The center of Kyiv rang to the sound of rifle and machine-gun fire on the night of Jan. 27, 2019 during an reenactment of the Battle for the Arsenal Factory organized by far-right and nationalist organizations.
The reenactment took place on Arsenalna Square in Kyiv, not far from the government quarter of the Ukrainian capital. Men dressed as Ukrainian student soldiers and Bolshevik soldiers fired rifles as they reenacted the battle in front of a couple of hundred of people.
The battle was part of a Bolshevik revolt in Kyiv in late January 1918, which had the aim of drawing Ukrainian forces away from resisting the Bolshevik force advancing on the capital. However, a force of Ukrainian army cadets managed to delay the advancing Bolsheviks in the Battle of Kruty on Jan. 29, 2018.
After the reenactment, the organizers invited the public to join a torch-lit march to the Askold’s Grave memorial, where four of the student soldiers who took part in the Battle of Kruty are buried. The march commemorated the students killed in a battle in 1918 between a small unit of the Ukrainian People’s Republic and a much larger Bolshevik force. The battle took place at the railway station near Kruty, a small village 130 kilometers north of Kyiv. While the Ukrainian force was defeated, the battle delayed the Bolsheviks’ advance on Kyiv long enough for the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk to be signed, under which Russia ended its participation in World War I and recognized the independence of Ukraine.
The organizers of the procession were the far-right nationalist organizations С14 and Right Sector, and the right-wing nationalist Svoboda Party.
The photo gallery was produced as a part of the Journalist Exchange Program by Media Development Foundation with the support from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). Content is independent of the donor.
