Simon Petlyura - creator of the armed forces of Ukraine, head of the directorate of the unr. Life and death of nothingness. Semyon Petlyura Who is Petlyura biography

PETLURA, SIMON (SEMYON) VASILIEVICH(1879–1926), Ukrainian military and political figure, leader of the nationalist movement in Ukraine during the Civil War. Born on May 10 (22), 1879 in Poltava in a large bourgeois family. Father, V. Petliura, was a small businessman and cab driver. He studied at the Poltava Theological Seminary. He became interested in socialist and nationalist ideas, and in 1900 he joined the Revolutionary Ukrainian Party (RUP). In 1901 he was expelled from the seminary after a conflict with its leadership. He made a living by tutoring. In 1902 he moved to Ekaterinodar (modern Krasnodar); worked in the Kuban archive with F.A. Shcherbina, selecting materials for his work on the history of the Kuban Cossack army. Created the Black Sea Free Society in Yekaterinodar (Kuban branch of the RUP). Arrested in December 1903. In March 1904 he was released on bail pending trial. He fled to Kyiv, where he collaborated in the magazines “Public Thought” and “Rada”. Fearing arrest, he moved to Lvov (Austria-Hungary); was a volunteer student at Lviv University. Together with V.K. Vinnichenko established control over the local organization of the RUP. Participant of the II Congress of the RUP, renamed the Ukrainian Social Democratic Labor Party (USDRP); became a member of its Central Committee. Actively supported the programmatic demand for broad autonomy for Ukraine. In 1905 he moved to St. Petersburg; edited the Ukrainian monthly “Free Ukraine”. Upon returning to Kyiv, he continued his journalistic activities in the newspaper “Rada” and the organ of the USDRP “Slovo”; worked as an accountant at the Eastern Transport Partnership. After a short stay in St. Petersburg, he settled in Moscow in 1907; played a prominent role in the Ukrainian community, was part of the circle of academician F.E. Korsh, a passionate defender of Ukrainian culture. He was associated with the nationalist circles “Kobzar” and “Hromada”; Served as an accountant at the Rossiya insurance company. Since 1912 - editor of the newspaper "Ukrainian Life".

During the First World War, he worked in the All-Russian Union of Zemstvos and Cities, created in 1914 to help the government organize supplies for the Russian army. He held the position of chairman of the main control commission of the Union on the Western Front.

The February Revolution, which caused the rise of a mass national movement in Ukraine, brought Petliura to the surface of political life. In April 1917 he headed the Ukrainian Committee of the Western Front. In May, at the 1st Ukrainian Military Congress, he was elected chairman of the General Military Committee of the Central Rada (the body of all-Ukrainian power created on March 4, 1917). On June 28 (July 11) he joined the General Secretariat of the Rada as General Secretary for Military Affairs. He actively carried out the Ukrainization of parts of the Southwestern Front. He advocated the federal reorganization of Russia.

After the October Revolution, he switched to a position of independence. On November 7 (20), 1917, the Central Rada proclaimed the creation of the Ukrainian People's Republic. On November 15 (28), Petliura was appointed Secretary General of Military Affairs (Minister of War) of the new Ukrainian government. Announced the reassignment of Ukrainianized divisions to the Central Rada; disarmed many units of the Russian army stationed in Ukraine that were under the influence of the Bolsheviks; entered into military cooperation with the Don Ataman Kaledin. On December 31, 1917 (January 13, 1918) he resigned due to disagreement with the pro-German orientation of the Central Rada and its indecisive military policy.

In connection with the offensive of the Bolsheviks in Ukraine in early January 1918, he created a special military unit to fight them - the “Ukrainian Haidamak Kosh of Sloboda Ukraine”. Suppressed the uprising of workers at the Arsenal plant that broke out in Kyiv; fought with Red detachments on the outskirts of Kyiv. After the defeat of the troops of the Central Rada near Kruty and the fall of Kyiv on January 26 (February 8), 1918, together with the government, he took refuge in Volyn.

