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“This battle lasted 5 hours between a 4,000-strong unit of the Russian Red Guard under the leadership of SR Mikhail Muravyov and a detachment of Kyiv cadets and Cossacks of the “Free Cossacks”, totaling about 500-600 soldiers….

The battle near Kruty was successful for the defenders of Ukrainian statehood – the command’s order was carried out, the enemy’s rapid offensive was stopped and an organized retreat was carried out, destroying tracks and bridges in its wake. The Russian-Bolshevik attackers were incapacitated for four days. The aggressor had to raise new forces, repair blown up and damaged bridges and railway tracks, and only after that continue their attack on Kyiv, not so much by rail as by requisitioned peasant carts pulled by horses, along a wet road. This delay of the enemy enabled the Ukrainian delegation to conclude the Brest Peace Treaty, which saved Ukrainian statehood…” https://uk.wikipedia.org/wiki/Бій_під_Крутами_(1918)

“Participation of the President of Ukraine in honoring the memory of the Heroes of Kruty” 29 January 2022 – 11:38 https://www.president.gov.ua/en/news/glava-derzhavi-vshanuvav-pamyat-geroyiv-krut-72605

“As a result of the occupation of most of Ukraine by the Russian Red Army in 1921, the feat of the youth near Kruty was forgotten for more than 70 years in official historiography and art.”

“The Ukrainian military command expected the main attack of the Bolsheviks not from the Bakhmach direction, but from the Poltava direction, therefore it directed the freshest and most combat-ready units numbering 500 soldiers there, and instead 300 exhausted young men of the 1st Ukrainian Military School were sent to Kruta.”

“The Battle of Kruty (1918)”
Translated from: https://uk.wikipedia.org/wiki/Бій_під_Крутами_(1918)
[Note that the translation is far from perfect, but the article is far better and more detailed than the English wikipedia article. The Ukrainian wikipedia article is longer than the excerpts below. See too: https://miningawareness.wordpress.com/2023/01/29/ukraine-remembers-the-heroes-of-kruty-fighting-for-ukraine-against-russian-invasion-in-1918/ ]

“the battle near the village of Kruty on January 29, 1918
This article is about the battle between the forces of the Ukrainian People’s Republic and the Bolsheviks in 1918. For fighting during the 2022 Russian invasion, see Battles under the Krutys (2022)

The Battle of Kruty  is a battle that took place on January 16  (29) or 17  (30) 1918 [1] near the Kruty railway station, 130 kilometers northeast of Kyiv, 18 km east of Nizhyn . At the same time, the third Bolshevik uprising began in Kyiv, which forced the deployment of reinforcements sent in this direction to suppress it at a crucial moment.

The Ukrainian military command expected the main attack of the Bolsheviks not from the Bakhmach direction, but from the Poltava direction, therefore it directed the freshest and most combat-ready units numbering 500 soldiers there, and instead an estimated 300 exhausted young men of the 1st Ukrainian Military School were sent to Kruta.

This battle lasted 5 hours between a 4,000-strong unit of the Russian Red Guard under the leadership of SR Mikhail Muravyov and a detachment of Kyiv cadets and Cossacks of the “Free Cossacks”, totaling about 500-600 soldiers.

The battle near Kruty was successful for the defenders of Ukrainian statehood – the command’s order was carried out, the enemy’s rapid offensive was stopped and an organized retreat was carried out, destroying tracks and bridges in its wake. The Russian-Bolshevik attackers were incapacitated for four days. The aggressor had to raise new forces, repair blown up and damaged bridges and railway tracks, and only after that continue their attack on Kyiv, not so much by rail as by requisitioned peasant carts pulled by horses, along a wet road. This delay of the enemy enabled the Ukrainian delegation to conclude the Brest Peace Treaty, which saved the young Ukrainian statehood[2].

Contemporaries were particularly impressed by the burial of 27 young men who were captured by the Bolsheviks after the battle and executed by them. At the funeral in Kyiv near Askoldova Mohyla , the head of the Ukrainian Central Council, Mykhailo Hrushevsky , called the young men who died in an unequal struggle heroes, and the poet Pavlo Tychyna dedicated the poem “In Memory of Thirty” to the heroic deed.

The battle became an important part of Ukrainian historical memory [3] , and due to the prohibition of the topic in Soviet times, there was little reliable information (among the main sources for a long time was D. Doroshenko’s work “History of Ukraine. 1917—1923”, written in 1930 in Berlin, which contains a lot of distortions) [4] he covered with myths , many of which are popular even today [5] [6] .

In 2006, a monument was erected at the site of the battle near Kruty. On the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the battle, the Mint issued a commemorative coin with a denomination of 2 hryvnias.

