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Our Thermopylae

31 January, 00:00

Everyone who has studied ancient history remembers the 300 Spartan heroes, who died in 480 BC in Thermopylae Gorge but stopped the advance of the Persian invaders. In critically reconsidering Ukrainian history and lightening the heavy burden of mistakes, shortcomings, illusions, and even crimes, we nevertheless have no right to forget that there will always be a place in our legacy for heroic feats that resemble the act of the Spartans. In other words, there have always been hundreds and thousands of Ukrainians ready to sacrifice their life for the Motherland.

On Jan. 29, 1918, 300 young Ukrainians, including Kyiv high school students and fighters from a few Cossack detachments and militia forces, were surrounded near the railway station of Kruty (Chernihiv oblast, near Bakhmach). Most of them were high school students between the ages of 16 and 18. Those boys were prepared to give their lives in order to halt the Bolshevik troops of Muraviyov and Antonov-Ovseenko, who were advancing on Kyiv. They were all killed: nobody managed to break free.

Paying sacred tribute to the heroes of Kruty and honoring the memory of these members of the Ukrainian Pantheon of Glory, we cannot avoid asking ourselves the question: why was there no one but those 300 young heroes defending Ukraine’s nascent statehood. After all, at this very time the Central Rada was working day and night enacting fundamental documents, including the Fourth Universal. The Kruty tragedy may be unconditionally understood only in the overall context of developments that transpired in Ukraine in 1918. The fact of the matter is that the Central Rada’s socialist leadership sincerely believed (fatal illusion!) that it was possible to successfully defend independence by political rather than military means, forgetting that in the real, harsh world the course of events is determined by military force in particular. By demobilizing the greater part of the Ukrainized units (300,000 men!) that were ready to serve the new government in the summer and fall of 1917, the Central Rada made a fatal mistake. A negative role was also played by the political “neutrality” of the former Ukrainian soldiers, who headed for their villages, succumbing to the notorious psychology of “it’s not my affair.”

The Day to Commemorate the Heroes of Kruty is a day of Glory and at the same time a warning: in this world there have been, are, and will be many adversaries (I would rather not use the word “enemies”) of our real independence. History and politics are a struggle of interests. Let us not forget this.

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