Battle of Kiev (1918)

Battle of Kiev
Part of Ukrainian-Soviet War (1917-1921)
Date February 5–8, 1918 Location Kiev, Ukraine Result Bolshevik victory sack of Kiev by Bolshevik forces
Belligerents
Kiev city garrison	Red Guard forces
Commanders and leaders
Mykhailo Kovenko	Mikhail Muravyov
Strength
2,000 3 batteries	7,000 armored train artillery battery

Battle of Kiev (1918) (Ukrainian: Штурм Києва (1918)) was a Bolshevik military operation of Petrograd and Moscow Red Guards formations directed to sack the capital of Ukraine. The operation led by Red Guards commander Mikhail Artemyevich Muravyov as part of the Soviet expeditionary force against Kaledin and the Central Council of Ukraine. The storming of Kiev took place during the ongoing peace negotiations at Brest-Litovsk (Treaty of Brest-Litovsk) on February 5–8, 1918 (January 23–26, old style). The operation resulted in occupation of the city by Bolsheviks troops and evacuation of the Ukrainian government to Zhytomyr.

The aim of the undeclared war of the Soviet Russia against Ukraine was to install the Soviet power. During winter of 1917/18 the revolutionary formations of Russia installed the Soviet power in guberniyas of Kharkiv, Katerynoslav and Poltava. Kiev was next. The general command directed onto Kiev was in hands of Mikhail Muravyov. On January 27, 1918 the government of Ukraine announced Kiev under a siege and appointed Mykhailo Kovenko as the military commandant of Kiev. With the nearing of the Soviet advancing forces the city's Bolsheviks instigated uprising at the Arsenal factory, which was extinguished in seven days on February 4, 1918. The bolshevik protest in the city greatly eased the advancement of the Soviet forces drawing several of Ukrainian formations out of the adjacent provinces. The Kiev garrison was greatly demoralized by bolshevik propaganda and the Soviet advances across the territory of Ukraine. None of regiments were in full capacity and some either announced their neutrality or were eager to side with bolsheviks.

Composition by nationality: Russians - 88%; Jews - 7%; Ukrainians - 5%

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