The beginning of the war

On December 4 (17), 1917 , the Government of People’s Commissars of the RSFSR (Radnarkom) sent an ultimatum to the Ukrainian Central Council signed by Volodymyr Lenin and Leon Trotsky. The Bolsheviks demanded the legalization of Bolshevik military units in Ukraine and an end to their disarmament. It was noted that in case of non-fulfilment of the requirements, the Russian Soviet government would consider the Central Rada to be in a state of open war against it. On December 5 (18), 1917, without waiting for a response from the Ukrainian government, the Soviet People’s Commissar declared war on the Ukrainian People ‘s Republic. Hostilities began in mid- December 1917, and with the proclamation. On January 22, 1918, the country found itself in a de facto state of war with Bolshevik Russia with the fourth declaration of independence of the Ukrainian People’s Republic by the Central Rada. On December 12, 1917, the All-Ukrainian Congress of Soviets in Kharkiv proclaimed the so-called Ukrainian People’s Republic of Soviets, and military and other aid to the Bolshevik forces in the Ukrainian People’s Republic was already arriving in mid-December.

Meanwhile, from almost 300,000 troops loyal to the Central Rada as early as the summer of 1917, by January 1918 the number of troops loyal and motivated to defend the Ukrainian People’s Republic had decreased to about 15,000 in the entire country. The soldiers of the old army by that time were mostly tired of the war and did not want to continue serving, so a new army of volunteers was needed.

The formation of a student club

In the Fourth Universal, the government of the Ukrainian People’s Republic called for a fight against the Bolshevik forces, and already on January 5, 1918 , at a meeting of junior students of Kyiv University of St. Volodymyr and Ukrainian National University , it was decided to create the Student Kuren of Sich Riflemen. Soon an appeal to Ukrainian students appeared in Kyiv newspapers.

Address “To Ukrainian students”: [10]

“A terrible time has come for our Motherland. Like a black locust, the Russian-“Bolshevik” robber horde besieged our Ukraine, which made new conquests almost every day, and Ukraine, cut off from everywhere, may eventually find itself in a very difficult situation.

At this time, the Ukrainian faction of the center of the University of St. Volodymyr calls on Ukrainian students of all higher schools to immediately come to the aid of their country and people, unanimously standing under the banner of the fighters for the freedom of Ukraine against the aggressors who want to suppress everything that we have gained through long, hard heroic work. It is necessary to stop at all costs the march that can lead Ukraine to a terrible ruin and lasting decline. Let every Ukrainian student remember that at this time it is a crime to be indifferent… Courage, dear comrades, let’s dig our rock and go to pay, perhaps, the last service to that great structure, which we ourselves built — the Ukrainian state! Sign up for the “Kuren Sichovy Streltsiv”, which is formed from students of the University of St. Volodymyr and the Ukrainian National University, from where, apparently, we will be distributed among some Ukrainian military units, to raise cultural and national consciousness and courage…

Contrary to Soviet theories, admission was exclusively voluntary, the only threat to those unwilling was boycott and possible exclusion from the student body. The students of the senior classes of the Ukrainian gymnasium named after the Cyril and Methodius brotherhood in Kyiv even joined. In this way, it was possible to form two hundreds, at the head of which a student of the Ukrainian National University was put – sergeant (centurion) Andrii Omelchenko [11].

In the battle near Kruty, only one hundred students’ camp (about 120-130 people) took part. The rest of the regiment under the command of S. Dovgal, a student who returned from the German front with the rank of second lieutenant, together with other units participated in battles on the streets of Kyiv against the Bolshevik rebels, who came armed in the number of about 6,000 people [12] .

Before that, the students practiced for about two months and learned not only to shoot, but also to throw bombs. But in general, the student camp was not intended for deployment to the front. They accidentally met a detachment of the youth military school in the barracks, when they returned from Mykola Shinkar, and after an argument they agreed to go with them. The military command agreed to this, because Bakhmach was considered a quiet part of the front [13].

Schedule of forces before the battle

The Soviet troops attacked Kyiv in two columns. One, under the leadership of Mikhail Muravyov, advanced by rail from Kharkiv through Poltava. The second, under the leadership of Reingold Berzin, advanced from Gomel through Bakhmach. Muravyov’s detachment consisted mainly of Moscow, Petrograd, and Tver Red Guards (a total of 1,500 soldiers) and an armored train. The troops under the leadership of Berzin numbered 3,500 soldiers, 400 sailors of the Baltic Fleet, 12 guns and an armored train named after V. Lenin [1] . However, these were mainly soldiers of the old army, who fought reluctantly [13] .

In order to protect the borders of Ukraine from the north, a Ukrainian garrison was stationed at the Bakhmach station from mid-December 1917, consisting of four hundreds (senior courses) of the First Ukrainian Youth (junker) Military School named after Bohdan Khmelnytsky under the command of centurion Averkiy Honcharenko . For a month and a half, they successfully restrained Berzin’s troops. But the several-week stay at the positions and the lack of reinforcements had a negative effect on the fighting spirit of the young men, so on January 23, they spontaneously returned to Kyiv for rest. After Mykola Shinkar’s reprimands they agreed to return to the front, despite high fatigue. The military command expected the main offensive not from Bakhmach, but from the direction of Poltava, therefore it directed the freshest and most combat-ready units there: the 1st hundred of the Sich riflemen , the combat regiment of the Black Haydamaks, a detachment of the Serdyutsky regiment named after P. Doroshenko (total of 500 fighters) [1] [13] .

