The First German Occupation in the Bryansk Region in 1918

Abstract

Military actions on the Eastern front of the Great War were restarted on February 18th, 1918, but were not finished with the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk signment. By middle ofMay, the zone of the First German occupation was expanded also to a number of territories recognized by the Central Powers as belonging to Soviet Russia. After a series of battles in April some areas of the modern Bryansk region were set under the German occupation for the next few months. This period in the history of the region has clearly received insufficient attention from researchers. The favourable geographical location and the access to an important railway infrastructure caused that the Bryansk Region had a crucial importance for German attempts to stabilize the occupation regime in Ukraine. Steady and often illegal flows of migration and smuggling have begun to develop. Extremely important for the occupiers were also different raw resources and food supply. That led to increased exploitation by German troops and hence the growth of the insurgency. Despite the extremely difficult military situation of Soviet Russia in summer 1918 and the risk of untimely provocation on the demarcation line, activities by the troops of the Western curtain of the Red Army near the Bryansk increased gradually. By the mid-autumn of 1918, the Bryansk Region had acquired the significance of a springboard for future military operations for all parties claiming control of both Belarus and Ukraine. In the specific military-political situation after the Compiegne armistice, control of the region's railways played a key role both in the Red Army's offensive in Ukraine in the winter of 1918—1919 and in the relatively successful evacuation of the German occupation forces from army group “Kiev” and the 10th army.