The Ukrainian War of Independence, also referred to as the Ukrainian–Soviet War in Ukraine, lasted from March 1917 to November 1921 and was part of the wider Russian Civil War. It saw the establishment and development of an independent Ukrainian republic, most of which was absorbed into the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic between 1919 and 1920. The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic was one of the constituent republics of the Soviet Union between 1922 and 1991.
The war was fought between different governmental, political and military forces. Belligerents included Ukrainian nationalists, Ukrainian anarchists, the forces of Germany and Austria-Hungary, the 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. 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.
In response to the February Revolution in March 1917, political and cultural organisations in Kyiv created a council, the Central Rada, and in April the 900 delegates elected Mykhailo Hrushevsky as its leader. Hrushevsky believed that the time had come for greater Ukrainian autonomy within Russia. That month, 100,000 supporters went on the streets of Kyiv in support of the Central Rada. The new government, which claimed jurisdiction over five Ukrainian governorates, was recognised as the government of Ukraine in Petrograd. Ukrainians from Moscow and Petrograd returned to Kyiv to aid the work of the new government.
The Central Rada was supported by Ukrainian officers and their men. Those at the front continued to fight for the Russians, but were keen to return home, following promises by the Central Rada that land would be redistributed. As it became clearer that such promises were never going to be fulfilled, many began to support the Bolsheviks. In the south of Ukraine, Nestor Makhno began his anarchist activity, disarming deserting Russian soldiers and officers. In the eastern Donets Basin there were frequent strikes by Bolshevik-infiltrated trade unions.
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”), 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) on 20 November.
Outbreak of fighting (1917–1918)
The Central Rada's authority didn't extend beyond the urban centres, 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. 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. The Odessa Soviet Republic, which was created on 18 January, was one of a number of temporary bodies formed by the Bolsheviks.
Bolshevik forces led by Mikhail Artemyevich Muravyov quickly took Poltava, followed by Yekaterinoslav on 10 January 1918, Zhmerynka and 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 29 January — 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.
Most of the remaining Russian Army units either allied with the Bolsheviks or joined the army of the Ukrainian People's Republic. A notable exception was the White Movement military leader Mikhail Drozdovsky, who marched his troops across Novorossiya to the Don to join forces with Mikhail Alekseev's Volunteer Army.
Central Powers intervention
Following Bolshevik negotiations with the Central Powers at Brest-Litovsk on 3 December 1917, the Central Rada expressed its desire for peace, and on 28 December an armistice was signed.
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. 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.
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. 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.
On 13 March, Ukrainian troops and the Austro-Hungarian Army secured Odesa. The Ukrainian People's Army took control of the Donets Basin, and Crimea was cleared of Bolshevik forces in April 1918. Crimea, although occupied by the Germans, was not annexed by the UPR. Despite these victories, civil disturbances continued throughout Ukraine, where local communists, peasant self-defence groups, and insurgents refused to submit to the Germans.
Hetmanate (April – November 1918)
On 28 April, the Central Rada was disbanded by the Germans, and the following day, a German-backed coup against the UPR government was staged. The Ukrainian State, with 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. 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. A body known as the Directorate of Ukraine was formed to overthrow Skoropadsky's regime.
After the defeat of Germany on the Western Front in November 1918, most of the German troops stationed in Ukraine had no wish to remain there in support of the Hetmanate, Skoropadskyi, in an effort to appease the Allies, signed the Federal Charter, which stipulated that Ukraine would be part of a future federal Russia. An anti-Hetman Uprising on 14 November, led by the Ukrainian Social Democratic Labour Party, rose up against Skoropadsky, followed by an uprising on 16 November 1918 by the Directorate.
Skoropadskyi declared martial law, and mobilised his troops to quell the rebellion. The Directorate army initially succeeded in securing most of Ukraine, but were then decisively defeated by remaining German forces.
The Siege Corps of the Sich Riflemen captured Kyiv after a two-week siege. Skoropadskyi chose to abdicate, fleeing to Germany, and his government surrendered to the Directorate the next day. On 14 December, the Directory's troops entered the city, taking over the institutions introduced by the Hetmanate.
West Ukrainian People's Republic
In October 1918 Ukrainians announced the formation of the Western Ukrainian People's Republic (WUPR) from the Austrian territories of Galicia, Bukovina and Transcarpathia. As both the Ukrainians and the Poles claimed the region, the Polish–Ukrainian War started, when fighting broke out between Ukrainian forces and the Polish Military Organisation. On 1 November, Lviv fell to the West Ukrainians, but after it was retaken three weeks later by the Polish forces, the WUPR government moved to Ternopil and soon afterwards to Stanyslaviv. In January 1919, the two Ukrainian states decided to merge.
Simultaneously, the collapse of the Central Powers affected Galicia, which was populated by Ukrainians and Poles. The Ukrainians proclaimed a Western Ukrainian People's Republic (WUNR) in Eastern Galicia, which wished to unite with the UPR; while the Poles of Eastern Galicia—who were mainly concentrated in Lviv—gave their allegiance to the newly formed Second Polish Republic. Both sides became increasingly hostile with each other. On 22 January 1919, the Western Ukrainian People's Republic and the Ukrainian People's Republic signed an Act of Union in Kyiv. By October 1919, the Ukrainian Galician Army of the WUNR was defeated by Polish forces in the Polish–Ukrainian War and Eastern Galicia was annexed to Poland; the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 granted Eastern Galicia to Poland.
Resumed hostilities (1919)
Almost immediately after the defeat of Germany, Lenin's government annulled the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk—which Leon Trotsky described as "no war no peace"—and invaded Ukraine and other countries of Eastern Europe that were formed under German protection.
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 Nikolayev (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."
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.
On 25 June 1919, Denikin's Armed Forces of South Russia captured Kharkov, followed by Ekaterinoslav on 30 June. According to Peter Kenez, "Denikin's advance in the Ukraine was most spectacular. He took Poltava on July 31, Odesa on August 23, and Kyiv on August 31."
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.
Polish involvement (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 Red Army 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.