Stages of dramatic separation

On Feb. 9, 1918, the governments of the Ukrainian National Republic and the Central Powers signed the Peace Treaty of Brest-Litovsk and marked the western borders and the principles of withdrawing foreign troops from the territory of independent Ukraine. In Kyiv the UNR’s government continued the negotiations with the German government on exchanging food supplies for industrial merchandise (on a train-for-train basis), exchange of prisoners of war, etc.

At this time, the deployment of German troops in Ukraine was not on either Berlin’s or Kyiv’s agenda. On the other hand, Soviet Russia promised in Brest to be reconciled to the Ukrainian state and withdraw its forces from the territory of the UNR. The border between these two states was to be set by a special intergovernmental agreement. In order to work out this agreement and build on the Peace Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, a delegation headed by Kh. Rakovsky and D. Manuilsky was dispatched from Moscow to Ukraine in the early spring of 1918.

BETWEEN TWO POWERS

What happened next is common knowledge: Moscow’s refusal to respect the Peace Treaty of Bresk-Litovsk and the Bolshevik terror in Ukraine. Prior to this the Central Rada had disarmed Ukrainian military units, so it was forced to accept military aid from Germany in order to defend itself against the Bolsheviks. The Ukrainian government requested the German units not to remain in central Ukraine but only concentrate along the border with Russia. However, Berlin did not take heed.

Despite all these developments, in the late spring of 1918, the UNR’s regular armed forces, which were formed in the last months of the Central Rada’s existence, carried out successful operations against the Bolsheviks in the Crimean and Donetsk directions. In May and June, together with German troops, they took positions on the border with Soviet Russia. At this time the Moscow delegation headed by Rakovsky was conducting negotiations with Hetman Skoropadsky’s government. The outcome of these protracted and incomplete talks was the demarcation line stretching from Surazh in the north (now part of the Russian Federation) to Kupiank in the south.

Beyond Kupiank was the Voronezh region. According to the Third Universal of the Central Rada, its Ukrainian population had to make its own choice to join Ukraine or remain in Russia. The Germans set up the demarcation line at their own discretion here and refused to go any further. They did not permit Skoropadsky to send Ukrainian units to the Voronezh region and Podonnia (the Don River basin).

That is why Ukrainian forces stopped at the Kupiansk–Rovenky–Bondarivka–Kamianka–Kantemyrivka line, although the Ukrainian side had proposed to Russia to set the border along the Stary Oskol–Buturlynivka–Novokhopersk line and then along the settlements of ethnic Ukrainians all the way to the Northern Caucasus.

Skoropadsky offered an emotional reaction to the actions of his allies, which is typical of a German puppet governor but does not fit his Russophile image: “The Germans … did not reach the border between Ukraine and Soviet Russia as had been anticipated. Rather, they drew the demarcation line somewhat closer.

“If you had only seen the grief of the people who came to me after they had learned that we were essentially unable to rule the country beyond the demarcation line. This information caused so much weeping and despair. And these were not landowners, not even petty owners, who knew that all their possessions would be burned, and no one would help rescue their wives and children. I was also desperate but the Germans would not agree to move forward. From their point of view, this made sense, because their forces were already scattered too much.”

The desire of Ukrainians residing in the Voronezh region, the Don River basin, and the Kuban to join independent Ukraine fit well with the intentions of the Central Rada and later Hetman Skoropadsky. Both wanted to create a state that would span ethnic Ukrainian territory. Kyiv’s intentions were reflected in the Fourth Universal, while the Ukrainian population in the above mentioned territories expressed its longing in telegrams of the following kind: “Our sincere greetings to our brothers and comrades! Long live free Ukraine! We cherish the hope that the sun of our mother Ukraine will shine in freedom. The cooperative ‘Tovaryska kramnytsia,’ Pukhova sloboda, Ostrohozhsky district, Voronezh gubernia. Cooperative board.” (This was a telegram sent to the April 1917 Kharkiv congress of representatives of the Ukrainian people from Sloboda Ukraine.)