Meanwhile, Muravyov, convinced that the railway after Poltava was badly damaged, decided to transfer his forces to Bakhmach. There, under the command of centurion Fyodor Timchenko, no more than 300 soldiers remained: part of the Gluhiv Free Cossacks, the remains of the Death Regiment and the 13th Sich Regiment, an armored train under the command of centurion Mykola Yartsev, and a self-made armored train on a railway platform with an artillery cannon and machine guns under the command of centurion Semen Loschenka _ This forced Timchenko to leave Bakhmach without a fight on the evening of January 28 and retreat to Kruty station [1] .

After the unification of the two columns of Soviet troops, their reorganization took place. The units advancing from Poltava were called the 1st Revolutionary Army under the command of Pavel Egorov. Berzin’s unit became known as the 2nd Revolutionary Army. The overall command of operations against the Central Rada remained in the hands of Muravyov [1] .

On January 29, at 4 o’clock in the morning, the echelon with the 1st Ukrainian Youth School and a hundred students arrived at the station. Cool [1]. As A. Goncharenko claimed in his memoirs, together the forces of the defenders of Art. The Kruty had 20 officers and 500 soldiers [1] . According to various estimates, the Ukrainian forces in the Kruty station area totaled 500-600 soldiers: [1][14][15]
* Students’ Kurin : 116-130 soldiers;
* 1st Ukrainian cadet school named after Bohdan Khmelnytskyi : 250-400 soldiers;
* the remains of the “Death” camp of volunteers from the units of the local Free Cossacks : 50-100 soldiers;
* guarding the railway: up to 90 soldiers.

They had 16 machine guns, as well as a “self-made armored train” – one gun that was mounted on a railway platform and could move along the track. [14] [15] There was also a wagon with a supply of ammunition and grenades, an infirmary with doctor Bocharov and paramedics. [12]

Date

In March 1918, when the government of the Ukrainian People’s Republic decided to honor the memory of those killed near Kruty, it turned out that there was no detailed information about the time, place and course of the battle in the headquarters of the Ukrainian command. Most of the documents of the Ukrainian units were destroyed during the retreat from Kyiv. For many participants in the battle, it was only an episode of incessant fighting, so a large part of them could not name the date. Therefore, it was taken from the Soviet press, which reported on the capture of Krut on January 29. But in fact, it was a false message from Muravyov’s headquarters, which mistook the nearby Plysky station for Kruty. In the memoirs of some of the participants of the battle, published shortly after the events, the date was indicated as January 30, but it was not paid attention to for a long time. Historian Mykhailo Kovalchuk established the true date and course of eventsthanks to archival documents [1] [16] .

The course of the battle

Not daring to meet the enemy in Bakhmach, where there were up to two thousand Bolshevik-minded workers, Averkiy Goncharenko spontaneously, without coordination with other units and the leadership, leaving the other defenders behind ordered to retreat to Kyiv. After the loss of Bakhmach and the retreat of the surviving units to the Kruty railway station, the young men of the 1st military school and a hundred students also went there [17]. They got there already on January 28. Positions located a few hundred meters from the station itself were well prepared for battle. On the right flank, they had an artificial obstacle – an embankment of a railway track, on the left – a hundred students as part of a detachment already present there began to dig trenches and build earthen fortifications. The commander of the detachment in Bakhmachi, Averkii Honcharenko, had about four hundred soldiers at his disposal, mostly cadets and students.

The fighters of the Student’s Kuren hundred were divided into four squads (platoons) of 28-30 people each. Three of them took positions in the trenches, the fourth, consisting of the youngest and those who could not shoot, was in reserve [12] .

The next morning, January 30, around 9:00 a.m., the offensive began. Remnyov’s squad of sailors came under fire from Krut’s defenders. From the rear, they were also supported by an armored train and a cannon, which made exits to the rear of the advancing enemy and fired at them. On the railway platform there was also a cannon of centurion Loschenko, which was also used to hold back the advance of the Bolsheviks. Losing killed and wounded, the Bolsheviks continued their offensive. Their artillery battery, which had not been firing well enough, concentrated its fire on the Ukrainian positions.

The battle lasted until seven in the evening, i.e. until dark, for 10 hours. The commander of the student hundred, Captain Omelchenko, remained with the hundred until he was seriously wounded and taken to the infirmary. He died on the way to Kyiv [12] .

Ukrainians repelled several attacks. Other detachments of Muravyov (in particular, the 1st Petrograd detachment) began to come to Remnev’s aid, and a Soviet armored train approached from the Chernihiv track and began shelling the defenders from the rear.

To the right of the soldiers of the cadet school in the field, approximately 80 volunteers of the “Free Cossacks” from the neighboring villages, who fought off the Bolshevik offensive all day long, took a position. After the battle, these volunteers returned to their villages [18].

Around 7 p.m., when it got dark, the battle began to subside. At this time, the Ukrainian command received a telegram from Nizhyn. There a group named after Taras Shevchenko, declared support for the Soviet government[1]. This threatened to hit the rear, so the centurion Goncharenko ordered to gradually withdraw to the train standing on the other side of the Kruty station in the direction of Kyiv. The Student Hundred was the first to leave, and then, in turn, the 2nd, 3rd and 4th hundreds of cadets, and the 1st Hundred covered the retreat with fire[12].

