Upon the heels of this ultimatum came another one, served on the Council of the People's Commissaries by the German Ambassador, Count von Mirbach. According to a dispatch, the new ultimatum, too, dated May 10, had a bearing on the prisoner question, but in addition demanded complete cessation of arming troops and the disbandment of units already formed. This demand produced an unusual stir in Russia. The Commissaries held an extraordinary session at which the situation created by the ultimatum was discussed. The Bolsheviki showed no intention of complying with the German ultimatum.
On May 12 Foreign Minister Chicherin instructed the Russian Ambassador, M. Joffe, at Berlin to "try to obtain from Berlin cessation of every kind of hostility." The Germans had announced their intention to capture Novorossiysk, on the Caucasian coast of the Black Sea, under the pretext that the Russian warships, which had escaped seizure at Sebastopol and which are stationed at Novorossiysk, constituted a danger for the German vessels. The instruction added that the German invasion of Russian territory was causing much unrest in the country.
COUP IN THE UKRAINE
On April 18 the State Department at Washington announced that, according to an authentic report, the Teutons intended to dissolve the Ukrainian Rada and set up a Government of their own. On April 24 a Ukrainian financier prominent in aiding the Germans was arrested in the name of "the Committee of Ukrainian Safety." The German Vice Chancellor, Friedrich von Payer, in his speech before the Main Committee of the Reichstag, said that this secret organization aimed at driving the Germans out of the country and was even planning the assassination of all German officers. It included a number of prominent Ukrainians, several Ministers of State among them, and held its meetings at the house of the Minister of War. An investigation was demanded by the German Ambassador, but the Rada took no action.
Two days later General von Eichhorn, Commander of the German Army in the Ukraine, proclaimed "a state of enhanced protection," making all offenders of order subject to the jurisdiction of German court-martial. He had previously issued a field-sowing decree, necessitated, as the Germans explained, by the fact that the Rada had taken no measures concerning the field sowing, without which the country could not meet its treaty obligations relative to the delivery of grain to Germany. On April 28, while the Rada was in session, German troops entered the hall and arrested a number of its members, the Minister of War among them. The next day a number of landowners and rich peasants who were holding a convention in Kiev declared its sessions permanent, voted the dissolution of the Rada as well as the cancellation of the order convoking the Constituent Assembly on May 12, and proclaimed General Skoropadsky Hetman (Supreme Military Chief) of the Ukraine.
The Rada ceased to exist. It had but scant support in the country. A creature of the Teutons, it was supported by their armed forces. It proved unable to secure the delivery of the promised foodstuffs to the Central Powers. Owing to the resistance of the population only 3,000,000 poods (pood, 36 pounds) were delivered to the Teutons, instead of 30,000,000 poods, which the Rada undertook to supply. The Germans then withdrew their support. According to various reports, the German agents took an active part in the overthrowing of the Rada.
Speaking of the fall of the Rada, the German Vice Chancellor said that "stubborn adherence to communistic theories that have gained no sympathy among the peasant population, which is attached to the soil, seems to have been principally responsible for bringing about its end." One of the first acts of the new Government was the restoration of private ownership of land. The new régime has many features of an autocratic rule. The following information regarding the extent of the Hetman's powers is furnished by the German Service of Propaganda:
The Government power in its entire capacity belongs to the Hetman for all the territory of the State. The Hetman ratifies the laws, he appoints the President of the Council of Ministers, he is chief director of the relations of foreign affairs of the Ukrainian State, he is Generalissimo of the army and of the navy, he declares war, proclaims martial law and exceptional laws. In the administration of justice he has the right of pardon and commutation of sentence.
It has been pointed out that, while the reconstructed Ukrainian Government is emphatically and avowedly pro-German, some of its leading spirits are Russian patriots and advocates of a union with Russia. Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich is said to have taken an active part in the coup d'état. A dispatch, dated May 10, announced the beginning of peace negotiations between Russia and the Ukraine.