"Battle near Kruty." Once again for the sane

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Losses of the parties

Klimko A. “Battle of Kruty”

As for the number of deaths on the defending side, in addition to Grushevsky’s “three hundred Spartans”, different figures were given. Thus, Doroshenko gives a name list of the dead 11 students, although he says that several of them died earlier, in addition, 27 prisoners were shot - as revenge for the death of 300 Red Army soldiers. In 1958, in Munich and New York, the publishing house “Ways of Youth” published the results of S. Zbarazhsky’s 40-year study “Cool. The 40th anniversary of the great rank was 29 June 1918 - 29 September 1958.” The list names 18 people. who are buried in Kyiv at Askold’s grave. Although the retreating UPR troops brought 27 killed in that battle to Kyiv.

The losses of the attackers have varied estimates, but researchers have not found any documentary sources confirming any of the versions.

Contemporary assessments

This is how the former chairman of the General Secretariat of the Central Rada of the UPR Dmitry Doroshenko described these events:

When Bolshevik echelons moved towards Kyiv from Bakhmach and Chernigov, the government could not send a single military unit to fight back. Then they hastily assembled a detachment of high school students and high school students and threw them - literally to the slaughter - towards the well-armed and numerous forces of the Bolsheviks. The unfortunate youth was taken to the Kruty station and dropped off here at the “position”. While the young men (most of whom had never held a gun in their hands) fearlessly opposed the advancing Bolshevik detachments, their superiors, a group of officers, remained on the train and organized a drinking party in the carriages; The Bolsheviks easily defeated the youth detachment and drove it to the station. Seeing the danger, those on the train hastened to give the signal for departure, not having a minute left to take those fleeing with them... The path to Kyiv was now completely open.

Doroshenko. War and revolution in Ukraine

Funeral of fallen defenders

In March 1918, after the Central Rada returned to Kyiv, relatives and friends raised the question of reburial of the dead. The story quickly became known to the general public, as well as the subject of political disputes within the UPR. The opposition used the battle near Kruty as a pretext to criticize the Central Rada and its administrative and military failure. It was then that information about “hundreds of dead,” which were never documented, was first made public.

We want to strengthen the respect of the kingdom and the Ukrainian government in response to the terrible tragedy that occurred in Art. Turn around when the Bolsheviks are approaching Kiev. In Kruty, the flower of Ukrainian school youth has perished. A few hundred of the brightest intelligentsia - young people - enthusiasts of the Ukrainian national idea perished. Such an expenditure would be important for a cultural nation; for our people it is endless. The fault in this tragedy is the entire system of stupidity, our entire system, which, after the lackluster social legislation, after the perpetual administration, found itself abandoned by the people and the army, and in such a hopeless situation they decided to die. There will be hundreds of school-age youth left behind by the well-established Bolshevik army. Having hastily disposed of these victims of ordinary frivolity, without any military preparation, they were sent to Kruti...

In turn, the UPR government used these events to raise patriotic sentiments. Thus, at a meeting of the Malaya Rada, the head of the UPR, Mikhail Grushevsky, proposed to honor the memory of those killed at Kruty and rebury them at Askold’s grave in Kyiv. A crowded funeral took place on March 19, 1918. Their relatives, students, high school students, soldiers, clergy, a choir led by A. Koshits, and many Kiev residents gathered for the funeral service. Mikhail Grushevsky addressed the meeting with a plaintive and solemn speech:

From this tree, if their houses are transported in front of the Central Rada, the Ukrainian statehood was forged through fate, from the pediment of this house there is a Russian eagle, a bad sign of Russian power over Ukraine, a symbol of captivity, in which she lived for two one hundred and sixty years old. Apparently, the power of his soul was not given for free, apparently, it could not pass without sacrifices, and it was necessary to buy blood. And blood was shed by these young heroes, whom we respect.

According to the press of that time, 17 coffins were lowered into the mass grave at the Askoldov cemetery.

Assessments of events at the turn of the XX-XXI centuries

According to Doctor of Historical Sciences Valery Soldatenko, who assesses the events taking place in Ukraine since 2005:

In modern Ukraine, it has become a custom at the end of January of each year to draw public attention to an episode that happened at the height of the revolutionary turning point - the battle of Kruty. It would seem that after almost nine decades it is possible to reliably recreate the picture of what actually happened, and, in the end, to impartially and balancedly qualify both the episode itself and the much broader problem that it (this episode) illuminates extremely clearly .

However, the battle at Kruty obviously belongs to those phenomena around which the truth of life, its stunning transformation for the sake of politics and the opportunistic use of a complexly formulated palliative were initially tied into a tight knot...

... Having acquired a certain inertial self-sufficiency, in Ukrainian historiography the event near Kruty received exaggerated assessments, became overgrown with myths, began to be equated with the famous feat of the Spartans at Thermopylae, and all 300 young men, of which 250 students and high school students, increasingly began to be called dead. In the absence of other striking examples of the manifestation of national self-awareness and sacrifice, this event is increasingly being addressed through educational activities, especially among young people.

Memorial

Memorial to the Heroes of Krut- a memorial complex dedicated to the battle of Kruty. It includes a monument, a symbolic burial mound, a chapel, a lake in the shape of a cross, as well as a museum exhibition located in ancient railway carriages. The memorial is located near the village of Pamyatnoye, Borznyansky district, Chernihiv region.

Since the early 1990s, Ukrainian authorities have been considering plans to erect a large monument in Kruty, in addition to the existing small memorial at Askold's Grave in Kyiv. However, it was only in 2000 that the architect Vladimir Pavlenko began designing the monument. On August 25, 2006, the “Memorial of the Heroes of Kruty” at the Kruty railway station was officially opened by the President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko. The author of the memorial, Anatoly Gaidamaka, presented the monument as a mound 7 meters high, on which a 10-meter red column was installed. The red column symbolizes the similar columns of the Kyiv Imperial University of St. Vladimir, where most studied dead students. A chapel was built near the foot of the mound, and an artificial lake in the shape of a cross was created next to the monument.

In 2008, the memorial was supplemented with seven railway carriages and an open military train flatcar. The installed carriages are similar to those used by the participants in the battle when they went to the front. Inside the carriages there is a mini-museum with weapons from the Civil War, as well as household items of soldiers, front-line photographs, archival documents and the like.

On January 29 of each year in “unlocked” Ukraine, nationalists celebrate the day of remembrance of the “Heroes of Krut”.

A lot of different events are held on this day. Starting with official ones - at the highest state level, and ending with school ones.
And from the screens of the ukrozombians and from the pages of the corrupt ukroSMI, choking with delight, they tell us about this “heroic battle.”

If we generalize all the nationalist tales, then summary It turns out this “Svidomo” story:

“300 Ukrainian youths held the 400,000-strong Moscow-Bolshevik army in bloody battles for more than two days, defending the Ukrainian People’s Republic (UNR) and the Central Rada. All of them died in battles or were shot by the brutal enemies of the “free Ukraine”.

This myth about “300 Ukrainian Spartans” who supposedly “gave their young lives for the establishment of Ukrainian independence” has been circulating since March 1918.
And he went for a walk with light hand the great myth-maker Mikhail Grushevsky.

This myth goes as follows.
They say that for two days 300 Kyiv students and schoolchildren, with only three clips of cartridges each, fought with Muravyov’s army of six thousand. At the same time, a quarter of his army was destroyed and everyone died as one.
They say that with their sacrifice they delayed the Bolshevik army.
And this gave the leadership of the Central Rada the opportunity to evacuate.
And they gave the UPR the opportunity to sign with German army separate peace in Brest-Litovsk. The peace with which Germany granted Ukraine independence from Soviet Russia...

It is in this light that the local battle near the Kruty station in January 1918 is presented in modern Ukrainian history textbooks.

Modern Ukrainian nationalists excessively glorify this small skirmish. They give it a significant scale.
In principle, I understand them perfectly.
What can they do if there is no way to be proud of their victories? But these victories do not exist due to their complete absence.
So they are trying to elevate defeats to the number of feats.
They try to find (in the absence of real ones) at least some heroes in their story. And if this fails, then you can... invent them.
Is not it?

