Battle of Kruty

The Battle of Kruty (Бій під Крутами, Biy pid Krutamy) took place on January 29, 1918, near Kruty railway station (today the village of Pamiatne, Borzna Raion, Chernihiv Oblast), about 130 km northeast of Kiev, Ukraine, which at the time was part of the Nizhyn Uyezd, Chernigov Governorate.

Order of battle

 * Ukrainian forces
 * Sich Riflemen auxiliary student battalion (kurin) - Vasyl Svaryka
 * 1st Company (sotnia) - Petro Omelchenko (116 soldiers) was split into four platoons
 * Cadet Corps of the 1st Ukrainian military school of Bohdan Khmelnytskyi - Averkiy Hocharenko (~200 soldiers)
 * A company size element of Free Cossacks (80 soldiers)


 * Russian forces
 * Baltic sea sailors of Remnyov
 * 1st Petrograd unit

Brief description
As Bolshevik forces of about 4,000 men, commanded by Mikhail Muravyov, advanced toward Kiev, a small Ukrainian unit of 400 soldiers (about 300 of which were students), commanded by Captain Averkiy Honcharenko, was hastily organized and sent to the front. The small unit consisted mainly of the Student Battalion (Kurin) of Sich Riflemen, a unit of the Khmelnytsky Cadet School, and a Free Cossacks company. About half of the 400 men were killed during the battle, which lasted up to five hours. The Haidamaka Kish of Symon Petlyura that stayed in close vicinity turned to Kiev due to the Bolshevik's Arsenal Uprising that occurred on the same day.

Aftermath
Eleven of the students were re-buried at Askold's Grave in the centre of Kiev after the return of the Tsentralna Rada to the capital in March 1918. At the funeral the then President of the Ukrainian People's Republic, Mykhailo Hrushevsky, called every one of the 400 students who fought in the battle, heroes. In addition, poet Pavlo Tychyna wrote about the heroic death of the students.

After the fall of the Ukrainian People's Republic the bodies of the students were moved to the Lukyanivske Cemetery in Kiev.

Ukrainian legacy
The true story of the battle was hidden by the Soviet Government. Only recently, a monument was set up to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Kruty at Askold's Grave, and a commemorative hryvnia coin was minted. In 2006, the Kruty Heroes Monument was erected on the site of the historic battle and is remembered each year on or around January 29.

Ukrainian youngsters lost their lives to stop the Bolshevist army of Russian Lieutenant General Nikolai Muravyov from advancing on Kyiv.

Young people, like Spartan soldiers, died for the sake of their motherland in a struggle against foreign aggressors, and it was an example of their sacrifice and selfless love for their native land.

Every anniversary of the Heroes of Kruty is not only a day to honor those people who loved our motherland more than their lives. This is also another reminder to our contemporary politicians regarding their responsibility for the fate of their country and people.

Near Kruty the Kiev military cadets and students became the forerunners of the Ukrainian political nation. Having different ethnic roots, they as one fought for our Ukrainian State. As the founding of the Ukrainian People's Republic became the base of the Ukrainian statehood, so the heroism of the Kruty's warriors became the beginning and the symbol of liberating struggles of Ukrainians for the liberty in the past 20th century.

Important personalities

 * Leonid Butkevych, the youngest soldier who was in the sixth grade
 * Yakiv Ryabokin-Rohoza-Rozanov
 * Volodymyr Shulhyn, a brother of the Ukrainian statesman Oleksander Shulhyn
 * Ivano Hrushetsky, later an Orthodox priest who eventually died in a Soviet prison in August 1940
 * Mytrofan Shvydun, later continued to fight on the "Shooter" and "Free Ukraine" armored trains and in 1941 organized the Lutsk Battalion of OUN (Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists)
 * Mykhailo Mykhailyk, later wrote a detailed memoir about the battle
 * Numerous former students of Kruty became the base of the officer corps of the legendary Black Zaporizhians Cavalry Regiment
 * Mykola Kryvopusk and Hnat Martynyuk in 1920-1921 served as personal bodyguards of Symon Petlyura, Martynyuk, after becoming a priest, perished in Volyn in 1943 under unknown circumstances
 * Serhiy Zakhvalsky, eventually became an officer in the Polish Army, however, he was renowned for imprisoning a whole company of the Red Army in 1920, while heading one of the cavalry squads of the Zaliznyak Cavalry Regiment
 * Averkiy Honcharenko, in 1943 became one of the organizers of the SS Halychyna of which he was appointed a commander in 1945
 * Petro Franchuk, one of the members of SS Halychyna