Similar telegrams came from Novokhopersk (Voronezh region) and our part of the Aidar River basin—from a Prosvita group in the village of Neshcheretove, Starobilsky district. The Kuban Ukrainians were more active: in January 1918 the deputies to the Legislative Council proclaimed the Kuban National Republic and adopted a resolution on the Kuban’s accession to federative Ukraine (by then Ukraine had just freed itself from Russia’s grip). Among the factors that prevented the Ukrainians residing in the Voronezh region, the Don River basin, and the Kuban from joining Ukraine were also the German troops and Skoropadsky’s indecisiveness.

ALONG THE BORDERLINE

The southern part of the borderline set by the Germans, south of Kupiansk–Kantemyrivka, was defended by the Zaporozhian Corps headed by Gen. Oleksandr Natiev. On the right wing of the corps, in Novomarkivka, was the cavalry sotnia (squadron) of the First Petro Doroshenko Zaporozhian Regiment, while the infantry units of this regiment occupied Pantiushyne sloboda and Bondarivka sloboda.

The regiment was waiting for the results of the negotiations with the Russian delegation and was ready to move ahead into Bohucharsky district in the Voronezh region, which, according to the design of the Central Rada and later Skoropadsky’s government, was to belong to the Ukrainian part of the Don River Basin.

To the west of the First Regiment, the Second Petro Bolbochan Zaporozhian Infantry Regiment was located. Two more regiments were found along the Aidar River: the Third Haidamaka Infantry Regiment (headed by Col. Volodymyr Sikevych and headquartered in Bilolutsk) and the First Kost Hordienko Zaporozhian Regiment of mounted haidamakas (headed by Col. Prodmo, who had replaced Col.Vsevolod Petrov). The headquarters of the latter was located in Pavlivka, which is near Bilokurakine (now in Luhansk oblast). It had command of the artillery battalion headed by Col. Almazov.

Further to the north along the Aidar River (along the Rovenky–Aidar sloboda line) was the Third Bohdan Khmelnytsky Zaporozhian Regiment under the command of Col. Oleksandr Shapoval. (It should not be confused with the Third Haidamaka Regiment. The numbers of the regiments are given according to the order issued by the military ministry and follow I. Tyktor’s History of the Ukrainian Army.)

In the historical context of Ukraine and, in particular, Slobidska Ukraine it is interesting to note some facts linked to these military units and their sojourn in the northern part of the Aidar River basin.

In late January 1918 the Central Rada was ousted by the Bolsheviks from Kyiv and had to move to Zhytomyr, where it took urgent measures to increase the country’s defense potential. The German and Austrian governments agreed to let the Galician military units, which fought on the Italian front, come to Ukraine and to arm those Ukrainians who had earlier served in the tsarist army, had been taken prisoners, and were at the moment in Germany and Austria.

However, because the Galician units were far away and the units made up of prisoners of war were only starting to appear, the Central Rada was led to take an unwelcome and unpopular step—it agreed to use the aid of German regular forces to fend off the Bolshevik onslaught.

At the same time, in an attempt to redress the consequences of its own past mistakes the Central Rada began forming the Ukrainian armed forces in which a distinct place was given to the Special Zaporozhian Detachment. It was created on Feb. 9, 1918, out of some Ukrainian units that were withdrawn from Kyiv in January 1918. After a month it was reorganized into the Zaporozhian Division and Natiev was placed in charge on March 3. Natiev was an ethnic Ossetian, a former major general in the Russian army who became cornet general in the UNR’s army and enjoyed great popularity among the Ukrainian Cossacks.

On April 6, 1918, the division drove the Bolsheviks out of Kharkiv and accepted volunteers. In view of this the military ministry issued an order to give it the status of a corps. In August, under Skoropadsky it was reorganized back into a division and Cornet General Borkovsky, an unpopular figure among the Cossacks, assumed command. (Natiev had left for the Caucasus to set up volunteer units to defend independent Ukraine. In 1919 he was caught and executed by the Bolsheviks in Batumi.) After the anti-hetman insurgency in late November 1918 the division was made part of the reserve group of the acting hetman. On May 27, 1919, it was given the name ‘Zaporozhian Group.’

