Petliura’s Alliance with Poland

At the end of 1919 the position of Petliura’s army was difficult. He had to fight against the Reds and the Whites at the same time. As he had no chances to defeat his powerful enemies he turned to Poland for help. Petliura agreed to Poland’s incorporation of Galicia and western Volhynia in return for Polish military help against the Bolsheviks. This agreement was reflected in the Warsaw Treaty signed in April 1920 by Petliura and the Polish leader Pilsudski. That enraged West Ukrainians who accused Petliura of treason. Poles were interested in war with the Bolsheviks not so much to defeat them as to create a buffer East Ukrainian state between themselves and Soviet Russia.

The Polish-Ukrainian offensive was successful at first. By 6 May the allied forces had taken Kyiv. Petliura and Polish generals expected Ukrainian peasants to rebel against the Reds but it did not happen. By June the Bolsheviks launched a counterattack which brought them great success. The Polish capital of Warsaw was under threat. The Poles were ready to renounce considerable parts of western Ukraine and western Belarus, but Lenin decided to attack Warsaw and start all-European revolution from there. The threat of losing independence inflamed patriotism in Poland. Poland carried out mobilization and countera­ttacked the Reds. The Bolsheviks were forced to retreat and lost western Ukraine and western Belarus. Exhausted by the war the Reds and the Poles decided to divide Ukraine. As a result of the war with Soviet Russia the Poles got the lands promised by Petliura, but failed to establish a buffer Ukrainian state. Unable to fight against the Soviets alone Petliura’s army retreated to the Polish side of the border and was interned. The war for Ukrainian independence was finally over.

The Capture of Crimea

During the Polish-Soviet war the White Army in Crimea was reorganized. Baron Piotr Vrangel, a talented general and organizer, replaced Anton Denikin as commander-in-chief. Taking advantage of the war between Poland and Bolsheviks, the White Army left Crimea on June 6 and till the end of September occupied Southern Ukraine. When the Bolsheviks ended the war with the Poles in October they were able to concentrate their major forces against the Whites. Unfortunately for Vrangel, the Bolsheviks persuaded otaman Makhno with his large peasant army to join the Reds in their attack on the Whites. Makhno was a popular otaman who controlled significant areas of Southern Ukraine. In his ‘anarchical republic’ he even printed money with a famous inscription: “forgery is allowed.”¹⁷ By November the Whites had been pushed out from Southern Ukraine. In November the Reds stormed the so-called Turkish Rampart designed by French and British military engineers and considered impregnable. The rampart was located on the narrow Perekop isthmus (about 8 km in width) and blocked the entrance to Crimea. Having suffered extremely heavy losses the Reds broke through these fortifications on November 11 after five days of storm. At the same time other parts of the Red and Makhno’s armies crossed the Sivash Sea and entered the peninsula. The defense of Crimea lost its meaning. The Whites were hurriedly boarding ships in Sevastopol and other ports of the peninsula.

In Crimea the Bolsheviks ordered that all former officers and soldiers of the White army came to special places for registration. They were promised forgiveness. But that was a trick. Tens of thousands of the former Whites were brutally killed. Then came Makhno’s turn. His army was practically destroyed by the Boslheviks, but the otaman managed to escape with some of his followers to Southern Ukraine where he had wide support among local population. Only by September of 1921 the Bolsheviks had completely suppressed the Makhno movement. As to the otaman, he escaped to Romania.