Directory. West Ukrainian People's Republic
The directory of the Ukrainian People's Republic, which came to power on December 14, 1919 after the overthrow of the hetman of the Ukrainian State Skoropadsky, was headed by Vynnychenko, who was previously the chairman of the UNR government, Petliura became the commander-in-chief of the army of the Directory.
At the first stages of the Directory's activity, the social democratic political course pursued by Vynnychenko was directed against the landlords and the bourgeoisie. A resolution was adopted to dismiss all officials appointed under Skoropadsky, and local power was supposed to be transferred to the labor councils of peasants and workers. Such radical intentions of the Directory were not supported by the overwhelming majority of specialists, industrialists and officials. The orientation towards the peasantry led to destructive anarchy and disorganization of local government, which very quickly began to manifest itself.
The declaration on agrarian reform, adopted by the Directory on December 26, 1918, assumed the expropriation of state, church and large private land holdings for redistribution among the peasants. The landowners and the bourgeoisie were dissatisfied with this policy of the Directory, and the land law passed on January 8, 1919 left all land in state ownership, it was allowed to own no more than 15 acres, and many peasant farms would have to part with the surplus land. These innovations alienated the Directory and a significant number of peasants who supported it in the struggle against the hetmanate. The Bolsheviks immediately began to agitate among the peasants and urged them to take the land into their own hands immediately, because the Directory is not going to transfer the land to the peasants.
The economic situation in the territories controlled by the Directory was disastrous. The world war, revolutionary events, the outbreak of the civil war and the frequent change of government practically destroyed the economy and industry, which negatively affected the material situation of the population. The authorities of the Directory could not do anything about the devastation, and the UPR was seized by anarchy.
The military position of the Directory was also aggravated. In early December, the Anglo-French troops landed in Odessa. The Bolshevik troops were advancing from the northeast, the Provisional Workers 'and Peasants' Government of Ukraine created by them on November 17, 1918, declared its rights to the whole of Ukraine, which forced the Directory on January 16 to declare war on the RSFSR. In the west, hostilities were unfolding with a resurgent Poland, in the south, insurgent detachments of Makhno began to operate.
The army of the Directory, in contrast to the armies of the UPR and the Ukrainian State, formed on the basis of the former regular tsarist army, Petliura formed on the basis of peasant rebel detachments led by field commanders - atamans. Such an army was practically uncontrollable, characterized by anarchy, robberies and requisitions from the civilian population and Jewish pogroms.
The combat capability of the Directory's army was falling every day, whole divisions began to go over to the side of the Bolsheviks, the territory of the Directory was plunged into anarchy. In many regions, local atamans appeared, establishing their own power, and Kiev was no longer able to control the entire territory.
At this stage, the Directory is making an attempt to unite with the territory of Galicia, which was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which collapsed as a result of the First World War and ceased to exist in November 1918.
On the fragments of the empire, new states began to form, and they tried to do this in Galicia. But here the interests intersected with Poland, which considered these lands to be Polish. On October 9, Polish deputies of the Austrian parliament decided to unite all Polish lands, including Galicia, with Poland. The Ukrainian parliamentary faction headed by Petrushevich on October 10 decided to create the Ukrainian National Council, created on October 18 in Lviv with the aim of forming a Ukrainian state on the territory of Galicia, Bukovina and Transcarpathia. The backbone of the Council was the regiments of the Sich Riflemen, which were part of the army of Austria-Hungary.
The situation was aggravated by the fact that Ukrainians, together with Rusyns, in these territories accounted for only slightly more than 60% of the total population, and in cities they constituted an absolute minority.
With the help of officers of the Sich Riflemen in Lvov on November 1, 1918, a coup was made and power was seized. The majority of the Poles in the city did not agree with the formation of the "Ukrainian" state and on November 6 they raised an uprising. In such a situation, on November 13 in Lviv, the West Ukrainian People's Republic was proclaimed, a government was formed - the State Council, headed by Levytsky, and the Galician army was created.
