Battle of Kruty
Battle of Kruty | |||||||
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Part of the Ukrainian–Soviet War | |||||||
Scheme of the Battle of Kruty. | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Ukrainian People's Republic |
Soviet Russia | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Averkiy Honcharenko |
Reingold Berzin[2] | ||||||
Units involved | |||||||
The Kyiv Cadet auxiliary kurin and the company size element of Free Cossacks | Group of forces in battle with the counterrevolution in the South of Russia | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
Total: 600 soldiers 500 students 2 armored trains[2] ~100 cossacks |
Total: 6,000 soldiers 1,000 men (strike force) armored trains[2] artillery battery | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
less than 260[2] prisoners 36[2] (later 28 executed[2]) | Heavy, about 300[4] |
History of Ukraine |
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Ukraine portal |
The Battle of Kruty (
Order of battle
- Ukrainian forces (D. Nosenko)[2]
- 1st Student Company[a] (Sich Riflemen auxiliary kurin) - Petro Omelchenko[5] (fatally wounded) (116 soldiers) was split into four platoons
- Cadet Corps of the 1st Ukrainian military school of Bohdan Khmelnytskyi[b] - Averkiy Honcharenko (~200 soldiers)
- Hlukhiv Free Cossacks (80 soldiers)
- Cavalry detachment
- Ad hoc armed train (consisted of artillery gun on a flatcar) - S.Loshchenko
- Armored train - M.Yartsev (wounded), withdrew to Nizhyn
- Russian forces (Mikhail Muravyov)[2]
- 1st Revolutionary Army (Komdiv Pavel Yegorov) - 1,500
- Baltic sailors of Remnyov
- 1st Petrograd Red Guards
- 1st battalion - Lifanov (wounded)
- 2nd battalion - Vorobyov
- 1st Moscow Red Guards - Ye.Lapidus
- Armored train No.2
- 2nd Revolutionary Army (Reingold Berzin)
- 436th Novo-Ladoga Regiment
- 534th Novo-Kyiv Regiment
- detachment of Baltic sailors
- Lenin armored train
The battle
As
Just before the assault Tymchenko was replaced by D. Nosenko. Tymchenko left for Nizhyn in attempt to recruit the locally quartered Shevchenko Regiment (800 soldiers) to the Ukrainian side.[2] On January 30, 1918, the Shevchenko regiment sided with the Soviet regime, the news of which forced the Ukrainian garrison of Kruty hastily to withdraw.[2] Over half of the 400 men were killed during the battle, which lasted up to five hours. In Soviet historiography, the battle is mistakenly dated on January 29, 1918[2] and confused with the Plysky rail station skirmish (uk:Плиски (станція)).[2]
The Haidamaka Kish of
Eighteen of the students were re-buried at
After the fall of the Ukrainian People's Republic the bodies of the students were moved to the Lukyanivske Cemetery in Kyiv.
Ukrainian legacy
The true story of the battle was hidden by the Soviet Government. Only recently, a monument was set up to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Kruty at Askold's Grave, and a commemorative hryvnia coin was minted. In 2006, the Kruty Heroes Monument was erected on the site of the historic battle. The battle is remembered each year on or around January 29.[8]
Ukrainian youngsters lost their lives to stop the Bolshevist army of Russian Lieutenant General Nikolai Muravyov from advancing on Kyiv.
—Viktor Yuschenko at the 91st anniversary of the battle describing the students[9]
Young people, like
Spartan soldiers, died for the sake of their motherland in a struggle against foreign aggressors, and it was an example of their sacrifice and selfless love for their native land. Every anniversary of the Heroes of Kruty is not only a day to honor those people who loved our motherland more than their lives. This is also another reminder to our contemporary politicians regarding their responsibility for the fate of their country and people.
Near Kruty the Kyiv military cadets and students became the forerunners of the Ukrainian political nation. Having different ethnic roots, they as one fought for our Ukrainian State. As the founding of the Ukrainian People's Republic became the base of the Ukrainian statehood, so the heroism of the Kruty's warriors became the beginning and the symbol of liberating struggles of Ukrainians for the liberty in the past 20th century.
