Ukrainian War of Independence

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
This article is about the 1917 to 1921 conflict. For the conflict during 2014–present, see Russo-Ukrainian War.

Ukrainian War of Independence
Part of the Eastern Front of World War I, the Polish–Soviet War, and the Southern Front of the Russian Civil War
aaa
bbb
bbb
bbb
(clockwise from top left): Members of the Yuzovka (Donetsk) First District Executive Committee in 1917; Ukrainian People's Republic soldiers swearing an oath in 1919; Anarchist Black Army command in Berdyansk in 1919; Polish troops in Kyiv in 1920.
Date7 March 1917 – 17 November 1921
(4 years, 8 months, 1 week and 3 days)
Location
Ukraine
Result Bolshevik victory
Territorial
changes		 Most of Ukraine is conquered by the Red Army, resulting in the creation of the Ukrainian SSR,
Poland seizes Western Ukraine.
Belligerents
 Makhnovshchina
Commanders and leaders
Makhnovshchina Nestor Makhno
H. von Eichhorn †
Strength

Red Army

 Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine: 103,000 (peak)

Volunteer Army: 40,000 (peak)

German Army

Part of a series on the
History of Ukraine
Ukrania quae et Terra Cosaccorum cum vicinis Walachiae, Moldoviae, Johann Baptiste Homann (Nuremberg, 1720)
Prehistory
Early history
Early modern history
Modern history
Topics by history
flag Ukraine portal

The Ukrainian War of Independence, also referred to as the Ukrainian–Soviet War in Ukraine, lasted from March 1917 to November 1921. It saw the establishment and development of an independent Ukrainian republic, most of which was absorbed into the Soviet Union as the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic of 1922–1991.

The war was fought between different governmental, political and military forces. Belligerents included

White Russian Volunteer Army, and Second Polish Republic forces. They struggled for control of Ukraine after the February Revolution
of 1917.

The war ensued soon after the October Revolution, when the Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin dispatched the Antonov's expeditionary group to Ukraine and Southern Russia.

The war resulted in the absorption of Ukrainian populations into the newly created Soviet Union and the Second Polish Republic. Soviet historical tradition viewed the Bolshevik victory as the liberation of Ukraine from occupation by the armies of Western and Central Europe, including that of Poland. Modern Ukrainian historians consider it a failed

war of independence by the Ukrainian People's Republic against the Bolsheviks. The conflict can be viewed within the framework of the Southern Front of the Russian Civil War of 1917–1922, as well as the closing stage of the Eastern Front
of World War I.

Background

During the First World War, Ukraine was in the front lines of two of the main combatants,

Imperial Russia and Austria-Hungary.[1]: 340  During the war, Ukrainian activists in Russia were treated as enemy agents, and newspapers and cultural organisations were shut down by the authorities. The Austrians in turn persecuted Galician Russophiles, arresting them and their families. The region was cleared of Russophiles when Austria recaptured Galicia from the Russians later in the war.[2]: 202–203 [clarification needed
]

In response to the

Petrograd.[2][4]: 205  Ukrainians from Moscow and Petrograd returned to Kyiv to aid the work of the new government.[2]
: 207 

The Central Rada was supported by Ukrainian officers and their men. Those at the

Donets Basin there were frequent strikes by Bolshevik-infiltrated trade unions.[2]
: 207–208 

The Central Rada proclaimed four Universals, declaring Ukrainian autonomy on 23 June 1917 (stating that "Ukraine should have the right to order their own lives in their own land”),[4]: 99 [3] issuing recognition agreements between the Central Rada and the Provisional Government in Petrograd on 16 July, and announcing the creation of the Ukrainian People's Republic (UPR) was created on 20 November.[4]

Outbreak of fighting (late 1917 – January 1918)

The Central Rada's authority didn't extend beyond the urban centres,[3]: 99  and following the proclamations, it was faced with external attacks and an internal workers' uprising. The Central Rada lacked a disciplined standing army or state apparatus, and it had to appeal to the population to mobilise.[2]: 207, 209–210  In late December 1917 the Communist Party of Ukraine set up the rival Donetsk–Krivoy Rog Soviet Republic—initially also called the Ukrainian People's Republic—in the eastern city of Kharkiv, where Vladimir Antonov-Ovseenko had established his headquarters. Their intention was initially to cut off Alexey Kaledin's forces in the Don region from Ukraine. In January, the Bolsheviks moved through Ukraine, with the aim of taking Kyiv, and the Central Rada began to lose control of the urban centres as the workers' support for the Bolsheviks increased.[5]: 373–377 [2]: 207–208  The Odessa Soviet Republic, which was created on 18 January, was one of a number of temporary bodies formed by the Bolsheviks.[6]: 76–77 

