20th-century conflict between the Ukrainian People's Republic and the Bolsheviks
The
Ukrainian?Soviet War
[1]
(
Ukrainian
:
радянсько-укра?нська в?йна
,
romanized
:
radiansko-ukrainska viina
) is the term commonly used in post-Soviet Ukraine for the events taking place between 1917 and 1921, nowadays regarded essentially as a war between the
Ukrainian People's Republic
and the
Bolsheviks
(
Russian SFSR
and
Ukrainian SSR
). The war ensued soon after the
October Revolution
when
Lenin
dispatched
Antonov
's
expeditionary group
to Ukraine and
Southern Russia
.
Soviet historiography
viewed the Bolshevik victory as the liberation of Ukraine from occupation by the armies of Western and Central Europe (including that of
Poland
). Conversely, modern Ukrainian historians consider it a failed
war of independence
by the Ukrainian People's Republic against the Bolsheviks. The conflict was complicated by the involvement of the
Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine
, non-Bolshevik Russians of the
White Army
, and the armies of the
Second Polish Republic
,
Austria-Hungary
, and the
German Empire
, among others.
Historiography
[
edit
]
In Soviet historiography and terminology, the armed conflict is depicted as part of the greater
Russian Civil War
: in Ukraine, this war was fought between the national government (led by
Symon Petliura
) and the Russian Bolshevik government (led by Lenin).
The war may be divided into three phases:
- December 1917 ? April 1918: Revolutionary days, attempted Bolshevik coups, invasion of Ukraine by the Red Army formations, signing of protectorate treaty, and liberation from the Bolsheviks.
- December 1918 ? December 1919: Civil war in Ukraine, full-scale invasion by the Red Army,
unification of Ukraine
, anti-Soviet peasant uprisings, Denikin's Volunteer Army and the Allied intervention, loss of
West Ukraine
to Poland.
- Spring 1920 ? Autumn 1921:
Polish?Soviet War
(Treaty of Warsaw),
Russian Civil War
(between Bolshevik armies and the
Armed Forces of South Russia
), Ukrainian guerrilla operations (First and Second Winter Campaigns), government in exile.
Important documents
[
edit
]
Background
[
edit
]
After the
February Revolution
of 1917, the nationalities within the
Russian Republic
(formerly the
Russian Empire
) demanded national autonomy from
Petrograd
. In the summer of 1917, the
Russian Provisional Government
approved regional administration over some parts of Ukraine.
In November 1917, the government of Ukraine denounced the Bolsheviks' armed coup against the Provisional Government, known as the
October Revolution
, and declared it would decisively fight against any attempted similar coup in Ukraine. A special joint committee for preservation of revolution was organized to keep the situation under control. The
Kiev Military District
command tried to prevent a Bolshevik coup, leading to
street fights
and eventually surrendering of pro-Bolshevik troops in the city. On November 14, 1917, the Ukrainian Central
Rada
issued its "Appeal of the Central Council to the citizens of Ukraine" in which it sanctioned transfer of the state power in Ukraine to itself. On November 16, a joint session of the Rada and executive committee of the local workers and soldiers soviets recognized the Central Rada as the regional authority in Ukraine. On November 20, 1917, the Rada declared Ukraine the Ukrainian People's Republic as an autonomous part of the Russian Republic and scheduled the January 9, 1918 elections to a
Ukrainian Constituent Assembly
. The Secretary of Military Affairs
Symon Petliura
expressed his intentions to unite both the
Southwestern
and
Romanian fronts
that were stretched across Ukraine into one Ukrainian Front under the command of
Colonel General
Dmitry Shcherbachev
.
