AT the end of 1919 the bolsheviks for the third time got a firm footing in Ukraine. Ukraine was again declared a Soviet Republic, and due to the fact that the Ukrainians made a strong demand for independence it was affiliated as an independent Soviet Republic to the central Russian Soviet Republic.
Originally the Soviet Republic in Central Russia wanted to include the lands of Ukraine in its own domain. But this proved to ,be impossible, due to the strong demand for independence. The opposition between North Russia and South Russia, or Ukraine, dates far back. Ukraine comprises all South Russia. Ukraine has its own culture, its own history, its own language, its own national development. The Russian czars have always striven to put Ukraine, rich in natural resources and the most fertile country in Europe, under their dominion. In this they succeeded. But the Ukrainian population was always rebellious against the ruling tendencies of Great-Russia. Great-Russian rule had for result the hatred and the distrust of the Ukrainian peasants towards the Great-Russians. Therefore it was natural that this old antagonism did not disappear after the outbreak of the revolution; on the contrary, the population took a rather frigid stand towards the Central Russian Council or Soviet Republic and demanded independence; a free republic independent of the rest of Russia. This demand the bolsheviks had to comply with if they did not want to live in a permanent war with the Ukrainians.
But even this new Soviet Republic had not sprung from the ranks of the Ukrainians themselves, and it still remains a foreign body for the peasants, and that is one of the many reasons why Ukraine continues to be the child of sorrow of the Russian Soviet Republic, and will long remain so. The president of the Ukrainian Soviet Republic is not an Ukrainian and is not elected by the Ukrainians. He is a Roumanian, and was put in his place by Lenin. His name is Rakovsky.
The situation in Ukraine as a result of the war and the revolution is so complicated, and will in the next few years be so complicated, that it is necessary to know the history of the development since the outbreak of the war, in order to understand the revolutionary situation.
The war of Russian czarism was not the Ukrainian peasants' business. They were against the war not only because they had to send their sons to the war but also because they had to supply the provisions for the army. The dissatisfaction of the peasants increased with the duration of the war, and when the revolution broke out in Central Russia, Ukraine was also soon in flames. But as the Ukrainians were against the Kerensky government, the bolsheviks soon gained the upper hand and at the end of 1917 they were in power in Ukraine. Bui there, was another reason why the bolsheviks found an open ear with the Ukrainian peasants. This was the peace of Brest-Litovsk. The peasants wanted to have peace at any price. The bolsheviks who concluded this peace were preferred to all other parties by the Ukrainian peasants.
But through this peace the Germans and the Austrians got a free hand in Ukraine. They began their imperialistic policy. Particularly Germany, which through the economic blockade of the allies had been precipitated into a "food crisis, now saw in Ukraine its savior in their hour of need. Ukraine is the land that flows with milk and honey. Europe's largest sugar factories and its largest grain fields are in Ukraine. These great supplies German militarism felt compelled to acquire for its armies which were then fighting on the battlefields of Western Europe.
General Eichhorn was sent to Ukraine and his armies occupied the country in the beginning of 1918. But in order to hide the foreign rule from the people they put in Skoropadski as hetman over the country. German militarism began to function. They proclaimed that they wanted to "save the land from bolshevism and decay." By the entry of the German and Austrian armies the bolsheviks were crowded out of Ukraine.