Unknown Kruty: The heroism of Ukraine's defenders amidst the government's failures.

During the offensive of the Bolshevik troops on Kyiv in the last days of January 1918, a battle took place near the railway station Kruty in the Chernihiv region, involving a detachment of cadets from a military academy, Kyiv students, and gymnasium students, who were attacked by superior forces of Russian Red Guards and Baltic sailors.

The number of Ukrainian and Red Russian casualties, as well as the defenders of the station buried at Askold's grave, continues to fluctuate. During the Soviet era, the topic of Kruty was strictly forbidden. Reliable and verified information from archives is still scarce today; the history of the battle is shrouded in legends and myths (for instance, about 300 fallen Ukrainians and comparisons of the battle to the Greek Thermopylae). Therefore, our article should not be regarded as the ultimate truth.

Just a week before this battle, the Central Rada began discussions on the IV Universal, which proclaimed the Ukrainian People's Republic as "an independent, self-sufficient, free, sovereign state of the Ukrainian people." Ukrainian authorities spent nearly 50 days agonizing over this document after the Bolsheviks seized power in Petrograd. A Civil War was raging across the territory of the former Russian Empire…

Some historians note the complex military-political situation of the newly formed state and the errors of the command, which hindered the implementation of the provisions of the IV Universal. In reality, the main factors leading to the defeat in the first stage of the Ukrainian revolution of 1917-1921 were the blatant unprofessionalism of the politicians from the socialist government of the UPR and the immaturity of the Ukrainian peasant masses, who were more inclined to believe the deceitful proclamations of the Bolsheviks.

More than 100 years ago, in Kyiv, the broad masses remained alien to the idea of national revival. Ukrainian historian in the diaspora Isidor Nagayevsky wrote: "The Revolution of 1917 caught the Left Bank of Ukraine spiritually, culturally, and nationally maimed… Only the peasant masses remained Ukrainian, while all other layers were denationalized… the majority of the population of Ukrainian cities consisted of an alien, foreign element."

Practically all leaders of the Central Rada, and later the UPR, continued to believe in the inviolability of federal ties with Russia until the adoption of the IV Universal, in the "brotherhood of nations." The young romantics from the socialist government hid behind the gray beard of the prominent historian, but utterly ineffective politician Mykhailo Hrushevsky. In the last, "independent" IV Universal, they decided to play at social democracy, announcing elections to "people's councils," confirming the law on transferring land to peasants without compensation. However, the Russian Bolsheviks were always one step ahead.

"Nature loves economy: when Ukraine, through its revolutionary leaders, wanted to do the same as Russia, it turned out that the public preferred the original, not a poor imitation", — wrote the thinker, theorist of Ukrainian nationalism Dmytro Dontsov.

And most importantly: the leaders of the UPR were, by their own hands, destroying the army during the winter of 1917-1918, intending to replace it with a militia. Colonel Viktor Pavlenko, who organized the UPR guard, was forced to resign after receiving this response from the Military Secretariat at the end of 1917: "The army was and will continue to be an instrument of the ruling classes".

All formed units were demobilized. Peasants, who made up the majority of the military, left to divide the land. Yet, in the summer of 1917, the Central Rada had hundreds of thousands of soldiers at its disposal on the Southwestern Front of World War I. At that time, combat units were rapidly "Ukrainizing." In winter, the 1st Ukrainian Corps (40,000 trained, well-armed soldiers) was disbanded, commanded by future hetman Pavlo Skoropadskyi.

This "disarmament" occurred during the time of the total Great War in Europe, when decisions were made not through negotiations with the historical enemy and debates under the dome of the Pedagogical Museum (now the Kyiv City Teacher's House), but through cannons, machine guns, and the will to resist. And at this fateful time, the government of Soviet Russia began open aggression against the UPR.

"In early January 1918, Bolshevik troops from Russia entered Ukraine and advanced on Kyiv under the flag of a virtual state proclaimed in Kharkiv, which would eventually become the capital of Soviet Ukraine", — writes Serhiy Plokhiy in his book "The Gates of Europe."

Three Bolshevik army groups under the command of the left Socialist Revolutionary, Lieutenant Colonel Mykhailo Muravyov, rushed towards Kyiv. Step by step, the Reds captured cities on the Left Bank. The army units of the UPR disintegrated under the blows of the Bolsheviks or switched sides.

After losing Poltava on January 20, 1918, the military command of the UPR believed that the main blow should be expected from that direction. The railway tracks were damaged by the soldiers of the Haidamaka Kosh of Sloboda Ukraine led by Symon Petliura. However, the Reds decided to change the direction of the main blow and redeployed troops to Bakhmach. From there, via Nizhyn and Brovary, there was a direct path to Kyiv.

The total number of Ukrainian troops on this section of the front did not exceed 700 bayonets (up to 450 cadets, around 130 students and gymnasium students, and 80 local volunteers — "free Cossacks") under the command of Centurion Averkij Honcharenko. They were armed with 16 machine guns, an armored train, and a railway platform with a cannon and a machine gun.

In the Auxiliary Student Company, there were volunteer students from the Ukrainian People's University, the Saint Vladimir University of Kyiv, and senior students from the Kyrylo-Mefodiivska Gymnasium, as well as attendees of the paramedic school (most had no combat experience or even military training, unlike the cadets).

On January 29, Ukrainian fighters took defensive positions on both sides of the railway near the Kruty station between Bakhmach and Nizhyn and held off attacks from detachments of Petrograd and Moscow Red Guards and Baltic sailors (about 5,600 bayonets); initially, the Russians sent into battle just over 1,000 men.

The positions of the Ukrainians were well fortified — on both sides of the railway embankment in improvised trenches; along the tracks, they repelled the attacks of the Reds from the armored train and combat platform. The students found themselves on the extreme left (northern) flank, a bit further from the epicenter of the battle.

During the day, reinforcements arrived for the Bolsheviks — the 1st Petrograd Red Guard detachment and a second armored train. The advantage of the Russians became absolute, and it became known that the Nizhyn Company named after Taras Shevchenko had announced its switch to the side of the Bolsheviks, unwilling to engage in "fratricidal war against the Great Russian proletariat".

Nizhyn was located behind Kruty, so the retreat route would be blocked. Honcharenko ordered a withdrawal to the train. Around 5 PM, as dusk set in, all units gathered. It turned out that one platoon was missing. Most likely, the students (36 individuals) did not receive the order to retreat. They were captured at the station, which the enemy had already taken.

One of the commanders of the Bolshevik units, Petr Yegorov, ordered the execution of 27 out of 36 students and gymnasium students. The total Ukrainian losses during the battle at Kruty amounted to about 100-120 individuals; the exact losses of the Russians are unknown, although a figure of 300 is circulated on the internet.

During the retreat from Kruty, Honcharenko's detachment, near the Bobyri station, joined part of the Haidamaka Kosh of Petliura, which had been delayed due to a strike by railway workers (who sympathized with the Bolsheviks) and could not assist the defenders of Kruty. The troops returned to Kyiv, as on January 29, a rebellion against the Central Rada broke out in the capital, which later became known as the January Uprising.

Loyal military units of the UPR broke the resistance of the Bolsheviks at the Arsenal factory on February 4 and the Red Guards who had risen in revolt in several districts of Kyiv. Many Ukrainized units maintained a neutral position. Czech (50,000 bayonets!), Polish, and Serbian units stationed in the city and its surroundings declared non-interference.

After heavy fighting and artillery shelling, the Reds occupied the capital on February 8. Some defenders of Kyiv, demoralized by defeats and the policies of