Peace of Brest. Ukrainian People's Republic of Soviets
Ukrainian pseudo-statehood, represented by the Ukrainian People's Republic, proclaimed by a unilateral act, did not have any international recognition by other states, the borders of the republic were not defined and agreed with neighboring states. The First World War continued on this territory. The Central Rada did not recognize the Bolshevik government of Russia in Petrograd, and in Kharkov in December 1917 the Ukrainian People's Republic of Soviets was proclaimed, claiming the same territories.
In this situation, the future of the UPR was very uncertain, but the long-overdue question of ending the war and concluding peace arose. The Bolshevik government came up with the initiative to conclude peace, since the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets adopted the Peace Decree. On November 7, the Soviet government appealed to all the belligerent countries with an appeal for peace; only Germany, which led the bloc of the Central Powers, responded to it. She sought to take advantage of the collapse of the Russian Empire, successfully end the war on the Eastern Front and transfer troops to the Western Front. The Entente countries, on the contrary, tried to preserve the Eastern Front and prevent the strengthening of the Germans in the west.
Peace negotiations between the Central Powers and Soviet Russia began on November 20 (December 3), 1917 in Brest-Litovsk. The delegation of the Soviet government was initially at a disadvantage, since part of the territory of the former Russian Empire was occupied by the troops of Germany and Austria-Hungary, the Russian army was decomposed under the Provisional Government and did not want to fight, the members of the Russian delegation had no experience in conducting such a level of negotiations …
The negotiations were difficult, they were repeatedly interrupted, Germany immediately set tough conditions on the seizure of the territory of Poland and the Baltic states from Russia, in connection with the rejection of these and other conditions, an agreement was reached on a temporary truce.
The UPR, not recognized by anyone, was determined which side to take: to be with the Entente or with the Central Powers. Under pressure from soldiers' committees seeking to end the war, the CR on November 21 (December 4) adopted a resolution on the participation of representatives of the UPR in the delegation from the Southwestern and Romanian fronts in peace negotiations, but at the same time they decided to conduct negotiations independently, independently of the Soviet government and in a unilateral order, the troops of the Southwestern and Romanian fronts were withdrawn from the subordination of the headquarters, uniting them into an independent Ukrainian front of the UPR. The front was led by the former commander of the Romanian Front, General Shcherbachev, who was opposed to the Bolsheviks and suppressed their influence in the army.
At this time, the Central Rada was in a hurry to form the "Ukrainian army", betting on the soldiers of the tsarist army, mobilized from peasants from the territory of Ukraine and easily subject to "Ukrainization". With the consent of the Bolsheviks, who announced the self-determination of nations, from November 21 (December 4), Ukrainianized units from various military districts and fronts began to arrive in Ukraine.
In the Kiev garrison, not all military units supported the Central Rada, and at the end of November, soldiers and workers began to protest against the government of the Central Rada. Troops loyal to the CR on November 30 (December 13) disarm and expel unreliable military units and the Red Guard outside the UPR. The Central Rada appoints General Skoropadsky (future hetman) as the commander of all the troops of the Right Bank of Ukraine.
Relations with the Bolshevik government are aggravated, which requires the CR to pass through the territory under its control the Red Guard units heading to the Don to fight the ataman Kaledin. The Central Council refuses.
In such conditions, the government of the UPR sends a delegation to negotiations in Brest-Litovsk, headed by Golubovich, on November 28 (December 11), who immediately announced the CR's declaration that the power of the Council of People's Commissars does not extend to Ukraine and that the CR intends to independently conduct peace negotiations. Such a statement seriously complicated the position at the negotiations of the delegation of the Soviet government.
At first, representatives of the Austro-German bloc did not perceive the UPR as a subject of negotiations, but after such statements, backstage negotiations began with the UPR delegation on a separate peace without Soviet Russia, and on December 30, 1917 (January 12, 1918) Austria-Hungary announced the formal recognition of the delegation UNR as an independent negotiating delegation.
General Hoffmann, a member of the German delegation, Chief of General Staff on the Eastern Front, proposed concluding a separate treaty with the Central Rada, thereby limiting the possibilities for negotiations of the delegation of Soviet Russia.