What really happened near Kruty?
Who at that time came up with the idea of ​​sending young people untrained in military affairs to meet Muravyov’s troops?
What was his task?
Who led this detachment?
And most importantly, who then bore responsibility for these innocent victims?

On this day - January 16 (29), 1918 - a small battle took place near the Kruty station (Chernigov region). The battle between units of 2 Ukrainian People's Republics. The capital of one of these powers was in Kyiv, the other in Kharkov.

And he, that is, this battle near Kruty, in fact, was just a small, insignificant episode of the confrontation between Soviet Ukraine and Nationalist Ukraine.
Confrontations:
- Soviet government of Ukraine in Kharkov.
By the way, it consisted of ethnic Ukrainians, and
- Kyiv Central Rada.
Among her supporters there was a significant percentage of Galicians - subjects of Austria-Hungary.

This episode of the Civil War in Ukraine, which happened 98 years ago, has overgrown with all sorts of conjectures, conjectures and legends during this time.
Moreover, the more time passes after this event, the thicker the web of lies woven by Ukrainian pseudo-patriots becomes...

Let us first look at the background of this event.

First, I would like to say that at the beginning of 1918, a real vacuum arose around the Ukrainian Central Rada.
And she was losing the support of the masses at a catastrophic speed.

Well, the demoralized Ukrainian military units quickly fled when the Red Guard detachments approached.
And they handed over the cities to them. Usually even before direct clashes with Soviet troops.
Or they went over to the side of the Bolsheviks.

What caused this?

Let us turn to the memoirs of the Ukrainian historian Dmitry Doroshenko (“War and Revolution in Ukraine”):

“As soon as the Central Rada made a break with the Bolsheviks, its fate was sealed. Passionate about success national movement, intoxicated by easy victories over the powerless provisional government, Ukrainian socialist democracy did not want to allow those whom it called “lords” and “Muscovites” to participate in the work of state and socio-economic construction, because it did not want to share power and leadership positions with them; Of course, it did not want to share with the contenders for leading the revolution - the Bolsheviks... having lured the peasantry with its promises, inciting class hatred, arousing the worst instincts and appetites, the Central Rada stopped and began to lag behind what the Bolsheviks had already accomplished in their country - and its influence disappeared instantly. At the decisive moment, when the Bolsheviks pressed from the outside and from the inside, it turned out that no one was really standing behind the Central Rada..."

And here’s what high school student Igor Losky (participant in the battle of Kruty, published his memoirs in Lvov in 1929) recalled:

“The current Ukrainian army hopelessly missed the moment of national uprising, which would have captured the masses of the Ukrainian war, if it was possible to create an effective Ukrainian army... True, there were a lot of regiments with more or less vocal by name. But by that time they had lost more than a few elders. Those that were no longer in stock were already in great abundance. And only at the last moment, when the catastrophe was imminent, some of the powerful Ukrainian men became embarrassed and began to hastily create new parts, but it was already too late.”

So it turned out that in conditions of general confusion, developing into complete panic, perhaps only Kyiv students and high school students were capable of selfless actions. Those young men and teenagers who have been brainwashed with nationalist propaganda.

Here another question arises:

Why did it happen that it was students and high school students who defended the Central Rada?

Yes, because education was expensive back then. And students and high school students, as a rule, came from wealthy, wealthy families.

So it turns out that the rich people of that time defended their class (in other words, “selfish”) interests.

One more question:

Why did most of the 150 thousand soldiers who were under the formal control of the Central Rada refuse to defend it?

The answer here is obvious - because it did not express the interests of the people.

It was under these conditions, on January 5 (18), 1918, that a meeting (veche) of junior students of the Kyiv University of St. Vladimir and the newly created Ukrainian People's University was held.
This was done on the initiative of Galician students.
Those students who considered themselves Ukrainians gathered at the meeting.
At the meeting, it was decided to begin creating a student Kuren of the Sich Riflemen.
It was emphasized that all Ukrainian students should join the ranks of the formation “under the threat of boycott and exclusion from the Ukrainian student family.”
As we can see, enrollment into the kuren was voluntarily and compulsorily. Because there were very few people who were eager to join it. They were essentially given a choice. Either sign up as a “volunteer” or be expelled from the student fraternity.

In addition to students, the kuren included students from two senior classes of the 2nd Ukrainian named after. Cyril and Methodius Brotherhood Gymnasium. The director of the gymnasium agreed to announce an official break from studying for them - “for an hour of re-studying with the military.”
In total, about 200 people signed up for the kuren. The 2nd hundred later took part in the battles in Kyiv; they did not leave the city.
The military authorities appointed student Omelchenko (from the front-line soldiers) as a centurion. By that time he was enrolled as a student at the Ukrainian People's University.

Oles Buzina wrote:

“Although the Kyiv warehouses were bursting with equipment and uniforms left over from tsarist army, the Ukrainian government dressed students like homeless people. Apparently, Grushevsky and Vinnichenko had a presentiment of them imminent death. Kuren received torn overcoats, soldier’s trousers and... prisoner’s caps instead of a headdress!”

From the memoirs of Igor Losky:

“You can realize how grotesque the hundred looked. The cross-cut look was like this: light wool boots, soldier's trousers, knitted in the valley with a motuzka (there were no oblasts), a gymnasium or student jacket or a civilian camisole and a flared overcoat, in which one was the least rejected ї poly. ...the old rusty towels... And that’s all in that hour, as a month after that, the Bolsheviks, having buried the interruption of school, found there new warehouses of new clothes, clothes, not even talking about ammunition and armor.”

The basis of the student kuren of the Sich Riflemen, as well as the overwhelming majority of all these warriors, were Galicians. Those Galicians who arrived in Kyiv in 1917 from behind the front line, after its collapse.
It is noteworthy that internationalist Hungarians also fought on the side of the Reds.
It turned out that the subjects of Austria-Hungary were shooting at each other on the territory of another state.

The UPR leadership was well aware of the students’ impulse. And she didn’t just know. And even ideologically supported and stimulated him.

Thus, on January 11, 1918, the newspaper of Ukrainian socialist-federalists “Novaya Rada” published an appeal “To the Ukrainian students”:

“The time has come for our Motherland. Like a black crow, the Russian-“Bolshevik”… predatory horde settled in our Ukraine, making new seizures of us almost every day, and Ukraine may finally find itself in a very difficult situation...
We call on Ukrainian students of all higher schools to immediately come to the aid of their land and people, unanimously standing under the flag of fighters for the will of Ukraine against enemies who want to strangle everything that we have gained through long, hard heroic labor. We must stop at all costs the campaign that could lead Ukraine to terrible ruin and lasting decline.
Let every Ukrainian student remember that nowadays it is criminal to be indifferent. Feel free, dear comrades, let’s dig into our rock and go to render, perhaps, our last service to that great construction project that we ourselves built – the Ukrainian state!”

In the same issue of the newspaper there was a call to all those who signed up for the kuren to immediately report to the barracks. Address: Pechersk, Moskovskaya street, Konstantinovskaya military school.
Similar materials were published by other newspapers.

Consequently, we can reasonably speak about the direct involvement of the highest government leadership in the student youth movement.
Moreover, both in ideological and organizational and technical terms.

Throughout January 8-13 (21-26), young soldiers tried to obtain ammunition, weapons and master basic skills in handling them.
In the barracks of the Konstantinovsky School, it was, understandably, impossible to achieve high-quality military training in an extremely short period of time.
On the morning of January 13 (26) educational institution Some of the cadets returned - about 300 people. These cadets said that they, under the command of centurion A. Goncharenko, in small numbers (about 600 people), poorly armed, remained alone on the entire Left Bank Front near Bakhmach and Kruty. And that they need immediate support.
An order was received “from the command staff of the 1st Military School” to go to the front line.
Military training ended there.
The young men, of course, failed to thoroughly master military affairs in such a short period of time.
Firstly, due to the fact that there was very little time for military training.
Secondly, all their military exercises were limited to ceremonial marching and mastering left-right turns.
The fighters of the Student Kurken were given rifles. For high school students - captured Austrian ones, for which there was very little ammunition. They gave out three clips each. As well as boots and soldiers' overcoats.
The train arrived at the railway station.
Some of their relatives and acquaintances came to see the young men off to their military mission.
The station bell rang.
And the train rolled to the Kruty station...

