The Crimea Operation was a combined military offensive by Imperial German and Ukrainian forces in April 1918 against the Taurida Soviet Socialist Republic.

Background

Following the

Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution, social change in Russian Empire, Russia, starting in 1917. This period saw Russia Dissolution of the Russian Empire, abolish its mona ...

in December 1917, the Crimean People's Republic was declared which encompassed the entire territory of

Crimea Crimea ( ) is a peninsula in Eastern Europe, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, almost entirely surrounded by the Black Sea and the smaller Sea of Azov. The Isthmus of Perekop connects the peninsula to Kherson Oblast in mainland Ukrain ...

. However, this proclamation was challenged by

Bolshevik The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...

forces and by January 1918, Crimea was overrun and the Taurida Soviet Socialist Republic was declared. Upon seizing Crimea, Bolshevik forces enacted a campaign of terror upon the Crimean Tatar population, killing Muslim clerics and wealthy landowners with the express goal of eliminating the Tatarian "bourgeois nationalists". In addition to the internal campaign of terror, Bolshevik forces attacked Ukrainian and German forces in the neighboring

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, ...

Operation

The Taurida Soviet Socialist Republic was quickly overrun by German and Ukrainian forces under command of

Petro Bolbochan Petro Fedorovych Bolbochan ( – 28 June 1919) was a Ukrainian military figure of Moldovan descent who was a colonel of the Ukrainian People's Army. He was the leader of Ukrainian forces in the 1918 Crimea Operation against the Bolsheviks, le ...

during the Crimean Offensive. The relative quick pace of the operation was due to desertion and widespread demoralization amongst the forces of Taurida, in addition to simultaneous peasant revolts across Crimea. By the end of April 1918, the majority of the members of the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars, including council leader Anton Slutsky and local Bolshevik chief Jan Tarwacki, were arrested and shot in

Alushta Alushta (Ukrainian language, Ukrainian and Russian language, Russian: ; ; ) is a city of regional significance on the southern coast of the Crimean peninsula which is within the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, a region internationally recognised as ...

by insurgent Crimean Tatars, partially in reaction to the prior killing of Tatar independence leader Noman Çelebicihan by the Bolsheviks earlier in February. On 30 April, the Taurida SSR was abolished and former Chief of Staff Mikhail Sablin raised the colours of the

on 29 April 1918.

Aftermath

Despite the offensive violating the terms of the

Treaty of Brest-Litovsk The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was a separate peace treaty signed on 3 March 1918 between Soviet Russia and the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria), by which Russia withdrew from World War I. The treaty, whi ...

, German forces immediately set up a military administration in Crimea against the wishes of the local Tatar population. General

Erich Ludendorff Erich Friedrich Wilhelm Ludendorff (; 9 April 1865 – 20 December 1937) was a German general and politician. He achieved fame during World War I (1914–1918) for his central role in the German victories at Battle of Liège, Liège and Battle ...

began plans to set Crimea up as a German colony and used the territory as a stepping stone for German offensives in the Caucasus region.

References

Military operations of the Russian Civil War in 1918 Battles of the Ukrainian–Soviet War Battles of the Russian Civil War involving Germany April 1918 in Europe Crimea during the Russian Civil War Ukraine in World War I Battles involving the Ukrainian People's Republic {{mil-hist-stub

Background

Operation

Aftermath

See also

References