To sign a separate treaty, the Central Powers as a partner, on the other hand, needed a kind of independent Ukrainian state controlled by them. Such a state was created, the Central Rada on January 9 (22), 1918 adopted the "Fourth Universal", which proclaimed the UPR "an independent, independent, free, sovereign state of the Ukrainian people."
After that, the Austro-German delegation on January 27 (February 9) signed a separate peace treaty with the Central Rada, which no longer controlled the situation in Ukraine and was expelled from Kiev, according to which, in exchange for military assistance against the Soviet troops, the UPR pledged to supply Germany and Austria-Hungary 1 million tons of grain, 400 million eggs, up to 50 thousand tons of meat, as well as lard, sugar, hemp, manganese ore and other raw materials.
The signing of the treaty between Ukraine and the Central Powers was a serious blow to the positions of Soviet Russia, since already on January 31 (February 13), the UPR delegation appealed to Germany and Austria-Hungary with a request for help against Soviet troops, the German command on the same day agreed to entry into the war against the Bolsheviks.
So for the sake of recognizing statehood and preserving their power, the leaders of the UPR, to contain the advancing Bolsheviks, invited the German invaders to the territory of Ukraine and paid them for this service with future deliveries of a huge amount of food.
Later, General Max Hoffman wrote: “Ukraine is nothing more than an ephemeral creation … In reality, Ukraine is the work of my hands, and not at all the creation of the conscious will of the Russian people. No one else, like me, created Ukraine in order to be able to conclude peace with it."
In parallel with the peace negotiations, the struggle for power in Ukraine between the Central Rada and the Bolsheviks intensified. On the whole territory of Russia on November 12 (25), elections to the All-Russian Constituent Assembly were held, according to their results on an all-Russian scale, the Bolsheviks received only 25%, and in the territories to which the Central Rada declared their claims, the Bolsheviks had an even more modest result, they received about 10% of the votes.
Despite this, on the initiative of the Bolsheviks on December 4 (17), the All-Ukrainian Congress of Soviets was convened in Kiev, in which more than 2 thousand delegates took part. The Bolsheviks hoped at the congress to express a vote of no confidence in the Central Rada and peacefully take power in Kiev. The Central Rada prepared well for the congress by organizing a massive representation of deputies from the Ukrainian army and peasant organizations that support the Central Rada.
Under pressure from the crowd of these "delegates" mandates were issued to them, the Bolsheviks were in the minority, they were not allowed into the presidium and their speakers were not allowed to speak. Supporters of the Central Rada expressed confidence in the current composition of the CR and approved the sharp response of the General Secretariat to the Soviet government. The Bolsheviks left the congress in protest and, together with deputies from other left-wing parties, moved to Kharkov.
It soon became clear that the troops of the Central Rada were not ready to repulse the impending Soviet offensive from Kharkov. Petliura proposes to organize an offensive of the UPR troops on Kharkov, but does not receive support and on December 18 (31) he was dismissed from the post of Minister of War.
By that time, a dual power had developed in Kharkov. On the one hand, the structures that were formally subordinate to the Central Rada as the regional body of the Provisional Government remained. On the other hand, Kharkov was the capital of the Soviets of the Donetsk-Krivoy Rog region, which were preparing to proclaim themselves a republic within the Russian Soviet Federation.
The delegates to the Congress of Soviets who arrived from Kiev were represented mainly by the Bolsheviks, as well as by the Ukrainian Left Socialist-Revolutionaries and Social-Democrats. At this time, the III Congress of the Soviets of the Donetsk-Krivoy Rog region was held in Kharkov. Both congresses decided to unite on the condition of non-interference of the "Kievites" in the Kharkiv affairs.
It is worth noting that the Kiev Bolsheviks considered the Donetsk-Kryvyi Rih region a part of Ukraine, and the "Kharkov" ones regarded this region as a territory equal to Ukraine and opposed its inclusion in Ukraine. For a long time these contradictions affected the Bolsheviks' policy in the Ukrainian question.
In Kharkiv on December 11-12 (24-25), an alternative All-Ukrainian Congress of Soviets was held, in which delegates from the Soviets of the Donetsk-Kryvyi Rih region also took part. The decisions adopted by the congress concerned the organization of power in the Ukrainian People's Republic, proclaimed by the Central Rada. Soviet power was established in the republic
The congress announced that it was taking over all power in Ukraine and depriving the Central Rada of its powers. The previously proclaimed Ukrainian People's Republic was declared illegal, the Ukrainian People's Republic of Soviets was proclaimed as part of the RSFSR and a revolutionary government of Soviet Ukraine was formed - the People's Secretariat.
