101st anniversary of the Battle of Kruty

KYIV – In this historic photo, originally published in Litopys Chervonoyi Kalyny, a funeral procession heads towards Askold’s Grave (Askoldova Mohyla) in Kyiv on March 19, 1918, to bury fallen Ukrainian university students and cadets who died in the Battle of Kruty on January 29, 1918, as they were vastly outnumbered by Communist-Bolshevik forces. As noted in the newspaper The Day on the 100th anniversary of the historic battle in 2018, “Despite a heavy death toll (250-300 youths were killed, the names of only those who were buried in March 1918 near Askold’s Grave are known for sure), the young fighters managed to delay the invaders’ march to Kyiv for two or three days (the enemy had to repair the railway and regroup its forces), which was very important under those circumstances (the Brest-Litovsk negotiations were under way).” The Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine explains: “In a bitter battle about half of the Ukrainian soldiers were killed, but their resistance delayed [Mikhail] Muraviov’s capture of Kyiv and enabled the Ukrainian government to conclude the Peace Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. The battle is commemorated as a symbol of patriotic self-sacrifice and is immortalized in numerous literary and publicistic works.”