1919 Soviet invasion of Ukraine

yes Part of Ukrainian–Soviet War (1917–1921) September 2022 1919 Soviet invasion of Ukraine the Ukrainian–Soviet War, Soviet westward offensive of 1918-1919, and Russian Civil War Ukraine Харьков Троцкий Егоров смотр 1919.jpg Leon Trotsky inspects units of the Red Army in Kharkiv, which was occupied by the Russian Bolsheviks, June 1919. 2 January – 31 August 1919 Soviet defeat Hryhorivshchyna and Makhnovshchyna rebel against Soviet command Whites with the help from Allies win the battle for the Donbas, successfully capture Kyiv and advance on Moscow Poland occupies Volhynia and Galicia (Eastern Lesser Poland) Ukrainian Front disbanded and integrated into the Western and Southern Fronts Soviets Russian SFSR 1918 Russian SFSR Ukrainian SSR 1919 Ukrainian SSR Red flag.svg Crimean SSR Partisans Green Armylower-alpha Allied with the Bolsheviks until February, when it rebelled. Hryhorivshchynalower-alpha Part of the 3rd Ukrainian Soviet Army until May, when it launched an anti-Bolshevik uprising in Kherson. Makhnovshchynalower-alpha Part of the 2nd Ukrainian Soviet Army until June, when it resigned its position. Nationalists Ukrainian People's Republic Ukrainian People's Republic Ukrainian People's Republic West Ukrainian People's Republic Ukrainian People's Republic Independent Medvyn Republic ХолоднийЯр_прапор.svg Kholodny Yar Republic White movement Russia South Russia Flag_of_the_Crimean_Regional_Government.svg Crimea Flag of Don Cossacks.svg Don Republic Allies France France Kingdom of Greece state Greece Poland Poland Ukrainian SSR 1919 Vladimir Antonov-OvseenkoRussian SFSR 1918 Vasily GlagolevUkrainian SSR 1919 Pavel DybenkoUkrainian SSR 1919 Ivan DubovoyUkrainian SSR 1919 Mykola ShchorsUkrainian SSR 1919 Yuriy KotsiubynskyRussian SFSR 1918 Efim Shchadenko Russian SFSR 1918 Andrei BubnovBlack flag.svg Nestor MakhnoRed flag.svg Nykyfor HryhorivSingle_Color_Flag_-_007500.svg Danylo Terpylo Ukrainian People's Republic Symon PetliuraUkrainian People's Republic Petro BolbochanUkrainian People's Republic Yevhen KonovaletsUkrainian People's Republic Oleksandr UdovychenkoUkrainian People's Republic Yuriy TyutyunnykUkrainian People's Republic Mykhailo Omelianovych-Pavlenko Russia Anton DenikinRussia Nikolai Bredov ru Бредов, Николай ЭмильевичFlag of Don Cossacks.svg Pyotr Krasnov Poland Antoni ListowskiPoland Wacław Iwaszkiewicz Ukrainian SSR 1919 Ukrainian Front 1st Ukrainian Soviet Army 2nd Ukrainian Soviet Army 3rd Ukrainian Soviet Army Crimean Soviet Army 25px Ukrainian People's Army20px Ukrainian Galician Army Russia Armed Forces of South Russia Volunteer Army Don Army Poland Polish Armed Forces Volhynian Front Polesie Front Galician Front 50,000 14,000 infantry 1,400 cavalry 20 artillery guns 139 machine guns 20,000 lower-alpha The Soviet invasion of Ukraine was a major offensive by the Ukrainian Front of the Red Army against the Ukrainian People's Republic (UPR) during the Soviet–Ukrainian War. The invasion was first planned in November 1918, after the Council of People's Commissars of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic annulled the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, and was launched in the first days of January 1919 with the occupation of Kharkiv. Its aim was to join Ukraine to the RSFSR, as the country was of significant economic, demographic and strategic importance for the Bolsheviks. In the longer term, the capture of the Black Sea coast was to prevent an intervention by the Allies in support of the Volunteer Army. Finally, the Bolsheviks intended to extend the area they control as far as possible to the west, in order to be able to support the other revolutionary movements in Europe. In the first days of January 1919, by joining forces with local workers' units, the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Soviet Division uk 1-ша українська радянська дивізія took Kharkiv, which was announced as the seat of the Provisional Workers' and Peasants' Government of Ukraine. Then they quickly captured most