The Battle of Kruty () took place on January 29 or 30, 1918, near Kruty railway station (today the village of Pamiatne, Nizhyn Raion,

Chernihiv Oblast Chernihiv Oblast (), also referred to as Chernihivshchyna (), is an administrative divisions of Ukraine, oblast (province) in northern Ukraine. The capital city, administrative center of the oblast is the city of Chernihiv. There are 1,511 sett ...

), about northeast of

Kyiv 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, ...

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

, which at the time was part of Nizhyn Povit of Chernihiv Governorate.

Order of battle

;Ukrainian forces (D. Nosenko) * 1st Student Company (Sich Riflemen auxiliary kurin) — Petro OmelchenkoTynchenko, Ya.
Life after Kruty. How turned out the fate of participants of January battle
'.

Ukrayinska Pravda ''Ukrainska Pravda'' is a Ukrainian socio-political online media outlet founded by Heorhii Gongadze in April 2000. After Gongadze’s death in September 2000, the editorial team was led by co-founder Olena Prytula, who remained the editor-in ...

(Istorychna Pravda). 28 January 2011 (fatally wounded) (116 soldiers) was split into four platoons * Cadet Corps of the 1st Ukrainian military school of Bohdan Khmelnytskyi — Averkii Honcharenko (~200 soldiers) *

Hlukhiv Hlukhiv (, ; ) is a small historic List of cities in Ukraine, city on the Esman River. It belongs to Shostka Raion of Sumy Oblast of Ukraine. Population: It is known for being a capital of the Cossack Hetmanate after the deposition of Ivan M ...

Free Cossacks (80 soldiers) **Cavalry detachment * Ad hoc armed train (consisted of artillery gun on a

flatcar A flatcar (US) (also flat car, or flatbed) is a piece of rolling stock that consists of an open, flat deck mounted on trucks (US) or bogies (UK) at each end. Occasionally, flat cars designed to carry extra heavy or extra large loads are mounted ...

) — S. Loshchenko * Armored train — M. Yartsev (wounded), withdrew to

Nizhyn Nizhyn (, ; ) is a city located in Chernihiv Oblast of northern Ukraine along the Oster River. The city is located north-east of the national capital Kyiv. Nizhyn serves as the capital city, administrative center of Nizhyn Raion. It hosts the ...

;Russian forces ( Mikhail Muravyov)Kovalchuk, M.
Battle of Kruty: known and known pages

(Historic Pravda). 29 January 2015

(original source)'' * 1st Revolutionary Army (

Komdiv () is the syllabic abbreviation to commanding officer of the division (; ), and was a military rank in the Soviet Armed Forces of the USSR in the period from 1935 to 1940. It was also the designation to military personnel appointed to command ...

Pavel Yegorov) — 1,500 ** Baltic sailors of Remnyov ** 1st Petrograd Red Guards ***1st battalion — Lifanov (wounded) ***2nd battalion — Vorobyov ** 1st Moscow Red Guards — Ye. Lapidus ** Armored train No. 2 * 2nd Revolutionary Army (

Reingold Berzin) ** 436th Novo-Ladoga Regiment ** 534th Novo-Kyiv Regiment ** Detachment of Baltic sailors ** Lenin armored train

The battle

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forces of about 4,000 men, commanded by Mikhail Muravyov, advanced toward

, a small Ukrainian unit of 400 soldiers of the Bakhmach garrison (about 300 of which were students), commanded initially by Captain F. Tymchenko, withdrew from

Bakhmach Bakhmach (, ) is a city located in Nizhyn Raion of Chernihiv Oblast (province), in northern Ukraine. It hosts the administration of Bakhmach urban hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine. It has a population of In 2025 the population is 16,30 ...

to a small railroad station Kruty midway towards

. The small unit consisted mainly of the Student Battalion ( Kurin) of Sich Riflemen, a unit of the Khmelnytsky Cadet School, and a Free Cossacks company. Just before the assault Tymchenko was replaced by D. Nosenko. Tymchenko left for

in attempt to recruit the locally quartered Shevchenko Regiment (800 soldiers) to the Ukrainian side. On January 30, 1918, the Shevchenko regiment sided with the Soviet regime, the news of which forced the Ukrainian garrison of Kruty hastily to withdraw. Over half of the 400 men were killed during the battle, which lasted up to five hours. In Soviet historiography, the battle is mistakenly dated on January 29, 1918 and confused with the Plysky rail station skirmish ( :uk:Плиски (станція)). The Haidamaka Kish of Symon Petlyura (300 soldiers) that rushed to reinforce the Kruty garrison and was delayed due to the Darnytsia railworkers sabotage and stopped in close vicinity at Bobryk railway station. They eventually turned back to Kyiv due to the Bolshevik Arsenal Uprising, which occurred on the same day. Eighteen of the students were re-buried at Askold's Grave in the centre of Kyiv after the return of the Tsentralna Rada to the capital in March 1918. At the funeral the then President of the

Ukrainian People's Republic The Ukrainian People's Republic (UPR) was a short-lived state in Eastern Europe. Prior to its proclamation, the Central Council of Ukraine was elected in March 1917 Ukraine after the Russian Revolution, as a result of the February Revolution, ...

