Today marks the anniversary of the Battle of Kruty in 1918. At that time, nearly 500 Ukrainian soldiers temporarily halted the advance of the four-thousand-strong Bolshevik army led by Muravyov.
On the Day of Remembrance for the Heroes of Kruty, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky honored the memory of those who held back the Bolshevik advance on Kyiv on January 29, 1918. The ceremony took place near the memorial cross for the Heroes of Kruty at Askold's Grave in Kyiv, as reported by the Office of the President of Ukraine.
1 After the ceremony, the Head of State spoke with the mother of the fallen Hero of Ukraine, fighter pilot Andriy Pilshchikov (call sign Juice), Liliya Averyanova, near St. Nicholas Church at Askold's Grave.
2 3 4 Volodymyr Zelensky honored the memory of Andriy Pilshchikov, as well as Mark Paslavskyi, who fell in Ilovaisk in August 2014; Alexander Klitynskyi, a participant in the Revolution of Dignity, who died in the fire at the House of Trade Unions in February 2014; Hero of Ukraine, commander of the assault battalion "Da Vinci Wolves" Dmytro Kotsiubailo (call sign Da Vinci), who was killed in March 2023 near Bakhmut; and public activist and soldier of the 59th Separate Assault Brigade named after Yakov Handziuk, Pavlo Petrychenko, who died last April while performing a combat mission in Donetsk region.
As previously reported by “Kashtan NEWS,” the battle between the Bolshevik army unit commanded by Mykhailo Muravyov, advancing from Bakhmach, and a detachment of Kyiv cadets and students took place on January 29, 1918, at the railway station of Kruty, located 18 kilometers from Nizhyn.
5 The Ukrainian contingent consisted of 500-600 soldiers, including 300 cadets from the First Ukrainian Military School and nearly 130 soldiers from the Student Company of the Sich Riflemen, formed from Kyiv students and gymnasium pupils. In contrast, Muravyov's unit numbered nearly four thousand and had a tenfold advantage in weapons and military equipment.
The Ukrainian military command did not anticipate that the main Bolshevik offensive would come from the direction of Bakhmach, which is why the fresh and most combat-ready units were directed towards the Poltava direction. The detachment sent to Kruty was exhausted and had only 16 machine guns, as well as a "makeshift armored train" — a cannon mounted on a railway platform that could move along the tracks.
The battle lasted nearly five hours. Despite the enemy's superiority in numbers and armament, the Ukrainian detachment managed to fulfill the command's task — to delay the enemy's advance and carry out an organized retreat, destroying tracks and bridges behind them. This allowed the Ukrainian delegation to sign the Brest Peace Treaty, which saved the young Ukrainian statehood.