The German occupation of Ukraine and the restoration of the power of the Central Rada allowed Petliura to return to Kyiv. In April 1918 he was elected head of the All-Ukrainian Union of Zemstvos. After the overthrow of the Central Rada on April 29, 1918, he stood in opposition to the regime of Hetman P.P. Skoropadsky established as a result of the coup. He protested against his anti-democratic and “anti-national” policies. On July 27, 1918 he was arrested on charges of anti-government conspiracy. He was released on November 13, having given his word of honor not to oppose Skoropadsky. On November 14, he went to Bila Tserkva, where, together with the leaders of the Ukrainian National, he led the anti-Hetman uprising. He became a member of the new government body - the Ukrainian Directory - and the commander of its armed forces (chief ataman of the Ukrainian People's Army).

On December 14, Petliura's troops occupied Kyiv, overthrew the Skoropadsky regime and proclaimed the restoration of the Ukrainian People's Republic. On January 16, the Directory declared war on Soviet Russia. On February 4, under the pressure of the Bolsheviks, the Petliurists had to leave Kyiv; the government moved to Vinnitsa. After the resignation of V.K. Vinnichenko on February 10, Petlyura headed the Directory and began to pursue a radical nationalist, anti-Russian and anti-Semitic course (condoned mass pogroms against Jews). In March 1919, he tried to get help from France and the United States, promising to give railways, banks, and major industries under Entente control and to enter into a military alliance with Denikin. The successful offensive of the Red Army forced the Petliurites to retreat to Western Ukraine (the Directorate moved first to Proskurov and then to Kamenets-Podolsk). At the end of March, the main forces of the Ukrainian People's Army were defeated, but Petliura with the remnants of his troops broke through to Galicia; the government settled in Rivne. In April-May, Petliurists organized a series of uprisings against Soviet power in Western Ukraine, which were suppressed by the Bolsheviks.

The offensive of Denikin's troops in Ukraine in the summer of 1919 allowed Petliura's troops, together with the Galician Corps (military formation of the Western Ukrainian People's Republic), to occupy part of Right Bank Ukraine and even capture Kiev for a few hours (August 30). But the Directory failed to reach an agreement with Denikin, to whose side the Galician Corps went over. In September-October 1919, the Whites ousted Petliurist detachments from most of Right Bank Ukraine. Petliura tried to wage a guerrilla war with Denikin’s forces and even enter into an alliance with the Bolsheviks. However, he gained nothing from the defeat of the White Army by the Reds in October-December 1919; by the beginning of January 1920, the Bolsheviks captured almost the entire territory of Ukraine. The remnants of Petliura's troops retreated to Polish territory.

On April 21, 1920, Petliura concluded the Warsaw Treaty with the head of the Polish state, J. Pilsudski, on a joint struggle with Soviet Russia, agreeing to the annexation of Eastern Galicia, Western Volyn and part of Polesie to Poland in exchange for recognition of the independence of Ukraine. On April 25, the offensive of Polish and Petliura troops in Ukraine began, and on May 6 they captured Kyiv. The directory headed by Petliura settled in Vinnitsa. But the successful counter-offensive of the Red Army in late May - early July 1920 led to the restoration of Soviet power throughout Ukraine. Petliura’s attempt to organize a massive anti-Bolshevik partisan movement in Right Bank Ukraine and reach an agreement on joint actions with General Wrangel ended in failure. After the Reds defeated the main force of the Petliurites - the Iron Division - in November 1920 and captured Kamenets-Podolsk, he emigrated with the government to Poland.

In the fall of 1921, with the support of Poland and Romania, he tried to organize a new invasion of Ukraine, hoping for widespread dissatisfaction of the Ukrainian peasantry with the policy of “war communism,” but the Petliurite detachments were defeated by G.I. Kotovsky’s division. At the end of 1923 he left Poland for Hungary, fearing extradition to the Soviet authorities. In 1924 he moved to Austria, then to Switzerland. At the end of 1924 he settled in Paris, where he made an attempt to unite the Ukrainian emigration around the weekly Trizub. On May 25, 1926, he was killed in Paris by Sholom Schwartzbard, who shot him with a cyanide charge. In October 1927, a Paris court acquitted Schwartzbard, taking into account his motives (revenge for his relatives and for all Jews who died during the Petliura pogroms of 1919–1920).

