Ukrainian War of Independence - Ukraine After The Russian Revolution

Ukraine After The Russian Revolution

All this led to the October Revolution to take place in Petrograd and spread all over the Empire. The Kiev Uprising in November 1917 led to the defeat of Russian imperial forces in the capital. Soon after, the Central Rada took power in Kiev, while the Bolsheviks in late December 1917 set up a rival Ukrainian republic in the eastern city of Kharkov (Ukrainian: Kharkiv) – initially also called the "Ukrainian People's Republic". Hostilities against the Central Rada government in Kiev began immediately. Under these circumstances, the Rada declared Ukrainian independence on January 22, 1918 and broke ties with Russia.

The Rada had limited armed force (the Ukrainian People's Army) at its disposal and was hard-pressed by the Kharkov government which received men and resources from the Russian SFSR. As a result, the Bolsheviks quickly overran Poltava, Aleksandrovsk (now Zaporizhia), and Yekaterinoslav (now Dnipropetrovsk) by January 1918. Across Ukraine, local Bolsheviks also formed the Odessa and Donetsk-Krivoy Rog Soviet Republics; and in the south Nestor Makhno formed the Free Territory – an anarchist commune – then allied his forces with the Bolsheviks. Aided by the earlier Kiev Arsenal Uprising, the Red Guards entered the capital on February 9, 1918. This forced the Central Rada to evacuate to Zhytomyr. In the meantime, the Romanians took over Bessarabia and the Germans captured Kishinev (Romanian: Chişinău). Most remaining Russian Army units either allied with the Bolsheviks or joined the Central Rada. A notable exception was Colonel Mikhail Drozdovsky, who marched his White Volunteer Army unit across the whole of Novorossiya to the Don river, defeating Makhno in the process.