HUKIV CUSTOMS: FIGHT AGAINST SMUGGLING ACTIVITIES ON THE POLISH-SOVIET BORDER IN 1923–1924

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17721/1728-2640.2024.158.4

Abstract

Background. The article, based on archival sources, analyses the anti-smuggling activities of a small customs body in a fairly limited period of time – Hukiv Customs in 1923–1924. The relevance of the proposed microhistorical research is added to the insufficient scientific development of the activities of Hukiv Customs on the Polish-Soviet border, which was caused by the short functioning of this customs body (which, during the research period, existed in various forms from 1918 to 1925) and the need to study methods of combating smuggling by Soviet customs bodies.

Methods. The research is based on the principles of historicism and objectivity. A complex of general scientific and special historical methods was applied: methods of synthesis, induction and analysis, as well as historical and typological methods.

Results. Analysing the reporting documentation of the Hukiv Customs in 1923–1924 (it controlled the Soviet section of the border on the Zbruch River between the villages of Zbryсh or, for a certain period, Zhabyntsi and Zaluchchia, now the Kamianets-Podilsky district of the Khmelnytskyi region), it was possible to establish the peculiarities of the functioning and anti-smuggling of this customs division in the considered period. It seems important to investigate the Hukiv Customs during the period of functioning of transitional, unstable customs control rules and the Customs Statute of 1924, which established the state monopoly on foreign trade. The dynamics of changes in contraband flows (in the initial period of existence of the "Zbruch border", immediately after the famine of 1921–1923), their composition and the export-import ratio were traced. On the basis of the study of the documentary base, localities with the highest percentage of smuggling risks have been localized. Particular attention is paid to the complicity of representatives of customs protection or Soviet special services in smuggling processes. Also, on the basis of information from the Soviet side, a historical and statistical study of illegal trade in the area of the Skala customs office (Skala, Tarnopol Voivodeship) of the Republic of Poland, which operated in the territories adjacent to the Hukiv Customs House, was conducted.

Conclusions. The proposed article examines and analyses transformational phenomena (organized and personal smuggling, the ratio of export-import volumes of "packing", currency relations associated with illegal trade, development of trade cooperation) taking into account the historical context of the development of the fight against contraband flows in the area of the Soviet Hukiv Customs in 1923–1924