Ukrainian Front (1919)

Ukrainian Front formerly the Army Group of Kursk Direction was a Soviet Army Group (later front) for invasion of Ukraine (officially for helping the Ukrainian workers in struggle against the Austria-Germany occupation and Hetman forces). Created on November 17, 1918, the Army Group was primarily based on two insurgent divisions that were created on September 22, 1918 by the order #6 of All-Ukrainian Central Military Revolutionary Committee and were part of the Red Army Reserve Front at the . The reserve front was originally commissioned under Commandarm Glagoliev and members of revolutionary military council Vyshnevetsky and Zusmanovich.

On November 17, 1918 there was established the Revolutionary Military Council consisting of Stalin, Yuri Pyatakov, Volodymyr Zatonsky, and Vladimir Antonov-Ovseyenko of the army group of Kursk Direction. The newly appointed Commander-in-Chief of all Armed Forces of Republic Jukums Vācietis (since September 1, 1918) preferred to referred to simply as the Army Group of Kursk Direction.

The 1st Ukrainian Insurgent Division and the 2nd Ukrainian Insurgent Division in December 1918 were renamed into Soviet divisions. It was planned also to add to the group the Moscow Worker's Division, 43rd Worker's Regiment, 2nd Oryol Cavalry Division as well as the formations of Innokentiy Kozhevnikov from Ufa. The most of them however were redirected to the Southern Front. The Moscow Military District also sent the Moscow Reserve Artillery Brigade and its leading military personnel. Officially Innokentiy Kozhevnikov became the commander of the group, but the major work in organizing of it was conducted by Vladimir Antonov-Ovseyenko. By January 1919 he managed also to recruit several formations of border service, two Cheka and two food regiments as well as several armored trains from Moscow. Also the army group was joined by number of volunteer international formations from Kazan and Oryol, the 1st Moscow Communist Squad, the Yashvili Company and Armenian Company, all of which accounted for some 1,000 of bayonets. The chairman of the Russian Revolutionary Military Council Leon Trotsky on December 14, 1918 ordered a mass recruitment of ethnic Ukrainians.

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