Kiev Bolshevik Uprising

In the fall of 1917 in Petrograd, when the Bolsheviks staged the "Great October Revolution", their Ukrainian colleagues attempted to do the same. However, unlike in the Russian capital, the rebellion in Kiev failed. The Ukrainian Bolshevik Revolution came as a surprise to the leaders of the Ukrainian Central Council (Tsentralna Rada). Like the predominant part of the Russian public, the Ukrainian officials were sure that undertakers of the Russian Provisional Government would not remain in power for more than a few weeks.[1]

The day after the events in Petrograd, the Ukrainian Central Council declared that it considered the transferring of power to the Council of Workers' and Soldiers' deputies unacceptable, as they composed "only a part of the organized revolutionary democracy". Officially condemning the coup as undemocratic, the Central Council promised to fight hard to support any uprising in Ukraine.[1]

The news of the Petrograd coup caused a surge of armed struggles in the capital of Ukraine. For the next three days, there was street fighting in Kiev between supporters of the Soviet government and government forces. The latter were eventually forced to surrender. Despite its declarations, in this fight, the Ukrainian Central Council took the position of friendly neutrality towards the Bolsheviks. To many Ukrainian politicians, the Bolsheviks seemed far less dangerous than the toppled Provisional Government, which had, in the last weeks of its existence, began to express increasing hostility towards the Ukrainian National movement.[1]

Taking advantage of the defeat of government forces, Ukrainian units took control of the main government institutions of the city. Power in Kiev and Ukrainian lands was transferred to the Central Council and its executive body, the General Secretariat. The Kiev Military District commander was appointed a participant of Ukrainian National movement Lieutenant Colonel Viktor Pavlenko. Kiev Bolsheviks did not object to the actions of the Central Council. Both sides considered their main opponent the toppled Russian government that seemed as it could still return to power. However, soon thereafter it became understood that the Provisional government has finally descended from political forestage. On the daily agenda, before the fighter for "proletarian revolution", arose a question about the establishment of Soviet power in Ukraine.[1]

The Kievan Committee of the Russian Social-Democratic Worker's Party (Bolsheviks), ten members of which joined the Central Rada previously.[2]

On November 8, with the initiative of the Central Council of Ukraine, the Regional Committee in Protection of Revolution in Ukraine was created, intended to be a temporary government in Kiev. It consisted of representatives from different political parties, councils, and the city Duma. The Committee was meeting in the building of the Pedagogical museum. The headquarters of the KMD was supporting the Russian Provisional Government, and did not trust the State Committee as it included the Bolsheviks. On November 9, the Central Rada finally defined its negative position in relation to the Petrograd coup, condemned the Bolshevik's actions, and declared that "it will decisively fight against all attempts to support such uprising in Ukraine". Rada expressed its agreement for the creation of Russian homogeneous socialist government with the representatives of all socialist parties.

The Kievan Bolsheviks, headed by Georgiy Pyatakov (an active member of the Central Rada) firmly stood on Lenin's principles, and they did not agree with the position of the Central Rada. On the same day, they left the State Committee for the protection of the revolution and held a joint meeting in the Bergonie theater with representatives of worker's and soldier's deputies councils, trade unions, factory presiding committees (fabzavkom), and military units. The meeting accepted the resolution for the support of the Bolshevik Revolution in Petrograd and declared the power of the Soviet government. With their next decision, the congress elected revkom consisting of such Bolsheviks as Jan Hamarnyk, Oleksandr Horwits, Andriy Ivanov, Isaac Kreysberg, Volodymyr Zatonsky, Ivan Kulyk, and others to whom they planned to transfer the power. This same group would go on to initiate the January Uprising a couple of months later to support the sack of Kiev by the advancing Bolshevik forces from the Russian SFSR and the installation of the Soviet government in Ukraine.

In response to the Bolshevik activities, the military forces of the KMD were ordered to liquidate the Bolshevik center on November 10, 1917. They surrounded Mariinskyi Palace, where the local revkom was located, and thrashed the building of the Kievan Duma Executive Committee, as well as the Bolshevik Committee. Almost all of the members of the Kievan Committee of the Russian Social-Democratic Worker's Party (Bolsheviks) and the revkom (totaling 14 people) were arrested. The same day, the State Committee for the protection of the revolution ceased to exist as the commander of the KMD, Mikhail Kvetsinsky, refused to take orders from it. On November 10, all of the functions of the liquidated State Committee for the protection of the revolution were transferred to the General Secretariat.

The Bolsheviks answered by reinstating the revkom the next day (Volodymyr Zatonsky, Andriy Ivanov, Ivan Kudrin, and others). They initiated military operations against the forces of the KMD. At the same time, the VII session of the Central Rada had taken place, the deputies of which formed a committee that would find ways to stop the mayhem in Kiev. The session also sanctioned all the power in Ukraine to be transferred to the Central Rada. For the next couple of days, street firefights filled some parts of the city (including Pechersk and Demiivka). On November 13, the headquarters of the Kiev Military District (KMD), located on Bankova Street, signed a cease-fire agreement with the Kiev revkom and withdrew out of the city. Since then, the Kiev Military District has been virtually liquidated.[3]

On November 16, 1917, at the joined meeting of the Central Rada and the Executive Committee of the soviets of the workers' soldiers' deputies in Kiev have acknowledged the Rada as the regional council in Ukraine. Shortly after, on November 20, the III Universal of the Ukrainian People's Republic, which declared Ukraine an autonomous part of the Russian state with the capital in Kiev, was officially created.

• Vinnytsia Bolshevik Uprising

• Kiev. Historical encyclopedia. 1917–2000.
• Doroshenko, D. Історія України 1917—1923" (History of Ukraine 1917–23). Vol I. "Доба Центральної Ради" (The times of the Central Rada). Uzhhorod 1932.

• Kiev October Armed Uprising in 1917 at the Ukrainian Soviet Encyclopedia