Ivan Krivushin

Plan
Introduction
1 Biography
2 S. Petlyura in Kuban
2.1 Murder of Petlyura

3 Memory
3.1 State honors
3.2 Streets of Simon Petliura
3.3 Monuments to Simon Petliura

4 Film incarnations
Bibliography

Introduction

Simon Vasilyevich Petliura (Ukrainian Simon Vasilyovich (Vasiliyovych) Petliura, May 10 (23), 1879, Poltava, Russian Empire - May 25, 1926, Paris, France) - Ukrainian political and military figure, head of the Directory of the UPR (Ukrainian People's Republic) since 1919 to 1920.

1. Biography

Born into a petty-bourgeois family in Poltava. He studied at the Poltava Theological Seminary. In 1900 he joined the Revolutionary Ukrainian Party. He worked as a journalist, adhered to left-wing nationalist views, and was one of the founders and leaders of the Ukrainian Social Democratic Labor Party.

During the First World War he worked in "All-Russian Union of Zemstvos and Cities", created in 1914 to help the government of the Russian Empire organize supplies for the army. After the proclamation of the Ukrainian People's Republic, he became the general secretary of military affairs of the new government, but was soon dismissed (according to other sources, he resigned). Defending the right of the Ukrainian people to state independence, he took part in battles against the Red Army. In December 1917, from volunteers, mainly foremen and Cossacks from Kyiv military schools, he formed the military unit of the Gaydamat Kosh, becoming its chieftain.

After the establishment of the dictatorship of Hetman Skoropadsky (Ukrainian State) he was in opposition to the new regime. In November 1918, he took part in the uprising against Skoropadsky; on December 14, his militia occupied Kyiv. The Ukrainian People's Republic was restored, and Vladimir Vinnychenko became its head.

According to the testimony of sister of mercy Maria Nesterovich, after the capture of Kyiv by the Petliurists:

Many officers who were being treated in hospitals were killed, the dump sites were literally filled with officer corpses... On the second day after Petlyura’s invasion, I was informed that the anatomical theater on Fundukleevskaya Street was littered with corpses, that 163 officers were brought there at night. Lord, what did I see! The corpses of those cruelly, brutally, villainously, savagely tortured were stacked on tables in five halls! Not a single one was shot or simply killed, all with traces of monstrous torture. There were pools of blood on the floor, it was impossible to walk through, and almost all of their heads were cut off, many had only their neck with part of their chin left, some had their stomachs ripped open. They carried these corpses around all night. I have never seen such horror even among the Bolsheviks. I saw more, many more corpses, but there were no such tortured ones!... Some were still alive, - the watchman reported, - they were still writhing here... Our windows looked out onto the street. I constantly saw how arrested officers were being led...

Pleshko N. From the past of a provincial intellectual // Archives of the Russian Revolution, 1X, p. 218.

On February 10, 1919, after the resignation of Vinnychenko, Petliura effectively became the sole dictator of Ukraine. In the spring of the same year, trying to stop the Red Army's seizure of the entire territory of Ukraine, he reorganized the UPR army. He conducted active negotiations with the Entente representative office on the possibility of joint action against the Bolshevik army, but did not achieve success.

On April 21, 1920, after the fall of the Western Ukrainian People's Republic, Symon Petlyura, on behalf of the UPR, concluded a tactical agreement with Poland on a joint campaign against Kyiv in order to end the Bolshevik occupation of Ukraine. In exchange for support, the UPR agreed to establish a border between Poland and Ukraine along the Zbruch River, thereby recognizing the entry of Galicia into Poland on the basis of autonomy.

Professor of the Jagiellonian University Jan Jacek Bruski, on the pages of the Ukrainian newspaper Den, assessed the Pilsudski-Petliura agreement of 1920 as follows:

An agreement with the Polish government, which at that time had already established good relations with the West, was supposed to contribute, from Petliura’s point of view, to the process of international recognition of Ukraine. Of course, the Ukrainians had a weaker position in these negotiations than the Poles, who had already consolidated their state.

- [ http://www.day.kiev.ua/297052/ Igor SYUNDIUKOV, Nadiya TYSYACHNA, Olesya YASCHENKO, Lyudmila ZHUKOVICH, “The Day”, Denis ZAKHAROV. Piłsudski - Petliura

After the end of the war and the signing of the Riga Peace Treaty, Petliura emigrated to Poland. In 1923, the USSR demanded that Warsaw extradite Petliura, so he moved to Hungary, then to Austria, Switzerland and in October 1924 to France.