On December 19, 1917 (January 1, 1918), the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR recognized the People's Secretariat of the UPRS as the only legitimate government of Ukraine and decided to provide military and financial assistance.
The Soviet government of the RSFSR formed the Southern Front to fight counter-revolution under the command of Antonov-Ovseenko. Echelons with red detachments of about 1600 people arrive in Kharkov on December 8 (21), and from December 11 (24) to December 16 (29) up to five thousand soldiers from Petrograd, Moscow, Tver, headed by Commander Antonov-Ovseenko and Chief of Staff former lieutenant colonel of the tsarist army Muravyov. In Kharkov itself there were already three thousand Red Guards and soldiers of the old army supporting the Bolsheviks. On the night of December 10 (23), Soviet troops arriving from Russia arrest the commandant of the city appointed by the Central Republic in Kharkov, and on December 28 (January 10), two regiments of the UPR are disarmed.
In Kharkov, preparations began for hostilities against the forces of Ataman Kaledin, in whom the Bolsheviks saw the main threat. The secondary direction was the attack on Kiev, against the forces of the Central Rada, which was led by Muravyov. The Soviet government of Ukraine on January 4 (17) officially declared war on the Central Rada and followed the advancing troops to Kiev.
In Kiev, on January 16 (29), an armed uprising began at the Arsenal plant, which was brutally suppressed by the troops of the Central Rada. In connection with the offensive of the UNRS troops on Kiev, the government and the remnants of the UNR troops left Kiev on January 26 (8) and moved to Zhitomir, the next day, January 27 (9), Kiev was occupied by Soviet troops, and after how many days the Ukrainian Soviet government moved here from Kharkov … Under the blows of the Red Guards, the troops of the UPR continued to retreat and on January 30 (February 12) the CR had to move to the remote Polesie.
The establishment of Soviet power in Ukraine, which began in Kharkov in December 1917 with the mass support of the population at the end of January 1918, reached Yekaterinoslav, Odessa, Nikolaev, Donbass, and after the capture of Kiev on January 27 (9), practically all of the Right Bank, not captured by Austro-German troops, ended up under the rule of the Soviets.
The Central Rada was on the verge of collapse, without receiving the support of the population and not forming its own combat-ready army, could not independently resist the establishment of Soviet power in Ukraine and, having existed for about 11 months, was expelled from all regions of Ukraine and ended up on the western border in front of the Austro-German troops.
The signing of a separate peace treaty between the UPR, Germany and Austria-Hungary, which became the legal basis for the entry of Austro-German troops into the territory of Ukraine, saved the UPR from final liquidation and allowed the Central Powers on January 31 (February 13) to break the truce with Soviet Russia and launch an offensive on Eastern Front with the aim of capturing the Baltic States and Ukraine.
Austro-German troops advanced 200-300 kilometers unhindered and by the end of February occupied Lutsk, Rovno, Minsk, Zhitomir, and on March 2, 1918 entered Kiev, which had previously been left by the UNRS government.
After the betrayal of the Central Rada, which opened the front to the Austro-German troops, the delegation of Soviet Russia was forced to return to Brest-Litovsk on March 1 to continue negotiations and on March 3 signed the humiliating Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty, according to which Russia lost Finland, the Baltic States, Poland, Ukraine, part of Belarus and pledged to recognize the UPR as an independent state and conclude peace with it. By the beginning of May, Austro-German troops occupied all of Ukraine, taking also Crimea, Rostov, Belgorod.
The Soviet power in Ukraine, having held out for about four months, was liquidated by the occupying Austro-German troops.
The Central Rada returned to Kiev on the shoulders of the invaders. It fulfilled its function of ensuring the occupation of Ukraine, the future of the proclaimed Ukrainian statehood and the UPR was of little concern to the Austro-German command, it considered Ukraine only as a territory from which it was necessary, in accordance with the terms of the Brest Peace, signed by the CR, to receive large amounts of agricultural products. The Central Rada could not provide this, and its unenviable fate was sealed.
