KHARKOV (KHARKIV), UKRAINE – MARCH, 1919 When Ukraine declared independence after the October Revolution in 1917, the Bolsheviks and Leninists of Russia never approved or recognised it. When civil war broke out in Russia, pitting the Bolsheviks, who were already in power in Russia at the time, against the opposition (which was pretty much anyone who wasn’t a Bolshevik), it affected Ukraine greatly. Russia supported the Bolshevik factions there and even sent their red army there.
Kharkiv became one of the key cities in Ukraine in 1919, and there was fighting between the Ukrainian Bolsheviks, backed by the Red Army, and the opposition, who called themselves the White Guard. When the Red Army took majority control of the city, it began a purge of the civilian population. Anyone suspected of supporting the opposition was brutally massacred. The truth is that the Red Army did not bother with evidence, but massacred anyone who might be in any way inconvenient to their regime (intellectuals, university students, clergy, bourgeoisie).
It should be noted that the Red Army did not just carry out these massacres in Kharkiv, but throughout Ukraine. Kharkiv became a symbol of their cruelty because it had the largest number of victims, which number, however, is not publicly known. As is known, the Bolsheviks eventually won, Ukraine became part of the CCCP and most of the evidence was destroyed.
Apart from the mass executions, the improvised concentration camps, there are also testimonies of the brutality with which the Red Army committed the murders. Some of the victims had the skin cut from their faces or showed signs of torture. Women, as well as young girls, were targeted for rape in the area controlled by the Red Army.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Civil_War