On December 17, 1917, the Russian Bolsheviks planned a rival
All-Ukrainian Congress of Soviets
and on December 11?12, 1917, they set off a number of coups across Ukraine in Kiev, Odessa and Vinnytsia. They were successfully defeated by the Rada. On December 17, 1917,
Sovnarkom
, which had initiated peace talks with
Central Powers
earlier that month, sent a 48-hour ultimatum to the Rada requesting it stop "counterrevolutionary actions" or prepare for war. Also on December 17, 1917,
Reingold Berzins
led his troops from
Minsk
towards
Kharkov
to Don. They engaged in an armed conflict at a rail station in
Bakhmach
with the Ukrainian troops who refused to let the Russian red forces (three regiments and an artillery division) pass. The Central Rada did not accept the accusations and stated its conditions: recognition of the Ukrainian People's Republic, non-interference in its internal affairs and affairs of the newly organized Ukrainian Front, permission on transferring of Ukrainized troops to Ukraine, division of the former imperial finances, participation of the Ukrainian People's Republic in the general peace negotiations. The same day the All-Ukrainian Congress of Soviets in Kiev, after the Bolshevik delegation left, recognized the authority of the Ukrainian government and denounced the ultimatum of the Soviet Russian government. The Kiev Bolsheviks in their turn denounced that congress and scheduled another one in Kharkov. Next day, Sovnarkom in Moscow decided to go to war.
Vladimir Antonov-Ovseyenko
was appointed by
Vladimir Lenin
the commander-in-chief of expeditionary force against Kaledin and the South Russia, while near the borders with Ukraine (
Bryansk
?
Belgorod
) Red troops began to gather.
The Kievan Bolsheviks who fled to Kharkov joined the regional Congress of Soviets of the
Donetsk-Krivoy Rog Soviet Republic
. They then declared this meeting the First All-Ukrainian Congress of Soviets that announced the creation of the
Ukrainian People's Republic of Soviets
. It called the Central Rada of Ukraine an enemy of the people declaring war against it on January 2. The Rada then broke all ties with
Petrograd
on January 22, 1918, and declared independence, thereby commencing the
Ukrainian War of Independence
.
[2]
[3]
It was around this point that Bolshevik troops began invading Ukraine from Russia.
[4]
Russian military units from Kharkov,
Moscow
, Minsk and the
Baltic Fleet
invaded Ukraine.
[5]
December 1917?April 1918
[
edit
]
The Bolsheviks, numbering around 30,000 and composed of Russian army regulars stationed at the front, a number of garrisoned units, and
Red Guard
detachments composed of laborers from Kharkov gubernia and the Donbass, began by advancing from the northeast led by
Vladimir Antonov-Ovseenko
and
Mikhail Muravyov
.
[6]
The Ukrainian forces at the time of the invasion consisted of about 15,000 made up from volunteer detachments and several battalions of the
Free Cossacks
and the
Sich Riflemen
.
The invasion of pro-Soviet forces from Russia was accompanied by uprisings initiated in Ukraine by the local Bolsheviks in the developed cities throughout the territory of
Left-bank Ukraine
as well as
Right-bank Ukraine
. The
Bolsheviks
led by
Yevgenia Bosch
conducted a successful uprising in
Vinnytsia
sometime in December 1917. They took charge of the 2nd Guard Corps and moved towards Kyiv to help the Bolsheviks in the city.
Pavlo Skoropadsky
with a regiment of the
Free Cossacks
managed to
stop them near Zhmerynka
, disarm them, and deport them to Russia. The other Bolshevik forces captured
Kharkiv
(December 26),
Yekaterinoslav
(January 9),
Aleksandrovsk
(January 15), and
Poltava
(January 20) on their way to
Kyiv
. On January 27, the Bolshevik army groups converged in
Bakhmach
and then set off under the command of Muravyov to take Kyiv.
[1]
As the Bolsheviks marched towards Kyiv, a small Ukrainian National Republic unit of less than 500 schoolboys (some sources give a figure of 300
[7]
), commanded by Captain Ahapiy Honcharenko, was hastily organized and sent to the front on January 29, 1918, to take part in the
Battle of Kruty
. The small unit consisted mainly of the Student Battalion (
Kurin
) of
Sich Riflemen
, a unit of the Khmelnytsky Cadet School, and a
Haidamaka
detachment. About half of the 500 men were killed during the battle.