The ZUNR leaders immediately turned to Hetman Skoropadsky for help, who provided support with weapons, money and soldiers. Then a delegation went to Kiev to sign an agreement on the unification of the ZUNR with the Ukrainian State. However, an uprising against Skoropadsky began in Kiev, the representatives of the ZUNR reached only Fastov, where on December 1 they signed a preliminary agreement with Vinnichenko and Petliura on the unification of the ZUNR not with the Ukrainian State, but with the Directory. This fact of the reorientation of the ZUNR leadership towards a more "promising" power is still hushed up in Ukrainian historiography.
Petliura, a lover of spectacular mass celebrations, made an event of a "universal" scale out of this unsubstantiated fact, organizing on January 22, 1919 in Kiev on Sofia Square, the solemn proclamation of the Act on the unification of the UPR and ZUNR, the so-called "Act of Zluka", which the current rulers of Ukraine still celebrate on a grand scale. But this celebration was overshadowed by the flight of the Directory two weeks later from Kiev under the blows of the Red Army.
By this time, the leadership of the ZUNR no longer controlled its territory, the Galician army suffered a number of defeats in the war with the Poles, on November 21, the Poles took Lviv, the government was forced to flee to Ternopil. The situation was aggravated by the fact that the Romanian troops took the capital of Bukovina Chernivtsi on November 1, and the Czechoslovak troops took the capital of Transcarpathia Uzhgorod on January 15, 1919.
Despite the help of the Directory, the Galician army continued to suffer defeat from the Polish army, and by June 1919 the entire territory of the ZUNR was occupied, the Galician army controlled only the right bank of the Zbruch River, on the eastern border between the ZUNR and the Directory. A number of offensives undertaken by the Galician army ended in complete failure and it was forced to evacuate across the Zbruch River and on July 18, 1919, it completely lost control over the territory of the ZUNR. So eight months later the statehood of the ZUNR ended, and Petrushevich denounced the "Act of Zluka" at the end of 1919 because of the betrayal of Petliura, who handed over the ZUNR to the Poles. The main part of the Galician army, numbering about 50,000 fighters, moved to the territory of the Directory, but remained under its own command.
A conflict had been brewing for a long time between Petliura and Petrushevich, the latter knew that Petliura was trying to surrender the ZUNR to the Poles and gain recognition from the Entente. In June, secretly from Petrushevich, Petliura began to negotiate with Poland and on June 20 an agreement on an armistice and the establishment of a demarcation line was signed. In August, Petliura sent a mission to Warsaw to continue negotiations. In the ZUNR, this was perceived as a betrayal of the interests of the republic. The Ukrainian National Council of the ZUNR proclaimed Petrushevich the dictator of the republic, in response, on the command of Petliura, he was immediately removed from the Directory on 4 July.
The Directory's position was aggravated by the fact that the provisional government of Soviet Ukraine, created in November 1918, also claimed power in Kiev. Her armies under the command of Antonov-Ovseenko launched an offensive on Kharkov and liberated it on January 3, 1919. The Provisional Workers 'and Peasants' Government of Ukraine moved to Kharkov and on January 6, 1919, by its decree, proclaimed the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.
In Kharkov, the Ukrainian Front was formed, which launched an offensive against Donbass, Odessa and Kiev, as a result of which Kiev was taken on February 5, 1919, from where the Directory fled to Vinnitsa on February 2. In March 1919, of the major cities of Ukraine, only Zhitomir and Vinnitsa were under the control of the UPR. The confrontation between the Petliurists and the Red Army during this period is discussed in detail in the article
In this critical situation, the leadership of the Directory tried to negotiate both with the government of the Bolsheviks of the RSFSR and with representatives of the Entente occupation forces stationed in Odessa. The negotiations with the Bolsheviks on January 17 ended in nothing. At negotiations with representatives of the Entente Directory, conditions were set for the transfer of Kherson and Nikolaev, under the control of the military Entente and the removal of left forces from the Government of the Directory. At the same time, representatives of the Entente were negotiating with Denikin's army, on which they ultimately staked.