Then the nationalists brainwashed several hundred students and high school students with their nationalist propaganda and sent them to Kruty for slaughter. They were sent so that they would give their young lives for the guys from the Central Rada.

Well, about the fight itself...

Let's start with the date.

The canonical date is January 16 (29), 1918.
- But there is another opinion. That the fight took place on January 14 (27).
For example, Averky Goncharenko wrote in his memoirs that the battle took place on January 27, and not on the 29th, as we are assured today.
- And some even write that the battle lasted for three days - from January 27 to 29.

Strengths of the parties.

* Military units that took part in the battle near Kruty on the side of the Central Rada:

Kuren of the 1st Youth Military School named after B. Khmelnitsky under the command of centurion A. Goncharenko.
This is at least 300 trained officers and cadets. According to other sources, 250 cadets.
It consisted of young Galicians. Among them, former soldiers of the Austro-Hungarian Army who were captured by Russians predominated.
By the way. This centurion Goncharenko, by the way, is a former career officer of the Russian army - captain. And the future Hauptsturmführer (captain) of the Waffen SS division “Galicia”. There must be some kind of nefarious pattern in this.

1st hundred of the Student Kuren of centurion Omelchenko.
This is about 125 students and gymnasium students (according to other sources, 118 students). Some of them knew about the war only from history books. After all, the eldest of them was 22 years old, the youngest was 15 years old.
Among the students, the majority of students enrolled in universities on the personal instructions of Mikhail Grushevsky were soldiers from Galicia who had fled from the front.

Plus about 40 deserters from among the “Free Cossacks”.

Artillery battery of centurion Loschenko (2 cannons and about 30 artillerymen).

Kuren "Free Cossacks".
I don't know the commander's name.
This is at least 70 experienced soldiers.
According to other sources, 60 officers and volunteers from the local Free Cossacks.

Commandant of the Kruty railway station with a security unit (about 40 people)

According to various estimates, the fighters defending the position ranged from 500 to 900 people (data differ).
They had 18 machine guns and a homemade armored train with a gun.
According to A. Goncharenko himself, the defense of Krut, in total, consisted of 18 machine guns, “500 young warriors and 20 elders. Some warriors were tortured by month-long battles, while others were innocent.”

The general leadership of the troops concentrated at the station was carried out by the head of the 1st military school, centurion F. Timchenko.
His district defense headquarters was located in a train stationed at the station itself. And a separate wagon with ammunition was attached to it.
Ahead of this echelon, a homemade platform with one gun was cruising between the flanks of the Ukrainian position. An officer of the Bogdanov regiment, centurion Semyon Loschenko, drove her on his own initiative.

Goncharenko advanced his forces 2 kilometers ahead of the station.
The detachment stretched along the front for 3 kilometers.
Moreover, it was divided by an embankment.
The “juniors” were positioned to the right of the railway embankment.
On the left are students. The commander of the cadets, centurion Averky Goncharenko, divided the students into four chotas (platoons) of 28–30 people each and assigned them the safer left flank. The youngest and those who did not know how to shoot were left in reserve.

Due to the fact that the embankment was high, neither the right flank nor the left flank could see each other.
Orders were transmitted orally along the chain. And all because of the poor communication organization of the Ukrainian troops. Because none of the commanders thought to grab field telephones. And they would ensure instant transmission of orders.

The positions, located a few hundred meters from the station itself, were well prepared for battle.
On the right flank they had an artificial obstacle - a railway embankment.
On the left, a hundred students, as part of a detachment already existing there, began digging trenches and erecting earthen fortifications.

As you can see, the units’ strongholds in harsh winter conditions were moved 1.5-2 kilometers away from the station. And the train with ammunition was located at the station itself. This, of course, was a tactically incorrect, absurd decision...

* The Yellow-Blakits were opposed by Muravyov’s Bolshevik “army” of just over 6 thousand people.

This was the so-called Poltava column of the 1st “army” of P. Egorov.
It numbered 1300 bayonets.

2nd “army” of R. Berzin.
This is more than 3500 bayonets.

Units of the 3rd "army" of Kudinsky.
This is almost 800 bayonets.

Directly during the battle, the 1st Petrograd consolidated detachment arrived from Aleksandrovsk to help these troops.

The number of the “Muscovite horde of the Red Army,” which was opposed by Goncharenko’s “three hundred Spartans,” varies in various nationalist sources from 20 thousand to 2 million!
It is clear that all this is a banal lie, designed for gullible zombies.

Firstly.
Ukrainian nationalists speak of Muravyov’s troops as Red Army soldiers.
But! The Red Army could not participate in the battle of Kruty: after all, February 23, 1918 is considered the day of the creation of the Red Army.
That is, only almost a month after the events near Kruty, the Red Army officially appeared!

Secondly.
Muravyov's detachments were sent to Kyiv not from Moscow, but from Kharkov.
These troops consisted primarily of Ukrainian volunteers.
Among them we see:
- Red Guards of Kharkov and Donetsk (Donetsk workers were commanded by the Ukrainian D. Zhloba).
- Chervony Cossacks of the Ukrainian (native of the Chernigov region) Vitaly Primakov.
- Ekaterinoslav workers.
- Yes, plus the remnants of the royal army. Yes, plus a detachment of sailors. But they, too, for the most part came from Ukraine.

Third.
There were no “hordes” of Muravyov either.
With him, only about 6 thousand soldiers advanced on Kyiv.
Moreover, a detachment of 3,600 people was involved in the battle near Krutami.

A. Goncharenko recalled that on the eve of the battle Muravyov himself contacted the station:

“Get ready to meet the victorious Red Army, prepare lunch. I forgive the mistakes of the cadets, but I will still shoot the officers.”

Goncharenko replied that everything was ready for the meeting.

During the period of defensive work near the Kruty station, at the suggestion of the centurion Loschenko, after lunch on January 28, a military raid was carried out behind enemy lines by rail.
At his suggestion, a cannon and a machine gun were loaded onto an open platform, surrounded by sandbags. The improvised “armored train” set out towards the Pliski station, where the enemy troops were located.
Accurate artillery and machine gun fire from Loschenko’s small detachment inflicted losses on the enemy and delayed the time of his advance.

And at this time, Minister of War Petlyura with significant troops was hiding behind the backs of the cadets defending Bakhmach. He was located at Bobrik station, northeast of Kyiv.

To this day, there is a noticeable discrepancy in determining both the scale of the battle near Kruty, its duration, the degree of cruelty, and, most importantly, the number of victims.

Based on various sources, let's try to describe the battle itself.

On the left flank (against the students) Baltic sailors and Siberians from R. Berzin’s “army” were advancing.
The right flank, where the young men were, was attacked by Red Guards from P. Egorov’s detachments.
Ahead walked a dense row of red Baltic sailors. Obviously, Remnev’s detachment of sailors did not expect any serious resistance. They walked without hiding, at full height. They walked like they were on parade...

A. Goncharenko recalled:

“It looked like they were going to a parade, using the most primitive security measures. The front parts of the Reds, walking in closed columns, were obviously confident of our escape, and no one from the station service responded to their calls. As soon as the Reds approached within shooting distance, we greeted them with strong fire from 4 hundred and 16 machine guns.”

The cadets' machine guns fired very accurately.
The cannon on the railway platform of the centurion S. Loschenko hit the rear of the enemy position.

This is what Lev Lukasevich, a sixth-grader at the Cyril and Methodius Gymnasium, recalls:

“Kozhen of us, who took part in the battle near Krutami, melodiously and fondly remembers the sergeant-major of the Bogdanovsky regiment in a blue-yellow casket, who, with one warrior on our armored belt, under heavy shelling of the beggars’ gate, shotgun shot down the Bolsheviks zip up the link between the two branches of our line, both on a high salivary mound.”

The sailors' attack failed with heavy losses.
And the Reds were forced to retreat to their original lines.

It should be noted that at the very beginning of the battle, the leaders of the yellow-blakit detachment (Timchenko, Bogaevsky), along with their cartridges, shamefully fled in the direction of Kyiv on the headquarters train. So, the headquarters of centurion Timchenko immediately gave in.

