Німецькі війська на Чернігівщині (1918): дані про дислокацію в документах органів влади Української Держави

The aim of this article is to explore the attempts of the Ukrainian military and political leadership to find out the composition and deployment of the German troops, which in 1918 were in the Ukrainian state as a force of armed assistance in the fight against external aggression (the attack of Soviet Russia) and against the internal anti-government movement, in particular, to determine which German units were in the Chernihiv province bordering Russia. The author analyses official documents of the Ukrainian administration containing information about German military units in Chernihiv region. The research methodology is based on the principles of historicism, objectivity, verifications, general scientific and special scientific methods (analysis, synthesis, etc.). The scientific novelty lies in the fact that the information on the deployment of German troops in the Chernihiv region in the documents of the authorities of the Ukrainian state is considered for the first time in the framework of a special study. The Conclusions. It is shown that the attempts of Ukrainian officials to collect information on the deployment of German troops in Chernihiv region did not yield comprehensive results. Despite the fact that German troops entered Ukraine at the invitation of its government, the command of these troops preferred to act independently and hid information about their units from the Ukrainian authorities. Therefore, their information was limited. The military and political leadership of the Ukrainian state used various methods of gathering information (inquiries to German headquarters, instructing local Ukrainian officials to conduct intelligence), but it achieved only partial success: the available data on the deployment of German troops (mainly units of the 41st Reserve Corps) in Chernihiv proved to be incomplete and uncertain. The reports on the deployment of German troops in the Chernihiv province compiled by Ukrainian headquarters contain only fragmentary information.