2. S. Petlyura in Kuban

While in exile in Kuban at the beginning of the 20th century, S. Petlyura worked here as a teacher and was involved in social activities. In addition, he was F.A. Shcherbina’s assistant in his work on “The History of the Kuban Cossack Army” and for his work received an extremely positive assessment from F.A. Shcherbina. In addition, several of his published works are known in local periodicals and in collections.

2.1. Murder of Petliura

Schwarzbard himself, in his first confessions to the French police, said that he had heard about brutal pogroms from fellow believers whom he met in 1917 on the road from St. Petersburg to Odessa. This is evidenced by publications in the French press of that time: in the newspapers Eco de Paris, Paris-Midi and others. Schwarzbard's lawyer, Henri Thores, a former communist, put forward a different version of the defense: about 15 relatives of Schwarzbard, including parents, killed in Ukraine by Petliurists during the Jewish pogroms (the Jewish Encyclopedia also writes about this). Torres justified Symon Petliura’s personal responsibility for the pogroms of Ukrainian Jews by the fact that Petliura, as head of state, was responsible for everything that happened in the territory he controlled.

Petliura’s associates and relatives presented more than 200 documents at the trial, indicating that Petliura not only did not encourage anti-Semitism, but also harshly suppressed its manifestations in his army. However, they were not taken into account, since lawyer Torres testified that most of them were drawn up after the fact, after the expulsion of the Petliuraites from Ukraine, and none were signed by Petliura personally. Ukrainian historian Dmitro Tabachnik, who devoted several publications to the murder of Petliura, refers to the historian Sh. Dubnov, who claimed that the archives of Berlin contain about 500 documents proving Petliura’s personal involvement in the pogroms. The historian Cherikover spoke similarly at the trial.

The Paris investigation in 1927 also did not take into account the testimony of witness Eliya Dobkovsky, who gave written testimony about the participation in the case of Mikhail Volodin, whom he considered an agent of the GPU (A. Yakovlev’s book “The Parisian Tragedy”). Volodin, having appeared in Paris in 1925, actively collected information about the chieftain, was personally acquainted with Schwartzbard and, according to Dobkovsky, helped him prepare the murder. The involvement of the GPU in organizing the murder of Petliura in 1956 was testified in the US Congress by KGB officer Pyotr Deryabin, who fled to the West. unreputable source? .

Alexander Vertinsky writes in his memoirs about the trial of Schwartzbard: “Of course, there was no hope for acquittal, because the French court acquits only for murder for love or out of jealousy. However, at the trial many voluntary witnesses of this little man appeared, who developed such a picture of the chieftain’s atrocities in Ukraine that the French judges hesitated. Who hasn't passed before the eyes of the judges! There were people here whose fathers and mothers Petlyura shot, raped their daughters, threw babies into the fire... The last witness was a woman.

Are you asking me what this man did to me? - she said, bursting into tears. - Here!.. - She tore her blouse, and the French judges saw that both breasts had been cut off.

Schwartzbard was acquitted. My gypsies were also witnesses. They screamed at the trial and beat their chests, talking about the tortured two brothers, about the horses taken away, about the burned relatives. Their anger was terrible. The girls cried, remembering what they had seen as children. The brothers showed scars - signs of torture. They were barely taken out of the courtroom.” (Alexander Vertinsky “On a Long Road...” Moscow Publishing House “Pravda” 1990, 227 pp.)

Schwartzbard was completely acquitted by a French jury.

According to numerous testimonies from his comrades, Simon Petliura tried as best he could to stop the pogroms and cruelly punished those of his soldiers who took part in them. unreputable source? So, when on March 4, 1919, Petliura’s “ataman” Semesenko, 22 years old, gave his “Zaporozhye Brigade”, stationed near Proskurov, the order to exterminate the entire Jewish population in the city, on March 20, 1920, on Petliura’s orders, he was shot. However, witnesses A. Chomsky and P. Langevin, who spoke at the Schwarzbard trial, testified that the “trial” and “sentence” were staged, and Semesenko himself was secretly released on the orders of Petliura.