“The headquarters, as soon as they began to burst into war, shrapnel, in a commotion, moved the office from the station to the carriage and with a full train of versts to 6 versts of Krut, which forced the battle of officer Goncharenko, who had been standing at the front for the whole hour, singly, with absolutely no knowledge , why should I work... Tickingly, the headquarters buried wagons with cartridges and droves to the garmat, which finished off our right near Krutami. The positions were told over and over again to ask for ammo, but then they looked around - there were no cars with ammo. That same officer Goncharenko left the battle and ran with his bare hands for ammunition at the headquarters. Run two miles, go far, and return back. The Cossacks came from the right wing, having noticed the lack of cartridges, and also those who had gone in train to get to another station, began to retreat. Vlasne, the commander and commander ordered to retreat, but this order was due to the transmission to the Sich fighters and the stench fought until the hour when the station was occupied by the Bolsheviks from the right wing... The battle was lost.”

Dmitry Doroshenko (Grushevsky’s deputy in the CR, later Hetman Skoropadsky’s Minister of Foreign Affairs) recalled:

“When Bolshevik echelons moved towards Kyiv from Bakhmach and Chernigov, the government could not send a single military unit to fight back. Then they hastily assembled a detachment of high school students and high school students and threw them - literally to the slaughter - towards the well-armed and numerous forces of the Bolsheviks. The unfortunate youth were taken to the Kruty station and dropped off here at their “position”. While the young men (most of whom had never held a gun in their hands) fearlessly opposed the advancing Bolshevik detachments, their superiors, a group of officers, remained on the train and organized a drinking party in the carriages. The Bolsheviks easily defeated the youth detachment and drove it to the station. Seeing the danger, those remaining on the train hastened to give the signal for departure, not having a minute left to take those fleeing with them... The path to Kyiv was now completely open.”

Oles Buzina writes:

“So, according to the recollections of the participants in the battle near Kruty, their command got drunk even before the battle and pulled out of the station by train at the very first shots, leaving the fighters without ammunition. The train with the commanders had to catch up in the loose snow. You can imagine what speed the Ukrainian cadets developed if they finally caught up with this staff “pull”! And with machine guns, which they heroically carried!”

After the first unsuccessful offensive, the battle was conducted according to the rules. The Red Command included former officers. And they quickly expanded the front and carried out flank coverage.
There were 3 more attacks.
Meanwhile, according to eyewitnesses, the students' and cadets' supplies of ammunition had run out. And the shells for the cannon ran out.
The owners of Austrian rifles had not fired for a long time. Because they used their three clips even when repelling the first attack. They took the three-line rifles of their dead comrades and continued to shoot.
Gradually, one after another, the machine guns fell silent due to the lack of cartridges and their illiterate use, when they fired in half-belt bursts. After all, this led to overheating of the barrels due to boiling water in the barrel casing. And the machine gun no longer shoots, but spits bullets.

Levko Lukasevich recalled that the machine guns “didn’t work because of defective ammunition.”
That is, the very ammunition that the escaped headquarters took away.

The Reds launched their 5th attack.
Losing killed and wounded, they stubbornly moved forward. Their cannon battery, which had not fired successfully until now, concentrated fire on the Ukrainian positions.
For some time, Goncharenko’s detachment held out. In this he was helped by the armored train of the centurion Loschenko with one harmata.
But this improvised armored train, which was a railway platform lined with sandbags, could not compete with the approaching armored train of the legendary Polupanov and retreated. And the red armored train began firing at the defenders from the rear.
The advancing Red detachments began to bypass the defensive positions from the left flank. The danger of encirclement loomed.
And the cadets and students began to retreat in the direction of Kyiv.
Goncharenkovites were kicked out of the station. And they retreated to the train, which was taken to the rear 1.5 - 2 kilometers from the station.

Several kilometers of retreat seemed like an “eternity” to Lukasiewicz:

“Here, on the fifth day of the evening, the purchase of the wounded who arrived and buried, now under the orders of the elders, was strong enough to pull... The backs of our kuren no longer showed the same strength from the army’s look.”

And here is another memory of a participant in that battle.
It was published in 1918 in the Kiev Military Scientific Bulletin.

The machine gunner of the Student Hundred, shyly hiding under the abbreviation B. S-ko, colorfully described the brilliant leadership of the battle on the part of the drunken Ukrainian command:

“The day has come, which is worth much to the riches of life, and Wednesday has come. The supra-dzvichaina warta was removed from the battle line, having lost 30 people on the skin flank. They protected their strength. There were about 250 of us with the cadets. There were 100 strong Cossacks and 60 people in the cavalry. The whole force of the force “operating in Sloboda Ukraine,” as the newspapers loudly wrote. The cavalry was sent from the morning for reconnaissance, about 50 men, and they themselves calmly walked around the station, along the platform.
The reconnaissance did not return for a long time, after about 2 days the man of the 2nd returned, where did it go - it is unknown and they said that the Bolsheviks were advancing. As soon as I felt this, a thought flashed through my head: “I’m offended!” Also with meat.” Once again the sarwarka became worn out, once again there was no head, once again all the boys, more than half, went to the line, looming along the 1st ring of the pumps. No one had any respect for those who pulled the staff rod from the station and started smoking!!! From the headquarters, two artillery officers and our centurion were lost, a squad of cadets rode on the staff train, rushed to the headquarters in the middle of the battle for instructions, and then forgave them...
Our machine gun chief, P. Goroshko, ran from one machine gun to another, marveling at how everyone was in place... Black dots appeared from the forest. Closer and closer. Finally, I could not bear it and pressed the trigger. Ta-ta-ta-ta!!! The machine gun clicked. Having fired a bunch of cartridges. Bachu "not enough." I take the shots 200 lower and shoot again. It's obvious that I'm getting there. Black dots appeared here. Apparently it’s good that they lay down. Having stopped shooting, they began to run again. Having fired a machine-gun line of 200 rounds of cartridges. Yep!!! I think it's bad!!! Having hung the ribbon on the Bolsheviks; let's step up! The Bolsheviks, apparently, did not like us to take a machine gun with us, because the stench began to clatter loudly from the rifles. I ran about 200-150 miles with my assistant, they began again, they released another tape. The gate lay down, hovering in front of the sack, we, having blown the tape, ran away, straight to the cars, pulling behind us the machine gun, which danced along the sleepers, shaking our hands terribly painfully. People keep running, as if they are not self-sufficient. I shout: help me pull the machine gun! Go there! Nobody smells anything. So we got to the carriages... They arrived, collected all the people who had emerged from the fierce battle anyway alive, and we began to advance, shooting with rifles (since they weren’t needed, the cartridges had already been found).”

The cadets retreated under the cover of the embankment.
And the students’ positions were in an open area under fire. The commander of the student hundred, centurion Omelchenko, decided to first repel the enemy with a bayonet attack, and only then retreat. The attack was unsuccessful, because the young men were opposed by more experienced opponents. Hundred suffered losses, and Omelchenko himself was mortally wounded. The students were forced to retreat all the way to the station and beyond.
Having reached the train, they boarded there along with their wounded commander.
At about 5 p.m. the train departed for Kyiv...

As a result of a chaotic retreat in the dark, one student platoon (about 30 people) got lost. And out of fear, he ran to the Kruty station. And it was already occupied by Muravyov’s red troops.
One of the Bolshevik commanders, Yegor Popov, angry at the losses - up to 300 people - walked along the line of prisoners. And he threw arrogantly over his shoulder:
- Let them go to waste.

The Red Army soldiers mocked the prisoners for a long time, stabbed them with bayonets, and then shot them near the station water pump.
The villagers said that one - believed to be a 7th grade student at the gymnasium, Grigory Pipsky - sang “Ukraine is not yet dead” before the execution. The others took up the song. Loud shots drowned out the singing...
Local residents later buried everyone in the same grave.

According to recent research, approximately 70 people died on the yellow-blakit side: 40 students, 15 cadets and 15 Cossacks.
Soviet troops lost about 300 people killed and wounded.

Interesting point. The 1st armored vehicle division of Lieutenant Colonel Cherny, consisting of 4 armored vehicles, was sent from Kyiv to the Ukrainian cadets and students near Kruty.
So here it is. He simply refused to unload from the train, citing the fact that the terrain was not suitable for an attack.
According to Lieutenant Colonel of the UPR Army Stepan Samoilenko, “all the service personnel of the armored vehicles (I stood on the platform of the heavy automobile armored vehicle “Khortytsia”) were silent witnesses of the battle near Kruty.”