, Mykhailo Hrushevsky, called every one of the 400 students who fought in the battle, heroes. Poet Pavlo Tychyna wrote "To the memory of the thirties" about the heroic death of the students. After the fall of the Ukrainian People's Republic the bodies of the students were moved to the Lukyanivske Cemetery in Kyiv.

Ukrainian legacy

The true story of the battle was hidden by the

Soviet Government The Government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was the executive and administrative organ of the highest body of state authority, the All-Union Supreme Soviet. It was formed on 30 December 1922 and abolished on 26 December 199 ...

. Only recently, a monument was set up to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Kruty at Askold's Grave, and a commemorative hryvnia coin was minted. In 2006, the Kruty Heroes Monument was erected on the site of the historic battle. The battle is remembered each year on or around January 29. Pic K Y Kyiv Burial of Kruty students May 1918

Pic K Y Kyiv Burial of Kruty students May 1918

On 1 March 2022, the

armed forces of Ukraine The Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) are the Military, military forces of Ukraine. All military and security forces, including the Armed Forces, are under the command of the president of Ukraine and subject to oversight by a permanent Verkhovna Rad ...

successfully defended the area around Kruty from a

Russian army The Russian Ground Forces (), also known as the Russian Army in English, are the Army, land forces of the Russian Armed Forces. The primary responsibilities of the Russian Ground Forces are the protection of the state borders, combat on land, ...

attack during the

2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

, with the Russians losing nearly 200 men.About 200 Russian invaders killed in new battle near Kruty in Chernihiv region

Ukrinform The National News Agency of Ukraine (), or Ukrinform (), is a state information and news agency, and international broadcaster of Ukraine. It was founded in 1918 during the Ukrainian War of Independence

Important personalities

* Leonid Butkevych, the youngest soldier who was in the sixth grade * Yakiv Ryabokin-Rohoza-Rozanov * Volodymyr Shulhyn, a brother of the Ukrainian statesman Oleksander Shulhyn * Ivano Hrushetsky, later an Orthodox priest who eventually died in a Soviet prison in August 1940 * Mytrofan Shvydun, later continued to fight on the "Shooter" and "Free Ukraine" armored trains and in 1941 organized the Lutsk Battalion of OUN (Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists) * Mykhailo Mykhailyk, later wrote a detailed memoir about the battle * Numerous former students of Kruty became the base of the officer corps of the legendary Black Zaporizhians Cavalry Regiment * Mykola Kryvopusk and Hnat Martynyuk in 1920-1921 served as personal bodyguards of Symon Petlyura, Martynyuk, after becoming a priest, perished in Volyn in 1943 under unknown circumstances * Serhiy Zakhvalsky, eventually became an officer in the Polish Army, however, he was renowned for imprisoning a whole company of the Red Army in 1920, while heading one of the cavalry squads of the Zaliznyak Cavalry Regiment * Averkiy Honcharenko, in 1943 became one of the organizers of the SS Halychyna of which he was appointed a commander in 1945 * Petro Franchuk, one of the members of SS Halychyna * Yuri Voronoy, son of Ukrainian mathematician

Georgy Voronoy Georgy Feodosevich Voronyi (; ; 28 April 1868 – 20 November 1908) was an Imperial Russian mathematician of Ukrainians, Ukrainian descent noted for defining the Voronoi diagram. Biography Voronyi was born in the village of Zhuravka, Pyriatyn, in ...

, performed the first human kidney transplant in 1933

To the memory of the thirties

Gallery

File:Burying of the fighters of the Battle of Kruty.jpg, Photo, mistakenly taken as photo of burial of the student fighters of the battle, 1918 File:Kruty Commemorative coin.jpg, A hryvnia coin commemorating the Battle of Kruty File:Kruty monument on Askold Grave.jpg, Kruty monument on Askold's Grave

Notes

References

External links

Janiw V. "The Battle of Kruty"

Montage about the Battle of Kruty
* * *
Життя після Крут. Як склалася доля учасників січневого бою

www.kruty.org.ua/

* '' ttps://archive.org/details/TheBattleOfKrutyTheFreeWorldsFirstResistanceToCommunism The Battle of Kruty : the free world's first resistance to communism' {{DEFAULTSORT:Battle Of Kruty Kruty 1918 in Ukraine Battles involving the Ukrainian People's Republic Kruty January 1918 in Europe