«Подлинное население Киева… держит нейтралитет»: русские монархисты и украинско-большевистское противостояние (январь 1918 года)

Abstract

The article is devoted to the viewpoint of Russian monarchists in Kiev who were caught in the crossfire of the Ukrainians and the Bolsheviks fighting with each other. One of the leaders of the “Russian Party” in Kiev V.V. Shulgin tried to enter into a tactical alliance with the Ukrainians in the person of S.V. Petliura in order to resist the advancing Bolshevist forces, but the negotiations collapsed. In the long run the main structures of the Russian movement, as well as the majority of the Russians in Kiev did not participate in the conflict of the Ukrainians and the Bolsheviks. And though the myth of the Black Hundreders participating in the Bolshevistic uprising at “Arsenal” plant was not confirmed, a certain part of the former members of workers’ monarchist unions most probably joined the rebels. The author comes to the conclusion that in the beginning of 1918 in Kiev the political groups that later confronted each other in the Civil War, were not finally formed, so there occurred certain tactical unions that were hardly imaginable in the later years.