of northern and eastern Ukraine, and on 5 February 1919, they occupied Kyiv. The Directorate of Ukraine moved to Vinnytsia, then to Kamianets-Podilskyi. By spring, the Red Army had reached the Zbruch and repelled a counteroffensive by the Ukrainian People's Army (UPA) that threatened Kyiv. The introduction of the policy of war communism and the requisitioning of food for the needs of the cities quickly alienated a significant part of the Ukrainian peasantry from Bolshevik rule. The outbreak of a number of local uprisings, and in May 1919, the rebellion of the 20,000-strong forces of Nykyfor Hryhoriv, prevented the Red Army from finally destroying the UPA and marching west towards Bessarabia and Hungary. At the end of June, the Red Army suffered a series of defeats in clashes with the Volunteer Army in Donbas, losing Katerynoslav and Poltava by the end of June 1919, as well as those territories captured in the course of operations against Mykolaiv and Odesa. In August, the Red Army also succumbed to the offensive of the combined forces of the Ukrainian People's Army and the Ukrainian Galician Army. On 31 August, Kyiv was captured, first by the Ukrainian People's Army, and then, after their withdrawal from the city, by the Volunteer Army.Kenez 2004 154 Planning On 12 November 1918, at the direct command of the Council of People's Commissars, the Revolutionary Military Council of the Russian SFSR, headed by Leon Trotsky, dismissed Vladimir Antonov-Ovseenko from the Ural Front and ordered him to prepare an offensive in the direction of Ukraine within ten days. The Ukrainian Revolutionary Military Council was immediately established, including Antonov-Ovseenko, Joseph Stalin, Volodymyr Zatonsky and Georgy Pyatakov.Adams 1963 25 Over the next two days, Antonov-Ovseenko developed an offensive plan. It was based on the assumption that, in the first place, the Bolshevik forces should seize cities, industrial centers, ports, and railway junctions, which would provide the necessary resources and guarantee the possibility of gaining support from the workers. In the first move, Antonov-Ovseenko planned to attack Kharkiv, which would then become the base for the march to Donbas. The second step was to capture Kyiv, and the third step was to capture southern Ukraine and the Black Sea coast, including the key centers of Mykolaiv and Odesa.Adams 1963 31-32 As the commander-in-chief of the Red Army Jukums Vācietis adopted the Antonov-Ovseenko plan without amendments, he decided that he would receive in the course of operations all the necessary replenishment (including armored trains) and supplies.Adams 1963 31-32 In particular, the commander of the Ukrainian Front expected that he would have at his disposal the Reserve Army under the command of Vasily Glagolev.Adams 1963 31-32 Vacietis, however, assigned him completely different tasks - participation in the defense of Voronezh against Pyotr Krasnov's Don Army and Anton Denikin's Volunteer Army.Adams 1963 35 This was in line with Vladimir Lenin's expectations - while Trotsky was convinced that the seizure of Ukraine should be a priority for the Red Army, the chairman of the Council of People's Commissars considered it more important to repel direct threats by the White movement to the Southern and Eastern Fronts.Adams 1963 35 An additional source of conflicts between Vacietis and the Ukrainian Revolutionary-Military Council was the conviction of Stalin, Zatonsky and Pyatakov that they were performing a task of special importance, independent of other operations conducted by the Southern Front.Adams 1963 35-36 At the disposal of Antonov-Ovseenko were initially the 1st Ukrainian Soviet Division1st ru 1-я Украинская советская дивизия and 2nd Ukrainian Soviet Division2nd Ukrainian Soviet Divisions ru 2-я Украинская советская дивизия, as well as the 9th division, to which new volunteers were constantly arriving, but which needed urgent additions to hardware and supplies.Adams 1963 35-36 The two Soviet Ukrainian divisions, formed in mid-1918 by the Ukrainian