In December 1918 the Zaporozhian Division’s sojourn on the territory of the Luhansk region came to an end. Demoralized by the revolutionary events back in their country, the Germans were disarmed and driven out of the Aidar River basin. The Zaporozhians later withdrew under pressure from the Bolsheviks in the north and the Denikinites in the east.

Later the Zaporozhian Group transformed into the First Zaporozhian Rifle Division. The unit continued its operations until the end of the national liberation struggle. Along with the Sich Riflemen, this division was the most battleworthy unit in the Ukrainian army.

THE WAY OF ONE UKRAINIAN MILITARY UNIT

Before the Zaporozhian Division was formed, the Third Haidamaka Infantry Regiment had the name ‘Haidamaka Battalion of Slobidska Ukraine.’ It was created by Symon Petliura, who became its first commander, and consisted primarily of young graduates of military colleges and volunteer Ukrainians who had served as officers in the tsarist army and participated in the defense of Kyiv against the drunken Baltic Fleet sailors under Muravyov’s command.

For this reason the regiment was valiant and persistent in action. As Petliura’s formation it enjoyed full trust of Volodymyr Vynnychenko’s government (both were social democrats). This was not the case with conservator Skoropadsky. After the April 29, 1918, hetman putsch, when the Zaporozhian Corps was already on the demarcation line (border) with Russia, it was only by virtue of a large distance from Kyiv and the fear to leave part of the border unprotected that the Haidamaka Regiment avoided being disbanded for disloyalty toward the hetman.

The outstanding Ukrainian poet Volodymyr Sosiura has a connection with this regiment. In November 1918 he left the commandant’s sotnia in Bakhmut and, on the wave of the anti-hetman insurgency, goes to Svatove, where the Third Haidamaka Regiment was quartered at the time. There he joined its Ninth Sotnia.

In December 1918 the commander of the regiment, Sikevych, was replaced by Omelian Voloch, former captain of the Haidamaka Batallion. In December the regiment under his command attacked the Germans and drove them out of Svatove. One of participants was Sosiura, who by then headed a rii (a military unit) in the Ninth Sotnia.

The Sich Riflemen Regiment under Col. Yevhen Konovalets’ command was disarmed by the Germans on the eve of the coup, when the regiment was in Kyiv to defend the UNR’s government agencies. Following this, the majority of the riflemen did not leave for Galicia—rather, they voluntarily went east to join the Zaporozhian Corps. In May 1918 they already comprised a large part of the Second Infantry Regiment and both Haidamaka regiments: the Third Infantry Regiment and the First Cavalry Regiment.

Therefore, the Sich riflemen, the heroes of the national liberation struggle praised in numerous songs, were in the northern part of the Luhansk region and in the southern part of the Belgorod region in the summer and fall of 1918. They had a good record in the corps (division) and among the local population owing to their discipline, ability to boost the morale among the Zaporozhian Cossacks, actions to counteract crime among the soldiers and local population, and efforts to unmask the officers who were oriented toward Denikin or the Bolsheviks.

For example, the Sich riflemen prevailed on the commander of the Second Regiment to conduct an investigation into a case of robbery committed by Kurin Otaman Zelensky in one of the villages on the Aidar River. The pressure from the haidamakas and Sich riflement on the officers who tended to support Denikin forced Col. Prodmo to flee from the First Cavalry Haidamaka Regiment; he later joined Denikin near the Don River.

The commandant’s office of the State Guard was located in Novopskov. The hetman’s police engraved itself in the people’s memory by public flogging and shooting of Bolshevik leaders and people who actively participated in the distribution of the possessions owned by large landowners and merchants, as was the case in Osynova sloboda. The functions of the guard included collecting taxes and returning the possessions that had been taken by the peasants to their former owners. Naturally, this fueled hatred toward the hetman’s government among the local populace. The same situation was prevalent across Ukraine.