Bolshevik forces led by

Vinnitsa on 23 January, Odesa on 30 January, and Nikolaev on 4 February. Slowed by the Battle of Kruty on 30 January—but aided by the Kiev Arsenal January Uprising, a Bolshevik-organized workers' armed revolt that started on January 29—Kyiv was captured by the Bolsheviks on 9 February, following their victory in the Battle of Kiev. The Rada ministers retreated to Zhytomyr. Muravyov then engaged Romanians forces in Bessarabia.[5]
: 373–377 

Most of the remaining

Mikhail Alekseev's Volunteer Army.[7]
: 155 

German intervention

The north-western boundary of the UPR, as set by the first Treaty of Brest Litovsk

Following Bolshevik negotiations with the

Brest-Litovsk on 3 December 1917, the Central Rada expressed its desire for peace, and on 28 December an armistice was signed.[2][8]
: 209–210 

On 12 January the Central Powers, recognized the UPR delegation. Independence of the UPR was proclaimed in the Fourth Universal on 25 January 1918. On 1 February the plenary session was attended by the Kharkiv ‘Soviet Ukrainian government.[8] The first Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed on 9 February. In return for much needed food supplies and agricultural products, Germany and Austria promised to provide the UPR with military assistance against the Bolsheviks. The Allied Powers reacted against the treaty and suspended relations with the UPR.[2]: 209–210 [note 1][note 2]

Expulsion of Bolshevik forces

The

German and Austro-Hungarian armies then launched Operation Faustschlag, which resulted in the Bolshevik forces being driven out of Ukraine. Kyiv was taken on 1 March by a force of 450,000 German troops.[9][2]: 210–211  Two days later the Bolsheviks signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with the Central Powers, which formally ended hostilities on the Eastern Front. Russia agreed to recognize the previous UPR treaty, to sign a peace treaty with Ukraine, and to define the Russian/Ukrainian border.[8]

On 13 March, Ukrainian troops and the Austro-Hungarian Army secured Odesa.[9] The Ukrainian People's Army took control of the Donets Basin,[10] and Crimea was cleared of Bolshevik forces in April 1918.[9][11] Crimea, although occiped by the Germans, was not annexed by the UPR.[2]: 210–211  Despite these victories, civil disturbances continued throughout Ukraine, where local communists, peasant self-defence groups, and insurgents refused to submit to the Germans.[12]: 364 

Hetmanate (April – November 1918)

Pavlo Skoropadsky

On 28 April, the Central Rada was disbanded by the Germans,

Pavlo Skoropadsky as its self-appointed Hetman of all Ukraine, then replaced the UPR. Skoropadsky annulled the previous legal status and all laws of the UPR.[4] Under his government, new banks, government departments and a standing army were all created, and the Ukrainian language was introduced into schools. The Central Rada politicians refused to cooperate with Skoropadsky, and he was unpopular with the workers, who felt suppressed by the actions of his regime.[2]: 210–211  A body known as the Directorate of Ukraine was formed to overthrow Skoropadsky's regime.[2]
: 212 

After the defeat of Germany on the Western Front in November 1918, most of the German troops stationed Ukraine had no wish to remain there in support of the Hetmanate, Skoropadskyi, in an effort to appease the Allies, signed the Federal Charter [uk], which stipulated that Ukraine would be part of a future federal Russia.[14] An anti-Hetman Uprising on 14 November, led by the Ukrainian Social Democratic Labour Party, rose up against Skoropadsky,[2]: 212  followed by an uprising on 16 November 1918 by the Directorate.[15][16]

