“Belgorod taken”: how Kursk and Voronezh provinces and Belgorod became part of Ukraine in 1918
On May 22, the Ukrainian infosphere burst out with news about the offensive operations in the Belgorod region. Russian partisans from the “Freedom of Russia” legion took credit for the attacks. While the Russian leadership was trying to stop the anarchy in their own territory, the partisans were already active in Grayvoron city, an administrative center in the Belgorod region. A hundred years ago, the Ukrainian Constituent Assembly was declared and held in this town according to the Ukrainian People’s Republic laws, just as in numerous neighboring counties such as Novooskolsky Uyezd and Putivlsky Uyezd of the Kursk Governorate.
In the spring of 1918, a Ukrainian newspaper announced that Ukrainian troops had captured Belgorod, realizing the long-forgotten yet ambitious goal of fully uniting the lands of Eastern Sloboda Ukraine. There were only two words printed on the front page: “Belgorod taken!”
For the Ukrainian People’s Republic, the spring of 1918 was marked by the victorious march of the Ukrainian and allied Austro-German troops across the territory of Ukraine, which had just been occupied by the Bolsheviks. The Allied forces stopped in Korenevo (now an urban-type settlement in the Kursk region of Russia), where on May 4, 1918, the German-Ukrainian and Russian sides signed an agreement to cease hostilities.
The formation of the borders of the Ukrainian state was quite controversial at that time. On the one hand, the Chełm Land (with the historical center in the town of Chełm, now the territory of Poland) and Podlachia (southeast of modern Poland) were part of Ukraine, and on the other hand, Galicia, Bukovyna, and Transcarpathia remained part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. And yet, Ukraine gained territory in the east, where the allied forces were carrying out their offensive, announcing the capture of Kursk and Voronezh provinces and Belgorod city.
Eastern Sloboda Ukraine in the Ukrainian People’s Republic
In 1917, during the time of the Central Council of Ukraine, the Eastern part of Sloboda Ukraine was naturally considered an ethnic territory of Ukraine. In reality, these were the aspirations to unite Ukrainian lands into one national state. In his article “What Kind of Autonomy and Federation Do We Want?”, Mykhailo Hrushevsky outlines the territory, including Kuban and Khotyn region as well as: “southern outskirts of Grodno, Minsk, Kursk provinces, western parts of Podonie, Voronezh, Black Sea, and Stavropol Governorates. This way, a state with a Ukrainian majority will be formed.”
The Central Council still tried to push upon the Provisional Government the question of affiliation of this part of Sloboda Ukraine, however, significant success was achieved only by the end of 1917, with the formation of the Ukrainian People’s Republic. At that time, active preparation for the elections to the Ukrainian Constituent Assembly was underway. According to the law, the Ukrainian People’s Republic granted voting rights not only to the lands named in the III Universal but also to the districts of Kursk and Voronezh regions, populated mainly by Ukrainians.
By the Law of the Ukrainian People’s Republic of November 29, 1917, it was announced that the Ukrainian Constituent Assembly would be held in Putivlsky, Grayvoronsky, Novooskolsky Uyezd of the Kursk Governorate (modern Belgorod region) and Ostrozhsky, Biryuchensky, Valuysky and Bogucharsky Uyezd of the Voronezh Governorate. The Bolsheviks prevented the implementation of the plan.
Counteroffensive
“The Ukrainian Slavic group replaced the German guards and roadblocks, and the entire Kharkiv region, parts of Voronezh and Kursk provinces came under our control,” reported Volodymyr Sikevych, brigade general of the army of the Ukrainian People’s Republic.
In 1918, the Soviet troops were advancing in three directions. The first column successfully moved through the Chernihiv region to Kursk and Kharkiv. The second column advanced in the direction of Kharkiv through the Poltava region, along with the Zaporizhzhia Division. The third column of German troops moved forward through Koziatyn and Smila to Katerynoslav (nowadays Dnipro city). Austro-Hungarian troops went to the South of Ukraine: to Odesa, Mykolaiv, and Kherson. In Left-bank Ukraine, the Zaporizhzhia Division liberated Poltava at the end of March. In the night battle for the city, the 1st Zaporizhzhia Regiment of Horse Haydamaks named after K. Gordienko and their commander Vsevolod Petriv distinguished themselves. The Ukrainian troops stayed for a short rest in de-occupied Kharkiv, while the main German forces went from Kharkiv to Kupianske, Belgorod, and Novo-Borysoglibske.
Volodymyr Sikevych, who at that time was in Sloboda Ukraine, recalls the panicked mood of the Moscow people, who fled from the Ukrainian counteroffensive along with everything they had stolen.
When the news spread here that the Zaporizhzhia Division had been formed and together with the Germans they were marching across Ukraine to drive out all the enemies of Ukraine and declare it an Independent State, everybody went quiet for a moment, nobody believed it; right after that everything came into motion, the Muscovites in some kind of fear started to grab everything they could, our villagers actively tried to prevent such theft. Great masses of fleeing Muscovites retreated towards Kursk, Voronezh, and beyond.
“According to the latest official information, Belgorod was taken”
While the troops were launching an offensive across the entire territory of Sloboda Ukraine, the newspaper “Renaissance”, which was managed by the editorial and publishing department of the Military Ministry of the Ukrainian People’s Republic, informed the people of Kyiv that the Ukrainian Republic forces had taken Belgorod. In 1918, the city was an essential part of the Kharkiv province of the Ukrainian state. By the way, Ukrainian Belgorod and Russian Kursk were separated by a 20-kilometer neutral strip (demarcation line). Along this strip of land, the Bolsheviks trained two divisions made up of Ukrainian recruits; these divisions would later fight in the Ukrainian Sloviansk region to cause an uprising in Ukraine.
During the following months, Soviet Russia kept on threatening. The government of the Ukrainian state kept significant military formations on the eastern Sloboda border.
Journalist and publisher Arkadii Zhyvotko wrote:
The Soviet government, which by the beginning of 1918 had already completely conquered Sloboda Ukraine, left Podonie (the name of the districts of Eastern Slobozhanshchyna along the banks of the Don river within the limits of the modern Voronezh region of Russia) as part of the Voronezh province, with all the consequences of such decision. However, the movement to annex these lands to Ukraine was not extinguished. An echo of this movement, among other things, appeared in the spring of 1918 when a small part of Podonie was occupied by Ukrainian troops (a separate Zaporizhzhia division). The occupation line went from the Kantemirovka settlement through Novomarkovka, Pantyushyno, Bondarivka, and beyond, crossing the Rovenka settlement (Ostrozhsky Uyezd).
Ukrainian son of Eastern Sloboda Ukraine
The people of Eastern Sloboda Ukraine had to flee from the occupation of the advancing Bolshevik troops. Among them was lieutenant colonel Ivan Lykhodko, who had to leave his homeland together with the soldiers of the Ukrainian People’s Republic. Lykhodko was born in Sudzha, Kursk province, in Eastern Sloboda Ukraine. In 1919, he joined the 19th Infantry Division of the Northern Group of the Efficient (Diieva) Army of the UPR and took part in the battles near Kostopil. He became the chief of staff of the 1st Northern Division of the Efficient (Diieva) Army and the chief of staff of the 2nd Volyn Division of the Army of the UPR. Lykhodko remained in the places where he had previously fought, together with his brothers in arms, after Ukraine fell under the rule of Poland. In 1942 he created three sotnias of “Polissian Sich” of Ataman Bulba-Borovets in Kostopil.