Missed Opportunity for Ukraine: The Initial Weeks in Kyiv Following the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917.

The struggle between the Ukrainian national liberation movement and the central Russian authority intensified significantly after the Bolshevik coup in Petrograd, which occurred on November 7, 1917 (all dates are given in the new style). The III Military Congress was taking place in the circus on Nikolayevskaya Street (now known as architect Gorodetsky's), attended by 2,965 delegates from all fronts of World War I. The mood among the majority of delegates was radical, advocating for the adoption of a declaration of Ukraine's state independence.

Condemnation of the coup in Petrograd

Events in Kyiv unfolded rapidly in the first days following the coup in Petrograd… The situation within the national liberation movement was complex and extremely tangled. Most representatives of the national political elite, even in the favorable circumstances of the fall of the Provisional Government, continued to believe in the unshakeable federal ties with "democratic Russia." Even when power was seized by the Bolsheviks, whose democratic credentials were already questionable from the outset of the "Lenin guard."

On November 7, the Small Council of the Ukrainian Central Rada (UCR) held an extraordinary meeting and formed the Regional Committee for the Protection of the Revolution in Ukraine. The committee announced in its address the extension of its powers to nine Ukrainian provinces. The following day, the UCR adopted a resolution condemning the coup, which was swiftly organized by the Bolsheviks and their left Socialist-Revolutionary allies. Delegates from the Russian Bolsheviks left both the newly created Regional Committee and the UCR in protest (until that time, they had even been allies of the Ukrainian parties on some issues).

At the end of the Congress's work, on November 13, the delegates voted for an entirely "self-determined" resolution: "1) With the moment of the Bolsheviks taking power in Petrograd, the only manifestation of Ukrainian democracy is the Central Rada; therefore, the attempts of the Council of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies to take power in Ukraine must be rejected. The Congress will ensure that military units in Ukraine, as well as front-line units, never act against the working people. 2) The right to self-determination of the people is unlimited, so the Ukrainian sovereign people must decide whether they want to live in a federation with the peoples of Russia or not. The Congress demands that the General Secretariat immediately convene the Ukrainian Constituent Assembly within the ethnographic territories, and let them establish the Ukrainian Democratic Republic and carry out social reforms… 3) To combat the anarchy threatening to destroy Ukraine, the Congress demands that the Central Rada and the General Secretariat immediately take power throughout Ukraine with the assistance of the Ukrainian revolutionary army… 4) The Congress demands that the Central Rada take charge of matters of war and peace and that the first steps be taken to mobilize the Ukrainian army and navy" (from Isidore Nagaevsky's book "History of the Ukrainian State of the 20th Century").

The complexity of the relationship between the supposedly liberal Russian Provisional Government and the Ukrainian Central Rada (UCR) is illustrated by the fact that on October 13 (new style), 1917, less than a month before the Bolshevik coup on November 7 in Petrograd, an investigation was initiated by the Kyiv Judicial Chamber against the General Secretariat of the UCR for its intention to convene the Ukrainian Constituent Assembly. This indicates that there was no equal dialogue between Petrograd and Kyiv.

"The Moscow people want to dominate the Ukrainian people"

Even the most radical enemies of autocracy – Russian liberals, constitutional democrats, and representatives of numerous socialist parties – viewed the Ukrainian provinces as their fiefdom and did not wish to acknowledge the national-cultural rights of Ukrainians. Russian chauvinists – both "democratic" and "proletarian" – despite their internal conflicts, were surprisingly united in their desire to eliminate or at least restrain the national liberation movement of Ukrainians. Unfortunately, they had considerable support among leaders of Ukrainian political parties (which could be termed, in a not entirely politically correct manner, as "useful idiots"). Many of them, between 1917 and 1921, and even after the defeat of the National Revolution, "miraculously" found themselves among the victors – the Bolsheviks (though they were later eliminated in the 1930s) or emigrated into numerous Russian (both right and left ideologically) or pro-Soviet organizations.

