The Battle of Kiev of February (O.S. January) 1918 was a Bolshevik military operation of Petrograd and Moscow Red Guard formations directed to capture the capital of Ukraine. The operation was led by Red Guards commander Mikhail Artemyevich Muravyov as part of the Soviet expeditionary force against Kaledin and the Central Council of Ukraine. The storming of

Kiev Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

took place during the ongoing peace negotiations at Brest-Litovsk on 5–8 February 1918 (23–26 January in the

Julian calendar The Julian calendar is a solar calendar of 365 days in every year with an additional leap day every fourth year (without exception). The Julian calendar is still used as a religious calendar in parts of the Eastern Orthodox Church and in parts ...

). The operation resulted in the occupation of the city by Bolshevik troops on 9 February and the evacuation of the Ukrainian government to

Zhytomyr Zhytomyr ( ; see #Names, below for other names) is a city in the north of the western half of Ukraine. It is the Capital city, administrative center of Zhytomyr Oblast (Oblast, province), as well as the administrative center of the surrounding ...

Background

The objective of the 1918 Battle of Kiev was to install Soviet power in Ukraine. During the winter of 1917/18 the revolutionary formations of Russia installed Soviet power in

governorate A governorate or governate is an administrative division headed by a governor. As English-speaking nations tend to call regions administered by governors either states or provinces, the term ''governorate'' is typically used to calque divisions ...

s of

Kharkiv Kharkiv, also known as Kharkov, is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city in Ukraine.

, Yekaterinoslav (modern day

Dnipro Dnipro is Ukraine's fourth-largest city, with about one million inhabitants. It is located in the eastern part of Ukraine, southeast of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on the Dnieper River, Dnipro River, from which it takes its name. Dnipro is t ...

), and

Poltava Poltava (, ; , ) is a city located on the Vorskla, Vorskla River in Central Ukraine, Central Ukraine. It serves as the administrative center of Poltava Oblast as well as Poltava Raion within the oblast. It also hosts the administration of Po ...

, Kiev was next. The general command directed onto Kiev was under the command of Mikhail Muravyov. On 1918, the government of Ukraine announced Kiev under a siege and appointed Mykhailo Kovenko as the military commandant of the city's defence. With the approach of the advancing Soviet forces the city's Bolsheviks instigated an uprising at the Arsenal factory, which was extinguished in seven days on 1918.

Battle

The Bolshevik protest in the city greatly eased the advancement of the Soviet forces, drawing several Ukrainian formations out of adjacent provinces. The Kiev garrison was greatly demoralized by Bolshevik propaganda and Soviet advances across the territory of Ukraine. Ukrainian regiments were depleted, and some either announced their neutrality or were eager to side with the Bolsheviks. Bolshevik forces attacked the city from Bakhmach and Lubny. On 8 February, the Ukrainian government was forced to abandon the city. On 9 February General Muravyov took control of the city and instituted a reign of

Red terror The Red Terror () was a campaign of political repression and Mass killing, executions in Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Soviet Russia which was carried out by the Bolsheviks, chiefly through the Cheka, the Bolshevik secret police ...

of brutal reprisals against Kiev's population that would last twenty days.

Aftermath

On 1918, the same the day Bolshevik forces captured Kiev, the Central Rada signed the Peace of Brest with the Central Powers. In cooperation with the UPR military, the Rada allowed the German and Austro-Hungarian forces to occupy Ukraine, which began a few days later. The Soviet forces panicked as soon as they heard of the Central Powers' intervention, and all Bolshevik government and party organisations immediately began evacuating eastwards in a hurry. The Soviet leadership fled from Kiev towards

around 11/24 February, and one week later on 1918, the Central Powers and UPR troops entered Kiev. The Soviets had only been in control of the capital for 20 days, and did not even offer token resistance to the Centrals as they chaotically retreated.

Ukrainian People's Army The Ukrainian People's Army (), also known as the Ukrainian National Army (UNA) or by the derogatory term Petliurivtsi (, ), was the army of the Ukrainian People's Republic (1917–1921). They were often quickly reorganized units of the former I ...

forces under Symon Petliura, along with

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

and Austro-Hungarian troops, would retake Kiev on 1 March.The world's first monument to Colonel of the UPR Army Bolbochan was unveiled in Kyiv

The Ukrainian Week ''The Ukrainian Week'' (, ) is an illustrated weekly magazine and news outlet covering politics, economics and the arts and aimed at the socially engaged Ukrainian-language reader. It provides a range of analysis, opinion, interviews, feature p ...

