Ukraine, Russian Revolution, and Hungary 1917

Then came the incomprehensible idiocy of the First World War. Ukraine was drawn into the conflict because Imperial Russia was on the side of France and Britain against Austria-Hungary and Germany.

Western Ukraine became a battlefront between Russian forces fighting against Austrians and Hungarians. Many Ukrainians were shot as suspected “Russian sympathizers” by the Austrians, as the Red Army pushed Austria back westwards over Ukraine in 1916. The Red Army continued on into Austrian territory and took ethnically Ukrainian Galicia-Volhynia. Ironically, the Russians also considered the Ukrainians dangerous, and immediately shot many suspected “Austrian sympathizers.” Then, ludicrously and tragically, the next year the German coalition punched back and reconquered all the territory Russian had gained. As they say in Africa, when the elephants fight, the grass is trampled.

Fueled by the bright hope of a communist utopia (we’ll all share everything), the intelligentsia-led proletariat shook the thrones of the mighty, and wrenched the course of world history sideways. The Bolsheviks staged their 1917 Red October Revolution. The Tsarist Regime abruptly collapsed. The chaotic political aftermath was “won” by the communist Bolsheviks (“bolshevik” means “majority.” They mysteriously spun a minority into a majority).

Ukraine followed the Bolsheviks’ lead and declared themselves the Ukrainian People’s Republic, with Kyiv as capital. The Central Council (Rada) espoused socialism as the governing theory for the new republic.