Most managed to retreat to the train that was waiting for them. A larger detachment under the command of Simon Petlyura was located near the Bobryk station, but after receiving news of an armed uprising at the Arsenal plant, Petlyura left his position in Kruty and headed for Kyiv, as, in his opinion, the greatest danger was there.

Around 5 p.m., all Ukrainian units gathered, and it turned out that one group of students, which stood closest to the station, was missing: in the confusion of the battle, a reconnaissance unit (about 30 people) was captured. Retreating at dusk, the students lost their bearings and went straight to the Kruta station, which was already occupied by Red Guards. Red commander Yehor Popov, enraged by the significant losses on the part of the Soviet troops (about 300 people), ordered the liquidation of the prisoners. According to eyewitnesses, 27 students were first mocked and then shot[19]. 7th grade student Hryhoriy Pipskyi from Staro Sambir Oblast was the first to start singing “Ukraine is not dead yet” before the shooting, and the rest of the students joined in the singing.

After the shooting, local residents were forbidden to bury the bodies of the dead for some time[20] .

Losses

It is often reported that the Ukrainian forces lost 250-300 soldiers killed, wounded, captured and missing. In particular, Goncharenko testifies in his memoirs that the losses among the cadets amounted to 250 people, one detachment (up to 30 people) of the hundred students, as well as 10 senior officers [15] .

However, according to historian Yaroslav Tynchenko, this is not true – many survived and retreated, up to 120 wounded and contused people were evacuated from the positions in three wagons. According to his estimates, the total losses of the Ukrainian side (killed, wounded and captured) amounted to 127-146 people. Among them, the dead: 45-60 people, 27 of them were students who were shot after the battle. More details: [14]
* Students’ Kurin : 74-81 students and high school students were killed, wounded and killed.
* killed in battle: 10-12;
* shot after the battle: 27;
* wounded: 30-35;
* prisoners: 7.
* 1st Ukrainian cadet school named after Bohdan Khmelnytskyi : 33-40 killed and wounded cadets.
* killed in battle: 8-10;
* wounded: 25-30.
* Kurin “Death”: no exact data, 20-25 killed and wounded soldiers according to Tynchenko’s assumption.

There is no accurate information about the losses of Bolshevik troops. The number of Bolshevik losses of 300 soldiers killed and wounded is announced. [21] According to Tynchenko, such a large number of casualties is explained by the fact that the troops of P. Yegorov and R. Berzin led an offensive for six hours in an open field, where it was impossible to hide from rifles, machine guns, guns of students and cadets [14] .

Research

In 1967, in New York, the Ukrainian Free Academy of Sciences of the USA created a Commission to study the facts and dates of the Ukrainian liberation struggle of 1917-1920. The members of this commission interviewed the participants of the battle near Kruty, who remained alive and moved to the USA. Based on the results of the commission’s work, the book “The Great Ukrainian Revolution. Calendar of historical events for February 1917 – March 1918” [18] .

In 1989, the former Prime Minister of the Government of the Ukrainian People’s Republic , Boris Martos, in his book “The Liberation Movement of Ukraine” in the section “Truth about Kruty” cited 12 false statements, which were replicated in Ukraine as early as 2008 [22] [12].

The Research Institute of Ukrainian Studies under the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine worked on the question of what happened near Kruty during the time of Ukraine’s independence. The head of the department of international relations of the institute , Volodymyr Ulyanich, as part of the project “Ukrainians in the world civilization”, analyzed documents and literature on this issue, testimonies of eyewitnesses of the battle and their relatives, data of the first archaeological excavations [12] .

Assessments

Back in the days of the Ukrainian Central Rada, to reduce trust and respect for the Ukrainian government, a hoax appeared about the supposedly “useless death in the battle near Kruty of three hundred high school students and students” allegedly not even trained in handling weapons [12] .

This is how these events are presented in the Soviet edition of Dmytro Doroshenko’s memoirs : [23]

“When the Bolshevik echelons marched on Kyiv from Bakhmach and Chernigov, the government could not send a single military unit to fight back. Then they quickly assembled a squad of students and high school students and threw them – literally to the slaughter – to meet the well-armed and numerous forces of the Bolsheviks. The unfortunate young people were taken to the Kruty station and dropped off here at the “position”. At the time when the boys (most of whom had never held a gun in their hands) fearlessly stood up against the approaching Bolshevik units, their superiors, a group of officers, remained on the train and organized a drinking party in the carriages; the Bolsheviks easily defeated the youth squad and drove it to the station. Seeing the danger, those who were in the train hurried to give the signal before departure, without staying for a minute, to capture someone from the runners… The way to Kyiv was now completely open. It is said that the initiative of sending several hundred unfortunate youth to their apparent death belonged to the Minister of War M. V. Porsha .”

