On November 20, 1917, the Ukrainian People's Republic, which had a great influence in the history of Ukraine, was established, but Ukraine, which was supposed to enter a new era of history, was deeply involved in a civil war at the same time as the establishment of the Ukrainian People's Republic, and finally changed the fate of Ukraine for nearly a hundred years, which was the Ukrainian Civil War, or the Soviet-Russian Civil War
As soon as we hear the word "Soviet Russia", we immediately understand that this is not today's Ukraine, nor the Russia of previous years, but the Soviet Russia after the October Revolution of 1917, that is, the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
Ukraine at that time also gained democracy because of the fall of the Russian Tsarist rule after the February Revolution, and the Ukrainians in the Ukrainian region established a new "government" of the national and democratic bourgeoisie.
February Revolution
Coincidentally, soon after the October Revolution broke out in Russia, proletarian fighters, under the leadership of the great teacher Lenin, overthrew the bourgeois Provisional Government and established a new socialist state under the dictatorship of the proletariat, Soviet Russia!
October revolution
But then the Ukrainian "bourgeoisie" and the "proletariat" of Soviet Russia had contradictions, and eventually the two sides came and went, and the contradictions escalated, and finally formed the so-called Ukrainian civil war, or also called the Soviet-Russian civil war (the Ukrainian civil war is part of the Soviet Civil War, and the scope of the broad Soviet Russian civil war is wider, and everyone must distinguish it)
The Russian Civil War
The revolutionary war that took place in the collapse of the Russian Empire from 1918 to 1922, and even some of the wars spread to China's Outer Mongolia and Persia, so the scope of the Ukrainian civil war was smaller, and the Scope of the Soviet-Russian Civil War was even larger
Soon after the establishment of the October Revolution, Soviet Russia was at war with its domestic counter-revolutionary forces, White Russia, and foreign armed interventionists (mainly the Allies), and the Soviet-Russian civil war, which led to foreign armed intervention, was eventually named "Civil War and Armed Intervention from 1917 to 1922" (soviet Russian name).
We call it more the Soviet-Russian Civil War or the War of Intervention against the Soviet Union, and of course the Ukrainians call it the Ukrainian Civil War, or more bluntly the "period of foreign armed intervention."
So what really happened to this history of the Ukrainian Civil War/Soviet-Russian Civil War period? How did the Ukrainian state embrace a new destiny amid upheavals? In this issue, we will talk about them one by one
Of course, before talking about the "period of foreign armed intervention", let's talk about the historical background of the world at that time according to the old custom...
The turmoil at the end of World War I
I believe that many people are not unfamiliar with the First World War, including the October Revolution in Soviet Russia at the end of the First World War, but many people do not know how difficult the situation at the end of 1917 was for the nascent regime of Soviet Russia
October Revolution in Soviet Russia
First of all, looking at Europe, when the Allies were hardening themselves with the Allies, which was a rare hard-hitting force in human history: trench warfare between the two sides often lost tens of thousands of soldiers in order to advance a few kilometers, and I am afraid that there was no such a period of positive rigidity in the history of war
Both sides of the First World War
Of course, neither the Allies nor the Allies are good birds, in essence, they are all for the purpose of "becoming bigger and stronger" and "dominating the king" after the war, and although these old capitalist hooligans have raised knives on the cake and beaten them to death, they still unanimously "agree" with the essence of capitalism
Therefore, after the birth of the socialist country of Soviet Russia at the end of 1917, the imperialist and capitalist veteran powers were panicked one after another, and they even unanimously went out to the outside world: join hands to strangle socialism!
Of course, it is impossible for the two sides of the war to join hands in Soviet Russia, but it is true that because of the birth of Soviet Russia, the Allies have concerns, that is, they are afraid of the spread of the Soviet people's revolution and the urgency of Germany, which will lead to the "redness" of Central Europe.
Therefore, at the same time that the Allies were gradually turning the situation around and wanting to win victory on the battlefield of World War I, they were ready to deal with Soviet Russia with the other hand (later).
On the other hand, in Soviet Russia, the bourgeois Provisional Government, which had appeared in the February Revolution, also had its power base, and even if Russia's situation was special, it suddenly became the dictatorship of the proletariat, and these bourgeoisie certainly did not agree, so this class contradiction began to spread within Soviet Russia
Of course, what was more serious was the division of Soviet Russia at that time, under the rule of feudal despotism in the era of Tsarist Russia, it was still possible to hold the areas forcibly merged by the Russian Empire (such as Ukraine), but with the fall of the Tsar, the regions and peoples that had been colonized, ruled and oppressed by the Russian Empire also took matters into trouble, and for a time the whole of Russia "fell apart"
There were many more areas like the situation in Ukraine at that time, so in order to solve domestic contradictions, under the actual effects of various realities, the great Soviet leader Lenin had to turn Russia into a "state federation"
Lenin
This is not Lenin's fault, but more of the limitations of the times, after all, the situation in Russia at that time was too bad, so in this context, the situation like Ukraine "blossomed everywhere", forming the so-called Soviet Russian Civil War
On November 7, 1917, the most famous October Revolution in human history in Russia ended the strange situation in which the Russian Provisional Government and the Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies stood side by side, and two governments of one country were finally established in Russia, and finally Soviet power was formally established in Russia.
The Soviet government, however, was greeted not by the joy of the success of the revolution, but by the multitude of enemies: rebellions within Russia, civil wars throughout the country, and the threat of death almost from the very beginning.
