This article is about the 1917 to 1921 conflict. For the conflict during 2014–present, see Russo-Ukrainian War.
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Ukrainian War of Independence
Part of the Eastern Front of World War I, the Polish–Soviet War, and the Southern Front of the Russian Civil War
(clockwise from top left): Members of the Yuzovka (Donetsk) First District Executive Committee in 1917; Ukrainian People's Republic soldiers swearing an oath in 1919; Anarchist Black Army command in Berdyansk in 1919; Polish troops in Kyiv in 1920.
Date
7 March 1917 – 17 November 1921 (4 years, 8 months, 1 week and 3 days)
Location
Ukraine
Result
Bolshevik victory
Territorial changes
Most of Ukraine is conquered by the Red Army, resulting in the creation of the Ukrainian SSR, Poland seizes Western Ukraine.
Belligerents
Ukrainian People's Republic
West Ukrainian People's Republic
Germany
Poland
Russian SFSR
UNRR
URR
Ukrainian SSR
Makhnovshchina
Ukrainian State
South Russia
Germany
Poland
Romania
Commanders and leaders
Mykhailo Hrushevsky
Symon Petliura
Yevhen Petrushevych
Mykhailo Pavlenko
Oleksander Hrekov
Stanisław Kosior
Grigory Petrovsky
Christian Rakovsky
Alexander Yegorov
Mikhail Frunze
Nestor Makhno
Pavlo Skoropadskyi
Anton Denikin
Pyotr Wrangel
H. von Eichhorn †
Józef Piłsudski
Ernest Broșteanu
Strength
Ukrainian People's Army: 100,000 (peak)
Ukrainian Galician Army: 70,000 (peak)
Red Army
Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine: 103,000 (peak)
Volunteer Army: 40,000 (peak)
German Army
Polish Army: 190,000 (peak)
Royal Romanian Army: 4,000 (peak)
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The Ukrainian War of Independence, also referred to as the Ukrainian–Soviet War in Ukraine, lasted from March 1917 to November 1921. It saw the establishment and development of an independent Ukrainian republic, most of which was absorbed into the Soviet Union as the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic of 1922–1991.
The war was fought between different governmental, political and military forces. Belligerents included Ukrainian nationalists, Ukrainian anarchists, the forces of Germany and Austria-Hungary, the White Russian Volunteer Army, and Second Polish Republic forces. They struggled for control of Ukraine after the February Revolution of 1917.
The war ensued soon after the October Revolution, when the Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin dispatched the Antonov's expeditionary group to Ukraine and Southern Russia.
The war resulted in the absorption of Ukrainian populations into the newly created Soviet Union and the Second Polish Republic. Soviet historical tradition viewed the Bolshevik victory as the liberation of Ukraine from occupation by the armies of Western and Central Europe, including that of Poland. Modern Ukrainian historians consider it a failed war of independence by the Ukrainian People's Republic against the Bolsheviks. The conflict can be viewed within the framework of the Southern Front of the Russian Civil War of 1917–1922, as well as the closing stage of the Eastern Front of World War I.
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Global Information
Makhnovshchina
H. von Eichhorn †
Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine: 103,000 (peak)
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