“We should not sob and complain today, remembering the events of January and February in Ukraine, but on the contrary, we should remember with worthy pride the Ukrainian military, which with its tenacity and sacrifice helped Ukrainian legislators to complete their state-building, and Ukrainian diplomats to gain international recognition for an independent, sovereign, independent Ukraine. — Roman Rakhmanny, “National Tribune”, Canada, January 29, 1984 [2]

According to historian Volodymyr Ulyanich, the defenders of Ukrainian statehood won a convincing military victory in the Battle of Kruty:

“Irrefutable and indisputable facts show that in the battle near Kruty, the defenders of Ukrainian statehood dealt a devastating blow to the aggressors and won a convincing military victory over the enemy. After all, the command’s order was carried out, the enemy’s advance was stopped and an organized retreat was carried out, destroying tracks and bridges behind it in order to stop its advance. The Russian-Bolshevik attackers were incapacitated for four days. With their selfless resistance, the defenders of Krut stopped the march of the aggressor, who first had to lick their wounds, raise new forces, repair blown up and destroyed bridges and railway tracks, and only after all this continue their attack on Kyiv, not so much by rail as by requisitioned peasant carts, drawn by horses, on a wet road. It was this delay of the enemy that enabled the Ukrainian delegation to conclude the Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty, which saved the young Ukrainian statehood. The day of the Ukrainian victory in the battle near Kruty is the legitimate pride of Ukrainians
— The truth about the battle near Kruty // Volodymyr Ulyanich , Journal “Military History” #1 (37) for 2008 [2]

“I must affirm the dishonesty of some authors of brochures on the battle near Kruty, who in their publications tried to cover with eternal shame the name of that conscientious senior woman who so loyally led the battle and knew how to die honestly together with the young. The statements of those authors that our youth were there without a cable are false.”
— Averkii Honcharenko [24]

Commemoration

Reburial

The tragic death of students near Kruty became a symbol of patriotism and sacrifice in the struggle for independent Ukraine.

Already in March 1918 after the signing of the Peace of Berestey , during the German occupation of Ukraine and with the return of the government of the Ukrainian People’s Republic to Kyiv, according to the decision of the Central Rada of March 19, 1918, it was decided to ceremoniously rebury the fallen students at the Askoldova Grave in Kyiv. On March 19, at 2:00 p.m., a convoy of carriages with 26 coffins left the station for the Pedagogical Museum, where the Central Council was housed. A mourning rally was held there, at which Mykhailo Hrushevskyi, Arkady Stepanenko and other politicians spoke, and public mourning took place. [25]

Description of the newspaper “Nova Rada” dated March 7 ( March 20 ) , 1918 : [26]

“Yesterday, a funeral was held for students and high school students who chivalrously laid down their heads, defending Ukraine from the attack of the northern barbarians.
Around two o’clock in the afternoon, the funeral march left the station. Simple wooden blue houses were placed two at a time on the wagoners’ platforms. The clergy, the student choir under the Košice cannon, the military band, military units and the power of the people took part in the campaign.

The procession was met by the government near the building of the Central Council: members of the Council headed by Prof. Hrushevskyi and the ministers headed by V. Holubovych. The procession stopped. Prof. Speaking, M. Hrushevskyi said something like this: – Dulce et decorum pro patria mori! – It is sweet and beautiful to die for the motherland, as these sons and brothers of ours died, who laid down their heads, defending their native land from enemies… Just today, when the Ts.Rada was sitting, they began to tear down this two-headed eagle, this symbol of the autocracy, this stain slavery, in which Ukraine was for so many centuries.. But this operation to destroy slavery could not pass without blood, and blood was shed. Happy are those who testified their love for their native land with blood.. Glory to them and eternal peace!

In addition to Mr. Hrushevskyi, members of the Central Council, O. Stepanenko, and a representative of the foreman of the Sich riflemen also spoke.

Next, the march moved along Fundukleivska, Khreshchatyk, Oleksandrivska streets to Askold’s grave.

Here, above the Dnieper steeps, loyal sons of free Ukraine were laid to rest.
Various delegations laid many wreaths and fresh flowers on the graves
— “Nova Rada” from March 7 ( March 20 ) , 1918.

According to popular sources, 28 Krutyans were buried at the Askold grave [20] . However, according to a 2016 article by the historian Yaroslav Tynchenko, it is known for sure that the burials at the Askoldova grave of two tough men — Volodymyr Naumovich and Volodymyr Shulgin — were buried on Naumovich’s family plot. They were buried in the same coffin, because before death they hugged each other and were shot by the Bolsheviks. The bodies froze, and in this form they were exhumed near Kruty, and later placed in a burial chamber. In 1934, the Soviet authorities destroyed the cemetery at the Askold grave, and this coffin with two Krutyans was reburied at the Lukyaniv cemetery [25]. The location of the mass grave of the rest of the Krutians remains unknown. There are two photos of the burial ceremony in 1918, published in the magazine “Chronicle of Red Kalina” (1931, part 2). The photo with the funeral procession was taken on the modern square of Lesya Ukrainka, and in the photo with the burial it was possible to distinguish the New Bratsk military cemetery on Zvirinka, which was demolished in 1916 in Kyiv for the burial of soldiers from the fronts of the First World War. In order to confirm this version, it is necessary to carry out research… [25] .

The systematic heroization of the Battle of Kruty began during the days of the Ukrainian State of Hetman Pavlo Skoropadskyi. There was a public demand for this, in the newspaper “Nova Rada” on May 26, 1918, an article appeared with the title “On the necessity of erecting a monument in Kyiv to those who died for the independence of Ukraine”, which ended with a call to the authorities: “for the Ministry of Education to announce a national subscription to the arrangement of a monument to Ukrainian schoolchildren and students killed in battles with the Bolsheviks and entrusted the organization of the plastic arts department” [27] .