After the trade, when the train arrived in Darnitsa, the commanders gave the order to the students to go home in small groups.
The bridge over the Dnieper was controlled by units that sympathized with the Reds.

Here is what Lukasiewicz writes about this:

“All of us who were still in Darnitsa were ordered to cross in small groups across the Dnieper, which in 1918 was slightly frozen... Even here, an unlucky fate took us from many of our comrades, who tragically perished under the still ice of the Dnieper ipra… Demiivka bula buried by Bolshevik henchmen - robot workers from local factories. We have found our military documents and all our foreign signs, thrown away our armor and personal skins, having washed ourselves first, so that we will remove the demobilized soldiers of the Russian army...”

As we can see, there was essentially no grand battle.
Having suddenly fired at the Red Guards walking with songs, the “heroes of Krut” quickly retreated, unable to withstand the organized attack.
In reports to their superiors, those who led the battle overestimated the number of deaths in order to somehow justify their shameful flight.
Like, it was a stubborn battle, and we fought to the last.

But all this is not true!
Most of the fighters defending the position retreated.
Some of them fled.
The winners sent some of them captured to the hospital. There, after receiving medical assistance, they were released on parole.

Miroslava Berdnik writes:

“...I was lucky enough to talk with the son of one of the high school students who fought near Kruty. He told a remarkable tidbit.
In battle, as you know, you cannot see who is shooting at you from an enemy trench. Everyone is an enemy. After the battle, this high school student found himself in a group captured by the Bolsheviks. They fed them and asked the question: “Did you ask your parents when you came here?” “No,” they answered. “Well then go and ask. And don’t fall into such traps again.”

Well, the student leaders immediately fled on the train, hastily taking the ammunition with them.
So it was a shameful defeat.
From a military point of view, this is a rout.
Morally, it’s a shame. Shame on those who sent young warriors “to slaughter”, who abandoned them in battle.

There are no victories in the history of Ukrainian nationalists.
So they have to get out by creating myths about non-existent exploits.
In addition, the participants in the battle themselves considered it an example of the inability of the leadership of nationalist Ukraine to organize its forces.

In the battle near Kruty, several dozen guys deceived by the nationalists died. Which, as can be seen from Doroshenko’s memoirs, were basely abandoned by their superiors to their fate. And they themselves gave up after the first shots.

Of course this is a tragedy!
Nobody argues.
But just why inflate the death toll?!

As for the number of deaths, in addition to the mythical “three hundred Spartans” of Grushevsky, different figures were given.

Thus, Dmitry Doroshenko lists only 11 names of dead students.
Although he writes that on the first day (that is, January 16), part of the smoking area was destroyed. And in the second, 27 prisoners were shot and wildly mocked. They were part of a reconnaissance company that went to Kruty at the moment when the Reds had already taken possession of the station.
8 wounded were sent to Kharkov, where no one was interested in them, and they disappeared from the hospitals where they were taken for treatment.
It was as if “several dozen mutilated corpses” were brought to Kyiv for reburial.

In 1958, the results of S. Zbarazhsky’s 40-year documentary research “Cool. The 40th anniversary of the great rank was born on 29 September 1918. – September 29, 1956.”

The book opens with the following martyrology:
“Died under Krutami:
Sotnik Omelchenko is the commander of the Student Kuren, a student at the Ukrainian People's University in Kiev.
Volodymyr Yakovlevich Shulgin, Luka Grigorovich Dmitrenko, Mykola Lizogub, Oleksandr Popovich, Andriev, Bozhko-Bozhinsky - students of the University of St. Volodymyr in Kiev.
Izidor Kurik, Oleksandr Sherstyuk, Golovoshchuk, Chizhiv, Kirik - students of the Ukrainian People's University in Kiev.
Andriy Sokolovsky is a student of the 6th class of the 2nd Ukrainian Kiev Gymnasium.
Mykola Korpan from Tyapcha, near Bolekhov, Zahidna Ukraine. M. Gankevich, Evgen Tarnavsky, Gnatkevich, Pipsky - a student of the 7th class, originally from Western Ukraine, who was shot with the 35th at the Kruti station, before the shooting, he first started singing “Ukraine is not yet dead”, all of them We were sleeping."

So, 18 names are called.
These are the kuren commander who died from wounds and the scouts who died in captivity.
Since that time, no one has been able to make any changes to the above list...
The bodies of the dead comrades were carried from the battlefield by their comrades and buried upon arrival in Kyiv. Their names are not on this list, but their graves are in Kyiv.

Modern Ukrainian historians V. I. Semenenko and L. A. Radchenko write:

“In the battle, 20 students and high school students were killed, 27 were captured and shot, and 6, by order of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, were sent to the Kharkov hospital.”

Several dozen young men, deceived and betrayed by the “Svidomo patriots,” died for no apparent reason.
They fell in the fight against their own people.
And with the help of Grushevsky they turned into 300 courageous warriors who fought the invaders.

How this could have happened, probably even the most perverted “nationally Svidomo” mind cannot answer.
But the lie that 300 students defending the Central Rada were killed at the Kruty station continues to flow from Ukrainian television screens to this day, misleading millions of people...

I would like to draw attention to the fact that in the confusion of the events of January 1918, neither the battle itself near Kruty nor its participants attracted special attention public.

After all, in addition to Krut, in January 1918 the UPR army fought many other battles.
And she suffered all the defeats she could.
At the same time, I lost a lot of people.
And not so much killed as fled. Fleeing from animal horror in front of the “Muscovite barbarians” with red ribbons on their caps.

There were then January battles for Chuguev, Ekaterinoslav, Odessa, Romodan, Grebenka.

There was a desperately heroic attempt by Lieutenant Bondarevsky to organize resistance to the Reds in Sumy and was shot by the Bolsheviks.

The 3-day battle for Bakhmach cost more than 50 killed and 120 wounded.
There, the Ukrainian units were led by the commander of the Doroshenko regiment, cornet Khmelevsky (died a year later).

But for some reason only one shootout went down in history - Kruty.

Why then did such an insignificant battle receive such a wide response?

It should be noted that this event gained loud publicity only after the entry of troops of the Kaiser’s Germany into Ukraine, the retreat of the Reds and the return of the Central Rada to Kyiv with German bayonets.
That is, already in March 1918.
It was then, when the situation had stabilized a little, that close relatives and friends of the young men who died near Kruty raised the question of reburying their remains. And also about the responsibility of those responsible for their deaths.

On March 5, 1918, the UPR War Ministry formed a commission to clarify the circumstances of the battle near Kruty.
It included a member of the Central Rada, Alexander Shulgin, who lost his brother, Vladimir Shulgin, in the battle near Kruty.

“The group of relatives is growing to include all the fathers and relatives of students, middle schoolers and others who entered the warehouse of the sich smokehouse and died in battle and were shot after the battle of Krut on the 16th of today. R. And he proposes to present a secret story about digging up graves in order to identify and transport their bodies from Krut, as well as seize them from Kiev.”

The story took on a resonant flavor of scandal.

And on March 16, an article “Tragedy on Kruty” appeared in the “New Rada” signed “S. Sh." Researchers believe that it was Sergei Shemet, one of the leaders of the Ukrainian Party of Democratic Farmers, which then increasingly criticized the leadership of the Central Rada.

The publication said:

“We want to strengthen the respect of the kingdom and the Ukrainian government in response to the terrible tragedy that occurred in Art. Turn around when the Bolsheviks are approaching Kiev. In Kruty, the flower of Ukrainian school youth has perished. A few hundred of the brightest intelligentsia - young people - enthusiasts of the Ukrainian national idea perished. Such an expenditure would be important for a cultural nation; for our people it is endless. The fault in this tragedy is the entire system of stupidity, our entire system, which, after the lackluster social legislation, after the perpetual administration, found itself abandoned by the people and the army, and in such a hopeless situation they decided to die. There will be hundreds of school-age youth left behind by the well-established Bolshevik army. Having hastily disposed of these victims of ordinary frivolity, without any military preparation, they were sent to Kruti...”