Skoropadskyi declared martial law, and mobilised his troops to quell the rebellion.[15] The Directorate army initially succeeded in securing most of Ukraine, but were then decisively defeated by remaining German forces.[17] The Siege Corps of the Sich Riflemen [uk] captured Kyiv after a two-week siege.[15] Skoropadskyi chose to abdicate, fleeing to Germany,[3][18]: 101  and his government surrendered to the Directorate the next day.[19] On 14 December, the Directory's troops entered the city, taking over the institutions introduced by the Hetmanate.[2]: 212 

West Ukrainian People's Republic

Wojciech Kossak, Eaglets – Defense of the Cemetery (1926). Lwów Eaglets depicted during the Siege of Lwów (Lviv). (Polish Army Museum)

In October 1918 Ukrainians announced the formation of the

Stanyslaviv. In January 1919, the two Ukrainian states decided to merge.[20]

Simultaneously, the collapse of the Central Powers affected Galicia, which was populated by Ukrainians and Poles. The Ukrainians proclaimed a

Paris Peace Conference of 1919 granted Eastern Galicia to Poland for 25 years.[22]

Resumed hostilities, 1919

See also: Ukrainian–Soviet War, Ukrainian Death Triangle, and First Winter Campaign

Almost immediately after the defeat of

German protection
.

French troops in Odesa, 1919

The defeat of Germany had also opened the Black Sea to the Allies, and in mid-December 1918 some mixed forces under French command were landed at Odesa and Sevastopol, and months later at Kherson and Mykolaiv (Ukrainian: Mykolaiv). Yet, on 2 April, Louis Franchet d'Espèrey ordered Philippe Henri Joseph d'Anselme to evacuate Odessa within 72 hours. Similarly, on 30 April, the French evacuated Sevastopol. According to Kenez, "The French withdrew not in order to avoid defeat, but in order to avoid fighting. They had no plans for evacuation. The French left behind enormous stores of military material. They embarked on an ambitious scheme without clear goals, without an understanding of the consequences and with insufficient forces."[23]: 180–202 

A new, swift Bolshevik offensive overran most of Eastern and central Ukraine in early 1919. Kyiv—under the control of Symon Petliura's Directorate—fell to the Red Army again on 5 February, and the exiled Soviet Ukrainian government was re-instated as the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. The Ukrainian People's Republic (UPR) was forced to retreat into Eastern Galicia along the Polish border, from Vinnytsia to Kamianets-Podilskyi, and finally to Rivne. According to Chamberlin, April was the greatest Soviet military success in Ukraine, "The Soviet regime was now at least nominally installed all over Ukraina, with the exception of the portion of the Donetz Basin which was held by Denikin." Yet in May, the Soviets had to deal with the mutiny of Otaman Nykyfor Hryhoriv and the advance of Denikin's forces.[24]

On 25 June 1919,

Ekaterinoslav on 30 June. According to Peter Kenez, "Denikin's advance in the Ukraine was most spectatular. He took Poltava on July 31, Odesa on August 23, and Kyiv on August 31."[23]

Yet by winter the tide of war reversed decisively, and by 1920 all of Eastern and central Ukraine except Crimea was again in Bolshevik hands. The Bolsheviks also defeated Nestor Makhno.[citation needed]

Polish involvement, 1920

See also: Polish–Soviet War
parade celebrating recent victory in the 1920 offensive
, Kyiv, 8 May 1920

Again facing imminent defeat, the UPR turned to its former adversary, Poland; and in April 1920, Józef Piłsudski and Symon Petliura signed a military agreement in Warsaw to fight the Bolsheviks together. Just like the former alliance with Germany, this move partially sacrificed Ukrainian sovereignty: Petliura recognised the Polish annexation of Galicia and agreed to Ukraine's role in Piłsudski's dream of a Polish-led federation in Central and Eastern Europe.

Immediately after the alliance was signed, Polish forces joined the Ukrainian army in the Kyiv offensive to capture central and southern Ukraine from Bolshevik control. Initially successful, the offensive reached Kyiv on 7 May 1920. However, the Polish-Ukrainian campaign ended in total failiure: in late May, the Red Army led by Mikhail Tukhachevsky staged a large counter-offensive south of Zhytomyr which pushed the Polish army almost completely out of Ukraine, except for Lviv in Galicia. In yet another reversal, in August 1920 the Red Army was defeated near Warsaw and forced to retreat. The White forces, now under General Wrangel, took advantage of the situation and started a new offensive in southern Ukraine. Under the combined circumstances of their military defeat in Poland, the renewed White offensive, and disastrous economic conditions throughout the Russian SFSR—these together forced the Bolsheviks to seek a truce with Poland.