Bolsheviks in order to fight the government of Pavlo Skoropadskyi and the Central Powers, did not have high combat value. Many volunteers who joined them during the formation intended to fight only in their local area and deserted when the fighting moved to other regions.Adams 1963 66-67 On 20 November, Antonov-Ovseenko directed orders both to the line units of the Red Army and to irregular units in Ukraine that were participating in the anti-Hetman uprising and recognizing, at least formally, the sovereignty of the All-Ukrainian Central Military-Revolutionary Committee uk Всеукраїнський центральний військово-революційний комітет.Adams 1963 37 He ordered the revolutionary troops in Homiel to maintain control of the city in order to prevent anti-Bolshevik forces from moving from Kyiv towards Kursk and Bryansk. Those operating in the regions of Katerynoslav and Kharkiv were ordered to initiate local revolts, take control of smaller towns in order to facilitate the Red Army's march south, help in the capture of Kharkiv and, in the longer term, Mykolaiv. Bolshevik supporters in northern Donbas were called on to organize guerrillas and take control of the region, and those who were in Crimea - to prepare to repel possible Allied intervention on the peninsula.Adams 1963 37 In November 1918, a wave of strikes broke out in cities in eastern Ukraine and partisan troops also operated outside the cities.Suprunenko 1977 325–326 Meanwhile, on 21 November, Vacietis ordered Antonov-Ovseenko to focus on the expansion and training of troops and to set up a strike group that would attack the forces of Pyotr Krasnov at Millerovo.Adams 1963 39 Troops of the Don Cossacks, with the consent of the retreating Germans, took control of the Donbas from them.Suprunenko 1977 325–326 The commander of the Ukrainian Front decided to ignore the orders of the high command, offended by the tone and wording contained in the Vacietis directives. Having learned about the landing of the first Allied ships in Odesa, Antonov-Ovseenko decided to lead the offensive according to his own concept.Adams 1963 40-41 At the same time, Pyatakov and Zatonsky began to form a Bolshevik government for Ukraine.Adams 1963 54 Although in October 1918, the Bolshevik government had concluded an agreement with the Ukrainian socialist leader Volodymyr Vynnychenko, under which it was not to interfere in the internal affairs of the Ukrainian People's Republic, in exchange for consent to the legal operation of the communist party within its borders.Adams 1963 99 However, it was decided to undertake military intervention.Smele 2015 101 On 28 November 1918, the Provisional Workers' and Peasants' Government of Ukraine was established in Kursk.Bruski 2004 59-60 Invasion thumb|left|150px|Vladimir Antonov-Ovseenko, commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Front during the Soviet invasion. Kharkiv offensive In December 1918, the Ukrainian Soviet divisions were put at the disposal of Antonov-Ovseenko. Numbering approximately 5,000 soldiers each, the divisions were still not full-fledged regular formations. They consisted of undisciplined, largely independent departments. Their commanders included both ideological communists and ordinary peasants.Adams 1963 67-68 One-third of the red soldiers and guerrillas had no weapons at all.Adams 1963 67-68 Before the start of military operations, Antonov-Ovseenko relieved the most disgraced commanders from command, but he never gained complete control over the units that made up his front.Adams 1963 67-68 Further disputes between Antonov-Ovseenko and Vacietis concerning competences and tactics lasted almost throughout December 1918.Adams 1963 76-77 Finally, on 2 January 1919, Antonov-Ovseenko made a decision on his own to start the march to Kharkiv, having learned that the last German units were withdrawing from the city and that the Bolshevik workers' units were getting ready to start an armed uprising.Adams 1963 88-89 On 3 January 1919, the 1st Ukrainian Soviet Division entered Kharkiv.Smele 2015 101 