The Emergence of Ukraine - Self-Determination, Occupation, and War in Ukraine, 1917-22

The book is the result of the FWF project "The 1918 Occupation of the Ukraine by the Central Powers" (P-21505- G18), which was carried out at the Ludwig Boltzmann-Institut für Kriegsfolgen-Forschung between 2009 and 2011 (head of the project: Stefan Karner). In this edited monograph, the authors contextualize the occupation of the Ukraine by the Central Powers between February and November 1918 in terms of the domestic and foreign policy and the economic development of the Ukraine in the last two years of the First World War and the early interwar years. The book is divided into four parts: In the first section, Hannes Leidinger, Wolfram Dornik and Peter Lieb focus on Eastern Europe between war and revolution from 1914 to 1922. The example of this region, in particular, makes clear that the usual chronology for Central and Western Europe must be examined carefully. For those involved, 1914-1922 was one long period of nearly constant exposure to violence: millions were killed, injured, and maimed; were taken prisoner or found themselves under foreign rule; or were oppressed, exiled or killed by their own government. The social order had been turned completely upside down within the space of a few years. The Ukrainian politicians of the Kiev Central Rada tried to seize the opportunity and entered into an alliance with the Central Powers, which was sealed in the first Peace Treaty of Brest-Litovsk on February 9, 1918, hoping that in this way they could achieve their long awaited independence from Russia. In the second part of the volume, Georgiy Kasianov and Vasyl Rasevyc portray the internal political conditions of the Ukraine during the period under consideration. They explain the various, sometimes contradictory, tendencies of the efforts to forge a Ukrainian identity during this critical phase. It is here that a strong antagonism surfaces, one that still plays a considerable role in Ukrainian foreign and domestic policy today; that is, the question of which direction the country should turn: towards Russia or Europe. The third section and, at the same time, the core of the book concerns the occupation of the Ukraine by the Central Powers in 1918, a little known theme even up to this day. The renowned military expert, Peter Lieb, as well as Wolfram Dornik and Vasyl Rasevyc examine the military operations and the political, economic and everyday interaction of the "occupiers" and "occupied". Often, the lines of conflict did not run between Berlin and Vienna on the one side and Kiev on the other, but rather between the various allies of the Central Powers. Austria-Hungary never managed to gain ground on the slippery parquet floors of Kiev. In the last section, Alexey Miller, Bogdan Musial, Hannes Leidinger, Wolfram Dornik and Peter Lieb examine the international context, in which the Ukraine struggled for its independence. The nationalities of Eastern Europe continued to pursue their efforts towards autonomy in this chaotic situation, but couldn`t find their way through the maze of international relations. This was particularly true of the Ukraine, which, on account of the military threat of the Bolsheviks, was forced to enter into an alliance: the Entente Powers did not have direct access to the Ukraine, and the German and Austro-Hungarian troops were much closer. However, the Central Rada or later the Hetmanate could not have guessed in spring 1918 that the Central Powers would be defeated so quickly. In a final summary and outlook, Wolfram Dornik, Georgiy Kasianov and Peter Lieb draw an initial comparison between the occupation administrations of 1918 and 1941/44. They were able to show some astonishing parallels and long lines of development, as well as some clear differences. With this publication, the authors under the editorship of Wolfram Dornik have now succeeded in contextualizing the various aspects of the history of the Ukraine and Eastern Europe in the long historical development of the 19th and 20th centuries.