Celebrations on the occasion of the graduation of students of the 2nd Ukrainian gymnasium in Kyiv on June 2, 1918, in the presence of the Minister of Education Mykola Vasylenko , began with the fact that the director of the gymnasium Kozlenko mentioned in a speech about the students who died in battles with the Bolsheviks. As the newspaper Nova Rada wrote, “Everyone stood up to honor their memory” [28] .

In June 1918, the Department of Fine Arts submitted a report to the Minister of Education about the need to build a monument on one of the squares of Kyiv to the fighters for the independence of Ukraine, who were buried in Kyiv, Bakhmachi and near Kruty. The Minister of Education suggested the head of the department, Professor Pavlutskyi, to develop a statute on the organization of a special commission that would deal with the construction of the monument in Kyiv. Upon completion of drafting the statute and election of the commission, the minister promised to submit the matter of construction of the monument for approval by the Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian State. On the same day, a special fund was created at the Department of Fine Arts of the Ministry of Education, to which 500 rubles were given by G. Kovalenko (Gr. Hetmantsem), which was 10% of the sale of his brochure “To terrible days in Kyiv” [29] .

At the beginning of September 1918, the proposal to build a monument in honor of the fallen Ukrainian soldiers in Kyiv, near Bakhmach and Kruty against the Bolshevik forces was considered by Hetman of Ukraine Pavel Skoropadskyi. On September 7, 1918, the newspaper “Narodnya Sprava” published the news that the hetman “was favorable to this idea and proposed to form a special commission for this purpose, after which a nationwide collection of money for the specified purpose will be announced. Mr. Hetman said that in order to honor the memory of the first fighters for the independence of the Ukrainian state, the Ukrainian government can provide the appropriate monetary assistance” [30] .
Pavlo Tychyna wrote a poem dedicated to honoring the fallen –

“In Memory of the Thirty”: [31]

On Askold’s grave
They buried them –
Thirty Ukrainian martyrs,
Glorious young…
On Askold’s grave
Ukrainian flower! —
On the bloody road
We have to go out into the world.

Who did you dare to shoot?
Traitor’s hand?
The sun is blooming, the wind is playing
And the Dnipro River…
Who did Cain set his sights on?
God, punish!
Above all, they loved
My beloved land.

Died in the New Testament
With the glory of the saints.
At the Askold Grave
They buried them.

Pavlo Tychyna , 1918

As a result of the occupation of most of Ukraine by the Russian Red Army in 1921, the feat of the youth near Kruty was forgotten for more than 70 years in official historiography and art. Instead, Ukrainians living abroad always remembered the battle near Kruty. Celebrating the date of the declaration of Ukraine’s independence, they also mentioned Krutyan. One of the prominent representatives of the Ukrainian diaspora, Yevhen Malanyuk, emphasized:

… a nation, creating a legend out of some event – and the Krutys, without a doubt, are and will be one of the greatest legends of our nation – knows what it is doing. People’s wisdom and national genius – this highest earthly justice – creating their legends and myths, i.e. elevating this historical event to the height of the super-historical, never make a mistake regarding the choice of that event. They were not mistaken in the case of Krut. [32]

In Galicia , the cult of Krut heroes spread among the Plast youth, who in 1926 created the “Kurin of the Senior Plastuns named after Battle near Kruty”. Subsequently, the Lviv student body took over the initiative to honor the Heroes of Krut. The II Student Conference held in 1931 decided “to consider the anniversary of the Battle of Kruty as a Ukrainian all-student holiday . ” Currently, Plastovy kurin, part 75, named after the Heroes of the Battle near Kruty , operates in Kyiv .

Already the following year, events honoring the Krutians were held in Prague and some other European cities . In the future, they became an inseparable attribute of the public life of Ukrainians abroad, especially young people. The Lviv magazine “Studentsky Shlyach” initiated the collection of materials on commemorating the heroic rank.

For decades, there were various conflicting interpretations of the course of events and the number of dead – from a few to several hundreds. For example, Pavlo Tychyna dedicated his poem “To the memory of the thirty”, although only the names of those who were buried at the Askold grave have been preserved to this day: [33] [ source? ]
1. Andriy Omelchenko, centurion
2. Volodymyr Shulgin
3. Pavlo Kolchenko
4. Luka Dmytrenko
5. Mykola Lyzogub
6. Oleksandr Popovych
7. Andriiv
8. Mykola Bozhinsky-Bozhko
9. Izidor Kuryk
10. Oleksandr Sherstyuk
11. Golovoshchuk
12. Chizhiv
13. Kirik
14. Andriy Sokolovskyi
15. Mykola Korpan
16. Mykola Hankevich
17. Evgeny Tarnavskyi
18. Hnatkevich
19. Hryhoriy Pipsky

Interest in the Krutyan event increased during the Second World War, which was connected with the struggle of the OUN and the UPA for the independence of Ukraine. The leadership of the OUN and the UPA command used the example of the Heroes of Krut for the patriotic education of their members. In 1944, one of the compounds of the group (military district) “Tyutyunnyk” was named “Kruty”. In almost all educational and educational programs for UPA fighters, the item about the heroism of the youth near Kruty was mandatory for study.

