The Ukrainization of Russian Army units was the process of forming Ukrainian military formations within the Russian Army (formerly the Imperial Russian Army) with the aim of further creating Ukrainian national armed forces on their basis during the time of the Ukrainian Central Rada. The process lasted from March to the end of 1917 and was actually continued during the war against Bolshevik and White Russia. It became one of the key factors in the declaration of independence of the Ukrainian People's Republic.
Ukrainization was a success, as "In early December 1917, the number of soldiers of the Ukrainized Russian Army units reached about 600,000. Approximately 400,000 of them were on the territory of the UPR, of which almost 60,000 were in the 1st Ukrainian Corps of Pavlo Skoropadsky." However, by the end of December, a mere 27,000 soldiers remained under the command of the Central Rada, thus indicating a drop of almost 15 times in the size of the Ukrainian People's Army.
Spring 1917
February 1917 In February 1917, the Tsarist autocracy was overthrown in the Russian Empire during the February Revolution, the Provisional Government came to power, and the Russian Republic was proclaimed. The entire former empire was engulfed in revolutionary chaos, full of desires for the establishment of a new and more just order and the resolution of painful national and social problems that had accumulated during the tsarist era.
The February Revolution's consequences did not bypass the Russian Imperial Army, in which at the time about 3.5 million Ukrainians served, whereas the army had a total strength of 9.6 million soldiers. On the Southwestern and Romanian fronts, Ukrainians made up 60–70% of the personnel.
March−April 1917
Creation of the Central Rada (March 4, 1917) At this crucial time, in order to unite Ukrainian national forces, a broadly representative public structure was created in Kyiv on from representatives of political, scientific, educational, student, cooperative, and other organizations - the Ukrainian Central Rada (UCR), the head of which was elected the outstanding historian Professor Mykhailo Hrushevsky and which advocated the democratization of public and political life, overcoming national and social problems, and granting Ukraine broad autonomy within the framework of a new, free Russia.
Creation of the Ukrainian Military Council (March 9, 1917) Already on in Kyiv, on the initiative of a lawyer and officer of the district court, Lieutenant Mykola Mikhnovsky, a council of Ukrainians, officers and soldiers of the local garrison was held, which decided to consider itself the Ukrainian Military Council and in this status to send an official appeal to the Provisional Government in Petrograd with a demand to grant autonomy to Ukraine.
Ukrainian Military Club (from mid-March) A week later, a public and political organization, the "Hetman Pavlo Polubotok", was founded in Kyiv, which took into its own hands the organization of "its own national army, as its own powerful military force, without which it is impossible to even think about gaining full freedom for Ukraine," becoming in essence a kind of ideological and political center of this process. And the Ukrainian Military Organizational Committee, created at the same time, was to deal with the resolution of various current issues, and its activities were subject to the instructions of the Club. The Club was headed by Lieutenant Mikhnovsky, and the Committee was headed by Colonel M. Hlynsky.At the call of the Polubotkovites, the active creation of various organizations of Ukrainian soldiers began on all fronts and armies and in large rear garrisons. Thus, on , a 20,000-strong demonstration of Ukrainian soldiers of the capital's garrison took place in Petrograd, who took to the streets with national flags. On , a similar action took place in Moscow. It was organized by the local Ukrainian Military Club. In April, the Ukrainian Council was created in the army group called Western Front, headed by Symon Petliura, then the commissioner of the All-Russian Union of Zemstvos, who was engaged in supplying the army. The Ukrainian Council, headed by Lieutenant O. Bolonsky, was created in the 12th Army, which held the front in the Riga area and which included about 120,000 Ukrainians. The geography of the Ukrainian national movement in the Russian army was expanding. Ukrainian military councils, communities, committees, societies, etc. operated on all fronts and in most rear garrisons; various demonstrations, veches, congresses, and rallies took place even in such remote regions from Ukraine as Finland, the Caucasus, the Black Sea coast of Turkey, Siberia, the Far East, and Manchuria.
April 1917 − Creation of the 1st Ukrainian Cossack Regiment On , 1917, a “festival of the first flowers” took place on Syretsky Field in Kyiv, in which Ukrainian soldiers from the Russian units stationed in the city took part. It was here that about 3,000 soldiers from the Kyiv staging point declared themselves the "Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky". Within a few days, the necessary organizational measures were taken and personnel, cannon, cavalry, machine gun and engineering units were formed; there were hopes that an entire division would soon be deployed on the basis of the unit. The regiment consisted of 16 hundreds and numbered 3,574 soldiers. Staff Captain D. Putnyk-Hrebenyuk was elected commander. However, the Russian command refused to recognize the regiment, accusing the Bogdanovites of trying to sit out in the rear and avoid participating in hostilities in this way. The commander of the Southwestern Front, General Aleksei Brusilov, threatened to disperse the "deserters" by force, but under the pressure of the revolutionary situation, he had to make concessions three days later, agreeing to the creation of a Ukrainian military unit on a volunteer basis, numbering 500 people.