The next day, the Ukrainian Front was formally established with Antonov-Ovseenko as the commander.Smele 2015 101 The Reserve Army was attached to the Front, and Vasily Glagolev was appointed as its chief of staff.Adams 1963 88-89 A significant part of the partisan peasant units in Ukraine, which had previously fought against the Germans and sympathized with Petliura, defected to the Soviet side, under the influence of Bolshevik agitation.Adams 1963 92 The urban proletariat of non-Ukrainian origin also joined the fight on the side of the Red Army.Kenez 2004 146 March on Poltava, Katerynoslav and Kyiv After the capture of Kharkiv, the offensive of the Ukrainian Front significantly accelerated. On 12 January 1919, the Red Army captured Chernihiv and, on 20 January, it successfully captured Poltava after a sixteen-day battle for the city.Adams 1963 93 Units of the 2nd Ukrainian Soviet Division, led by Pavel Dybenko, entered Katerynoslav, which the Petliurists and Makhnovists had been fighting fiercely over.Adams 1963 94 On 18 January 1919, Antonov-Ovseenko, who moved his quarters from Kursk to Chernihiv, accelerated the preparations for the march to Kyiv. He expected that the Allies who landed in Odesa and Crimea also intended to launch an offensive in the same direction, in support of Anton Denikin's Volunteer Army.Adams 1963 94-95 However, the negotiations of the Directorate with the French regarding active military aid ended with the French refusing.Adams 1963 102-103 thumb|right|Symon Petliura (center), commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian People's Army, and Volodymyr Vynnychenko (left), leader of the Ukrainian Social Democratic Labour Party. In the face of the invasion, treating the Red Army's march as an expression of Russian imperialism, Vynnychenko's Ukrainian socialists supported the defense of the country's independence.Adams 1963 101 However, it turned out to be impossible to successfully repel the march of the Ukrainian Front, as the forces loyal to the Directorate were dwindling with each passing day.Adams 1963 105 The Ukrainian national movement did not have a broad social base, being the domain of mainly a narrow intelligentsia. In addition, the Directorate was weakened by internal disputes between nationalists and socialists.Kenez 2004 146 At the end of January, only 21,000 soldiers remained loyal to the Ukrainian government. On 23 January, Symon Petliura began the evacuation of military personnel from the capital to avoid a battle, the outcome of which would be a foregone conclusion.Adams 1963 112 thumb|left|150px|Christian Rakovsky, chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. Meanwhile, the Bolshevik troops continued to grow, after the occupation of Kharkiv, as the 1st Ukrainian Soviet Division alone reached over 10,000 soldiers.Adams 1963 113 The Ukrainian capital was left without a fight,Adams 1963 113 seized by the 1st Ukrainian Soviet Division on 5 February.Smele 2015 101 Earlier, on 29 January 1919, the Provisional Workers' and Peasants Government was transformed into the Council of People's Commissars, headed by Christian Rakovsky.Serczyk 2001 272 The directorate moved to Vinnytsia,Serczyk 2001 271 and then to Kamianets-Podilskyi.Smele 2015 101 By the end of January, the Red Army had captured the entirety of left-bank Ukraine.Zhukovsky 1993 In early February, partisan units allied with the Red Army seized Znamianka, Kryvyi Rih and Dovhyntseve uk Довгинцеве. A workers' uprising broke out in Yelysavethrad, the participants of which, after joining forces with the partisans, seized the city. On 12 February, Novomyrhorod was seized.Suprunenko 1977 363 The Red Army continued their march south and west into areas controlled by Allied interventionist troops.Suprunenko 1977 363-365 By this time, there were 200,000 people in the Red Army, as the anarchist forces of Nestor Makhno were incorporated into the Ukrainian Soviet ranksSerczyk 2001 275 and the peasant division of otaman Nykyfor Hryhoriv also defected from the side of the Ukrainian