On Jan. 29, 1918, some 530 men fought for the young Ukrainian state at Kruty, a small railroad station between Nizhyn and Bakhmach (today: Chernihiv oblast). These were soldiers and officers from A-Company of the Student Kurin of Sich Riflemen and the No. 1 Khmelnytsky Cadet School, who faced a 6,000-strong Russian Bolshevik force (Red Army men, Baltic Fleet sailors) backed by artillery and an armored train. After an unequal battle the Ukrainian unit commanded by Captain Honcharenko of the Army of the UNR lost 300 men and 10 officers.
The reason behind the Kruty tragedy was that the socialist leadership of the Central Rada, having believed the saccharine declarations of a number of governments (including Bolshevik Russia, many European countries, even President Wilson of the US) about the imminent era of “lasting peace” and independent states protected from aggression, consciously rejected the idea of forming its own Ukrainian armed forces. This fatal mistake must serve a lasting lesson for all of us: there was no one to ward off the onslaught of Muravev’s army on Kyiv (the UNR forces in Kyiv formally numbered 20,000 men and officers, although only some 20 or 25 percent were combat-ready).
The current Ukrainian generation must learn the main conclusion from the feat of arms performed by the heroes of the Battle of Kruty. It is clear: the state must be capable of defending itself at any time, at short notice!
The head of the Ukrainian government addressed a message to her fellow Ukrainians on the 90th anniversary of the Battle of Kruty. The press service of the Cabinet of Ministers quotes Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko as saying that “Kruty serves as a cruel example of how mistakes and miscalculations, at times the banal irresponsibility of politicians, are paid dearly by the nation with the lives of the worthiest sons of this nation. In those stormy years the young Ukrainian state found itself without its own army. We all know that this ended in tragedy. I am proud to know that the Kruty heroes belong to our nation. As a politician, I promise that I will do my best to prevent such tragic mistakes from being repeated and to ensure that our country is defended not by patriotic children but by an effective professional army.”
On Jan. 9 President Viktor Yushchenko laid wreaths at the Heroes of Kruty Memorial (a short walk from Askold’s Grave). Wreaths were also laid on behalf of the Verkhovna Rada, Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, Kyiv City State Administration, and Kyiv Regional State Administration (see photo). The officials who took part in the ceremony honored the memory of the fallen heroes with a one-minute silence.