End of hostilities, 1921

See also: Second Winter Campaign

Soon after the Battle of Warsaw the Bolsheviks sued for peace with the Poles. The Poles, exhausted and constantly pressured by the Western governments and the League of Nations, and with its army controlling the majority of the disputed territories, were willing to negotiate. The Soviets made two offers: one on 21 September and the other on 28 September. The Polish delegation made a counteroffer on 2 October. On the 5th, the Soviets offered amendments to the Polish offer, which Poland accepted. The Preliminary Treaty of Peace and Armistice Conditions between Poland on one side and Soviet Ukraine and Soviet Russia on the other was signed on 12 October, and the armistice went into effect on 18 October.[25][26] Ratifications were exchanged at Liepāja on 2 November 1920. Long negotiations of the final peace treaty ensued.

Meanwhile, Petliura's Ukrainian forces, which now numbered 23,000 soldiers and controlled territories immediately to the east of Poland, planned an offensive in Ukraine for 11 November but were attacked by the Bolsheviks on 10 November. By 21 November, after several battles, they were driven into Polish-controlled territory.[27]

On 18 March 1921, Poland signed a peace treaty in Riga, Latvia, with Soviet Russia and Soviet Ukraine. This effectively ended Poland's alliance obligations with Petliura's Ukrainian People's Republic. According to this treaty, the Bolsheviks recognized Polish control over Galicia (Ukrainian: Halychyna) and western Volhynia—the western part of Ukraine—while Poland recognized the larger central parts of Ukrainian territory, as well as eastern and southern areas, as part of Soviet Ukraine.

Having secured peace on the Western front, the Bolsheviks immediately moved to crush the remnants of the

Kyiv Oblast ("Kyiv province"). On 4 November, the Directorate's guerrillas captured Korosten
and seized a cache of military supplies, but on 17 November 1921, this force was surrounded by Bolshevik cavalry and destroyed.

Aftermath

Main article: Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic

In the current

Kholodnyi Yar Republic" which strove for Ukrainian independence. It lasted from 1919 to 1922, making it the last territory held by armed supporters of an independent Ukrainian state before the incorporation of Ukraine into the Soviet Union as the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.[28][29][30]

In 1922, the Russian Civil War was coming to an end in the

nativization and Ukrainization periods. However, by 1928 Joseph Stalin had consolidated power in the Soviet Union. Thus a campaign of cultural repression started, cresting in the 1930s when the Holodomor, a massive man-made famine, was orchestrated by the Soviet government and claimed several million lives. The Polish-controlled part of Ukraine, there was very little autonomy, both politically and culturally
, but it was not affected by famine. In the late 1930s the internal borders of the Ukrainian SSR were redrawn with no significant changes.

The political status of Ukraine remained unchanged until the

transferred to Ukraine from Russia with the approval of Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev
.

Popular culture

The war was portrayed in Mikhail Bulgakov's novel The White Guard,[31] which was serialised in 1925.[32]

Songs such as "Oi u luzi chervona kalyna" ("Oh, the guilder rose in the meadow, bent down") and "Hei vydno selo pid horoyu" ("Look, a village at the foot of the mountain") that were adapted or wriiten for the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen, became widely popular in Ukraine at the time. Because of their patriotic content, they were banned by the Soviets during much of the 20th century.[33]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Austria-Hungary and the UPR secretly agreed to unify areas of eastern Galicia and Bukovyna where the Ukrainians predominated. But in July 1918 Austria annulled this agreement.[8]
  2. ^ In 1922 the commitments made by the Central Powers were annulled.[8]

