German and Austro-Hungarian Armies’ Invasion of Ukraine: Phase Two (February 20 — March 5, 1918)
Journal Title: Українознавство - Year 2018, Vol 4, Issue 69
Abstract
Dramatic events of the spring of 1918 are important pages in the history of Ukrainian statehood. For the first time in the 20th century Ukraine faced the crisis caused by armed bands of Russian Bolsheviks, who, under the distorted slogans of “national self-determination”, refused to acknowledge Ukraine as an independent state. Soviet politicians proved to be as chauvinistic as their predecessors – Russian imperial bureaucrats. Upon signing peace treaty in Brest-Litovsk between Ukraine and the Central Powers on February 18, 1918, German Army started operations aimed to restore Central Rada to power. Ukrainian historiography considers this case primarily focusing on the activity of the Ukrainian Army and investigates operations of German and Austro-Hungarian forces quite fragmentarily. Even the recently published well-documented studies by Austrian scholars V. Dornik and P. Lib, as well as the Polish researcher V. Mȩdrzecki, did not provide a comprehensive coverage of these military operations. This article is aimed to study phase two of the German and Austro-Hungarian Armies’ march into Ukraine (February 20 – March 5, 1918). Initially, the plan of the German High Command did not envisage complete occupation of Ukraine. In the article, special attention is paid to the order of battle of the Central Powers’ armies that marched into Ukraine, their operational plans and tasks, as well as the battles that followed. This information should assist Ukrainian scholars in studying operations of the Ukrainian Army during the Central Rada period. Strategic situation as of March 5, 1918 determined further plans of the German and Austro-Hungarian commands and caused follow-up operations in eastern Ukraine during phase three (early March – late May 1918).
Authors and Affiliations
Mykhailo Slobodyanyuk
Keywords
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- EP ID EP450016
- DOI 10.30840/2413-7065.4(69).2018.153587
- Views 145
- Downloads 0
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