Ukraine after the Russian Revolution

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Various factions fought over Ukrainian territory after the collapse of the

Soviet Ukraine (which would become a constituent republic of the Soviet Union in 1922) and Poland, and with small ethnic-Ukrainian regions belonging to Czechoslovakia and to Romania
.

Alliance and strife

Ukraine according to an old postal stamp from 1919.
Imperial Russian territories claimed by Ukrainian People’s Republic at the time, before the annexation of the Austro-Hungarian lands of the West Ukrainian People's Republic. Ukraine as depicted on this map is a rump state that the German led armies of the Central Powers had removed from Russian domination just before the March 3, 1918, signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
granting Ukraine independence from Russia. On April 29, 1918, the Ukrainian People's Republic was dissolved.
Ukrainia's borders drawn up at Brest-Litovsk.

After the

General Jewish Labor Bund
, Polish national party, representatives of Army, peasantry, workers, and others. It quickly gained the support of elements of the Imperial Army in Ukraine. On June 23, 1917, the Central Rada issued its First Universal, declaring Ukrainian autonomy within a Russian federation, which was enthusiastically supported by the First All-Ukrainian Peasant Congress on June 28.

Shortly after the early-November

Bolshevik government of Ukraine (Respublyka Rad Ukrayiny) with Christian Rakovksy
as its head on December 25, 1917 and claimed that the government of the Ukrainian People's Republic were outlaws.

Upon taking over the government in Petrograd, the Bolsheviks immediately sued for peace with the

fiercely abhorred Bolshevism. After the July 6, 1918, assassination in Moscow of the German Ambassador to Russia Count Mirbach, many Bolsheviks who resented the terms of the peace treaty began guerrilla warfare and terror with support from Felix Dzerzhinsky, the head of the Cheka.[1]

In late 1917 to early 1918, the UNR for couple of months

Sovnarkom first ignored the request and later stated that it has nothing to do with the war in Ukraine. The Ukrainian government declared a war on January 16, 1919. The Bolsheviks amid fluid alliances with various anarchists would eventually defeat the Ukrainian army
that was fighting on several fronts simultaneously.

Meanwhile, the

Ukrainian SSR in the center, Poland in the west, and Crimea, Kuban, and the former Cossacks lands became southern Russia in the east. Carpathian Ruthenia found itself in Czechoslovakia, and Bukovina in Romania. Ukraine was a rump state
of its former self.

In December 1922, with Bolsheviks secure in their power over its territory, Soviet Ukraine joined the

Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
.

International involvements

Further information: International relations (1919–1939)

The chaotic conditions in Ukraine attracted attention from the major powers. Canadian scholar Orest Subtelny provides a context from the long span of European history:

In 1919 total chaos engulfed Ukraine. Indeed, in the modern history of Europe no country experienced such complete anarchy, bitter civil strife, and total collapse of authority as did Ukraine at this time. Six different armies-– those of the Ukrainians, the Bolsheviks, the Whites, the Entente [French], the Poles and the anarchists – operated on its territory. Kyiv changed hands five times in less than a year. Cities and regions were cut off from each other by the numerous fronts. Communications with the outside world broke down almost completely. The starving cities emptied as people moved into the countryside in their search for food.[5]

Outside powers acted on entirely different visions for Ukraine. The British ridiculed the pretensions of the new nation.

Polish–Soviet War in 1920.[10]

Ukrainian Nationalist governments (1917–1920)

Ukrainian Soviet Governments

See also

Notes

  1. ^ In December 1917, the Central Rada issued Ukrainian currency.
  2. Grigori Yakovlovich Sokolnikov
    led the signatory team and signed for the Bolsheviks.
  3. ^ The Bolsheviks agreed to the terms of the treaty because if they didn't the German led armies of the Central Powers would push into Petrograd and Moscow and remove the Bolsheviks from power: the Bolsheviks only controlled Petrograd and Moscow at the signing of the peace treaty.[1]
  4. ^ On March 7, 1918, the Bolsheviks proclaimed Moscow their capital. The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk placed the independent Baltic countries under German suzerainty. The Bolsheviks were concerned that with the Baltics under German suzerainty, the Germans could easily move a German army into the Winter Palace and overthrow the Bolshevik government located in Petrograd. Lenin commented that if the Germans armies were to occupy both Petrograd and Moscow, the Bolsheviks could retreat to the substantial resources of the Ural-Kuznets region.[1]
  5. ^ The Central Powers occupation of Ukraine in the spring of 1918 caused a reduction of available foodstuffs in Russia.[1]
  6. ^ In the August 27 supplement to the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, Germany would grant financial credits to the Bolshevik government in Moscow in return for 25% of the oil from Baku. This oil was shipped across the Caspian and up the lower Volga to Ukraine.[4]
  7. ^ With the end of World War I in November 1918 and the defeat of the Central Powers, the Austrian-German support of the Hetman's government evaporated.

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 978-1-929631-95-7
    .
  2. ^ Українська Кубань [Ukrainian Kuban] (in Ukrainian). haidamaka.org.ua. Retrieved March 31, 2017.
  3. Ukrayinska Pravda
    (in Ukrainian). Kyiv. Retrieved March 31, 2017.
  4. ^
    ISBN 978-0-674-05739-5
    .
  5. ISBN 978-0-8020-8390-6
    . Retrieved April 1, 2017.
  6. ^ Yakovenko, Natalya (December 2002). "Ukraine in British Strategies and Concepts of Foreign Policy, 1917-1922 and After". East European Quarterly. 36 (4): 465.
  7. S2CID 144308097
    .
  8. ^ Tcherikower, Elias (1965). The Pogroms in the Ukraine in 1919.
  9. ^ Wolfram Dornik and Peter Lieb. "Misconceived realpolitik in a failing state: the political and economical fiasco of the Central Powers in the Ukraine, 1918." First World War Studies 4.1 (2013): 111-124.
  10. ^ Oleksandr Pavliuk, "Ukrainian-Polish relations in Galicia in 1918-1919." Journal of Ukrainian Studies 23.1 (1998)

Sources

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