The Bolsheviks and the Central Rada
In early 1917, the Bolshevik party in Russia, consisting mainly of Russian and Jewish4 intelligentsia and workers, was small and could not play a major role in politics. But the Bolsheviks possessed features that, in those chaotic times, were much more valuable than large membership. They were a disciplined, tightly centralized party of committed revolutionaries who were led by a very gifted politician Vladimir Lenin. Lenin invented very powerful slogans that appealed to the instincts of the masses: “Peace, Bread, and Land”. That led to the growth of the party’s popularity among the masses.
Like most Russians in Ukraine, the Bolsheviks were against the Ukrainian movement. They feared that it would undermine the unity of the working class.
In November 1917 the Bolsheviks staged a coup and seized power in Russia.5 That caused a civil war between the Reds (Communists) and the Whites (adherents of the old regime) for the control over Russia. Ukraine with its vast resources was strategically important for the Bolsheviks. No wonder Lenin decided to place Ukraine under the Bolsheviks’ control.
In December 1917 in Kharkiv the Bolsheviks established a government (made up mostly of Jews and Russians) and proclaimed the Soviet Ukrainian Republic. This government was in fact a puppet government completely controlled by Moscow. Lenin needed this government to justify the invasion of Ukraine by the Red Army. The Bolshevik government in Kharkiv “asked” the Bolshevik government in Moscow in the name of the Ukrainian working people (трудящиеся массы) to provide military help. The population of Ukraine was confused. There were two socialist governments in the country – the Central Rada in Kyiv and the Bolshevik one in Kharkiv which were at war.
Bewildered by contradictory propaganda from both sides and tired by the long First World War the people decided to remain neutral and wait. Short of military forces the Central Rada even had to mobilize gymnasium (high school) students to defend Kyiv against the advancing Bolshevik troops. At the beginning of February 1918 Kyiv fell to the Bolsheviks who established a reign of terror in the city.
The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (1918)
With lack of military forces to defend itself, the Central Rada had only one option – foreign aid. In general, its sympathies lay with the Entente. But the Entente powers were loyal to their Russian allies and promised them to restore an “indivisible Russia”. So the only hope for the Central Rada was the Central Powers. The Central Powers were deeply interested in Ukraine as a good source of food and raw materials. Their population actually starved in 1918 as a result of the British blockade.
As only a fully independent state could conclude an international treaty, on January 25, 1918, the central Rada issued its Fourth Universal, proclaiming the independence of the Ukrainian People’s Republic.
On 9 February 1918, the representatives of the Central Rada at a Belarusian town Brest-Litovsk signed a treaty with the Central Powers. According to the treaty the Germans and Austrians were to provide military aid to the Central Rada in return for foodstuffs and raw materials. Austrians also promised to grant autonomy to Eastern Galicia and Bukovyna. Soviet Russia, which also signed the treaty, was forced to recognize the Ukrainian People’s Republic. Soon after the treaty was signed Ukraine was cleansed of the Bolsheviks and occupied by Austrian and German armies.
The Central Rada returned to Kyiv in early March of 1918 but its activity again consisted mostly of ideological discussions and reciprocal accusations. The majority of its members were young and inexperienced people who were engaged in hotly debates with each other day after day. The average age of the Central Rada members was 22 years. The Germans were losing their patience with the young, inept ideologies who dominated the Central Rada. They soon realized that it had practically no administrative apparatus with which to collect the millions of tons of food that the hungry German and Austrian cities so desperately needed. The endless debates and quarrels among the socialist parties in the Central Rada convinced the Germans that the “young Ukrainian utopians” were incapable of governing. Therefore, on 28 April, the Germans disbanded the Central Rada and brought to power a new regime, headed by General Pavlo Skoropadsky. The Germans hoped that a military man would be more efficient in establishing law and order in Ukraine and thus be able to organize the export of foodstuffs to the Central Powers.
Many people in Ukraine, especially middle and upper classes, welcomed the new regime as they got tired of instability. The Ukrainian conservatives as well as the Germans understood that a parliamentary democracy at a time of chaos and disorder would lead Ukraine to collapse.