The Russo-Ukrainian War: A Very Simple Conflict

“The Rada’s final decree is a reproach to all those who think of Ukraine as nothing more than an appendage of Russia, without a culture and a history of its own.”

The Final Decree

It is January 22, 1918, and the government of Ukraine, the Central Rada, is facing annihilation by the invading Bolshevik forces.

In response to the February Revolution of 1917, which had abolished tsardom forever, the Ukrainian lands of the Russian Empire declared their freedom within a new democratic Russian state. The Rada was born of various Ukrainian political and cultural groups who came together in the wake of the February Revolution. It soon received the broad support of the Ukrainian people.

Mykhailo Hrushevsky, a renowned scholar and veteran of both the Ukrainian National Revival movement and the 1905 Revolution, was chosen to lead the Rada. Hrushevsky announced that the anti-Semitic pogroms of 1905 and earlier were not to be repeated. He also assured the Jews, Russians, and Poles of the land that they would be free to practice their culture in the new Ukraine.

When the communists overthrew the Provisional Government in Russia in October 1917, the Rada declared the Ukrainian People’s Republic an independent state, albeit one federated with Russia. The Rada and the Bolsheviks cooperated for a short time but soon found themselves in deadly opposition. The Rada claimed too much Ukrainian territory for the Bolsheviks’ liking, so the Bolsheviks announced the formation of the Ukrainian People’s Republic of Soviets in Kharkiv on Christmas Day of 1917. Then, they began moving troops towards Kyiv.