After the proclamation of the
UPR, the confrontation between the
Central Rada and the Council of People's Commissars of Russia grew rapidly. The Bolsheviks of Kiev agitated against the Ukrainian government. They formed the Kyiv Military Revolutionary Committee, headed by a Bolshevik from Kiev,
Georgy Pyatakov, which began preparations for an armed uprising against the Central Rada. The committee relied on Bolshevik units of the
regular army and
Red Guard units stationed in Kiev. The uprising was scheduled for the morning of
30 November (
12 December)
1917. Using the scenario of the
October coup in
Petrograd, it was planned to seize the bridges over the
Dnieper River, the Arsenal plant, Kiev railway station and the telegraph. The uprising had to be successfully completed before the opening of the All-Ukrainian Congress of Soviets in Kiev, whose decisions the Bolsheviks hoped to consolidate their power. On the eve of the uprising, the Committee sent an ultimatum to the Central Rada, demanding that the Bolsheviks take over the leadership of Ukraine. The Ukrainian government learned in advance of the uprising and discovered Bolshevik cells in military units. In the evening of
29 November (
11 December), the
1st Ukrainian Serdyuk Division under the command of Yurii Kapkan surrounded and
disarmed seven thousand soldiers who were about to rebel the next morning. These were the 3rd and 5th aviation
regiments, pontoon and telegraph
battalions, the First Reserve Mining
Battery and four artillery batteries, the Red Guard of Arsenal and other factories. Overnight, the Bolsheviks lost an entire army with 10 batteries, 200
machine guns, 2
armoured vehicles, 6
aircraft, and 5 million rounds of ammunition. The disarmed
Russian soldiers were sent to Russia on trains guarded by Ukrainian troops.
Ukrainian soldiers who were going to take part in the Bolshevik uprising were
demobilised. Almost simultaneously, an enlarged
2nd Guards Corps led by
Yevheniya Bosch moved from the
South-Western Front to Kyiv. The Ukrainian government ordered the dismantling of railway tracks, the blocking of key stations, and the disarming of suspicious military units. Near
Zhmerynka, the Bolshevik corps intercepted the 14,000-strong
1st Ukrainian Corps of
Lieutenant General Pavlo Skoropadsky, commander of all the troops of the
Right Bank of Ukraine, which consisted of 20,000 soldiers and 77 guns. The Bolshevik forces were disarmed and sent to Russia. Other units were disarmed in ten cities of Ukraine. In four more cities, local councils were dissolved for preparing for the uprising. The independent policy of the Central Rada and its opposition to the Bolsheviks strained relations with the leadership of Soviet Russia. On 4 (
17) December
1917, it sent an ultimatum to the Ukrainian government, which became the pretext for the outbreak of the
Ukrainian-Soviet war. == References ==