General Staff of the UNR Army

General Staff of the UNR Army (Генеральний штаб Армії УНР; Heneralnyi shtab Armii UNR). Organized in November 1917 by the General Secretariat of Military Affairs of the Ukrainian National Republic, it was patterned on the General Staff of the Russian imperial army. While at first it had several departments, after reorganization the number was reduced to two—the organizational department and the quartermaster’s department—run by assistants to the chief of staff. During its brief existence the general staff dealt mostly with organizational, not operational, matters. It drafted mobilization plans and organizational schemes, organized military schools, and prepared field manuals. Gen B. Bobrovsky was chief of general staff until March 1918, when he was succeeded by Col Oleksander Slyvynsky. In February 1919, when the Directory of the Ukrainian National Republic retreated from Kyiv, the officers of the general staff were reassigned to the Active Army Staff. (See Army of the Ukrainian National Republic.)

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 2 (1988).]