The tradition of commemorating the Heroes of Krut as a national holiday was established in the UPA and its successors. In one of the directive documents of the UPA command, it was emphasized that “on January 29, the Feast of Krut should be celebrated majestically.” The performers were instructed to “create a festive mood in the soldiers, so that they deeply reflect on the meaning of these anniversaries and firmly fix them in their hearts forever.”

In Ukraine , the commemoration of the Battle of Kruty began only on the eve of the declaration of its independence. On January 29, 1991, at the initiative of the People’s Movement of Ukraine, with the participation of Vyacheslav Chornovol , the Student Union, and other national-democratic organizations, a birch cross was installed in Kruty and the first small public meeting was held.

At the state level, the memory of Krut heroes began to be commemorated in Ukraine only in 2004. A year before that, in January 2003, Leonid Kuchma signed the order “On Commemorating the Heroes of Krut”. In many cities of Ukraine, commemorative signs began to be installed, evenings dedicated to these events were held in schools.

During the presidency of Viktor Yushchenko, the commemoration of the anniversary of the Battle of Kruty turned into a large-scale event. High-ranking state officials, politicians, and public representatives took part in the crowded celebrations.

The poetic work of the Kyiv poet Serhii Gubernachuk, who worked as the secretary of the Council of the public organization Historical and Cultural Society “Heroes Krut”, is dated 2001. The author’s performance of the poem “Heroyam Krut” took place, in particular, during an official meeting in honor of the fallen young men [34] .

On the bloody field
on a hill near Krut
the wind tunnels are bare
run into the redoubt,
shoot dead cold
the world is hunted to death,
as if they hope and believe
defend this stronghold!
Serhii Gubernachuk , 2001 [ 35]

The scheme of the battle, executed by centurion Serhiy Goryachko
[See at link https://uk.wikipedia.org/wiki/Бій_під_Крутами_(1918) ]

Date:
January 16(29) or January 17(30), 1918 [ 1]
Place:
Near Kruty village, Nizhinsky district, Chernihiv province
Result:
* suspension of the advance of Soviet Russia ‘s troops for 4 days;
* the delay of the Bolshevik troops made it possible to conclude the Brest Peace Treaty , by which the Ukrainian People’s Republic was recognized as an independent state.

Parties

UNR

Soviet Russia

Commanders
Ukraine
Averkii Honcharenko
Russia
Mykhailo Muravyov
Reingold Berzin
Pavlo Egorov

Military formations
Army of the Ukrainian People’s Republic
* 1st Ukrainian cadet school named after Bohdan Khmelnytsky
* 250-400 soldiers
* Student Kurin
* 116-130 soldiers
* “Death” Cossacks from the local Free Cossacks
* 50-100 soldiers
* railway security
* up to 90 soldiers

Red Guard
* A detachment of Petrograd Red Guards
* A detachment of Moscow Red Guards
* sailors of the Baltic Fleet

Ukrainian Military forces
500—600 [⇨]
16 machine guns
, a gun on a railway platform

Soviet Russia
about 3000

Losses [Ukraine]
In total (killed, wounded, and captured): 127—146 .
Of these, the dead : 45—60 (27 of them were students who were shot after the battle) [⇨]
In total (killed, wounded and captured): about 300 [⇨]

The Ukrainian military command expected the main attack of the Bolsheviks not from the Bakhmach direction, but from the Poltava direction, therefore it directed the freshest and most combat-ready units numbering 500 soldiers there, and instead to St. 300 exhausted young men of the 1st Ukrainian Military School were sent to Kruta.

