UKRAINE AND THE SOVIET EXPORT OF THE COMMUNIST REVOLUTION TO EUROPE IN 1919

Abstract

Summary. The aim of the research is to determine the role of Ukraine in disrupting the plans of the Russian Bilshovyks, concerning the export of the communist revolution to Central and Western Europe and the Balkans in 1919. The research methodology is based on: the general scientific methods (analytical and synthetic, inductive and deductive); the general historical – (historical-comparative, problem-chronological, retrospective, synchronistic, diachronic). The scientific novelty consists in the fact that for the first time in the newest Ukrainian historiography there has been analyzed the attempt disruption of the Russian Bilshovyks to export the communist revolution to Europe across the territory of Ukraine in 1919. Conclusions. In 1919 there was a real threat of the Russian Bilshovyk troops invasion to Central and Western Europe, as well as the Balkans. Hungary was to be their first victim. The preparation for the invasion was carried out under the slogans of «an international assistance», given to the Hungarian proletariat. There was no common border between Russia and the countries of Central and Western Europe, so the success of the military operations depended on the circumstance – how quickly the Russian troops would pass across Ukraine, which was seized by the national revolution, and would break through to Hungary. This attempt failed. The massive anti-Bilshovyk uprisings in Ukraine, a stubborn resistance of the army of the Ukrainian People's Republic (UNR), the refusal of the government of the West Ukrainian People's Republic (ZUNR) to conclude an agreement with the Bilshovyks, A. Denikin's attack on Ukrainian lands was diverted by the significant Soviet military forces. It made the invasion plans for Hungary via Bukovyna into an impracticable project. As a result, the export of the communist revolution from Russia to Europe failed. So, the main obstacle on the path of communism to Europe was Ukraine, which stopped the Russian communist invasion in 1919.