May–June 1917
1st All-Ukrainian Military Congress (May 18–21, 1917) In order to unite and direct the powerful, but largely spontaneous patriotic movement of Ukrainians in the Russian army into a single stream, the was held in Kyiv on , 1917. It was attended by more than 700 delegates, representing almost 1 million servicemen. The delegates advocated the autonomy of Ukraine within the framework of federal Russia and the "immediate nationalization of the army on the national-territorial principle." In addition, they demanded that the Black Sea Fleet continue to be staffed exclusively by Ukrainians (at that time, about 65% of its personnel were Ukrainians), and that the Baltic Fleet be staffed with Ukrainians to command several warships. The congress raised the issue of introducing the Ukrainian language in the troops. It was to be used in national units, to print textbooks, , and other specialized literature, and to be taught in national military schools.
Creation of the Ukrainian General Military Committee For the practical implementation of these requirements, the congress decided to establish the Ukrainian General Military Committee (UGVK) under the Central Rada, initially consisting of 18 members headed by Petliura. The first day of the UGVK's work, , was later recognized as the holiday of the revival of the Ukrainian army. The Committee's activities were aimed at creating new Ukrainian military units, even despite the ban of the Russian command. First of all, the already existing 1st Regiment "Bohdan Khmelnytsky" was expanded, the number of which increased to 3,200 soldiers. It consisted of three infantry kurins of four hundreds each, and also had separate machine-gun, cavalry, communications and economic hundreds. The new commander of the regiment was , a delegate to the 1st All-Ukrainian Military Congress from Ukrainian soldiers of the Saratov garrison. At the same time, without the consent of the Russian authorities, the creation of new volunteer (volunteer) Ukrainian units began. Thus, in particular, the following were created:
2nd Infantry Regiment "Hetman Pavel Polubotok" (Kyiv); Infantry Regiment "Hetman Petro Doroshenko" (Chernihiv); Infantry Regiment "Hetman Petro Doroshenko" (Simferopol); Infantry Regiment "Taras Shevchenko" (Khmilnyk); Infantry Regiment "Hetman Petro Sahaidachny" (Zhytomyr); Regiment "Ivan Gonta" (Uman); Reserve Ukrainian Regiment (Moscow); 2nd Ukrainian Reserve Regiment (Kharkiv); Kurin "Taras Shevchenko" (Daugavpils, now Latvia)
2nd All-Ukrainian Military Congress (June 18–23, 1917) The openly hostile attitude towards the Ukrainian movement on the part of the Provisional Government and the military leadership prompted the UGVK to convene the 2nd All-Ukrainian Military Congress, which, despite the ban of Petrograd, began its work on , 1917. This time, 2,500 delegates had already arrived in Kyiv, representing about 2 million Ukrainian soldiers. They put forward a demand to the Central Rada to stop their inaction and "immediately proceed… to the actual implementation of the foundations of the autonomous system, as the only way to save Ukraine and all of Russia from disorder and destruction." Then, having heard the UGVK report, the delegates instructed it to develop a detailed plan for the Ukrainization of the army as soon as possible and approved the charter of the Ukrainian military communities. The congress also obliged all Ukrainian military organizations and individual Ukrainian soldiers to strictly carry out the orders of the UGVK, which, at the suggestion of Petliura, was supplemented by 10 new members. At the same time, a Provisional Military Council was elected consisting of 130 people, who became members of the Central Rada.
The firm position of the military finally forced Ukrainian politicians to dare to declare autonomy. On , 1917, on the last day of the , the Central Rada adopted its First Universal, which announced that "we ourselves will create our life." On , the Ukrainian Central Rada formed its executive body, a de facto autonomous government - the General Secretariat headed by Volodymyr Vynnychenko. Among other departments, the General Secretariat for Military Affairs was also created under the leadership of Symon Petliura, chairman of the Ukrainian General Military Committee.
July 1917 The proclamation of Ukrainian autonomy and the emergence of its own government coincided with the final stage of preparation for the offensive operation of the Russian Southwestern Front (the so-called "Kerensky offensive"), which, in turn, was to become a key part of the general strategic offensive of the Russian troops along the entire front line from the Baltic to the Black Sea. However, despite the first quite significant successes, due to a sharp drop in the level of discipline of the soldiers, who refused to carry out the orders of their commanders and held mass rallies, this offensive turned into a complete disaster and the complete loss of the previously occupied Eastern Galicia.
In the midst of the fighting, a delegation of ministers of the Provisional Government arrived in Kyiv, begging the Central Rada not to "break up the common front" through mass and arbitrary Ukrainization, proposing instead, under certain conditions, to recognize the UCR as its representative body, and the General Secretariat of Ukraine as its executive body in the region. Seeking to gain legitimacy from the Petrograd government, the Rada leaders decided to compromise and in fact refused to lead the process of Ukrainization of the army, which was rapidly gaining momentum. As a result of the negotiations, on , the UCR published the Second Universal. This, in particular, stated:In other words, the Ukrainian Central Democratic Republic completely handed over the matter of forming Ukrainian units to the Russians.
Polubotkivtsi uprising (July 4–5, 1917)