Повстанцы в Звенигородке, 8–12 июня 1918 года.

Abstract

The uprising in Zvenigorodka district in the summer of 1918 is one of the largest armed uprisings against the power of hetman P. Skoropadskiy`s Ukrainian State. The purpose of the study is to describe the events associated with its culminating stage, the seizure of Zvenigorodka district center by the rebels, and to establish the sequence and dates of those events on the basis of witnesses’ evidence and the uprising participants. The uprising arose on June 3–5, 1918, in several villages of the area around Zvenigorodka. On June 7, detachments from these villages surrounded Zvenyhorodka and they began to attack it the following day. The city was defended by German military units and Hetmanate`s enforcement forces (about 600 people in total). The rebels were approximately 15000 people according to their command estimation. On June 9, the German garrison capitulated and the rebels completely captured the city. Their leaders expected that the seizure of Zvenigorodka (that was a large settlement and one of the county centers) would provoke unrest in other parts of Ukraine and it would be the beginning of a great uprising against the hetman. When it became clear that this would not happen and that in Zvenigorodka local population was against the rebel, the leaders decided to abandon their further struggle. On June 10 and 11, the rebels  left the city. In the morning of June 12, German troops occupied Zvenigorodka again.