On January 29, 1918, the
Kiev Arsenal January Uprising
, a Bolshevik-organized armed revolt, began at the
Kiev Arsenal factory
. The workers of the plant were joined by the soldiers of the Ponton Battalion, the 3rd Aviation Regiment and the Sahaydachny regiment. Sensing defeat, the "Central Rada" and Petlyurist forces stormed the city on February 3.
[8]
After six days of battle and running low on food and ammunition, the uprising was suppressed by counter-revolutionary forces,
[9]
in which 300 Bolshevik workers died. According to Soviet era sources, more than 1500 pro-Soviet workers and soldiers were killed during the struggle.
[10]
On February 8 the Ukrainian government evacuated Kyiv in order to avoid destruction by opposing Soviet troops, which then entered Kyiv under Mikhail Muravyov's on February 9.
Once the Bolsheviks took Kyiv, they began an offensive in
Right-Bank Ukraine
. However, on February 9 the UNR signed the
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
and thus received aid from
German
and
Austro-Hungarian
troops in late February, over 450,000 troops.
[4]
In exchange for military aid, the Ukrainians were to deliver foodstuffs to the
Central Powers
.
[4]
Under the command of
Symon Petlura
, the combined forces pushed the Bolsheviks out of Right Bank Ukraine and retook Kyiv on March 1. Because of the socialist policies of the Rada, mainly the policy of land nationalization which affected food exports to the Central Powers, on April 28 the German forces disbanded the Central Rada and installed the
Hetman government
in its place. Ukrainian, German, and Austro-Hungarian armies continued making gains, taking back Left Bank Ukraine, Crimea and the Donets Basin.
[11]
These setbacks forced the Bolsheviks to sign a
peace treaty
with the Ukrainian government on June 12.
Post-Hetmanate intervention
[
edit
]
During November 1918, troops from the
Directorate of Ukraine
overthrew
the Hetmanate with some help from the
Bolsheviks
. German forces led by the
Soldatenrat
kept their neutrality during the two-week-long civil war as they were withdrawing from the country, due to the defeat of the
German Empire
in
World War I
. The Directorate reestablished the
Ukrainian People's Republic
. On January 22, 1919, the neighboring Ukrainian Republics united under the
Act Zluky
.
The Central Military-
Revolutionary Committee
in
Kursk
on October 22, 1918, issued the order to form two divisions under the Army Group the
Ukrainian Front
or the Group of the Kursk Direction. The group was assigned the
Worker's Division of Moscow
, the 9th Soviet Division, 2nd Orlov Brigade, and two armored trains. According to Antonov-Ovsiyenko the Army accounted for some 6,000 soldiers, 170 artillery guns, 427 machine guns, 15 military planes, and 6 armored trains. On December 15, 1918, the meeting of the Ukrainian chief of staff was called in Kyiv headed by
Otaman
Osetsky and including the Chief
Otaman
Petliura, Colonel Bolbachan, Colonel Shapoval,
Sotnik
Oskilko. They were discussing the border security and formed a plan in case of threat from all sides.
To stop the coming war with the Bolsheviks, the government of
Chekhivsky
sent a delegation to Moscow led by the Minister of Foreign Affairs
Semen Mazurenko
. The delegation succeeded in signing a preliminary peaceful agreement yet it did not stop the aggression from the Russian side due to poor communication between the delegation in Moscow and the government of the
Ukrainian People's Republic
.
[12]
On December 28, 1918, the Central Committee of the Left
UPSR
officially declared the mobilization of forces in the support of the Soviet government by an armed staging. From the beginning of January 1919 the Bolshevik bands consistently were crossing the eastern and north-eastern borders to raid.
[
citation needed
]
January 1919?June 1919
[
edit
]
On January 7, 1919, the Bolsheviks
invaded Ukraine in full force
[13]
with an army led by
Vladimir Antonov-Ovseyenko
,
Joseph Stalin
, and
Volodymyr Zatonsky
.
[1]
The Directorate declared war once again against Russia on January 16 after several preliminary ultimatums to the
Russian SFSR
sovnarkom
to withdraw their troops. The two main directions of the Bolshevik's forces were onto
Kyiv
and
Kharkiv
.