References

  1. ISBN 978-08020-8-390-6
    .
  2. ^
    ISBN 978-04650-9-346-5
    .
  3. ^
    ISBN 0-8133-3792-5
    .
  4. ^ a b c d Zhukovsky, Arkadii. "Struggle for Independence (1917–20)". Internet Encyclopaedia of Ukraine. Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies. Retrieved 25 September 2023.
  5. ^
    OCLC 313563398
    .
  6. ISBN 978-1-894865-40-1
    .
  7. ISBN 978-07102-1-298-6
    .
  8. ^ a b c d e Borschak, Elie. "Brest-Litovsk, Peace Treaty of". Internet Encyclopaedia of Ukraine. Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies. Retrieved 28 September 2023.
  9. ^ a b c Tynchenko, Yaros (23 March 2018). "The Ukrainian Navy and the Crimean Issue in 1917–18". The Ukrainian Week. Retrieved 14 October 2018.
  10. ^ Zhukovsky, Arkadii. "Ukrainian-Soviet War, 1917–21". Internet Encyclopaedia of Ukraine. Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies. Retrieved 28 September 2023.
  11. ^ "Germany Takes Control of Crimea". New York Herald. 18 May 1918. Retrieved 29 September 2023.
  12. ISBN 978-966-00-1145-8
    .
  13. Radio Svoboda
    (in Ukrainian). Retrieved 29 September 2023.
  14. ^ Hai-Nyzhnyk, Pavlo (2011). "Державний переворот 29 квітня 1918 р.: причини та перебіг захоплення влади П.Скороспадським" [The coup of 29 April 1918: reasons and course of P. Skoropadskyi's seizure of power]. Ukrainian Historic Journal (4): 132–164.
  15. ^ a b c Boiko, Olena. "Протигетьманське Повстання 1918" [Anti-Hetman Uprising, 1918]. Institute of History of Ukraine (in Ukrainian). Retrieved 15 September 2023.
  16. ^ "Антигетьманське повстання Директорії: опозиційний рух чи заколот проти держави?" [The Directorate's Anti-Hetman Uprising: Opposition movement or anti-state uprising?]. The Ukrainian Week (in Ukrainian). 16 May 2023. Retrieved 15 September 2023.
  17. ^ Shurkhalo, Dmytro. "Повстання проти гетьмана Скоропадського: Директорія виграла, але Україна втратила" [Uprising against hetman Skoropadskyi: The Directory won, but Ukraine lost]. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (in Ukrainian). Retrieved 15 September 2023.
  18. ^ "Pavlo Skoropadskyi – Hetman of the Ukrainian State 1918". British Library. 24 August 2018. Retrieved 15 September 2023.
  19. ^ Balan, B.; Shulhyn, O.; Zhukovsky, A. "Hetman government". Internet Encyclopaedia of Ukraine. Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies. Retrieved 15 September 2023.
  20. ^ a b Plokhy 2016, p. 212.
  21. ^ Reid 2000, p. 102.
  22. ^ Zhukovsky, Arkadii. "Struggle for Independence (1917–20)". Internet Encyclopaedia of Ukraine. Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies. Retrieved 25 September 2023.
  23. ^
    ISBN 978-0974493459
    .
  24. ^ Chamberlin, William (1935). The Russian Revolution, 1917–1921, Volume Two. New York: The Macmillan Company. pp. 209–219.
  25. ^ "Wojna polsko-bolszewicka" [Polish-Bolshevik War]. Entry at Internetowa encyklopedia PWN. (in Polish). Retrieved 27 October 2006.
  26. ^ League of Nations Treaty Series, vol. 4, pp. 8–45
  27. Volodymyr Kubiyovych, ed. (1963). "Ukraine". A Concise Encyclopedia. Vol. I. Toronto: University of Toronto Press
    . pp. 831–833, 872–874.
  28. ^ "На вшануванні отамана освячували ножі" [Knives were consecrated at the commemoration of the chieftain]. Gazeta.ua (in Ukrainian). 21 April 2010. Retrieved 23 October 2022.
  29. ^ "Gerashchenko offers a National Park "Cold Yar"". Ukrinform (in Ukrainian). 19 October 2016.
  30. ^ "Russian-Ukrainian war never stopped". Gazeta.ua. 12 December 2014. Archived from the original on 26 June 2023.
  31. ^ Mikhail Bulgakov: The White Guard. Penguin Books. 7 January 2010. Retrieved 25 September 2023.
  32. Britannica
    . Retrieved 25 September 2023.
  33. ^ Wolynetz, Lubow (25 November 2018). "Songs of Ukrainian World War I Soldiers" (PDF). The Sower. Stamford, Connecticut: The Ukrainian Museum and Library of Stamford. p. 13. Retrieved 26 September 2023.

Further reading

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ukrainian_War_of_Independence&oldid=1219671932"