Disagreements began in the leadership of the Directory, the Socialists and Left SRs adhered to socialist ideas, and the supporters of "independence" saw the main task as achieving statehood at any cost. As a result, on February 13, the Directory and the government were reorganized, Vynnychenko resigned, and representatives of the socialists were recalled from the Directory and the government. The directory was actually headed by the commander-in-chief of the UPR troops, Petliura, who established a nationally authoritarian military dictatorship.
In his activities, Petliura tried to demonstrate his adherence to the "Ukrainian idea" in everything, issued decrees on the expulsion from the UPR of its enemies, who were seen in agitation against the Ukrainian government, raised Ukrainization to a new level, introduced the Ukrainian language everywhere, forced the replacement of signs in Russian on a massive scale. Russian officials were expelled from the apparatus of power, soldiers who had arrived from Galicia became the support of the Ukrainians.
The concessions of the Directory to the Entente for the transfer of Nikolaev and Kherson to it led on January 29 to the rupture of relations between the Directory and the ataman Grigoriev, who was the actual master of these areas and his detachments were part of the Southern Group of Forces of the Directory. Grigoriev went over to the side of the Bolsheviks and declared war on the Directory. At the beginning of March, Grigoriev's detachments liberated Kherson and Nikolaev from the French troops, and on April 8, after stubborn battles, they took Odessa, which had been abandoned by the evacuating French troops.
The detachments under the command of Grigoriev were distinguished by cruelty and robberies of the civilian population, especially mass pogroms and the extermination of Jews. The Bolshevik leadership began to call him to order, in response, Grigoriev raised a mutiny in May, gathered an insurgent army from the detachments and organized a campaign against Kiev against the Bolsheviks, but at the end of May he was defeated by the Red Army. The White Army, taking advantage of the disorganization of the rear of the Red Army by the detachments of Grigoriev, after a successful offensive occupied Kharkov on June 25 and Odessa on August 24.
In the south, the rebel detachments of Ataman Makhno also operated, which did not support the Directory. Petliura's units intensified hostilities in the territory controlled by Makhno, and began to disperse revolutionary workers' detachments, liquidate the Soviets and crack down on Makhno's sympathizers. In mid-February 1919, Makhno entered into a military agreement with the command of the Red Army, and his rebel army of up to 50 thousand began to fight on the side of the Bolsheviks, retaining internal autonomy.
In early June, Makhno broke the agreement with the Red Army and, together with Ataman Grigoriev, formed a 40,000-strong insurgent army and offered armed resistance to Denikin's army. In July, after the assassination of Grigoriev, he became the commander-in-chief of the rebel army, operating in the rear of the armies of Denikin and the Directory.
In June 1919, the army of the Directory, together with the Galician army, having strengthened its positions in the west with the signing of an agreement with the Poles and the onset of Denikin's troops against the Bolsheviks, launched an offensive on Kiev and on August 30, simultaneously with the White Army, entered Kiev. The next day, the two armies became enemies.
In the parade on the occasion of the capture of Kiev, organized by the Petliurists, units of two armies marched. The Ukrainian flag and the Russian tricolor were hung on the building of the City Duma. As one of the Petliura units passed through the square, its commander gave the command to rip off the Russian flag and throw it at the feet of the horses. This caused an outburst of anger in the crowd of townspeople, they began to shoot at the Petliurites and they fled in panic.
The commander of the White Guard units, General Bredov, told the commander of the Galician army during the negotiations that "Kiev, the mother of Russian cities, has never been Ukrainian and never will be." The command of the White Army refused to negotiate with Petliura, and they came to an agreement with the Galician Army that they would act independently.
After that, Petliura's troops were withdrawn from Kiev, and after a while hostilities between the two armies resumed. By October 1919, the main forces of the Petliurites were defeated by the White Army.