(5 October 2020) The Bolshevik government recognized Ukraine's independence on 3 March. Meanwhile, the Bolsheviks attempted to regroup in eastern Ukraine. The new situation caused disagreements between the various Soviet factions. The expelled left-leaning Kievan Bolsheviks sought to ally themselves with the peasant masses and engage in partisan guerrilla warfare without Russian help, and urged on their communist comrades in Kharkiv to try and retake the capital from the Rada, Germans and Austro-Hungarians. However, the right-leaning Kharkiv and Katerynoslav (Dnipro) Bolsheviks expressed separatist tendencies, striving to break with Kiev and rather "join the Russian federation" for various socio-economic and political reasons, arguing that the rest of Ukraine lacked an industrialised proletariat, and that complete subordination to the central communist party organs in Moscow was necessary. These internal divisions within the Ukrainian communist movement weakened their overall capabilities. The left-wing faction would prevail for the time being at the Second All-Ukrainian Congress of Soviets in Katerynoslav on 17–19 March 1918, where it was decided that all of Ukraine would be united in a single Ukrainian Soviet Republic, separate from Soviet Russia, with its own separate communist party. However, just a few weeks later in April, the Central and UPR troops expelled all Bolshevik forces from the remaining territory of Ukraine, forcing them to flee to Moscow after all. Subsequently, during May to October 1918, peace negotiations were held between Soviet Russia and Ukraine.

Order of battle

Muravyov forces

* Commander in Chief Mikhail Artemyevich Muravyov ** 1st Army Colonel Pavel Yegorov ** 2nd Army Colonel Reingold Berzin

List of formations

* Red Guards of Bryansk 800 soldiers / Russians * Red Guards of Moscow (Moscow river neighborhood) 200 soldiers / Latvians/ Russians * Red Guards of Kharkiv 500 soldiers / Jews/ Russians * Donbas Red Guards of Dmitry Zhloba 300 soldiers / Russians/ Ukrainians/ Jews * Red Guards of Putilov Factory 60 soldiers / Jews/Russians/ Ukrainians * 1st Petrograd Red Guard formation 1,000 soldiers / Latvians/ Russians * Red Guards of Petrograd (Moscow district) 500 soldiers / Latvians/ Russians * Kharkiv Red Guards of Aleksandr Belenkovich 150 soldiers / Jews/ Russians/ Ukrainians * Red Cossacks of Vitaly Markovich Primakov 198 soldiers / Russians/ Ukrainians * Bryansk battery 92 soldiers / Russians * Armoured train of Moscow 100 soldiers / Russians * Red Guards formations of local settlements / Jews/ Russians * Underground workers of Arsenal (Cave monastery) / Russians/ Ukrainians Composition by nationality: Russians - 88%; Jews - 7%; Ukrainians - 5%

Ukrainian forces

* City commandant Mykhailo Kovenko ** Haidamaka Host of Sloboda Ukraine Symon Petliura—400 soldiers *** 2nd Cadet School Battalion—110 "Black Haidamakas" *** Free Cossacks formations *** Artillery division—3 batteries **

Sich Riflemen The Sich Riflemen Halych-Bukovyna Kurin () was one of the first regular military units of the Ukrainian People's Army. The unit operated from 1917 to 1919 and was formed from Ukrainian soldiers of the Austro-Hungarian army (Ukrainian Sich Riflem ...

of Halych Battalion

Yevhen Konovalets Yevhen Mykhailovych Konovalets (; 14 June 1891 – 23 May 1938) was a Ukrainian military commander and political leader of the Ukrainian nationalist movement. A veteran of the First World War and the Ukrainian War of Independence, he is best kn ...

—500 soldiers ** Doroshenko Regiment—200 soldiers ** Remnants of Bohdaniv Regiment

Oleksandr Shapoval Oleksandr Shapoval (9 February 1975 – 12 September 2022) was a Ukrainians, Ukrainian ballet dancer and choreographer with the National Opera of Ukraine. He volunteered to serve in the Ukrainian military after the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine ...

References

Bibliography

External links

1918 Chronicles
Institute of History of Ukraine.
War between Russia and Ukraine in 1917-18
Institute of History of Ukraine

Military Literature.
Great Britain. Parliament. The parliamentary debates from the year 1803 to the present time.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kiev 1918 1918 in Ukraine Battles of the Russian Civil War in 1918 Battles involving the Ukrainian People's Republic February 1918 Battles of the Ukrainian–Soviet War 1910s in Kyiv Kiev in the Russian Civil War Kyiv 1918 Sieges of the Russian Civil War