1919 - Ukrainian Republic
After the signing of the Armistice the succeeding steps in the evolution (and subsequent disintegration) of a Ukrainian State were as follows: In Nov. 1918 came the proclamation of the State of the Ukraine of the West (Ruthenian Ukraine), and the conflict of this State with Poland. On Dec. 14 1918 the old Rada of Russian Ukraine was reorganized into a "Directory," with Vinnitchenko and Petlura at its head. On Jan. 3 1919 the union of the Russian and Ruthenian Ukraines was announced, with Hetman Petlura as recognized head of the constitutional Government of the joint republic, having its seat at Kiev.
In January 1919, the government of Soviet Ukraine refused the denomination introduced by the Tsentralna Rada (UPR) and established another one, the Ukrainian Socialist People's Republic (Ukrainian SSR). The government's name also changed to Sovnarcom, as in Moscow. The government was headed by Khrystian Rakovskyi, the leading figure of the Second International who appeared in Russia after the advent of Bolsheviks and offered his services.
The reunion of both Ukrainian states was announced on January 22, 1919 in Kyiv. The reunion declaration was to be approved by the Constituent Assembly called from the territory of all Ukraine. But it had not come to actual reunion. In 1919, the Polish troops, armed by the Entente, occupied Eastern Halychyna and Western Volyn. Much earlier, at the beginning of January, Soviet Russia began the invasion of the UPR and occupied its capital on February 5. The Directory first stayed in Vinnytsia, then in Zhmerynka, Proskuriv and Rivne. Early in May, S. Petliura and other figures of the UPR emigrated.
The elections of the workers' council, the Red Army soldiers and peasants deputies were held in spring 1919. As a result of the manipulations with representation norms, the Bolsheviks gained a complete advantage. The Soviets only served as a cover for the dictatorship of the RCP(b)-CP(b)U which was supported by the army and Extraordinary Commission. In accordance with the Ukrainian. SSR constitution, which had the constitution of Soviet Russia as a model, the All-Ukrainian Congress of Soviets became the higher legislative body and All-Ukrainian Central executive committee (AUCEC) performed its functions between congresses.
It was noted in the government declaration that the Ukrainian SSR was united with the RRFSR on principles of "Socialist Federation". The essence of federations was not deciphered, but the RCP(b) program (adopted in March 1919) indicated that the Federate Union of Soviet of Soviet states is a form of transition to complete unity. The Bolshevik party wished to centralize the military and economic management in short terms. On June 1, 1919, the all-Russian Central Executive Committee (ARCEC), proclaimed the decree about the "military-political union". Administration of the most important branches of the state of soviet republics was concentrated in the Moscow boards.
As soon as Ukraine became a soviet republic, it entered the sphere of the action of the great experiment. The market economy was to be changed for commodity-free production. Peasants hoped that the soviet power would give them land estates of landlords as it had been promised in mottoes, which Bolsheviks used when going to the October overthrow. However, the decree of ARCEC adopted in February 1919, proclaimed collectivization as the current task of the village. In conformity with the decree, Kh. Rakovksyi's government gave preference to state farms and communes created on the basis of expropriated estates.
The powerful tide of the peasants resistance rose in response to the policy which Lenin later called "war communism" (when it failed and they refused from it). Ataman Zelenyi (D. Terpylo), member of the party of social democrats (independent) was the first to oppose the government in the middle of March. He did his best to spread the actions of his nearly twelve thousand member army to the left bank of the Dnieper, to Pereiaslav and Zolotonosha. The detachments of Nestor Makhno (who was named a "father", or bat'ko, by elected village atamans) operated in the Katerynoslav province, in the region of Huliaipole. Makhno fought well against Denikin's army he conventionally supported the soviet power, definitely opposing the anarchism of commissars and agrarian policy of Rakovksyi. The revolt of ataman M. Hryhoriev in May 1919 was the greatest.
Subsequently the Ukrainians with varying fortunes resisted in turn or simultaneously the attacks upon their territory made by the Bolshevists on the one hand and by Gen. Denikin's "White" volunteers on the other. Anti-Bolshevist rises of peasants deeply influenced the sprits of the Red Army, which mainly consisted of peasants, and provoked the mass desertion and general discipline relaxation. A. Denikin, a commander of the White Guards Voluntary army, took advantage of the occasion. From May to August 1919, the White Guards occupied Ukraine and started their march to Moscow.
Late in June, 1919, General Wrangel, who had been associated with General Denikine in his abortive campaigns in South Russia, launched a new offensive against the Bolsheviki in the Crimea. During July, August and September, when the Bolsheviki were engaged with the Poles, Wrangel achieved considerable military success. The government which he set up at Sebastopol was recognized on August it by France who, as was currently stated, was responsible for the undertaking. In his military operations he was supported on his right by Cossack tribesmen and by the guerrilla forces of the anarchist Makhno; on his left General Petlura, peasant leader of the Ukraine, and General Balakhovitch rendered valuable assistance.
As soon as the armistice was concluded with Poland, Trotsky marshalled all his available military power against the South-Russian leader. On 12 October 1919 the Red forces had advanced to the sea of Azov and by the end of the month Wrangel's forces were in full retreat. In a last effort to check his powerful adversaries he made a desperate stand on 11 November 1919 at the Isthmus of Perekop; after a vain attempt at resistance most of his army, vastly outnumbered, was annihilated and the remnant, disorganized and disheartened, was driven, panic-stricken, toward the sea. On November 14 the Bolshevist forces appeared before the gates of Sebastopol and Wrangel found safety on a French warship. Thousands of civilian refugees sought a haven on Russian and Allied vessels which carried them to Scutari, Constantinople and other ports.
With the elimination of Wrangel the Soviet government turned its attention to Generals Petlura and Balakhovitch. Petlura's capital, Kamenetz-Podolsk, was captured on November 19; the fall of Kiev shortly afterward marked the end of his power. Balakhovitch shared a similar fate; with his force of 40,000 he was soon cooped up east of Mozyr. By December 1919 the Soviet forces had dealt the decisive blow; Balakhovitch had disappeared and the remaining handful of his soldiers was in full flight toward Poland.
Against the delivery of eastern Galicia, in particular, to Polish rule, the "Ukrainian Republic" made a strong protest to the United States in Dec. 1919.
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