civil War and Soviet period (1918–1941)===
{{See also|Battle for the Donbas (1919)|Donbas operation (1919)}}
[[File:The Donets Basin is the heart of Russia.jpg|thumb|A Soviet Russian propaganda poster from 1921 that says "The Donbas is the heart of Russia"]]
In April 1918 troops loyal to the [[Ukrainian People's Republic]] took control of large parts of the region.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2018-04-18 |title=100 років тому визволили Бахмут і решту Донбасу |trans-title=100 years ago Bakhmut and the rest of Donbas liberated |url=https://www.istpravda.com.ua/short/2018/04/18/152320/ |access-date=2023-12-07 |website=[[Istorychna Pravda]] |language=uk}}</ref> For a while, its government bodies operated in the Donbas alongside their [[Russian Provisional Government]] equivalents.<ref name="ukrainianweek225494"/> The [[Ukrainian State]], the successor of the Ukrainian People's Republic, was able in May 1918 to bring the region under its control for a short time with the help of its [[German Empire|German]] and [[Austria-Hungary|Austro-Hungarian]] allies.<ref name="ukrainianweek225494">[https://ukrainianweek.com/Politics/225494 Lessons for the Donbas from two wars], [[The Ukrainian Week]] (16 January 2019)</ref>

During the 1917–22 [[Russian Civil War]], [[Nestor Makhno]], who commanded the [[Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine]], was the most popular leader in the Donbas.<ref name="ukrainianweek225494"/>

Along with other territories inhabited by Ukrainians, the Donbas was incorporated into the [[Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic]] in the aftermath of the Russian Civil War. Cossacks in the region were subjected to [[De-Cossackization|decossackisation]] during 1919–1921.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.york.ac.uk/news-and-events/news/2003/cossacks/| title = Soviet order to exterminate Cossacks is unearthed| date = 19 November 2010| website = University of York| access-date = 11 September 2014| quote = 'Ten thousand Cossacks were slaughtered systematically in a few weeks in January 1919 [...] 'And while that wasn't a huge number in terms of what happened throughout the Russia, it was one of the main factors which led to the disappearance of the Cossacks as a nation. [...]'
}}</ref> Ukrainians in the Donbas were greatly affected by the 1932–33 [[Holodomor]] famine and the [[Russification of Ukraine|Russification]] policy of [[Joseph Stalin]]. As most ethnic Ukrainians were rural peasant farmers, they bore the brunt of the famine.<ref>{{cite book |last= Potocki |first= Robert |year= 2003 |title= Polityka państwa polskiego wobec zagadnienia ukraińskiego w latach 1930–1939 |language= pl, en |location= Lublin |publisher= Instytut Europy Środkowo-Wschodniej |isbn= 978-8-391-76154-0 }}</ref><ref name="Piotr1">{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jLfX1q3kJzgC&pg=PA208 | title=Ethnic Groups and Population Changes in Twentieth-Century Central-Eastern Europe | publisher=M. E. Sharpe | author=Piotr Eberhardt | year=2003 | location=Armonk, New York | pages=208–209 | isbn=0-7656-0665-8}}</ref>