«Я знаю» [I know] that it has been quite a long time since I posted about «история Киева» [the history of Kiev]. You have been in so much suspense about what happens next, right? 😉 Anyway, today we are going to talk about «гражданская война» [the civil war], which is a very serious subject. I heard somewhere that there were possibly «десять миллионов жертв» [ten million victims] in this conflict. I think the exact numbers are disputed, but «короче говоря» [in short], a lot of people died. If you want to read the prior posts in this series, here they are: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3. 

Many fascinating accounts of «гражданская война» [the civil war] have been written. «Иван Бунин» [Ivan Bunin––quick quiz: what distinction is he famous for?] wrote «Окаянные дни» [Cursed Days] about his time in Moscow. «Роман Михаила Булгакова Белая гвардия» [Mikhail Bulgakov’s novel The White Guard] is based on Bulgakov’s experiences in his «родной город» [hometown] of Kiev during the war.

The first thing to keep in mind about «Киев» [Kiev] in this time is this: «он переходил из рук в руки» [it was passed from one hand to another]. «Например» [For example], «до 7 (седьмого) ноября 1917 (тысяча девятьсот семьнадцатый) год» [until the 7 of November 1917], it was a part of Russia, under «Временное правительство» [the Provisional Government]. For a brief few months, it became part of «Украинская народная республика» [Ukrainian People’s Republic], then it was «столица независимой Украины» [the capital of independent Ukraine]. (Oddly enough, «в то же самое время» [at the very same time], «Харьков» [Kharkov] was also the capital of Ukraine.)

Ukraine was under the control of «Симон Васильевич Петлюра» [Simon Vasilyevich Petliura] and in January 1919, «Рабоче-крестьянская Красная армия» [The Red Army] launched an operation against «Петлюра» and after many days of fighting, «красные войска вступили в Киев» [red troops entered Kiev].

Answer to the quick quiz about Ivan Bunin: he was the first Russian writer to win «Нобелевская премия по литературе» [the Nobel Prize in literature].