The Soviet forces were advanced across North-eastern Ukraine and occupied
Rylsk
and
Novhorod-Siversky
. On December 21 the Ukrainian Front took the important strategic railroad connection in
Kupiansk
. After that, a full-scale advance started between the
Dnieper
and
Oskil Rivers
. On January 3, the Red Army took
Kharkiv
, almost as by the same scenario when Bolsheviks had occupied Kyiv in February 1918. The Ukrainian forces consisted of two regular troop formations, the Zaporozhian Corps and the
Sich Riflemen
, as well as
partisan
detachments. These partisans were led by unreliable
atamans
which occasionally sided with the Bolsheviks, such as Zeleny, Anhel, and
Hryhoriv
. The army which had over 100,000 men, fell to about 25,000 due to peasants leaving the army and desertions to the Bolsheviks.
[4]
Bolbochan
with the remnants of the Zaporizhian Corps retreated to
Poltava
which was holding off the Red Army for a couple of weeks more. On January 6, 1919, the government of
Pyatakov
officially declared the creation of the
Ukrainian Socialist Soviet Republic
. Yet his government continued to stay in Kursk until January 24. On January 4 the Bolsheviks Army Group
Ukrainian Front
was reformed into the unified Ukrainian front under the command of Antonov-Ovsiyenko with his deputies
Kotsiubynsky
and Schadenko. On the several inquiries about the purpose of the Russian Army in Ukraine that the Directory was sending to Moscow,
Chicherin
finally responded on January 6:
...there is no army of the Russian Socialist Soviet Republic in Ukraine. At this time the military action that takes place on the territory of Ukraine is between the armies of Directorate and the Ukrainian Soviet Government which is completely independent.
On January 12, the troops under the command of
Mykola Schors
occupied
Chernihiv
while other units under command of
Pavlo Dybenko
took
Lozova
,
Pavlohrad
,
Synelnykove
, and established contact with
Nestor Makhno
. After some long discussion between the members of the Directory and other state officials, it was decided to declare War against Soviet Russia. The only person who was against it, was the chairman of the Directory
Volodymyr Vynnychenko
, while Shapoval, for example, for some reason was simply requesting the prompt creation of the Soviet government. Denikin later commented that the war declaration did not change absolutely anything on the frontlines and only reflected the political crisis inside the Ukrainian government with the victory of the
military party
of Petliura-
Konovalets
-Hrekov over Vynnychenko-Chekhivsky. On January 20 the Soviet Army took
Poltava
while the Ukrainian troops retreated further to
Kremenchuk
. On January 26 Dybenko took
Katerynoslav
. The Soviets took
Left-Bank Ukraine
, and then marched on to Kyiv. On February 2 they forced the Directorate to move to
Vinnytsia
while troops of Schors and Bozhenko occupied Kyiv three days later.
Then Chekhivsky resigned from office, right after Vynnychenko created in
Kamianets-Podilskyi
the
Committee for the salvation of Republic
, which was again dissolved by Petliura on February 13. During that time the Soviet troops acquired the rest of the
Kiev Governorate
while the bands of
Hryhoriv
took
Oleksandria
and
Yelyzavethrad
. By March 6 the Directorate had relocated to
Proskurov
while yielding most of
Polissia
and
Podillia
to the
Bolsheviks
. Surprisingly, by the end of March the Ukrainian armies successfully conducted series of military operations retaking
Sarny
,
Zhytomyr
,
Korosten
, and threatening to take back Kyiv. On March 2 Otaman Hryhoryev occupied
Kherson
and March 12 he was already in
Mykolaiv
. By April 3 the Entente forces evacuated from
Odessa
which Hryhoryev entered three days later. In early June, Ukraine launched an offensive, retaking the
Podolia region.
