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, commanded by 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 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 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 Plyskyrail station skirmish. The Haidamaka Kish of Symon Petlyura that rushed to reinforce the Kruty garrison and was delayed due to the Darnytsia railworkers sabotage stopped in close vicinity and eventually turned back to Kyiv due to the Bolshevik's Arsenal Uprising that occurred on the same day.
The true story of the battle was hidden by the Soviet Government. Only recently, a monument was set up to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Kruty at Askold's Grave, and a commemorative hryvnia coin was minted. In 2006, the Kruty Heroes Monument was erected on the site of the historic battle. The battle is remembered each year on or around January 29.
Important personalities
Leonid Butkevych, the youngest soldier who was in the sixth grade
Yakiv Ryabokin-Rohoza-Rozanov
Volodymyr Shulhyn, a brother of the Ukrainian statesman Oleksander Shulhyn
Ivano Hrushetsky, later an Orthodox priest who eventually died in a Soviet prison in August 1940
Mytrofan Shvydun, later continued to fight on the "Shooter" and "Free Ukraine" armored trains and in 1941 organized the Lutsk Battalion of OUN
Numerous former students of Kruty became the base of the officer corps of the legendary Black Zaporizhians Cavalry Regiment
Mykola Kryvopusk and Hnat Martynyuk in 1920-1921 served as personal bodyguards of Symon Petlyura, Martynyuk, after becoming a priest, perished in Volyn in 1943 under unknown circumstances
Serhiy Zakhvalsky, eventually became an officer in the Polish Army, however, he was renowned for imprisoning a whole company of the Red Army in 1920, while heading one of the cavalry squads of the Zaliznyak Cavalry Regiment
Averkiy Honcharenko, in 1943 became one of the organizers of the SS Halychyna of which he was appointed a commander in 1945
Petro Franchuk, one of the members of SS Halychyna