nationalists to the Soviets.Mishina 2006 1-7 thumb|350px|Soviet advances in Ukraine (red) as of late April 1919 After the capture of Kyiv, the Red Army continued its offensive actions in three directions. The Northern Group headed from Mazyr towards Korosten, and from Luninets through Sarny towards Rivne, to prevent the Ukrainian People's Army from joining forces with the Ukrainian Galician Army.Zhukovsky 1993 The Southern Group, supported by the forces of otaman Hryhoriv, was intended to cut off the UPA troops from possible Allied aid and attacked from the Katerynoslav region and Kremenchuk along the line Zhmerynka-Koziatyn-Podilsk.Zhukovsky 1993 The third group headed from Kyiv along the Berdychiv-Koziatyn-Zhmerynka line to prevent the northern and southern wings of the Ukrainian People's Republic from joining.Zhukovsky 1993 Ukrainian troops survived in Volhynia and Podolia, but the existence of the Ukrainian People's Republic, at the same time at war with Poland, and cut off from the Black Sea from the south by French forces, seemed doomed.Adams 1963 114 By mid-February, there were 46,000 soldiers and 14 thousand partisans under the command of Antonov-Ovseenko. The regular army, however, still remained insufficiently disciplined and trained, lacked competent officers and political commissars. In turn, the loyalty of partisan formations to the Bolshevik command was uncertain, these units repeatedly robbed and murdered Jews, or even local newly arrived Soviet officials.Adams 1963 142 In the spring of 1919, the army of the Ukrainian People's Republic withdrew to the vicinity of Kamianets-Podilskyi and western Volhynia,Kenez 2004 147 and the Red Army had reached the Zbruch.Serczyk 2001 271 The implementation of war communism by the government of Rakovsky, which introduced requisitions and the Cheka to the countryside, quickly alienated a significant part of the Ukrainian peasantry from the Bolshevik rule. Rakovsky was also reluctant to cooperate with the Borotbists, who acted independently of the Bolshevik party. As a result, there was a series of peasant uprisings in the countryside against the new authorities.Smele 2015 101-102 The reorganization of the Ukrainian Soviet government and the introduction of Borotbist representatives into it only partially calmed the situation.Serczyk 2001 274 Smele 2015 101-102 Party officials and activists from Moscow, not understanding the local realities, contributed to the growth of antagonisms.Kenez 2004 149 Ukrainian counter-offensive In March 1919, the Ukrainian People's Army launched a counteroffensive, defeating the Red Army along the Koziatyn-Berdychiv line. It came close to achieving its goal of regaining Kyiv.Zhukovsky 1993 In April, the Red Army launched a counter-attack, seizing Zhmerynka and cutting off the southern flank of the Ukrainian People's Army from its core body. The Ukrainian People's Army was pushed to a narrow strip of territory, with an average width of 40-50 km, in the Brody and Dubno region. An attempted coup by Volodymyr Oskilko weakened it all the more.Zhukovsky 1993 thumb|left|150px|Nykyfor Hryhoriv, who led an anti-Bolshevik uprising in Kherson. In May 1919, the most serious uprising against the Soviet government in central and southern Ukraine took place - otaman Nykyfor Hryhoriv led a rebellion against the command of the Ukrainian Front and the government of the Ukrainian SSR. His forces numbered 20,000 soldiers, 10 armored trains and 700 machine guns, which allowed him to take control of the area with Katerynoslav, Yelysavethrad, Kherson, Kremenchuk, Mykolaiv, Cherkasy, Oleksandriia and Kryvyi Rih.Serczyk 2001 274 The necessity to fight Hryhoriv forced the command of the Ukrainian Front to give up any further offensive in the south-west direction, making it impossible to enter Bessarabia and Eastern Galicia and preventing them from providing military support to the Hungarian Soviet Republic.Smele 2015 101-102 In June 1919, after the conclusion of a ceasefire with Poland and regrouping, the Ukrainian People's Army numbered 