At that time, various rebellious white and foreign intervention armies in Russia colluded with each other and spread throughout the country (which was linked to the situation in Europe at that time), and the rebellion and intervention against the Soviets was not only numerous and extensive, but also occupied most of the territory of all Russia, and surrounded the core areas controlled by the Soviet power from all directions!
The situation in Soviet Russia in 1918
In addition, the Red Army system at that time was problematic, and did not form a strong military force, while the White Army was more experienced officers and professional soldiers, so the White Regime was gradually established
But the Ukrainian People's Republic at that time was not counted, because it had the color of a national independent revolution, but although it also opposed the Soviet revolution to a certain extent, and ultimately "did not stand at odds" with the Soviet power.
People's Republic of Ukraine
At the end of 1917, a Soviet power of a socialist nature, the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, was also established in the eastern Ukraine region, but the Ukrainian People's Republic, which pursued the "other way", was hostile to it, and the two sides were fiercely opposed
Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic
At about the same time, in order to stifle the nascent Soviet power, the British, French, Japanese, American and other Allied powers around the world took the opportunity (that is, the Soviet-Russian Civil War) to intervene militarily and vigorously support the Russian counter-revolutionary forces to launch an armed rebellion (including the white army mentioned earlier).
From March 6, 1918, The British, French, and American intervention armies also landed in Murmansk (this is the two-handed preparation of the imperialist countries mentioned above).
The Situation of the Russian Civil War
From April 5, Japanese, British, and American intervention forces landed in Vladivostok (vladivostok). In addition, Allied forces invaded Russian Central Asia and the South Caucasus. So eventually the Russian Civil War spread to Outer Mongolia and Persia
In April-May 1918, Germany, which was struggling with itself in World War I, and the Ottoman Empire on the eve of disintegration also invaded Crimea and the South Caucasus in violation of the Treaty of Brest
All this posed a great threat to the nascent Soviet regime, and at the same time the Soviet Union had to carry out an urgent policy of counter-offensive against all counter-revolutionary forces, and only then did the crisis of the newborn state in Ukraine, which we talked about in the last period (for details, see The Birth of the People's Republic of Ukraine and the End of Tsarist Rule - A Brief History of Ukraine 8)
Civil War in Ukraine
With the Exclusion of kiev by the Soviet Red Army, the so-called Ukrainian People's Republic was presided over by Petriula from February 1919, who of course was also Commander-in-Chief
Pietriura
Petriula also formally re-established the so-called Ukrainian National Republic and resumed the legislative activities of the Central Rada, in short, trying to rebuild the Ukrainian government
But the reality is harsh, in many places the power of this so-called Ukrainian government is not real, although the Allies sent expeditionary forces to occupy Odessa, and there were white armies in Russia to compete with the Russian Red Army, but in December 1918, the Bolsheviks launched a new offensive in eastern Ukraine...
All in all, for the new Ukrainian government, military decline was inevitable: the Ukrainian troops were attacked on three sides, with Poles in the west; the Soviet Red Army in the north; the White Army in the south...
Negotiations between Petriula's Ukrainian government and Piłsudski's Polish government eventually led to the signing of the Warsaw Peace Treaty in April 1920, the terms of which Petriula renounced territorial claims to Galicia and western Volinia in return for Polish military aid.
Piłsudski
Soon the Polish-Ukrainian coalition launched a new campaign, and on May 6 of that year, the coalition finally occupied Kiev. But soon the Bolsheviks launched a counter-offensive, and the Polish and Ukrainian armies repelled the Soviet army...
The two sides repeatedly tugged at the battlefield until October, when Poland finally signed an armistice with the Russian army, the Treaty of Riga in March 1921. In the treaty Poland further recognized Soviet Ukraine, but in return Poland acquired territory in the western Ukraine region
The scene of the signing of the Riga Treaty
All in all, during the entire period of the Ukrainian Civil War, that is, during the great turmoil of the revolution after the end of the First World War, the territory of Ukraine was roughly divided among 4 countries:
Bukovina was divided among Romania; Transcarpathians were incorporated into the newly formed Czechoslovak Republic; Poland annexed Galicia and Western Volinia, as well as a number of adjacent small plots of land to the north; and land east of the Polish border was assigned to Soviet Ukraine
The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic was formally formed on the territory of Ukraine controlled by the Bolsheviks, and with the consolidation of Bolshevik rule, soviet Ukraine gradually transferred its power in the field of diplomacy and foreign trade to Soviet Russia, and Soviet Russia eventually became the Soviet Union!
On December 30, 1922, the Federation of Soviet Socialist Republics was proclaimed, which is the famous Soviet Union in history! This federation mainly included Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and the Transcaucasian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic.
Components of the USSR
In other words, as soon as the Soviet Union was established in 1922, Eastern Ukraine joined the Union, one of the founding members of the Soviet Union. Of course, under the Treaty of Riga signed between Poland and the Soviet Union, Western Ukraine became Polish territory.
Since 1920, the period of civil war in Ukraine has ended, because its territory has been torn apart, and sovereignty cannot be discussed, but Saion has lost its horse, and although Ukraine has lost its independence, it has also integrated into the Soviet Union, becoming part of the Soviet Union and entering the more difficult period of World War II...
So what happened to Ukraine during World War II? Can Ukraine be willingly annexed to the Soviet Union? What kind of extraordinary spark will be sparked between the Ukrainian nation and Russia?
Stay tuned for this series, and stay tuned for the next issue!