Dear compatriots,
Today is a great and at the same time a tragic date in the history of our State — the Battle of Kruty Heroes Remembrance Day. The Battle of Kruty took place on January 29, 1918 near Kruty railway station (today the village of Pamiatne, Borzna district, Chernihiv region), about 130 kilometers northeast of Kyiv, Ukraine, which at the time was part of Nezhinsky Uyezd of Chernigov Governorate.
As Bolshevik forces of about 4,000 men, commanded by Mikhail Muravyov, advanced toward Kyiv, a small Ukrainian unit of 400 soldiers of the Bakhmach garrison (about 300 of which were students), commanded initially by Captain F.Tymchenko, withdrew from Bakhmach to a small railroad station Kruty midway towards Nizhyn. The small unit consisted mainly of the Student Battalion (Kurin) of Sich Riflemen, a unit of the Khmelnytsky Cadet School, and a Free Cossacks company. Just before the assault Tymchenko was replaced by D.Nosenko, while Tymchenko left for Nizhyn in attempt to recruit the locally quartered Shevchenko Regiment (800 soldiers) on the Ukrainian side. Nonetheless on January 30, 1918 the regiment sided with the Soviet regime, the news of which forced the Ukrainian garrison of Kruty hastily to withdraw. Over half of the 400 men were killed during the battle, which lasted up to five hours. In the Soviet historiography the battle is mistakenly dated on January 29, 1918 and confused with the Plysky rail station skirmish. The Haidamaka Kish of Symon Petlyura (300 soldiers) that rushed to reinforce the Kruty garrison and was delayed due to the Darnytsia railworkers sabotage stopped in close vicinity (rail station Bobryk) and eventually turned back to Kyiv due to the Bolshevik's Arsenal Uprising that occurred on the same day.
Nowadays youth is inspired by the patriotism of the Kruty Battle Heroes. Our major task is to do our best to make the war Ukrainian is facing in its east the last war in our history. We have to consolidate Ukraine as a developed economic and political country.
Volodymyr GROYSMAN