The Ukrainian–Soviet War (Ukrainian: українсько-радянська війна, romanized: ukrainsko-radianska 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
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.
- Early 1920 – late 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
Background
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 Central Council of Ukraine denounced the Bolsheviks' armed coup against the Russian 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 the 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. The 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. It was around this point that Bolshevik troops began invading Ukraine from Russia. Russian military units from Kharkov, Moscow, Minsk and the Baltic Fleet invaded Ukraine.
War
December 1917–April 1918
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 Governorate and the Donbass, began by advancing from the northeast led by Vladimir Antonov-Ovseenko and Mikhail Muravyov. 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 Kiev 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 Kharkov (December 26), Yekaterinoslav (January 9), Aleksandrovsk (January 15), and Poltava (January 20) on their way to Kiev. On January 27, the Bolshevik army groups converged in Bakhmach and then set off under the command of Muravyov to take Kiev.
As the Bolsheviks marched towards Kiev, a small Ukrainian National Republic unit of less than 500 schoolboys (some sources give a figure of 300), 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 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 UNR forces stormed the city on February 3. After six days of battle and running low on food and ammunition, the uprising was suppressed, resulting in the death of about 300 workers in total, though according to Soviet sources, more than 1,500 pro-Soviet workers and soldiers were killed during the struggle. On February 8, the Ukrainian People's Republic 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. In exchange for military aid, the Ukrainians were to deliver foodstuffs to the Central Powers. 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 on land, 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. These setbacks forced the Bolsheviks to sign a preliminary peace treaty with the Ukrainian People's Republic on June 12.
Post-Hetmanate intervention
During November 1918, troops from the Directorate of Ukraine orchestrated the overthrow of 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 Unification Act.
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 Kiev 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 peace 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. 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.
January 1919–June 1919
During the Red Army's westward offensive in the winter of 1918–1919, Soviet forces moved into Byelorussia as well as into Lithuania, as the newly created Soviet republic of Byelorussia had hoped to include Lithuania. On January 7, 1919, the Bolsheviks launched an offensive, with an army led by Vladimir Antonov-Ovseyenko, Joseph Stalin, and Volodymyr Zatonsky. 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 Kiev and Kharkov.