Purchase and Forced Seizure of Property: Normative Procedures of the German Military in Ukraine (March 1918)
Abstract
The purpose of the research paper is to determine the normative (established by orders of the German command and orders of the Ukrainian government) procedures for the purchase of food products and other property by German units in Ukraine (March 1918).
The scientific novelty is in the fact that, for the first time, within the framework of a special study, the procurement rules introduced in the spring of 1918 for the German military in Ukraine are considered.
Conclusions. German units sent in into the territory of the Ukrainian People’s Republic in February 1918 as military aid forces against the Bilshovyks performed measures to procure agricultural raw materials and other goods. Military procurers applied two methods – purchase under market conditions and seizure (forced paid expropriation). In some cases, the process of procurement was accompanied by violations, resulting in excesses: the soldiers took not surpluses, but property that was vital to the owners, provided them with disproportionate compensation (and sometimes did not pay at all), and forged receipts for the property received. Disputes between the German military and the Ukrainian population regarding the seizure of property in a number of cases in February and March 1918 led to armed clashes.
Recognizing the impossibility of complete abolishing requisitioning and the impossibility of conducting it exclusively under the control of the Ukrainian administration (which, being in the stage of formation, did not yet exist in many regions at that time), the German command in the second half of March 1918 issued several orders that allowed units to seize property from citizens of the UNR forcibly, but required them to do so only in extreme cases (if the troops did not find what they needed on the open market and did not receive it from the Ukrainian authorities), to issue receipts correctly, and to pay compensation. Those norms were approved by the Ukrainian government.
Funding. The study was prepared based on the results of fundamental research ‘The Socio-cultural Space of Ukraine in the Second Half of the Nineteenth – First Third of the Twentieth Century: the Peasant-centric Dimension’ (state registration number: 0123U101600) with the support of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine.
References
Baumgart, W. (Ed.). (1971). Von Brest-Litovsk zur deutschen Novemberrevolution. Aus den Tagebüchern, Briefen und Aufzeichnungen von Alfons Paquet, Wilhelm Groener und Albert Hopman, März bis November 1918. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht [in German].
Bundesarchiv (1942). Der Weltkrieg 1914 bis 1918. Band 13. Die Kriegsführung im Sommer und Herbst 1917. Die Ereignisse außerhalb der Westfront bis November 1918. Berlin: Ernst Siegfried Mittler & Sohn [in German].
Dornik, V. (Ed.). (2015). Ukraine between self-determination and occupation: 1917-1922. Kyiv: Nika-Tsentr [in Ukrainian].
Drabkina, S.M. (1949). The collapse of the food policy of the German imperialists in Ukraine (February-June 1918). Istoricheskie zapiski – Historical notes, 28, 69-110 [in Russian].
Fedyshyn, O. (1971). Germany’s Drive to the East and the Ukrainian Revolution, 1917-1918. New-Brunswick; New Jersey: Rutgers University Press [in English].
Grelka, F. (2005). Die ukrainische Nationalbewegung unter deutscher Besatzungsherrschaft 1918 und 1941/42. Wiesbaden [in German].
Hopman, A. (2004). Das ereignisreiche Leben eines ‘Wilhelminers’. Tagebücher, Briefe, Aufzeichnungen 1901 bis 1920. München: B. Oldenbourg Verlag [in German].
Hornykiewycz, Th. (Ed.). (1966). Ereignisse in der Ukraine 1914-1922, deren Bedeutung und historische Hintergründe, (Bd. 1). Philadelphia [in German].
Khrystiuk, P. (1921). Notes and materials on the history of the Ukrainian Revolution. 1917-1920. (Vol. 2). Viden [in Ukrainian].
Krauss, A. & Klingenbrunner, F. (1928). Die Besetzung der Ukraine 1918. In Militärverwaltung in den von den österreichisch-ungarischen Truppen besetzten Gebieten. Wien: Hölder-Pichler-Tempsky, 359-390 [in German].
Kuraiev, O. (2009). Policy of Germany and Austria-Hungary in the First World War: the Ukrainian direction. Kyiv [in Ukrainian].
Luschnat-Ziegler, M. (2021). Die ukrainische Revolution und die Deutschen 1917-1918. Marburg [in German].