On the eve of the pogrom, Semesenko declared that there would be no peace in the country as long as there was at least one Jew left there. On March 5, the entire “brigade” of 500 people, divided into three detachments, led by officers, entered the city and began beating Jews. They broke into houses and often massacred entire families. Over the course of the whole day, from morning to evening, more than a thousand people were killed, including women and children. They killed exclusively with cold steel. The only person killed by a bullet was an Orthodox priest who, with a cross in his hands, tried to stop the fanatics. A few days later, Semesenko imposed an indemnity of 500 thousand rubles on the city and, having received it, thanked in an order the “Ukrainian citizens of Proskurov” for the support they provided to the “People’s Army”.

Petliura Simon Vasilievich(Petlyura, Symon; 1879, Poltava, – 1926, Paris), Ukrainian politician, leader of the Ukrainian nationalist movement during the civil war of 1918–20.

Life before the revolution

He studied at an Orthodox theological seminary, from which he was expelled for participating in the Ukrainian revolutionary movement. Emigrated to Lviv.

Since 1900 - a member of the Revolutionary Ukrainian Party, then in 1905 - one of the founders of the Ukrainian Social Democratic Party. Upon returning to Russia, he worked as a teacher, accountant (in Kuban); collaborated with the Kyiv newspapers Hromadska Dumka and Rada; from 1906 - editor of the newspaper "Slovo".

In 1907, hiding from police persecution, he left for St. Petersburg, then to Moscow; worked as an accountant, participated in the Ukrainian circles “Kobzar” and “Hromada”. In 1907, he wrote a preface to E. N. Chirikov’s play “The Jews” (see), published in Kyiv, where he spoke sympathetically about the national aspirations of the Jewish people. Since 1912 - editor of the newspaper "Ukrainian Life".

In 1914 he was mobilized into the army, and from 1915 he became chairman of the Main Control Commission of the All-Russian Zemstvo Union on the Western Front.

Revolution and civil war

"Pogrom", art. Issachar-Ber Fisherman, 1919

After the February Revolution of 1917, he organized and headed the Ukrainian Front Committee. In May 1917, he was elected to the All-Ukrainian Military Committee of the Central Rada in Kyiv and became its chairman. In the government of the Central Rada he served as secretary (minister) for military affairs.

After the dissolution of the Central Rada and the establishment of the power of Hetman P. Skoropadsky, he headed the Kiev provincial zemstvo and the All-Ukrainian Union of Zemstvos. He joined the uprising against the hetman; from November 1918 - member of the Directory (government) and chief ataman of the troops (commander-in-chief) of the Ukrainian People's Republic (UNR); from February 1919 - Chairman of the Directory.

Despite the fact that the government of the Directory solemnly proclaimed the policy of national autonomy and granting Jews all national-political rights, and also created the Ministry of Jewish Affairs (see A. Revutsky), the activities of the Directory, which was actually controlled by the “ataman group” led by Petliura , was marked by bloody Jewish pogroms.

The troops of the Directory, retreating in the winter of 1919 under the blows of the White and Red Army, turned into gangs of murderers and robbers, attacking Jews in many cities and towns of Ukraine (Zhitomir, Proskurov and others). According to the Red Cross commission, about fifty thousand Jews were killed during these pogroms.

Petliura could not (according to numerous testimonies, and did not try) to put an end to the bloody atrocities that his army committed. To one of the Jews’ requests that he take advantage of his power to stop the pogroms and punish the pogromists, Petliura replied: “Don’t quarrel between me and my army.”

Only in July 1919, when it became clear that he would have to ask for help from the democratic countries of the West, Petliura sent a circular telegram to the troops, and in August 1919 he issued an order to the army, sharply condemning the pogroms, declaring that Jews were not enemies of the Ukrainian people , and threatened severe punishment for the rioters. According to Ukrainian nationalist sources, several of the most zealous pogromists were executed. In October 1919, the remnants of Petliura's troops, defeated by the Red Army, fled to Poland.

In 1920, Petlyura entered into an agreement with the Poles on joint military action against Soviet Russia. After the conclusion of peace between Soviet Russia and Poland (1921), Petliura continued to head his government and the remnants of the army in exile.