The author demanded that the government draw appropriate conclusions and punish, or at least remove from leadership, the culprits.
Although the article does not name specific names, everyone understood well that we were talking, first of all, about the highest political and military leadership of the UPR. That is, about Mikhail Grushevsky and, in particular, about Simon Petlyura, who again became Minister of War.

The then head of the UPR, M. Grushevsky, was no worse an intriguer than a myth-maker. And he got his bearings with lightning speed.
This is where M. Grushevsky’s deep professorial knowledge and political intuition came in very handy.
The outstanding Ukrainian historian, the undisputed national leader of that time, more than once drew attention to certain psychological characteristics Ukrainian nation, which he was even inclined to attribute to its mental traits. Among them, surprisingly, is the ability to arrange a funeral.

The Chairman of the Central Rada noted:

“The great masters are in this and put their whole soul into the funeral ceremony. But to support life, in the struggle that is being waged until the greatest energy is given to the interests of people, it is none of their business, the stinks are extinguished: “my house is on the edge,” take neutrality and fight who you can overcome: St. Whether it's someone else's or your own It’s better to celebrate your funeral and record it before the national saints...”

Although M. Grushevsky talks about such national customs with an obvious negative connotation, it was the “traditional” option that he himself resorted to when he had to answer the excited questions of the indignant public.
Trying to find a way out of a difficult situation, at a meeting of the Small Rada he proposed to agree with the demands of the relatives of the “Sich” to honor the memory of those killed at Kruty and transfer their bodies to Kyiv to Askold’s grave. And also to bury the “young Spartans” at the expense of the state.
The meeting honored the memory of the heroes by standing up and decided to “have a funeral at the cost of the state.”

Oles Buzina writes:

“The Kruty became the reason for the creation of a political myth, because among those killed there was the nephew of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Central Rada, Alexander Shulgin, Vladimir. The members of the Central Rada, who returned to Kyiv at the tail of the Germans, were ashamed of their colleague. They were all alive and well. Everyone, led by Grushevsky and Vinnichenko, fled safely under the protection of German weapons. And only in one of the families, elevated to the then Ukrainian “elite” by the will of revolutionary events, did tragedy happen. How could he not do something “pleasant” for his brother-minister?
But there were other reasons. Together with Vladimir Shulgin, almost three dozen more very young boys - students and high school students - died. A society accustomed to cruelty during the World War was difficult to amaze with anything. The fact that adults die at the front not even in thousands, but in millions, has already become commonplace. Newspapers for the years 1914-1917 were full of countless photographs of dead officers. But these faces of men in uniform, marked with funeral crosses, were, excuse me, no longer touched. The public's nerves became rough. Society needed something especially sentimental. It's clear. For the most part, people are selfish. Only by playing on the most vulnerable points of their psyche can one evoke sympathy. And what is more amenable to manipulation by political strategists than parental instinct?
...Old, cunning, passionately loving his only daughter Katya, who did not need to be sent to the army, Chairman of the Central Rada and a great specialist in composing various “stories” Mikhail Grushevsky unerringly chose the topic for the next folk “fairy tale”. The reburial of the “krutyans” became, excuse the frankness, the first “holiday” of the Ukrainian authorities, behind which to this day the “tops” like to hide their cowardice and unprofessionalism. The cult of official state masochism began with Krut. “Children” in coffins distracted attention from their sly faces and fidgety political asses”...

On March 19, 1918, a carriage with coffins arrived at the shabby Kiev station.
They contained the remains of the victims who had been shot by the Red Guards of Colonel Mikhail Muravyov a month and a half earlier. They were shot at the Kruty railway station, between Nizhyn and Bakhmach in the Chernihiv region.
At two o'clock in the afternoon, the relatives of the dead, students, high school students, soldiers, clergy, a choir under the direction of A. Koshits, and many Kiev residents gathered at the station.
Bishop Nikodim officiated at the funeral service.
After the funeral service, a funeral procession set off from the station.
Ahead are carts with blue-gray coffins - two on each.
On the way we made a stop at the house of the Central Rada. It is on Vladimirskaya, 57 (now the Teacher's House).

During the transportation of the bodies near the building of the Central Rada, Russian symbols were removed from this building.

One of the Kyiv newspapers wrote:

“In this wave, when their coffins are carried in front of the Central Rada, where Ukrainian statehood was forged over the course of a year, a Russian eagle is torn from the pediment of her house, a shameful sign of Russian power over Ukraine, a symbol of the captivity in which she lived for over 260 years. Apparently, the opportunity to rip it off was not given in vain, apparently, it could not pass without victims, it had to be bought with blood. And blood was shed by these young heroes whom we are now seeing off!”

Near the building of the Central Rada, Professor Mikhail Grushevsky addressed the funeral procession with plaintive and solemn words:

“From this tree, when their houses are transported before the Central Rada, the Ukrainian sovereignty was forged through fate, from the pediment of this house there is a Russian eagle, a bad sign of Russian power over Ukraine, a symbol of the captivity in which she lived for a long time.” sixty years ago. Apparently, the power of his soul was not given for free, apparently, it could not pass without sacrifices, and it was necessary to buy blood. And blood was shed by these young heroes, whom we respect.”

The ceremonial reburial of the students’ kuren fighters who died near Kruty, who were found on the battlefield and identified, was actively covered by the Kyiv press.
According to the press of that time, 17 coffins were lowered into the mass grave at the Askoldov cemetery.
This figure differs only by one from the named list of victims by S. Zbarazhsky.
Among those buried was not the body of centurion A. Omelchenko, who was mortally wounded during the battle on January 16, and those whose bodies were taken with them after the battle. The centurion died on the way to Kyiv. His body and the bodies of his dead comrades were buried in Kyiv after the battle.

So, having returned on the convoy of German troops, the leaders of the Central Rada arranged for the unfortunate young men a “luxurious” reburial with “fiery” speeches over their coffins.
In other words, they organized, as they would say now, a PR campaign.
They did this in order to divert people's attention from their vile act. Let us remember how the top of the Central Rada shamefully fled from Kyiv...

The press in those days was full of reports about the reburial of “fighters for the will of Ukraine” and sharp criticism of the authorities.
The then press widely covered the reburial of the heroes:
- “Funeral of the victims of the struggle for the will of Ukraine” - “Narodna Volya”,
- “Bury Two” - “Fighting”,
- “Pro patria mori” - “Kiev Thought”.

There were also statements that were offensive to the authorities.

For example, in the article by doctor S. Kolomiytsev “On the monument to the victims in Kruty.”
In particular, there are the following lines:

“The flower of the Ukrainian intelligentsia, children who did not know how to shoot, were sent by the disorganized Ukrainian authorities to meet the Russian Bolsheviks armed to the teeth... Honor and glory to the young heroes, and eternal shame to those who had to save not themselves, but them, but not did this."

A warm response and recollection from Sergei Efremov, a member of the UPSF Central Committee, about Vladimir Shulgin, whom the erudite scientist had known since childhood and appreciated the high talents of the young patriot, was also printed there.

Party and statesman I also could not resist expressing an angry condemnation of the authorities, who called upon young romantics and idealists to defend themselves:

“And this is where the terrible tragedy of souls like Shulginov begins. When called, the stinks called, they went and laid down everything they had... But I can see for myself what they had to experience there, under the Kruty, abandoned, armorless and dry, in front of the unsweetened wild enemy, and, perhaps, with murderous knowledge, so clean Their victim did not give up at all, because in these circumstances of terrible disorganization it turned out to be unnecessary and unnecessary, and did not sacrifice anyone or anything. The will, like destiny, “asks for redemptive sacrifices” - this is what we need to make peace with. “It’s impossible to put up with this, if these sacrifices are wasted so lavishly, as was the case with the holy sacrifice of the Ukrainian youth, which they laid on their heads near Krutami.”

Nevertheless, M. Grushevsky’s proposal turned out to be very timely.
And it helped the authorities turn the public mood in their favor.
The magnificent ceremony of reburial of the bodies of the “Sich”, the generous gesture of the state, which allocated significant funds for this purpose, played their role.
They talked a little more about the tragedy near Krutami, but not so aggressively.
After all, after the victims of political irresponsibility and cynicism of the Ukrainian authorities were quickly turned into a symbol of national feat, it was somehow inconvenient to expose and demand that the perpetrators be brought to justice.

