The Peasant Revolution in Naddniprianshchyna (1917–1920) on the pages of «The Chervona Kalyna Chronicle»

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to explore and evaluate the attitude towards the events of the peasant revolution in Naddniprianshchyna among the eyewitnesses – soldiers of the Galician units, participants of the national liberation movement of 1914–1921 in «Greater Ukraine». Research methods: historical-chronological, comparative, and descriptive. The main results: the article reveals the specifics of the military-historical memoirs published on the pages of the journal «The Chervona Kalyna Chronicle», as a source of the history of the Peasant revolution in Naddniprianshchyna. Four categories of authors writing for «The Chervona Kalyna Chronicle» on peasant issues were identified: participants of the Ukrainian national movement in Naddniprianshchyna (M. Mykhailyk, F. Meleshko, Ya. Vodianyi); prisoners of war of the Austro-Hungarian army and the Legion of Ukrainian Sich Riflemen (S. Stechyshyn, V. Struk); senior officers of the «Kyiv» Sich Riflemen (I. Andrukh and I. Vyslotskyi); foremen and riflemen of the UGA (Ukrainian Galician Army). The first two categories of authors were either local residents or lived among the peasantry for a long time and painted a coherent, albeit contradictory, picture of the development of events in the Ukrainian countryside in 1917 – early 1918: their main concern was the activation of national-democratic forces and the growth of social struggle in peasants against landlords, radicalization of military-political confrontation. The authors of the third category, who came from the ranks of the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen, pointed out the indifferent attitude of the peasants to the national idea, traced the evolution of the attitudes of the peasantry of Naddniprianshchyna under the conditions of the Hetmanate of P. Skoropadskyi and other political regimes. The fourth group of authors (the UGA soldiers) is the largest. Their articles are devoted to the turning points in the development of the Ukrainian revolution: the transition to Zbruch, the typhus epidemic, and the split of the UGA, alliances with the Volunteer Army of A. Denikin and the Bolsheviks. Against the background of these military and political events, the problem of relations between the military and the peasantry can be clearly traced throughout the entire path of the UGA. The UGA soldiers focused their attention on such negative phenomena among the peasants as desertion, reluctance to fight for Ukrainian statehood, theft of military property, and hostile attitude towards sick soldiers. At the same time, the UGA soldiers contributed to the growth of the national consciousness of the population of Naddniprianshchyna. The mosaic fragments of relations with the peasantry, which contain memories, diaries, and essays of the UGA soldiers, are a valuable source of the history of the Peasant revolution in Naddniprianshchyna in 1917–1920. Practical significance: the results of the research can be useful in conducting general studies on the peasantry, compiling textbooks, and training manuals, in the preparation of lectures and seminar courses in institutions of higher education, and in local history workshops. Scientific innovation: for the first time, a complex of military-historical memoirs published in the «The Chervona Kalyna Chronicle» has been summarized and considered in the context of peasant research discourse and, in particular, the peasant revolution. Type of the article: research.