The majority of influential leaders of the Ukrainian Central Rada (UCR), who continued to advocate for federation with the Russian republic and were imbued with socialist ideas, still hindered Ukraine's process of gaining independence. Among them was the head of the UCR, the renowned historian Mykhailo Hrushevsky, and the head of the Council of People's Ministers, writer Volodymyr Vynnychenko (who, by the way, was categorically against "militarism," the formation of a regular Ukrainian army, and instead insisted on creating a people's militia). Volodymyr Vynnychenko, at the same Congress in early November 1917, spoke about "national separatism as a provocation aimed at severing federal relations with the Russian republic." Such "peacefulness" in a situation where an armed conflict was already brewing among the whites, reds, and Ukrainians.

One of the few, and at that time not very influential figures in the UCR, was the author of the idea of an independent Ukrainian state across all its ethnic territories, Mykola Mikhnovsky. He wrote about the period preceding the coup in Petrograd: "All Russians want a single Democratic Republic, as they wish to maintain their former dominance over Ukrainians, while Ukrainians want to free themselves from this dominance… The Moscow people – not a particular party, but the entire nation – want to dominate the Ukrainian people. And this engenders a struggle between the two peoples. One fights for its liberation, the other – for its domination over the first"…

Recognition of the authority of the Ukrainian People's Republic

However, in the second decade of November 1917, the situation in Kyiv was still relatively controlled, despite the actual tripartite rule in the city. Ukrainian units led by Colonel Viktor Pavlenko, the future General of the UPR forces, were forced to reach an agreement with the troops supporting the Provisional Government overthrown in Petrograd (up to 10,000 bayonets). The Bolsheviks occupied Pechersk but had only 6–7 thousand soldiers, 7 artillery batteries, and 8 armored vehicles. The uprising of the Bolshevik units was suppressed at its inception. The regiments supporting Kerensky declared neutrality and soon left for Russian territory. Delegates of the Congress, representing millions of front-line soldiers, were supported by thousands of armed squads of supporters of the Ukrainian Central Rada. On November 19, General Mykola Volodchenko – commander of the Southwestern Front, over 50% of whose personnel were Ukrainians – recognized the authority of the UPR.

On November 20, the UCR fully took control of the situation and took another radical step towards Ukraine's full independence: the III Universal was announced, proclaiming the establishment of the Ukrainian People's Republic. However, once again, its text noted a federal connection with the… nonexistent "Russian Republic." The UCR again expressed opposition to the uprising in Petrograd and did not sever relations with the Councils of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, "which are merely part of the organized revolutionary democracy." Isidore Nagaevsky wrote: "Hrushevsky's calls to save the already dead Moscow state organism, which since the Pereyaslav Agreement has been destroying the Ukrainian people, their rights and freedoms, not only had no influence on the Ukrainian citizenship but, on the contrary, discredited Hrushevsky in the eyes of the people as a statesman." This already resembled a blindness (only this?) of the statesmen of the newly created state.

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Ultimatum – declaration of war on the young Ukrainian republic

On December 17, the Council of People's Commissars, headed by Vladimir Lenin, sent an ultimatum to the UPR government: "The Russian socialist government, on behalf of the SNK, once again confirms the independence of the national rights of all nationalities persecuted by the tsarist Russian bourgeoisie, including the right of these nationalities to separate from Russia. At the same time, we, the Council of People's Commissars, recognize the right of the Ukrainian People's Republic to completely separate from Russia and to begin negotiations with the Russian Republic regarding the determination of allied and other relations between the two republics… We accuse the Rada in Ukraine and present facts where, under the guise of phrases and declarations regarding national independence, it falls victim to systematic bourgeois policies, due to which neither the Rada nor the Councils of Ukraine want our Council over their country…" (the style of the document has been preserved).

The ultimatum de jure became a declaration of war on the young Ukrainian republic, drawn into the confrontation on the territory of the former Romanov Empire.