[1]
July 1919?December 1919
[
edit
]
The Red Army retaliated against the Ukrainian offensive, recapturing
Proskurov
on 5 July and putting the temporary capital
Kamianets-Podilskyi
under threat. However, Ukraine was strengthened by the arrival of general
Yurii Tiutiunnyk
and his experienced troops. The Ukrainian army launched a counterattack, pushing the Red Army back to
Horodok
. Troops of the
Ukrainian Galician Army
who had crossed the
Zbruch
on 16?17 July joined the fight against the Bolsheviks. Their arrival resulted in Ukraine having a combined force of 85,000 Ukrainian army regulars, and 15,000 partisans.
[1]
By October 1919, about 70% of the Directorate's troops and more than 90% of the allied Ukrainian Galician Army fell to
typhus
.
[14]
December 1919?November 1920
[
edit
]
From December 6, 1919, to May 6, 1920, the
UNR Army
under the command of
Mykhailo Omelianovych-Pavlenko
carried out an underground operation known as the
First Winter Campaign
in the
Kirovohrad
region against the
Soviet 14th Army
. Another significant development of this period was the signing of the
Treaty of Warsaw
with
Poland
on April 22, and then beginning of a
joint offensive
with Polish troops against the Bolsheviks.
[6]
On May 7, a Ukrainian division under the command of
Marko Bezruchko
entered Kyiv, but was quickly forced out by a Red Army counteroffensive led by
Semyon Budyonny
. The Ukrainians and Poles were pushed back across the
Zbruch River
and past
Zamo??
toward
Warsaw
but counter-offensive the Soviets to
Minsk
. The Poles signed
a armistice with the Soviets
on October 12. By 1921, the Polish author of the Polish-Ukrainian alliance,
Jozef Piłsudski
, was no longer the Polish head of state, and
only participated as an observer during the Riga negotiations, which he called
an act of cowardice
.
[15]
Petliura's forces kept fighting.
[16]
They lasted until October 21, when they were forced to cross the Zbruch River and enter Polish-controlled
Galicia
. There they were disarmed and placed in
internment camps
.
[1]
November 1921
[
edit
]
The last action of the UNR against the Soviets was a raid behind the Red Army lines in November 1921 known as the
Second Winter Campaign
.
[1]
This campaign was meant to incite a general uprising amongst the
Ukrainian
peasants
, who were already disgruntled with the Soviets,
[13]
and to unify partisan forces against the Bolsheviks in Ukraine. The commander of the Ukrainian forces was
Yurii Tiutiunnyk
.
Two expeditionary forces were established, one from
Podolia
(400 men) and one from
Volhynia
(800 men). The Podolia group only made it to the village of Vakhnivka, before returning to Polish territory through Volhynia on November 29. The Volhynia group started out on November 4, captured
Korosten
on November 7 and made its way to the village of Leonivka. When they began to run low on supplies they decided to return. However, on its return west, it was intercepted by a
Bolshevik
cavalry
force under the command of
Grigore Kotovski
at
Bazar
and routed in battle near Mali Mynky on November 17. 443 soldiers were captured by the Soviets during the battle. 359 were shot on November 23 near the town of
Bazar
, and 84 were passed on to Soviet security forces.
[17]
This was the last operation of the
UNR army
against the Soviets. The end of the Second Winter Campaign brought the Ukrainian-Soviet war to a definite end,
[1]
however partisan fighting against the Bolsheviks continued until mid-1922
[18]
and in response the Red Army terrorized the countryside.
[19]
Rebellion states
[
edit
]
Local supporters of
Ukrainian People's Republic
created anti-Russian and anti-Bolshevik rebellion states on occupied territories like
Independent Medvyn Republic
[20]
or
Kholodny Yar Republic
.
[21]
They kept fighting with Russians and collaborators until 1923.
[22]
Aftermath
[
edit
]
The end of the war saw the incorporation of most of the territories of Ukraine into the
Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic
which, on December 30, 1922, was one of the founding members of the
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
(USSR). Parts of
Western Ukraine
fell under the control of the
Second Polish Republic
, as laid out in the
Peace of Riga
. The UNR government, led by
Symon Petlura
, was forced into exile.