Lutskyi, O. (1985). Diary from Ukraine 1918. Suchasnist – Modernity, 5, 89-99 [in Ukrainian].
Malynovska, T.V. & Malynovsky, B.V. (2018). Troops of the Central States in Ukraine (1918): cases of violations and material damage. Suchasni doslidzhennia z nimetskoi istorii – Modern Studies in German History, 102-108. DOI: 10.15421/311808 [in Russian].
Malynovsky, B.V. (2015). The problem of the German-Ukrainian military agreement at the negotiations in Brest-Litovsk (February 1918). Visnyk Dnipropetrovskoho universytetu. Seriia: istoriia ta arkheolohiia, 23 (1), 145-152 [in Ukrainian].
Malynovsky, B. & Trygub, O. (2023). Stocks of Commercial Bread in Ukraine in the Spring of 1918 in the Assessment of the Representatives of Germany and Austria-Hungary. Danubius (Galaţi), XLI, 263-276 [in English].
Mẹdrzecki, W. (2000). Niemiecka interwencja militarna na Ukraine w 1918 roku. Warszawa: «DiG» [in Polish].
Mints, I. & Gorodeckiy, E. (1942). Documents on the defeat of the German occupiers in Ukraine in 1918. Moskva: OGIZ, Gospolitizdat [in Russian].
Mogilyanskii, N.M. (1930). The Tragedy of Ukraine (From the Experiences in Kyiv in 1918). In S.A. Alekseev (Comp.). Revolution in Ukraine according to the memoirs of whites. Moskva, Leningrad: Gosudarstvennoe izdatelstvo, 115-135 [in Russian].
Panch, P. (1942). Ukrainian partisans in the Patriotic War of 1918. Saratov [in Ukrainian].
Prodanyuk, F. (2016). Ukrainian-German relations during the period Hetmanat Pavla Skoropadskoho: research status. Humanitarnyi prostir nauky: dosvid ta perspektyvy – Humanitarian space of science: experience and prospects, 4, 63-68 [in Ukrainian].
Prytuliak, P.P. (2004). Ukraine and the Peace of Brest: from signing to implementation (1917-1918). Kyiv: Kyivskyi natsionalnyi torhovelno-ekonomichnyi universytet [in Ukrainian].
Pyrih, R. (2008). Hetmanat Pavla Skoropadskoho: between Germany and Russia. Kyiv [in Ukrainian].
Ross, K. (1991). Report to the Chief of the Operations Department of the German Eastern Front on the Situation in Ukraine in March 1918. Arkhiv russkoi revolyutsii [Archives of the Russian Revolution]. Vol. 1. Moskva: Terra, 288-294 [in Russian].
Shpektorenko, I.V. (1998). Food policy of the Central Rada after the signing of the Brest Peace (March-April 1918). Visnyk Dnipropetrovskoho universytetu. Istoriia ta arkheolohiia – Bulletin of Dnipropetrovsk University. History and archaeology, 3, 125-132 [in Ukrainian].
Smolitsh, Y. (1986). Childhood. Our secrets. Eighteen year olds. Kyiv: Radianskyi pysmennyk [in Ukrainian].
Tintrup, H. (1938). Krieg in der Ukraine. Aufzeichnungen eines deutschen Offiziers. Essen: Essener Verlagsanstalt [in German].
Tymchenko, R. (2017). Hetman Skoropadsky food policy in modern Ukrainian historiography. Problemy vyvchennia istirii Ukrainskoi revoliutsii 1917-1921, 12, 92-126 [in Ukrainian].
Vernadskyi, V. (1994). Diaries. 1917-1921. Kiev: Naukova dumka [in Russian].
Verstiuk, V. (Ed.). (1997). The Ukrainian Central Rada: documents and materials. (Vol. 2). Kyiv: Naukova dumka [in Ukrainian].
Zastavenko, H.F. (1959). The break-up of the German intervention in Ukraine in 1918. Kiev [in Ukrainian].
Zhukovskyi, O. (2018). Memories of the era of the Great Eastern Revolution, the beginning of 1917-19 (From the Trenches to the Prison). Notebook. 1919 year. Kyiv [in Ukrainian].
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
