UKRAINE’S WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE

From 1917-21, against the backdrop of the end of the First World War and the Russian Civil War, Ukraine fought for its sovereignty against Bolsheviks, Germans, Polish… and even itself

- JOSH WEST

Ukraine’s current war with Russia is not the first time the country has battled for its independence. Between 1917 and 1921, a vicious and complex conflict was waged for the freedom of the nation. But this was not just a war against the old Russian overlords – the Ukrainian War of Independence had countless belligerents including the Russians, Germany and Poland. When the Ukrainians were not fighting these nations, they were fighting each other, with nationalists, Bolsheviks, conservatives and even anarchists everywhere. Ukraine’s War of Independence is often seen as a footnote to the Russian Civil War, but it is very much its own story.

The road to war

Under the Second Partition of Poland in 1793, Ukraine was divided in two. The western region, historically called Galicia, was part of the Austrian Empire, while the majority was incorporated into the Russian Empire.

Subsequently, when the First World War began in 1914, Ukraine was the primary battleground of the Eastern Front between Russia and the Central Powers and subjected to horrific violence. As Tsarist forces invaded Galicia in 1914, the retreating Austrians executed thousands of suspected collaborators. Once in control of the country, the Tsarist regime attempted a programme of ‘Russification’. The Ukrainian language was prohibited, national institutions were banned and the Greek Catholic Church was liquidated.

This ended abruptly in February 1917, when Tsar Nicholas II abdicated after the February Revolution. The Provisional Government that replaced him was more sympathetic to the empire’s non-Russian peoples, and the Tsarist restrictions on freedom of language, speech and assembly were lifted.