Detachments of local chieftains one after another went over to the side of the Red Army. Socialist ideas were more popular than nationalist ones. In addition, the warlords supported the strong side, not wanting to remain in the losers' camp.
Soviet offensive and defeat of the Directory
The defeat of Germany in the world war allowed the Soviet government to break the Brest agreements. In November 1918, Moscow decided to restore Soviet power in Little Russia-Ukraine. All the prerequisites for this were in place - the West Russian population for the most part tasted all the "delights" of the Austro-German occupation regime, the hetmanate and the Directory. Ukraine was rapidly turning into a "wild field" where the law of power, all kinds of atamans and daddy ruled. The peasantry responded to the violence and injustice with their war. The Ukrainian peasant war became an important part of the all-Russian peasant war. The western and southern Russian regions were overwhelmed by chaos and anarchy. In fact, by the beginning of the Soviet offensive, the power of the Directory was limited to the district of Kiev, then the atamans ruled. At the same time, some, like Grigoriev and Makhno, created entire armies.
Therefore, the offensive of the Red Army was immediately supported not only by the Bolsheviks, but also by most of the peasants, who hoped for a final solution of the land issue in their favor and for an end to violence, robberies and the restoration of order. In December 1918, the 1st and 2nd Ukrainian Insurgent Divisions (formed in September 1918) launched an offensive. On January 1 - 2, 1919, the Reds defeated Bolbochan's Zaporozhye corps near Cossack Lopan. On January 3, 1919, with the support of local rebels, the Ukrainian Soviet Army under the command of V. Antonov-Ovseenko liberated Kharkov. The Provisional Workers 'and Peasants' Government of Ukraine is located here.
On January 4, 1919, the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic (RVS, RVSR), based on the forces of the Ukrainian Soviet Army, formed the Ukrainian Front (UF), headed by Antonov-Ovseenko. The 9th Infantry Division from the 8th Red Army, the 1st and 2nd Ukrainian Soviet divisions became the core of the UV. Also, the front included separate rifle and cavalry units, border guards, international detachments and armored trains. On January 27, 1919, the Kharkov Military District was created, which was supposed to form and prepare units for the Ukrainian front.
UF began moving towards Donbass, where, in cooperation with the Southern Front, he was supposed to fight in the whites. To liberate the Left-Bank Ukraine, the Middle Dnieper region, it was planned to use only one brigade of the 9th division and local partisans for reconnaissance on the Black Sea coast. Right-bank Ukraine was not going to touch yet. If the power of the Directory was stable, and it was able to create a strong army, the Reds concentrated their efforts in the fight against the Whites, and Kiev could remain on the sidelines for some time. But a wave of uprisings and a massive transition to the side of the red local rebel and partisan detachments rejected the main direction of the UV offensive to the west. The front's troops launched an offensive in two directions: 1) to Kiev and Cherkassy; 2) Poltava and Lozovaya, later to Odessa. Later, in April 1919, the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian Soviet armies were formed as part of the UF. The 1st Army fought in the Kiev direction, clearing the territory of Western Ukraine from the enemy. The 2nd Army operated in the southern direction, liberated Odessa and the Crimea, and fought against Denikin's troops. The 3rd Army operated in the Odessa direction, in Transnistria.
On January 16, 1919, the Directory declared war on Soviet Russia. The commander-in-chief of the UPR troops, Petliura, created the Left-Bank Front (Eastern Front) under the command of Bolbochan, the Right-Bank Front of Shapoval and the Southern Group of Forces Guly-Gulenko. At the same time, Bolbochan surrendered Poltava. An attempt by the Petliurites to recapture the city did not lead to success. Bolbochan, by order of Petliura, was removed from command and sent to Kiev, where he was accused of surrendering Kharkov and Poltava, treason (intending to go over to the side of the Whites) and embezzlement. The eastern front of the Directory was headed by Konovalets. This did not help the Petliurites. Their front collapsed due to numerous uprisings in the rear, the transition of field commanders (chieftains) to the side of the Reds. In fact, the troops of the UPR (they were based on various detachments of field commanders, chieftains) went over to the side of the Reds. These detachments, in full force with their commanders, were part of the Soviet forces, receiving a number, an official name, supplies and commissars (later this negatively affected the Red Army itself - discipline and organization fell sharply, numerous riots and atrocities began, etc.).). On January 26, 1919, the Red Army took Yekaterinoslav.