[23]
For the next few years the Ukrainian nationalists would continue to try to wage a partisan guerrilla war on the Soviets. They were aided by Polish intelligence (see
Prometheism
); however, they were not successful. The last active Ukrainian movements would be mostly eradicated during the
Holodomor
.
[24]
Further, the relative lack of Polish support for the Ukrainian cause would cause a growing resentment on the part of the
Ukrainian minority in Poland
towards the Polish interwar state.
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
Ukrainian-Soviet War, 1917?21
at the
Encyclopedia of Ukraine
- ^
J. Kim Munholland.
"Ukraine."
.
Encyclopædia Britannica
. Retrieved
2007-11-08
.
- ^
Reid, Anna (2000).
Borderland: A Journey Through the History of Ukraine
.
Westview Press
. p. 33.
ISBN
0-8133-3792-5
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
Orest Subtelny.
Ukraine: A History
.
University of Toronto Press
, 1988.
- ^
Robert Sullivant.
Soviet Politics and the Ukraine 1917?1957.
New York:
Columbia University Press
, 1962.
- ^
a
b
Nicholas Chirovsky.
An introduction to Ukrainian History Volume III 19th and 20th Century Ukraine.
New York, Philosophical Library, 1986
- ^
"History of Ukraine"
(in Ukrainian)
. Retrieved
September 12,
2006
.
- ^
Палач Петлюра ? предтеча нынешних властей
.
Rabochaya Gazeta
(in Russian)
. Retrieved
27 January
2012
.
- ^
Subtelny, Orest
(2000).
Ukraine: A History
.
University of Toronto Press
. p.
352
.
ISBN
0-8020-8390-0
.
- ^
Дмитрий Аггеевич Чугаев. "Коммунистическая партия: организатор Союза Советских Социалистических Республик". Мысль. 1972. p.176
- ^
(in Ukrainian)
100 years ago Bakhmut and the rest of Donbass liberated
, Ukrayinska Pravda (18 April 2018)
- ^
"А. Скромницкий. Связи Украинской Народной Республики (УНР) и Советской России (November 1918 ? April 1919 год)"
(in Russian). Archived from
the original
on 17 July 2012.
- ^
a
b
Paul Robert Magocsi
A History of Ukraine
. Toronto:
University of Toronto Press
.
ISBN
0-8020-0830-5
- ^
Marvin Kalb (2015).
Imperial Gamble: Putin, Ukraine, and the New Cold War
. Brookings Institution Press. p. 71.
ISBN
978-0-8157-2744-6
.
- ^
Norman Davies
(2003).
White Eagle, Red Star: the Polish-Soviet War, 1919?20
. Pimlico. p. 399.
ISBN
0-7126-0694-7
.
(First edition: New York,
St. Martin's Press
, inc., 1972.)
- ^
Mykhailo Hrushevsky
, edited by O. J. Frederiksen.
A History of Ukraine
. New Haven:
Yale University Press
: 1941.
- ^
Winter Campaigns
at the
Encyclopedia of Ukraine
- ^
Partisan movement in Ukraine, 1918?22
at the
Encyclopedia of Ukraine
- ^
WED Allen
.
The Ukraine
. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press
, 1941.
- ^
"Медвинська республ?ка: спротив рос?йсько-б?льшовицьким окупантам"
.
www.ukrinform.ua
(in Ukrainian)
. Retrieved
23 March
2022
.
- ^
Коваль, Роман.
"Начерк до ?стор?? Холодноярсько? орган?зац?? 1917-1922 рок?в"
. Retrieved
23 March
2022
.
- ^
(in Ukrainian)
Uprising in Lukyanovka Prison: How the Last Battle of the Cold Yar Atamans took place
,
Espresso TV
(9 February 2020)
- ^
Ukrainian National Republic
at the
Encyclopedia of Ukraine
- ^
Timothy Snyder
,
Covert Polish Missions across the Soviet Ukrainian Border, 1928?1933
,
p. 71-78
, in
Cofini
, Silvia Salvatici (a cura di), Rubbettino, 2005.
Full text in PDF
Archived
2008-02-27 at the
Wayback Machine
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