This battle lasted 5 hours between a 4,000-strong unit of the Russian Red Guard under the leadership of SR Mikhail Muravyov and a detachment of Kyiv cadets and Cossacks of the “Free Cossacks”, totaling about 500-600 soldiers.
[See more at the link: https://uk.wikipedia.org/wiki/Бій_під_Крутами_(1918)%5D
1. Mykhailo Kovalchuk. The Battle of Kruty: Known and Unknown Pages [ Archived February 2, 2015 at the Wayback Machine .] // Historical truth. — 29.01.2014.
2. ↑ and b inGo to:
Volodymyr Ulyanich. The truth about the battle near Kruty . Magazine “Military History” #1 (37) for 2008. Archive of the original for January 31, 2021.
3. ↑ Battle near Kruty in historical memory. How Myth Is Exploited [ Archived December 18, 2018 at the Wayback Machine .] (Historical Truth)
4. ↑ Historian’s blog: Why there are so many myths surrounding the Battle of Kruty [ Archived 18 December 2018 at the Wayback Machine .] (bbc.com)
5. ↑ The battle near Kruty — an important episode of the first hybrid Russian-Ukrainian war — Faizulin [ Archived December 18, 2018 at the Wayback Machine .] (Institute of National Remembrance)
6. ↑ “Fight for the future”. Informational materials for the Day of Remembrance of Heroes of Krut–2023. 01/25/2023
7. ↑ Mykhailo Kovalchuk. War with the Radnarkom. Did the Central Rada really fail the defense of Ukraine? [ Archived January 13, 2019 at the Wayback Machine .] // Historical truth. 02/08/2018
8. ↑ Subtle Orestes . History of Ukraine. — Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1994. — ISBN 0-8020-0591-0 .
9. ↑ Quote from: Soldatenko V. F. Ukrainian revolution. Historical essay: Monograph. — K. _ : Lybid, 1999. — 976 p.
10. ↑ New Council . — 1918. — January 11.
11. ↑ Soldatenko, Valery. “And real, not fake paints.” Cool: An Attempt at Historical Interpretation [ Archived March 10, 2007 at the Wayback Machine .] // Mirror of the Week . — 2006. — January 28 — February 3.
12. ↑ a b v g d e z yGo to:
Svitlana Makovytska. Udar pod Krutami  // Young Ukraine . — No. Saturday, February 16, 2008 . — P. 8-9 . Archived from the original on April 27, 2015. Retrieved October 17, 2018. [ unauthoritative source ]
13. History lessons. The whole (un)truth about Cool  on YouTube
14. ↑ a b v gGo to:
Yaroslav Tynchenko . The First Ukrainian-Bolshevik War (December 1917 — March 1918). [ Archived March 15, 2012 at the Wayback Machine .]  — Kyiv–Lviv: Institute of Ukrainian Studies named after Krypyakevych of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, 1996. — P. 174—182. — ISBN 5-7702-1011-7 .
15. ↑ a b inGo to:
Olena Boyko Battle near Krutami: the history of study [ Archived on March 11, 2016 at the Wayback Machine .] // Ukrainian Historical Journal . — 2008. — No. 2 (479). — P. 43–54.
16. History lessons. The whole (un)truth about Cool  on YouTube
17. ↑ Tynchenko Y.Yu. The First Ukrainian-Bolshevik War (December 1917 — March 1918) // Struggle for Bakhmach and Romodan
18. ↑ a bGo to:
Zozulya Ya. Great Ukrainian Revolution: Calendar of historical events for February 1917 – March 1918 . — Ukrainian Free Academy of Sciences in the USA. — New York: Eng. East Side Press , 1967. — P. 49.
19. ↑ In his memoirs, the centurion Goncharenko claimed that the prisoners, among whom was his brother, were stabbed with bayonets, and not shot. Other witnesses, however, refute this claim.
20. ↑ a bGo to:
Handbook on the History of Ukraine . Archive of the original for May 23, 2012 . Retrieved January 16, 2007 .
21. ↑ Mykhailik Mykhailo: Day of January 29, 1918. — Lviv, 1932.
22. ↑ Martos B. The truth about Kruty // The liberation movement of Ukraine . — Scientific Society named after Shevchenko. Library of Ukrainian Studies part 61. — New York: English. Computoprint Corporation , 1989. — P. 116-119.
23. ↑ Doroshenko D. War and revolution in Ukraine // Revolution in Ukraine according to memoirs of whites / Sost. S. A. Alekseev, editor. N.N. Popova. — M. , L .: Gosizdat, 1930. — P. 94–95.
24. ↑ Bilokin S. I. Kruty. January 1918 – Kyiv: Prosvita, 2008 // Goncharenko A. Battle near Krutami (214 p.) . Archive of the original for February 24, 2019 . Cited February 24, 2019 .
25. ↑ and b inGo to:
Tynchenko Yaroslav . In search of the burial of Krutyan [ Archived February 1, 2020 at the Wayback Machine .] // Ukrainian Week , January 28, 2016
26. ↑ a b inGo to:
Photo sources: don’t confuse the funeral of Bolshevik victims and the funeral of heroes Krut (March 1918) – Likbez (uk-UK). Archive of the original for February 2, 2017 . Cited January 28, 2021 .
27. ↑ New Council. – 1918. – May 26(13). (#85)
28. ↑ New Council. – 1918. – June 4 (May 22). (#91)
29. ↑ New Council. – 1918. – June 9 (May 27). (#96)
30. ↑ People’s Affairs. – 1918. – September 7 (#35)
31. ↑ Lavrinenko Yu. A. The shot revival: Anthology 1917—1933: Poetry — prose — drama — essays / Prepared. text, professional editing and foreword. Prof. M. K. Naenka. — K. _ : VC “Prosvita”, 2001 . — 794 p.
32. ↑ Malanyuk, 1941 , p. 9..
33. ↑ According to some sources, centurion A(Andriy?) Omelchenko was not shot in Kruty, but mortally wounded and later died in Kyiv.
34. ↑ Natalia Bordiychuk (January 30, 2004). Flowers for heroes Krut (ua). “Khreshchatyk” . Archive of the original for November 19, 2018 . Cited November 19, 2018 .
35. ↑ Gubernachuk S. To the heroes of Krut: a high word of poetry / Serhii Gubernachuk // Heroine of the tragedy of Krut / edited by. V. I. Serhiychuk. — K., 2008. — pp. 403-404”. https://uk.wikipedia.org/wiki/Бій_під_Крутами_(1918)
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