In the midst of a military catastrophe, the Directory tried to simultaneously negotiate with Moscow (Mazurenko's mission) and the command of the Entente in Odessa (General Grekov). Negotiations with Mazurenko began on January 17. The Soviet government was represented by Manuilsky. Mazurenko tried to find a compromise between the left wing of the Directory and the Bolsheviks at the expense of the military wing of the UPR (Petliurists). The Soviet side proposed "mediation" of the RSFSR between the UPR and Soviet Ukraine to achieve an armistice. In Ukraine, the Congress of Soviets was to be convened on the principles adopted in Soviet Russia, and the troops of the UPR were to take part in the struggle against the White Army and the interventionists. On February 1, the Soviet side somewhat softened the conditions: 1) The Directory recognized the principle of the power of the Soviets in Ukraine; 2) Ukraine remained neutral, with active self-defense against any foreign interference; 3) joint struggle against the forces of counterrevolution; 4) a truce during the peace negotiations. Mazurenko accepted these conditions.
The Directory learned about this on February 9th. Vynnychenko proposed, as before in November-December 1918, to proclaim his Soviet power. However, in the conditions of the successful offensive of the Red Army, the collapse of the UPR army, Moscow could not accept such conditions. Soviet troops successfully crossed the Dnieper and occupied Kiev on February 5, 1919. The directory fled to Vinnitsa.
The Petliurites decided to stake on the Entente. That is, they repeated the path of the Central Rada and the Hetmanate of Skoropadsky, who hoped for help from the Central Powers (Germany and Austria-Hungary). The problem was that the French command, represented by General Philippe D'Anselm and his chief of staff, Freudenberg, said that they had come to Russia "in order to give all trustworthy elements and patriots to restore order in the country," destroyed by the horrors of the civil war. And volunteers (white), and not Ukrainian nationalists, were considered patriots of Russia. The French considered Ukraine a part of Russia and the Directory could, at best, claim the status of part of the future Russian government. Under the cover of foreign invaders, a white military administration was created in Odessa, headed by General A. Grishin-Almazov. Previously, he led the White forces in Siberia, but fell out with the local socialist leadership and left for the South of Russia at the disposal of General Denikin. In Odessa, they planned to form the South Russian army. At the beginning of 1919, General N. Timanovsky arrived in Odessa on behalf of Denikin. But the process of forming the White Army went slowly due to the opposition of the French occupation authorities and the departure of officers to the area where the Volunteer Army was located.
In the conditions of the offensive of the Soviet troops and the intransigence of the white command, the French command accepted the mission of General Grekov and refused to focus on Denikin's army (the French considered him a figure of the British). D'Anselm demanded from the Directory to release a significant bridgehead in the south of Little Russia to supply Odessa and the army of the invaders. The Directory accepted this requirement as a condition for starting further negotiations. The invaders occupied Kherson and Nikolaev, and in the area of the mouth of the Dnieper united with the Whites (the Crimean-Azov army). True, the concessions to the interventionists from the Directory caused the ire of Ataman Grigoriev, who considered himself the master of the Kherson-Nikolaev region, and soon he and his rebel army went over to the side of the Reds.
Further, the French set political conditions for the Directory: the elimination of the leftist forces from the government; transferring control over the railways and finances of Ukraine to them; the implementation of the agrarian reform on the principles of remuneration of the land owner, and the preservation of private ownership of small and medium-sized estates; the creation of a unified anti-Bolshevik front under French command and the formation of mixed Franco-Ukrainian and Franco-Russian units; the occupation of the entire South of Russia by French troops; the power of the Directory was retained only in the civil sphere. In early February 1919, the Directory refused to accept this rude ultimatum, but negotiations continued. The Prime Minister of the Directory Ostapenko called on the Entente to recognize the UPR and help in the fight against the Bolsheviks. The Ukrainian delegation at the Paris Conference was striving for the same, but without success.
In the conditions of the successful offensive of the Reds and the collapse of the front, the interventionists for the Directory remained the last hope. On February 9, Ukrainian Social Democrats withdrew their representatives from the Directory. "Almost a Bolshevik" Vynnychenko left the Directory and soon went abroad. Even there, he retained the opinion that an agreement between Kiev and Moscow on a Soviet basis was the only and most acceptable option for the development of Ukrainian-Russian relations and the development of a common revolutionary process. And the Directory, in fact, became the nomadic headquarters of Supreme Ataman Petliura, who left the USDLP and broke with his socialist past. The Directory regime finally acquired a nationally authoritarian character.
