After the abdication of the tsar and the start of the process of destruction of the Russian Empire many people in Ukraine wished to establish a Ukrainian Republic. During a period of civil war from 1917 to 1923 many factions claiming themselves governments of the newly born republic were formed, each with supporters and opponents. The two most prominent of them were a government in Kyiv called the Ukrainian People's Republic (UPR) and a government in Kharkiv called the Ukrainian Soviet Republic (USR). The Kyiv-based UPR was internationally recognized and supported by the Central powers following the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, whereas the Kharkiv-based USR was solely supported by the Soviet Russian forces, while neither the UPR nor the USR were supported by the White Russian forces that remained.