The nationally conscious part of the Zaporozhian Cossacks understood that Skoropadsky was not the man who would lead the young state to internal harmony and independence of its hostile neighbors. That is why the Sich riflemen, jointly with the haidamakas, were preparing an insurgency against Hetman Skoropadsky. Proof of this is found, in particular, in the extract from the report of the State Guard head in Bilokurakine sloboda to Starobilsk: “Hereby I am reporting that on June 25 and 26 the following military units arrived in Bilokurakine: the First Kost Hordienko Cavalry Haidamaka Regiment, the First Ukrainian Death Kurin, one battery… Upon arrival the soldiers started agitating the local population against the government system established in Ukraine, against the hetman and landowners…”

The insurgency fell through; its time would come in November. Meanwhile, on August 27, as the corps was being reorganized into a division, the Zaporozhian Cossacks received an instruction ordering them to swear allegiance to the hetman. Although they had no liking for Skoropadsky, the majority of the Sich riflemen were forced to comply in order to avoid being disbanded.

However, not all of them agreed with the choice of the majority, i.e., that for the sake of Ukraine’s independence they had to forswear the plans to rebel against the hetman and the Germans. Some 30 riflemen did not take the oath and were immediately discharged from the regiment. Looking ahead, it should be noted that after a short while, on Nov. 18, 1918, the Sich Riflemen would become the main force that routed the hetman’s troops and restored the Ukrainian National Republic.

The First Zaporozhian Cavalry Haidamaka Regiment was formed out of the best units of the former tsarist army—the Guard’s cavalry. This is the only formation of all Ukrainized units of this army that did not lose its battle worthiness in the turbulent days in 1917 and early 1918. The regiment was named after Otaman Kost Hordienko, a Ukrainian patriot, Ivan Mazepa’s comrade-in-arms, and kish otaman of the Zaporozhian Sich, who blessed the Cossacks letting them join the ranks of the insurgents led by Kindrat Bulava along the Donets and Aidar rivers over 200 years ago.

Stepan Skrypnyk, later known as Patriarch Mstyslav of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, served in this regiment as a flag-bearer. Thus, the historical circle of noted personalities who fought against Moscow’s oppression closed near the Aidar River.

The regiment had a living spirit of protest and revolutionary sentiments, so after the hetman’s coup, while still on the demarcation line with Russia, the regiment always had to be monitored by the top leadership.

In June 1918 the top commander of the regiment, Col. Petrov, was replaced and sent to the newly created academy run by the Ukrainian army’s General Staff.

Despite the haidamaka’s aversion to Skoropadsky and personnel reshuffles, the regiment was irreplaceable. In February 1918, together with the Haidamaka Batallion and the Sich Riflemen, he freed Kyiv of the Bolsheviks and then made fearless deep raids into the rear of the enemy along the Kharkiv and Crimean directions. He had good, healthy horses and even better Cossacks. Petrov’s firm and deft hand was felt in the regiment: he always held theoretical and field military exercises between battles.

The drills were done on a daily basis, because in Kharkiv, Barvinkove, Makiivka, Kostiantynivka, and Svatove the regiment accepted peasants and workers, students and seminarians who did not know how to ride horses or use the sword and the rifle. They had to be trained, both physically and morally. Old residents of Svatove said that the commander of the Third Haidamaka Regiment held a rally in the central square in the village appealing to everyone to join the Ukrainian army.

“Men from all villages came to us wearing overcoats and carrying bags. They would enlist and calmly went to meet their death, as if they were going to church,” wrote Sosiura. The local young men, who lived near the Aidar River, also joined the haidamakas. In Novobila and Mozhniakivka there are families that still remember those who went with the haidamakas to “fight for Ukraine.”

However, in the summer things took a turn for the worse. Hryhorii Maslivets, one of the haidamakas of the First Regiment, wrote in his memoirs: “The reserves were exhausted. Kyiv had promised to provide all units of the Zaporozhian Corps with a regular supply of money, foodstuffs, oats, horse equipment, accouterments, clothes, and footwear. But the hetman’s government did not keep its promise either before or after the regiment swore allegiance to it.

“The Hordienko Cavalry Regiment ate with the peasants in whose homesteads it was quartered. In order not to be parasites, every officer and rank-and-file Cossack had to help the host in the field and use his horse in this work. So the drills were discontinued; the border, however, had to be guarded at all times. On the other side armed people in uniforms began to show up in increasingly large groups. They started robbing peasants at night, disappearing by morning. After such occurrences the guard posts and patrols were reinforced and increased in number on our side. Meanwhile, the hetman failed to provide both food and fodder…”

What followed was even worse. Maslivets recollects and, so to say, sends a warning into the future: “The careful hands of friendly girls and young women, who washed and mended our Cossacks’ clothes, were not enough… Time did its thing; a cold autumn was approaching. The regiment commanders did not stop in any way the officers and rank-and-file Cossacks who handed in their saddled horses and left the regiment for good. Perhaps Col. Prodmo had instructions from Kyiv, because he was adamant in other respects as much as he was gentle and friendly in this matter.