True, this did not help the Directory either. England and France preferred to support Denikin and Kolchak, and they adhered to the idea of "one and indivisible Russia." In addition, in the early spring of 1919, the Entente command finally decided not to engage in large-scale hostilities in Russia. The masters of the West preferred to play the Russians against the Russians. And in the Odessa region, it was not possible to form a combat-ready army from the Russians in order to put it up against the Reds. In addition, the disintegration of the interventionist troops began, the soldiers did not want to fight anymore and began to perceive leftist ideas, which worried the command very much. Therefore, despite the serious forces in the Odessa region (25 thousand well-armed and well-equipped soldiers against several thousand ragged rebels), the interventionists preferred to retreat. On February 28 (March 13), 1919, the interventionists surrendered Kherson and Nikolaev to Ataman Grigoriev. On March 29, 1919, Clemenceau issued a directive on the abandonment of Odessa and the withdrawal of allied troops to the Dniester line. On April 2, 1919, the French headquarters announced that Odessa would be evacuated within 48 hours. A total of 112 ships left Odessa. On April 6, parts of Grigoriev began to enter the city, which received rich trophies. The Whites, under the command of Grishin-Almazov and Timanovsky (Odessa Rifle Brigade), whom the allies refused to evacuate, retreated beyond the Dniester, to Bessarabia, which was under the control of the Romanian troops. From Romania, the brigade was taken to Novorossiysk as part of the Volunteer Army. There she was reorganized into the 7th Infantry Division.
Red cavalry in Odessa. April 1919
French tanks and locals. Odessa
After the flight of the invaders from Odessa, negotiations with the UPR delegation continued in Paris. Ukrainian nationalists were kept on the hook, giving hope for help. At the same time, they offered to stop fighting with Poland and Denikin's army.
At this time, the detachments of local chieftains, one after another, went over to the side of the Red Army. Socialist ideas were more popular than nationalist ones. In addition, the warlords supported the strong side, not wanting to remain in the losers' camp. So, on November 27, 1918, Ataman Makhno occupied Gulyai-Pole and drove the Germans out of the area. Soon he entered into confrontation with the Petliurists and entered into a tactical alliance with the local Bolsheviks. At the end of December, the Makhnovists and the Reds drove the Petliurists out of Yekaterinoslav. However, the Petliurites launched a counteroffensive and, taking advantage of the insurgents' carelessness, drove the Makhnovists out of Yekaterinoslav. Old Man Makhno returned to his capital, Gulyai-Pole. In a situation of a successful offensive of the Red Army in Ukraine, battles with Denikin's forces and a lack of ammunition, in February 1919, Makhno's army became part of the 1st Zadneprovskaya Ukrainian Soviet division under the command of Dybenko (as part of the 2nd Ukrainian Soviet Army), making it 3- the brigade. The brigade under the command of Makhno grew rapidly, overtaking the division in numbers and the entire 2nd Army. As a result, under the command of Makhno there were 15-20 thousand soldiers. The Makhnovists advanced to the south and east, against Denikin's army on the Mariupol-Volnovakha line.
Nestor Makhno, 1919
The same 1st Zadneprovsk division also included the detachments of Ataman Grigoriev, who had previously served both Hetman Skoropadsky and the Directory. At the end of 1918, his bandit formations controlled almost the entire Kherson region, but the appearance of the interventionists and the compromising position of Kiev deprived the ataman of a fat piece. Politically, the ataman and his fighters sympathized with the Ukrainian Left Socialist-Revolutionaries (Borotbists) and nationalists. A mixture of leftist ideas and nationalism was popular in southern Ukraine. Therefore, when the Red Army launched an offensive and the collapse of the Directory became obvious, Grigoriev at the end of January 1919 declared himself a supporter of Soviet power and began a war with the Petliurists and interventionists. Grigoriev's army quickly grew to several thousand fighters. It became the 1st Zadneprovskaya Brigade of the Zadneprovskaya Division, later reorganized into the 6th Ukrainian Soviet Division. Grigoriev took Kherson and Odessa.
Ataman N. A. Grigoriev (left) and V. A. Antonov-Ovseenko. Photo source:
In March 1919, Petliura organized a counterattack, broke through the Red defenses, took Korosten and Zhitomir. The Petliurites threatened Kiev. However, the 1st Ukrainian Soviet Division under the command of Shchors kept Berdichev and eliminated the threat to Kiev. The Reds continued the offensive: the Petliurites were defeated near Korosten, on March 18, the Shchors division entered Vinnitsa, on March 20, into Zhmerinka. On March 26, the Petliurites were defeated on the Teterev River and fled. After the French fled from Odessa, the remnants of the Directory retreated to Rovno, then further west. By mid-April, Soviet troops finally defeated the UPR forces and came into contact with the Polish army in Volyn and Galicia. The remnants of the Petliurites fled to the area of the Zbruch River, the entire territory of the UPR, including the ZUNR, was reduced to a strip of 10 - 20 km. The Petliurites were saved from complete destruction only by the fact that in May the ataman Grigoriev raised an uprising (already against the Bolsheviks), and the Poles began to fight the Reds.
