Ukrainian–Soviet War | ||||||||||
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Part of Ukrainian War of Independence and the Russian Civil War | ||||||||||
Soldiers of the UNR Army in front of St. Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery in Kiev. |
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Belligerents | ||||||||||
German Empire (1918) |
Russian volunteers (1919–20) Poland (1918–19) Independent rebels |
Russian SFSR (1917–21) |
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Commanders and leaders | ||||||||||
Symon Petliura Pavlo Skoropadsky Mykhailo Pavlenko Oleksandr Udovychenko |
Georgiy Pyatakov Volodymyr Zatonsky Mikhail Muraviev Nikolay Shchors |
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Strength | ||||||||||
300,000 at their peak |
German Empire (1918)
Russian SFSR (1917–21)
The Ukrainian–Soviet War (Ukrainian: Українсько-радянська війна) is the term commonly used in post-Soviet Ukraine for the events taking place between of 1917–21, nowadays regarded essentially as a war between the Ukrainian People's Republic and the Bolsheviks. The war ensued soon after the October Revolution when Lenin dispatched the Antonov's expeditionary group to Ukraine and Southern Russia. Soviet historical tradition viewed it as an occupation of Ukraine by military forces of Western and Central Europe, including the Polish Republic's military – the Bolshevik victory constituting Ukraine's liberation from these forces. Conversely, modern Ukrainian historians consider it a failed War of Independence by the Ukrainian People's Republic against the Russian Soviet Republic, ending with Ukraine falling under a Russian-Soviet occupation. Both historical interpretations tend to underplay the part of the anarcho-communist Nestor Makhno, who does not quite fit into either interpretation.