In early November, the command of the Galician Army, which did not trust the leadership of the Directory because of its contacts with the Poles, announced its readiness to sign an alliance with the White Army. The Galicians did not want to fight the White Guards and were not against broad autonomy within Russia. In the White Army, the Galicians were separated from the Petliurists, since, being subjects of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, they did not betray Russia, like the Petliurists. Despite the resistance of the Directory, the command of the Galician army on November 17 signed an agreement with the White Army, completely passed under its command and was renamed the Ukrainian Galician Army.
Since October, the position of the White Army began to deteriorate noticeably, their rear areas were destroyed by a raid by the rebel army of Makhno, which broke through the white front in the Uman region, and the Bolsheviks managed to conclude a truce with the Poles, freeing up forces to fight Denikin. During negotiations with the Poles, Denikin refused to recognize the independence of Poland.
In November 1919, a general retreat of the White Army began under the onslaught of the Red Army, on December 12, 1919, they left Kharkov, Kiev on December 16, Donbass fell at the end of December, Odessa on February 8. Leaving Odessa, the command of the White Army transferred power in the city to the commander of the Ukrainian Galician Army. UGA soldiers capture Odessa on February 6 and hang Ukrainian flags all over the city. But when the Red Army marched near Odessa, they quickly removed their flags and on February 8 surrendered the city without a fight. They turned out to be so omnivorous that they began negotiations on the subordination of the Red Army, signed an agreement and were renamed the Red Ukrainian Galician Army.
In February 1920, the entire territory of Ukraine was under the control of the Soviet government. Before the retreat, the White Army defeated the remnants of the Directory's troops, pushing them to the Polish border. At a meeting of the Government of the Directory on December 2, 1919, it was decided to switch to partisan methods of struggle, and Petliura left for Warsaw. At this, the activities of the Directory ceased.
Petliura, in negotiations with Poland, achieved the signing on April 21, 1920 of an agreement with the no longer existing UPR, according to which he pledged to provide assistance to Poland in the war against Soviet Russia, and Poland recognized the UPR's right to the territory east of the Zbruch River, that is, the entire territory retreated to Poland ZUNR. Petliura continued the traditions of the UPR, if in 1918 she invited the German occupation troops, now he invited the Polish ones.
In accordance with the agreement reached on April 25, 1920, Polish troops, with the support of Petliurite detachments, launched an offensive against the Red Army and captured Kiev on May 6. Petliura took up the formation of a government, but at the end of May, the Soviet command redeployed the 1st Cavalry Army from the Caucasus on June 13, broke through the front of the 1st Polish Army and the Poles began to retreat. In July, the Red Army inflicted another defeat on the Polish troops, but was unable to capture Lvov and was forced to retreat in August. In September 1920, the Polish army seized the territory between the Dniester and Zbruch and captured Ternopil and Proskurov.
Peace negotiations began in October 1920, and an armistice was reached between the Polish and Soviet sides on October 12 in Riga. Detachments of Petliurites were interned by Polish troops on October 21. The peace treaty between Poland and the RSFSR was signed in Riga on March 18, 1921, according to which Poland recognized the Ukrainian SSR within the borders along the Zbruch River.
Attempts to organize an independent state on the territory of Ukraine after the February Revolution did not lead to anything, but self-proclaimed "states" remained in history:
Ukrainian People's Republic: November 7, 1917 - April 29, 1918.
Ukrainian People's Republic of Soviets: December 12, 1917 - April 24, 1918.
Donetsk-Krivoy Rog Soviet Republic: January 30, 1918 - April 28, 1918.
Odessa Soviet Republic: January 18, 1918 - March 13, 1918.
Ukrainian State: April 29, 1918 - December 14, 1918.
West Ukrainian: People's Republic November 13, 1918 - July 18, 1919.
Directory: December 14, 1918 - December 2, 1919.
None of these "states" could hold out in power for a year, everything ended with the establishment of Soviet power in Ukraine, the proclamation of the Ukrainian SSR and the subsequent unification of the national republics into the Soviet Union.