“The cavalry regiment dwindled with each passing day. Evidently, this fit the desire of the hetman’s government who by such treatment wanted to bring the only unit that was morally strong and large in size to the point of dissolution…”

Thus, after coming to power with the support of the Germans, Skoropadsky, the tsar’s former aide and Russophile, weakened the positions of his country on the Ukrainian-Russian border. Part of the Cossack officers acted in the same vein. Captain I. Andrukh of the Second Zaporozhian Regiment writes in his memoirs about the negative influence of the Russian officers and their wives on the regiment commanders. The latter engaged in various kinds of intrigues against the nationally conscious Ukrainian officers “because they tried to Ukrainize (!) the Zaporozhian Regiment.”

Nevertheless, the division was active. On the side of Kantemyrivka it engaged in battles against the Denikinites, while on the opposite flank, on the side of Valuiky, it fought against the Bolshevik detachments. In late autumn it disarmed, fought, and drove out of certain settlements the hetman’s recent allies—the Germans.

PASSING INTO LEGEND

Men who are now pensioners smile as they speak about certain episodes linked to the haidamakas’ stay in Mozhniakivka. A legend about the treasure they had left buried under the ground in the village was passed from generation to generation. They were quartered here, held their drills and exercises, but one morning they quietly left the village with their horses and arms. They had only left behind a treasure buried in the field. Although they stole away from the village, everyone somehow knew that he treasure was buried in the village’s pasture, opposite May Day Str., precisely where they had their drills. It was allegedly buried under a little hill that has survived to our day. The earth there was turned over and over again by treasure-seekers—first by gullible adults and later by teenagers. The last attempt was made in the early 1950s, and now the memories of the treasure saga are accompanied by a smile.

The Cossacks of the Zaporozhian Corps (Division) also left material things as reminders, such as a damaged haidamaka grave in the steppe and the remains of a dugout, the commanding point of the Mozhniakivka military airfield, which was active in 1942–43.

The haidamaka grave was made in the late summer or early autumn of 1918, when the Zaporozhian Corps, a separate division at the time, gave battles to the Bolsheviks and Denikinites along the demarcation line between the Ukrainian state and Russia. This is, essentially, the first and only Cossack grave that has been discovered in our country. It is the burial place of those who fought to defend Ukraine’s independence and the principles expressed in the Fourth Universal and the Peace Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.

It is not known how many Zaporozhians were buried in this grave. The fact that it is called ‘haidamaka grave’ in Mozhniakivka and that the mounted haidamakas were quartered in this village says that this is the burial place of the Cossacks who served in one of the two regiments with the word ‘haidamaka’ in their names: the Third Infantry Regiment (commander Col. Sikevych) or the First Hordienko Cavalry Regiment (commander Col. Petrov).

This version agrees with the fact that the position of these regiments on the demarcation line is in close geographical proximity to Mozhniakivka. Old residents of the village speak about mounted haidamakas, which points to the Hordienko Regiment. However, for lack of documentary data we cannot be sure of this. (The archives of the Zaporozhian division are somewhere in Canada.)

Ninety years have passed since the events described above. Whether someone likes them or not, they did happen. The residents of Mozhniakivka have a tolerant attitude to the burial place: “Haidamakas? They are also human beings, Christians…” Moreover, they have a good record here. Some of the old villagers helped identify the burial place and on Oct. 4, 1998, an oak cross was erected there.

Ukraine is now a sovereign subject of international law that guarantees the inviolability of its borders, which were defended by the armed forced of independent Ukraine 90 years ago. So the foundations of this state of affairs were laid back in 1918, in particular in the Aidar River Basin.

Vasyl Kaplunov is a historian and resides in Luhansk oblast.