In exile

Material from Wikipedia - the free encyclopedia

Chief Ataman of the UPR Army and Navy Simon Petlyura in Kamenets-Podilskyi

Simon Vasilyevich Petliura (Ukrainian Simon (Semyon) Vasilyovich (Vasiliyovych) Petliura, May 10 (22), 1879, Poltava, Russian Empire - May 25, 1926, Paris, France) - Ukrainian military leader, head of the Directory of the Ukrainian People's Republic in 1919-1920 years, Chief Ataman of the Army and Navy.

Born in Poltava. He studied at the Poltava Theological Seminary, from which he was expelled. In 1900 he joined the Revolutionary Ukrainian Party (RUP). He held left-wing nationalist views.

In 1902, Simon Vasilievich began his journalistic activities in the Literary and Scientific Bulletin. The magazine's building was located in Lviv, which was part of Austria-Hungary. For this period of time, the editor-in-chief of Vestnik was M. S. Grushevsky. Petlyura’s first journalistic work was devoted to the state of public education in the Poltava region.

In Kuban

In 1902, fleeing arrest for revolutionary agitation, Petlyura moved to Kuban, where he first gave private lessons in Yekaterinodar, and later worked as a research assistant on the expedition of corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences F. A. Shcherbina, who was engaged in systematization of the Kuban archives Cossack army and worked on the fundamental work “History of the Kuban Cossack Army.” Petlyura’s work received an extremely positive assessment from F.A. Shcherbina himself. At the same time, he taught at the Ekaterinodar City Primary School, published in local magazines, and collaborated with the Lviv magazines “Good News” and “Trud”. Several of his published works are known both in local periodicals and in collections of articles. At the same time, his research on the history of Kuban was published in the Literary and Scientific Bulletin.

The last Prime Minister of the Kuban People's Republic, Vasily Ivanis, wrote in 1952 about Petlyura's outstanding diligence and hard work when working in the Kuban archives and his contribution to their study.

Among his journalistic works there is an article about the famous Kuban historian, first secretary of the Kuban Statistical Committee, chairman of the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission E. D. Felitsyn, with whom Petlyura was personally acquainted.

Petliura stayed in Kuban for no more than two years. Continuing his revolutionary activities, he organized a RUP cell in Yekaterinodar - the Black Sea Free Community, and set up a secret printing house in his house to produce anti-government leaflets. All this led to his arrest in December 1903. Only in March of the following year, on the basis of a fictitious certificate of illness, he was released “on bail” on cash bail and was kept under special police supervision, and later was forced to leave Kuban. Petlyura subsequently dedicated a number of his works to Kuban, published in both journalistic and scientific publications.

Much later, in 1912, Petlyura, having become the editor of the magazine “Ukrainian Life”, published a number of publications about Kuban, the authors of which were both himself and the Kuban correspondents of the magazine.

Returning to Kyiv, he became involved in the secret work of the RUP, gradually gaining more and more influence in the organization. Fleeing from police persecution, in the fall of 1904 he was forced to emigrate to Lvov, where he edited the magazines of the Republican Unitary Enterprise “Selyanin” and “Trud”, collaborated with the publications “Volya”, “Literary and Scientific Bulletin”, established contacts with I. Franko, M S. Grushevsky and others, which contributed to the deepening of his socio-political and scientific interests. Without receiving a formal education, here he, however, attended a course at the Ukrainian Underground University, where the best representatives of the Ukrainian intelligentsia of Galicia taught.

The amnesty of 1905 allowed Petliura to return to Kyiv, where he took part in the Second Congress of the RUP. After the split of the RUP and the creation of the USDRP, S. Petlyura joined its Central Committee. In January 1906, he went to St. Petersburg, where he edited the USDLP monthly “Free Ukraine”, but in July he returned to Kiev, where, on the recommendation of M. S. Grushevsky, he worked as secretary of the editorial office of the newspaper “Council”, published by the Radical Democratic Party, subsequently in the journal “Ukraine”, and from 1907 - in the legal journal of the USDRP “Slovo”. In the fall of 1908, Petlyura again found himself in St. Petersburg, where he worked for the magazines “Mir” and “Education”.
By this time he had already become a fairly well-known journalist and writer.