By the way, in Pavel Tychina’s poem “In Memory of Thirty” there are the following lines:

“Who dare you date?
Zradnik's hand?
The clear sun, the wind and the Dnieper River play..."

I wonder who the poet calls “zradnik”?

After all, Muravyov is not an open enemy.

Well, then other topical topics began to come to the fore.
The official authorities preferred not to mention the events near Kruty once again.
So, a lot of documentary evidence ended up being lost.
Gradually, the tragic fate of the “Sich” became overgrown with all sorts of myths.
And, in the end, it turned into a kind of “legend about the great feat of youth in the name of the freedom of the Fatherland.”
There was, of course, no room to highlight the unsavory role of the authorities.
And all 300 young men who took part in the battle began to be counted among the dead...
“All three hundred, as one, died heroically,” sounds, after all, more sublime than simply “about forty died.”
Although in reality this is exactly what happened.

And when today’s national patriots, for the umpteenth time, tell us the myth about the defense of Krut, the question involuntarily arises:

“Why was there virtually no one to defend the capital city of Kyiv except a few hundred young men?”

As is known, at the time of the declaration of independence of the UPR, about 10 thousand soldiers were located in Kyiv, members of several army regiments, units of the Free Cossacks of Skoropadsky.
In addition, there were about 20 thousand former soldiers and officers of the Russian army who had returned from the front in the city.
As well as military formations of the Central Rada.
Including the most combat-ready:
- Gaidamak Kosh (Ataman Simon Petlyura) and
- a kuren of the Sich Riflemen formed from Galicians (commander - Evgen Konovalets).
That is, there was someone to organize the defense.
In addition, a large amount of ammunition and weapons, including heavy ones, were stored in the Kyiv arsenals.

But! After a message arrived in Kyiv about the advance of echelons with Muravyov’s detachments from Kharkov, not a single regular formation subordinate to the CR came to the defense of Kyiv.
The front-line townspeople preferred to stay home.
The Ukrainianized units located in Kyiv declared “neutrality.”
Both the Haidamaks and the Sich Riflemen retreated!
Moreover, in Kyiv on January 16 (29), 1918, an uprising began against the Central Rada.

And why?

Yes, because the “Ukrainian idea” inspired mainly only the self-proclaimed local “elite”, who hoped to occupy the best places in the newly created “power”!
And no one wanted to protect this “elite”, which consisted of local luminaries and the careerists and adventurers of lower rank who joined them!
Because by the beginning of 1918, the Ukrainians were completely disillusioned with the leadership of the UPR, which was pursuing an absolutely incompetent and, at the same time, aggressive policy of tearing the country away from the centuries-old alliance with Russia and inculcating the Galician “consciousness.”

Since in true history the defense of Kyiv from the Bolsheviks was nothing but disgrace, for the independentists there was nothing, then the myth of the “Battle of Kruty” came in very handy!

What else would you like to pay attention to?

At the same time when the tragedy near Kruty occurred, the nationalists shot about 400 workers of the Arsenal plant in Kyiv!
Moreover, by their death, the students gave the nationalists the opportunity to kill Kyiv workers!

But, in addition to the Arsenal men, there were also brave young cadets (yesterday’s high school students and students) who died in the village of Borshchagovka at the hands of the Petliurists.

Konstantin Paustovsky wrote about this in his book “The Beginning of an Unknown Century” and Mikhail Bulgakov in his book “The White Guard”.

It is about them, the dead martyrdom, Vertinsky sang:

I don't know,
why and who needs it?
Who sent them to their deaths
with an unshaking hand?

And no one just thought of it
kneel down
And tell these boys
that in a mediocre country
Even bright feats -
these are just steps...

Why don't they remember these people?

Or is their life “cheaper” than the lives of students?

Or maybe because most of those who defended Kruty were Galicians?

It was in Galicia, even before the Second World War, that a tradition developed to celebrate the anniversary of the battle of Kruty.
Then, in the 1990s, this tradition was transferred by nationalists throughout Ukraine.

Let me remind you once again that there were no “hordes” of Muravyov.

Vladimir Vinnychenko in his work “Rebirth of the Nation” recalled:

“...The majority of the Bolshevik army was made up of our own warriors...”

Therefore, the battle near Kruty is a clash of Ukrainians with Ukrainians. Only those who fought under different banners. Some are under yellow-blakit, others are under red...

At that time, the ancestors of the majority of Ukrainians in the east and south of our country were not with the Galicians, but on the other side of the barricades.
They fought against foreign invaders standing behind the Central Rada. That Rada, which, in fact, killed the unfortunate young men at the Kruty station. At that time, the “Ochilniks” of the Central Russia themselves were packing their junk in order to scurry off to the West...

And now, as Miroslava Berdnik believes (and I completely agree with her):

“The fact of the criminal sending of children to slaughter and leaving them in the field by the cowardly escaped leaders of the Central Rada is presented to the younger generation in a perverse way to incite nationalism and hatred of Russia and Russians.”

On January 29, 1918, 300 Ukrainian schoolchildren and students near the small town of Kruty near Kiev fought for 5 hours against a four-thousand-strong Red Guard unit.

Background

November 7, 1917, after the Bolsheviks led Vladimir Lenin seized power in Russia, proclaimed the Ukrainian People's Republic in Kyiv, which included 9 provinces populated predominantly by Ukrainians.

This caused indignation among the Council People's Commissars in Russia. On the night of December 11-12, 1917, the Bolsheviks tried to raise an uprising in Kyiv against the Central Rada, the representative body of the UPR. The attempt was unsuccessful - Ukrainian troops disarmed the “Red” detachments and expelled them in trains from Ukraine.

Two days later, the Council of People's Commissars put forward a “Manifesto to the Ukrainian people with ultimatum demands to the Central Rada,” which accused the Ukrainians of “an unheard-of betrayal of the revolution” and demanded to stop the disarmament of the Red Guards, oppose the White Guards and actually surrender power. Otherwise, the Bolsheviks promised to start a war with Ukraine. Signed an ultimatum Leon Trotsky and Vladimir Lenin, they gave Ukraine 48 hours for a positive response - otherwise they threatened to declare war on the Ukrainian People's Republic.

The Soviet government decided not to wait for a response from the Central Rada and on December 18 declared Ukraine its enemy and began to concentrate the Red Guard at its northeastern borders. 160 thousand military personnel were stationed near Bryansk and Gomel.

20th of December Vladimir Vinnichenko And Simon Petliura sent the Bolsheviks a rather sharp response, which said that Russia has no right to interfere in the internal affairs of Ukraine, and the Red Guards will be disarmed as long as they threaten the newly created state.

The Red Guard launched an offensive. The Bolsheviks commanded the “Red” forces Vladimir Ovsienko and Socialist-Revolutionary Ukrainophobe Mikhail Muravyov. During the month of war, Soviet units captured Kharkov and Poltava and, under the command of Muravyov, moved to Kyiv.

On December 25, the Bolsheviks proclaimed the Soviet Ukrainian Republic, and Kharkov was made its capital. On December 30, the newly created government of the Soviet UPR declared the Central Rada illegitimate, which allowed the Russian Council of People's Commissars to formally remain outside the war in Ukraine, presenting it as an internal conflict between the two capitals.

Ukrainian troops were demoralized and tired of World War I and the civil war. But most of all, the combat effectiveness of the UPR army was threatened by communist agitators, who lured entire detachments to their side.

There was a war of influx... Our influx was smaller. There were already the rest of the small ones that, with great difficulties, some small, more or less disciplined units could form and hang them against the Bolsheviks. The Bolsheviks, however, also had quite a few great disciplined units, but their advantage was that all our broad masses of soldiers did not give them any support, but rather switched to their side, so that perhaps all the work of the skin place was behind them ; that in the villages the rural poverty was clearly greater; that, in a word, the great majority of the Ukrainian population itself was against us, - Vladimir Vinnychenko.

That is why the UPR decided to attract patriotic students to defend the capital. On January 5, 1918, junior students of the University of St. Vladimir and the Ukrainian People's University created the Student Kuren of the Sich Riflemen. In addition to students, it included senior students from the Cyril and Methodius Brotherhood gymnasium. In total, approximately 200 people joined the kuren, led by a student from the Ukrainian People's University Andrey Omelchenko.