—Viktor Yuschenko at the 91st anniversary of the battle[11]
On 1 March 2022, the
Important personalities
This section needs additional citations for verification. (January 2018) |
- Leonid Butkevych, the youngest soldier who was in the sixth grade
- Yakiv Ryabokin-Rohoza-Rozanov
- Volodymyr Shulhyn, a brother of the Ukrainian statesman Oleksander Shulhyn
- Ivano Hrushetsky, later an Orthodox priest who eventually died in a Soviet prison in August 1940
- Mytrofan Shvydun, later continued to fight on the "Shooter" and "Free Ukraine" armored trains and in 1941 organized the Lutsk Battalion of OUN[5](Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists)
- Mykhailo Mykhailyk, later wrote a detailed memoir about the battle
- Numerous former students of Kruty became the base of the officer corps of the legendary Black Zaporizhians Cavalry Regiment
- Mykola Kryvopusk and Hnat Martynyuk in 1920-1921 served as personal bodyguards of Symon Petlyura, Martynyuk, after becoming a priest, perished in Volyn in 1943 under unknown circumstances
- Serhiy Zakhvalsky, eventually became an officer in the Polish Army, however, he was renowned for imprisoning a whole company of the Red Army in 1920, while heading one of the cavalry squads of the Zaliznyak Cavalry Regiment
- Averkiy Honcharenko, in 1943 became one of the organizers of the SS Halychyna[5]of which he was appointed a commander in 1945
- Petro Franchuk, one of the members of SS Halychyna
- Yuri Voronoy, son of Ukrainian mathematician Georgy Voronoy, performed the first human kidney transplant in 1933[13]
To the memory of the thirties
At the Askold Cemetery
They were buried,
The thirty martyrs-Ukrainians,
The glorious young...
At the Askold Cemetery
The Ukrainian bloom! —
By the bloody roadway
For us to follow into the world.
Onto whom has dared to rise
The betrayer's hand?
Sun is blooming, wind is playing
And the Dnieper-river...
Against whom has Cain committed?
O, Lord, punish them!
Over everything they loved
It was their loved land.
They died in the New Testament
With the glory of saints.
At the Askold Cemetery
They were buried.— Pavlo Tychyna, 1918 (free translation)[14]
Gallery
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Photo, mistakenly taken as photo of burial of the student fighters of the battle, 1918
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A hryvnia coin commemorating the Battle of Kruty
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Kruty monument on Askold's Grave
See also
- Kruty Heroes Memorial
- Kyiv Arsenal January Uprising
- Group of forces in fight with counter revolution in the South Russia
Notes
- Kyiv University, the Ukrainian People's University and the 2nd Kyiv Gymnasium of St.Cyril and Methodius.
- ^ Former 1st Kyiv Konstantinovskoye Military School
References
- ^ a b Battle of Kruty at the Encyclopedia of Ukraine
- ^ Ukrayinska Pravda (Historic Pravda). 29 January 2015 ([1](original source)
- ^ "Kruty, Battle of".
- ^ Михайло Михайлик: День 29 січня 1918 року. — Львів, 1932 (Ukrainian)
- ^ Ukrayinska Pravda(Istorychna Pravda). 28 January 2011
- ISBN 0-8020-8390-0.
- ^ "History of Ukraine" (in Ukrainian). Retrieved September 12, 2006.
- UNIAN(29 January 2020)
- UNIAN(29 January 2009)
- ^ Yuschenko, Tymoshenko address their compatriots on occasion of Battle of Kruty, Interfax-Ukraine, (29 January 2009)
- ^ History of the Battle of Kruty - English, YouTube
- ^ a b About 200 Russian invaders killed in new battle near Kruty in Chernihiv region, Ukrinform (2 March 2022)
- ^ Dubenko, Dmytro. "Хірург Вороний, який вперше пересадив нирку людині: українізатор і учасник бою під Крутами". BBC News Україна. BBC. Retrieved 31 December 2023.
- ^ Lavrinenko, Yu. Shot Renaissance: Anthology 1917-1933: Poetry-prose-drama-essay. "Prosvita". Kyiv, 2001. 794 p.
External links
- Janiw V. "The Battle of Kruty"
- Montage about the Battle of Kruty
- "Kruty, Battle of". Encyclopedia of Ukraine. Retrieved August 15, 2006.
- Zerkalo Nedeli, January 28 - February 3, 2006. Available in
- "The president opened a memorial to the Heroes of Kruty". Korrespondent (in Russian). Retrieved August 25, 2006.
- Крути. Sketch of the history of Ukraine (in Ukrainian). Archived from the original on July 21, 2012. Retrieved February 16, 2007.
- Життя після Крут. Як склалася доля учасників січневого бою
- www.kruty.org.ua/
- Чому «вороженьки» бояться пам’яті героїв Крут?
- The Battle of Kruty : the free world's first resistance to communism