Ukrainian War of Independence - German Intervention and Hetmanate, 1918

German Intervention and Hetmanate, 1918

Faced with imminent defeat, the Rada turned to its still hostile opponent – the Central Powers – for a truce and alliance, which was accepted by Germany in the first Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (signed on February 9, 1918) in return for desperately needed food supplies which Ukraine would provide to the Germans. The German and Austro-Hungarian armies then drove the Bolsheviks out of Ukraine, taking Kiev on March 1. Two days later, the Bolsheviks signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, which formally ended hostilities on the Eastern Front of World War I and left Ukraine in a German sphere of influence.

Yet disturbances continued throughout Eastern Ukraine, where local Bolsheviks, Greens, and the anarchist Revolutionary Insurrectionary Army of Ukraine refused to subordinate to Germany. Former Russian Army General Pavlo Skoropadsky led a successful German-backed coup against the Rada on April 29. He proclaimed the conservative Hetmanate, and reversed many of the policies of the former government. The new government had close ties to Berlin, but Skoropadsky never declared war on any of the Triple Entente powers; Skoropadsky also placed Ukraine in a position that made it a safe haven for many upper- and middle-class people fleeing Bolshevik Russia, and was keen on recruiting many former Russian Army soldiers and officers. Despite sporadic harassment from Makhno, the Hetmanate enjoyed relative peace until November 1918; when the Central Powers were defeated on the Western Front, Germany completely withdrew from Ukraine. Skoropadsky left Kiev with the Germans, and the Hetmanate was in turn overthrown by the socialist Directorate.