The Beginning
See also: Ukrainian Constituent Assembly- January events in Russia and Ukraine
The long anticipated Ukrainian Constituent Assembly was to be elected on January 9, 1918 where the Bolsheviks won only 10% of total votes, but the elections were suspended due to the ongoing Ukrainian-Soviet War as practically all Left-bank Ukraine was occupied by the Russian forces in charge of which was Vladimir Antonov-Ovseyenko. According to the Third declaration (Universal) the Constituent Assembly was planned to meet on January 22, but later was postponed until the end of military conflict. On January 19 the Soviet government dissolved the Russian Constituent Assembly, while just a day prior to that the government state security forces (Cheka) opened fire on a peace demonstration in support of the constituent assembly. On January 22 another peace demonstration in Moscow was dispersed by a gun fire as well.
- Preceding revolutionary events
The Kievan Bolsheviks decided not to waste anymore time and were planning for a revolt to support the invading Soviet forces in the Ukrainian-Soviet military campaign. They decided to initiate it once the Soviet forces started to approach the city. That was a certain maneuver to draw away some of the Ukrainian military forces from the front-lines and help the Red Army to advance. The exact the same way were occupied other cities at that time such as Katerynoslav (Dnipropetrovsk), Odessa, Mykolaiv, and Yelizavetgrad (Kirovohrad). The center of the riot was chosen the Kiev Arsenal factory. To prevent any riots on January 18 few platoons of the Free Cossacks confiscated a great amount of weaponry from the factory and arrested several Communist activists. The Kievan Bolshevik's propaganda newspaper, Golos Sotsial-Demokrata, was shut down. Later it was decided to confiscate the coal ore to completely shut the factory.
- Organisation of the revolt
On January 28, the Bolsheviks instigated a protest and decided to resist further developments against the factory. With the help of some of the soldiers from the Shevchenko Regiment that were guarding the warehouse of the earlier confiscated weapons they managed to retrieve it back to the factory. After a brief gathering it was decided to start the revolt immediately. The leaders of the revolutionaries became Syla Mishchenko (commandant), Oleksandr Horwits, Mykola Kostyuk, Ipolit Fialek. The city's Bolsheviks Jan Hamarnyk, Andriy Ivanov, Isaac Kreisberg, and others planning for the uprising until the Red Army would come closer to Kiev, had no other choice, but to follow it. The headquarters of the revolt was established at 47 Velyka Vasylkivska Street. The same night on January 28 several factories together with some of soldiers from the Bohdaniv Regiment, Shevchenko Regiment, Sahaydachny Regiment joined the Arsenal workers in the January Uprising. The goal of the uprising was to encircle the building of the Central Rada (today is the Pedagogical museum) and then force the members of the Rada to resign. Along the way they were joined by other Red Guards of Podil and Shulyavka led by Arkadiy Dzedzievski (Left SR) with Makola Patlakh (Bolshevik) and Vasyl Bozhenko at Demiivka.
Read more about this topic: Kiev Arsenal January Uprising
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