Battle of Kruty

January 26 Averky Goncharenko, the commander of one of the detachments defending the roads to Kyiv, sent a message to the capital that he urgently needed reinforcements - the Bolshevik army was attacking more and more intensely.

Help came the very next day - one hundred fighters from the Student Kuren. Most of the new arrivals had never seen combat. In addition, they had very few weapons and ammunition: 16 machine guns and a homemade armored train.

When the students arrived, Goncharenko, along with his fighters, students of the Kyiv Youth School, had already retreated to the Kruty railway station, from which Kyiv was 200 kilometers away.

In the morning, Red Guard forces approached the station and almost immediately a battle broke out. The defenders of Krut, who had managed to gain a strong foothold at the station over the previous 24 hours, successfully held back the advance forward detachment Baltic sailors under the command of the Bolshevik Remnev. The defenders were supported by two small guns and an armored train - several dozen “reds” died under their fire. The battles lasted more than 5 hours, the Ukrainians repelled many attacks, but almost half of the fighters were wounded or killed.

After Mikhail Muravyov’s troops came to Remnev’s aid, the defenders of Krut had to begin a retreat - they were running out of ammunition and had completely run out of shells for their guns. Most of the fighters managed to get to the train, which was waiting for them near Kruty. The commander of the Student Kuren, Omelchenko, covered the withdrawal of the main forces with a bayonet attack. This operation was unsuccessful: Omelchenko and part of Kuren were killed, but they delayed the Bolshevik offensive.

During the retreat, 34 reconnaissance platoon soldiers got lost and were captured by the Red Guards. One of the "red" commanders Evgeniy Popov ordered to first torture and then execute the prisoners. 7th grade student at Cyril and Methodius Gymnasium Grigory Pipsky before the execution he sang “Ukraine is not dead yet.” The rest of the prisoners also took up the anthem.

During the battle at Kruty station, Ukrainian forces lost up to 150 people, while Bolshevik losses amounted to about 350 fighters.

The defense of Krut could have been helped by a large detachment of Simon Petlyura, who at that moment was 30 kilometers from the battle site. However, Petlyura decided that his fighters were more needed in the capital and went to Kyiv. Despite the fact that the Ukrainian troops had to retreat, the defense of Krut made it possible to delay the advance of the Soviet army towards Kyiv, and later, on February 9, to conclude the Beresteysky Peace. Thus, it was possible to preserve the Ukrainian People's Republic, although not for long: already in 1921, the territories of the UPR were divided between Poland and Soviet Russia.

On the morning of January 29, Bolshevik formations began an offensive. The youth were taken to the Kruty station and dropped off here at their “position”. While the young men (most of whom had never held a gun in their hands) fearlessly opposed the advancing Bolshevik detachments, their superiors, a group of officers, remained on the train and organized a drinking party in the carriages. The battle lasted 8 hours. The Reds suffered significant damage, but in time they received reinforcements in the form of sailors from the Petrograd Regiment, and an enemy armored train entered the rear of the station’s defenders from the Chernigov branch. Ukrainian troops repulsed several Bolshevik attacks, but were forced to retreat after dismantling the railway tracks. The Bolsheviks managed to defeat the youth detachment and drive it to the station. Seeing the danger, those on the train hastened to give the signal for departure, not having a minute left to take those fleeing with them... The path to Kyiv was now completely open.

The Ukrainians were running out of ammunition, and alarming news came from the rear: the kuren in Nizhyn had gone over to the side of the Bolsheviks. Goncharenko gave the order to withdraw student hundreds to the train, which was located on the Kyiv branch. Under the cover of twilight, and also taking advantage of the indecisiveness of the Red Army soldiers, who had lost a large number of their soldiers, the students in a train were able to retreat to a safe distance under fire from the Reds who had come to their senses.

In the haste to retreat, one student platoon of 30 people was captured. In a state of passion of victory, the Red Army soldiers immediately shot the officer who was among the prisoners. At first, 27 children were brutally bullied. and then shot with explosive bullets. One of the condemned, a seventh-grader from Galicia, Pipsky, sang the Ukrainian anthem before being executed...

The exact number of student deaths has not been officially recorded anywhere. According to testimony from participants in the events, more than 250 people from the Ukrainian side were killed. The names of only those 27 students who were captured and shot are known. Their bodies were later solemnly reburied at Askold’s grave in Kyiv.

During the Soviet era, the events near Kruty were either hushed up or surrounded by myths and conjectures. True, the Ukrainian Soviet poet Pavel Tychyna dedicated the poem “In Memory of Thirty” to the heroic deed of the students.

January is a significant month for Ukrainian nationalists. On January 1 they celebrate Bandera’s birthday, and on the 29th they commemorate the “heroes of Krut”.

They shouted and will continue to shout slogans: “To the heroes of Cool - glory, glory, glory!”, “Bandera will come - he will restore order!”, “Glory to the nation - death to the enemies!”.

Yes, if only frostbitten nationalists glorified the “heroes of Krut”. Viktor Yanukovych once said in his address to Ukrainians: “Today we honor the feat of Ukrainian young men who died defending their state. The courage and self-sacrifice of several hundred military cadets, students, and high school students became a real example for subsequent generations of fighters for independence.”

The question arises: what “glorious” happened on January 16 (29), 1918 at the railway station near the village of Kruty, 130 kilometers northeast of Kyiv? What kind of “heroes” were there?
And there the advancing detachments of the Reds tore the UPR (Ukrainian People's Republic), a nationalist public education.

It would be very difficult to call what happened near Kruty a battle in the full sense. “When Bolshevik echelons moved towards Kyiv from Bakhmach and Chernigov, the government could not send a single military unit to fight back. Then they hastily assembled a detachment of high school students and high school students and threw them - literally to the slaughter - towards the well-armed and numerous forces of the Bolsheviks.

The unfortunate youth was taken to the Kruty station and dropped off here at the “position”. While the young men (most of whom had never held a gun in their hands) fearlessly opposed the advancing Bolshevik detachments, their superiors, a group of officers, remained on the train and organized a drinking party in the carriages; The Bolsheviks easily defeated the youth detachment and drove it to the station. Seeing the danger, those on the train hastened to give the signal to leave, not having a minute left to take those fleeing with them…” recalled the Chairman of the General Secretariat of the Central Rada of the UPR Dmitry Doroshenko.

With inimitable seriousness, many modern figures of Ukraine compare this whole circus of blood... with the battle of three hundred Spartans at Thermopylae. That's it, no more, no less.

The political party “Rus” (Ukraine) stated at one time about this: “This holiday, like many other holidays of the “stealers,” does not carry a positive and unifying idea for the population of Ukraine. Emphasis is placed on the sacrificial death of young guys, but nothing is said about the fact that the officers, who were supposed to fight to the death along with the soldiers, cowardly ran away from the battlefield. We mourn the dead, but we remember those who thoughtlessly, for the sake of their political interests, abandoned unprepared young men to the bayonets and bullets of many times superior Bolshevik forces. The episode with the Krutys is used by Ukrainian national patriots to incite anti-Russian hysteria. Although the battle itself took place between the troops of the RSFSR and the UPR, and the Bolsheviks did not represent the interests of Russia at that time. At that time in the territory Russian Empire was walking Civil War, there were several governments claiming supreme power. The UPR also did not represent the interests of the Ukrainian population, since it was not popularly elected. To talk about the ethnic nature of the conflict in this case is criminal. The battle near Kruty is a local conflict between two political entities and an example of the meanness of the Ukrainian authorities of that time, who turned their tactical military mistake into an anti-Russian myth.”

The event for mythologizing was very poorly chosen. The Ukrainian nationalists could have pushed themselves harder and come up with an anniversary for a less funny battle. Who gets the “glory” here? The officers who got drunk on the train while the Reds beat their inexperienced subordinates, and then abandoned their personnel in the lurch? This is not glory, this is disgrace.

In the military, the “independents” did not always look like such a bunch of armed clowns as they did at Kruty. But those who now glorify the heroes of this shameful “drape” look like even bigger clowns.

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