15,000 active soldiers. It launched a new counter-offensive. At the beginning of the month, it again took control of Podolia. At the end of the month, the Red Army achieved a new victory, taking Proskuriv and approaching Kamianets-Podilskyi.Zhukovsky 1993 The Ukrainian People's Army achieved a new success when it was joined by Yuriy Tyutyunnyk's troops, which had previously been under the command of Hryhoriv. The Ukrainian counter-offensive reached the line Horodok-Jarmolińce-Szarhorod-Dunajowce-Nowa Uszyca-Wapniarka. This was followed by the merger of the Ukrainian People's Army with the Ukrainian Galician Army, which brought together 85,000 soldiers and 15,000 partisans.Zhukovsky 1993 At the same time, the Red Army suffered a series of defeats in the fight against the Volunteer Army. At the beginning of June, it lost in the battle for the Donbas. By 27 June, the Ukrainian Soviet capital of Kharkiv was lost to the Whites.Smele 2015 123 The following day, Katerynoslav also fell to the White advance, followed soon after by Poltava, Mykolaiv and Odesa.Serczyk 2001 277 thumb|right|White troops entering Kyiv on 31 August 1919. In August 1919, the Ukrainian troops carried out a Kyiv Operation (1919)successful offensive pl Operacja kijowska Armii Czynnej URL i UHA in the direction of Kyiv, successively taking Vinnytsia on 12 August, Starokostiantyniv on 14 August, Berdychiv on 19 August and Zhytomyr on 21 August.Zhukovsky 1993 On 31 August, the Ukrainian Galician troops of Myron Tarnavsky briefly entered Kyiv, which had been abandoned by the Bolsheviks, but a few hours later White troops led by Nikolai Bredov ru Бредов, Николай Эмильевич occupied the city.Kenez 2004 154 As the bridges on the Dniepr were not manned by the Ukrainian troops, they were forced to hand the city over to the Whites.Kenez 2004 154 The conflict between the Ukrainian nationalists and the Whites made it possible for the Bolsheviks to transfer some of their forces from the Katerynoslav region to right-bank Ukraine, near Zhytomyr, and to continue fighting with Petliura's forces.Zhukovsky 1993 References Bibliography Adams Arthur 1963 Bolsheviks in the Ukraine. The Second Campaign, 1918-1919 New Haven Yale University Press 406299 Bruski Jan Jacek Petlurowcy 2004 83-86225-03-3 Kraków Wyd. Arcana 59–60 749576912 Kenez Peter Peter Kenez Red Advance, White Defeat. Civil War in South Russia 1919-1920 New Academia Publishing Washington DC 2004 0974493457 Mishina A.V. Н.А. Григорьев - Атаман повстанцев Херсонщины N. A. Hryhoriv - Otaman of the Kherson insurgents Moscow Ippolitov Publishing House New Historical Bulletin 1 15 2006 https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/n-a-grigoriev-ataman-povstantsev-hersonschiny 2072-9286 844626269 ru 1–7 W. Serczyk Historia Ukrainy Zakład Narodowy im. Ossolińskich Wrocław 2001 83-04-04530-3 pl J. D. Smele The "Russian" Civil Wars 1916-1926. Ten Years That Shook the World C. Hurst & Co. London 2015 9781849047210 Suprunenko M. Istorija Ukrajinsʼkoji RSR Velyka Žovtneva socialistyčna revoljucija i hromadjansʹka vijna na Ukrajini (1917-20) Naukowa Dumka Kyiv 1977 uk 637625190 Velychenko, Stephen., "How the Bolsheviks Created Soviet Ukraine." https://www.academia.edu/106518713/_How_the_Bolsheviks_Created_Soviet_Ukraine_Ukraine_s_Bolsheviks_1917_1923_Translation_of_Los_bolcheviques_en_Ucrania_Desperta_Ferro_no_59_Sept_2023_Ucrania_y_la_Guerra_Civil_rusa_despertaferro_ediciones_com_ Arkadii Zhukovsky Ukrainian-Soviet War, 1917–21 1993 13 August 2018 Encyclopedia of Ukraine 5 http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?AddButton=pages%5CU%5CK%5CUkrainian6SovietWar1917hD721.htm en Category:1919 in Ukraine Category:Battles of the Ukrainian–Soviet War Category:Military operations of the Russian Civil War in 1919 Category:Battles of the Russian Civil War Category:Soviet military occupations U Category:Invasions of Ukraine Category:Battles involving the Ukrainian People's Republic Category:Battles involving the Volunteer Army Category:Military campaigns involving Ukraine