In 1911, Petliura married and moved to Moscow, where he worked as an accountant in an insurance company and, on a voluntary basis, until 1914, edited the magazine “Ukrainian Life,” which was in fact the only Ukrainian (Russian-language) socio-political magazine in pre-revolutionary Russia. It is his work in Moscow that will give his opponents a reason to accuse him of Russophilia (for example, V. K. Vinnichenko later wrote that the main direction of the work of the magazine “Ukrainian Life” was “propaganda among Ukrainians of the slogan “Fight for Russia to the bitter end””) . The editorial manifesto-declaration “War and Ukrainians” about the attitude of Ukrainians to the beginning of the World War, published by Petlyura in “Ukrainian Life”, was especially sharply criticized, which indicated that Ukrainians choose the side of Russia and will honestly defend their land - it was in this difficult time that Ukraine must declare itself so as not to remain outside the sphere of Russian interests..

World War I. February Revolution

Already in 1914, Petliura foresaw radical changes in the life of the Ukrainian people, about which he wrote in the article “On the practical tasks of Ukrainianism”: “We are definitely experiencing a period of growth of Ukrainianness, its transformation into a social force, into a real factor in the state life of Russia. Spontaneous manifestations of Ukrainianness are increasingly inferior to planned acts of national self-awareness, cemented by organized forms and performances that have gone through a long path of preparatory, deliberate and conscious work.”

At the beginning of 1916, Petliura enlisted in the All-Russian Union of Zemstvos and Cities, created in 1914 to help the government of the Russian Empire organize supplies for the army. Its employees wore military uniforms and were called “Zemgusars.” This was a contemptuous nickname that front-line officers used to call employees of the Union of Zemstvos and Cities who worked in the rear to supply troops.

In this work, Petliura had to communicate a lot with the masses of soldiers, imbued with their sentiments, and managed to gain popularity among the military. It was thanks to his energetic activities that after the February Revolution, Ukrainian military councils were created on the Western Front - from regiments to the entire front.
Petlyura’s authority and respect among soldiers and social activity promoted him to leadership of the Ukrainian movement in the army. In April 1917, he initiated and organized the Ukrainian Congress of the Western Front in Minsk. The congress created the Ukrainian Front Rada, and Petliura was chosen as its chairman.

As the chairman of the front-line Rada and the representative of Zemgora, Petliura was delegated to the All-Ukrainian National Congress convened by the Central Rada (held April 6-8 (19-21). Further events forced him to stay in Kyiv.

Proclamation of the UPR

After the proclamation of the Ukrainian People's Republic, he became the general secretary of military affairs of the new government, but was soon dismissed for the collapse of his work (according to other sources, he left himself). Participated in battles against the Red Guards. In December 1917, from volunteers, mainly foremen and Cossacks from Kyiv military schools, he formed the military unit of the Gaydamat Kosh, becoming its chieftain.

After the creation of the Ukrainian state, Hetman Skoropadsky was in opposition to the new regime. In November 1918, he took part in the uprising against Skoropadsky; on December 14, his militia occupied Kyiv. The Ukrainian People's Republic was restored, and Vladimir Vinnychenko became its head.

On February 10, 1919, after the resignation of Vinnychenko, Petliura actually became the sole ruler of Ukraine. In the spring of the same year, trying to stop the Red Army’s seizure of the entire territory of Ukraine, he reorganized the UPR army. He conducted active negotiations with the Entente representative office on the possibility of joint action against the Bolshevik army, with the establishment of a French protectorate in Ukraine, but did not achieve success.

On April 21, 1920, after the fall of the Western Ukrainian People's Republic, Symon Petlyura, on behalf of the UPR, concluded an agreement with Poland on a joint campaign against Kyiv, with the aim of expelling Soviet troops. In exchange for support, the UPR agreed to establish a border between Poland and Ukraine along the Zbruch River, thereby recognizing the entry of Galicia and Volyn into Poland.

Professor of the Jagiellonian University Jan Jacek Bruski, on the pages of the Ukrainian newspaper Den, assessed the Pilsudski-Petliura agreement of 1920 as follows:

An agreement with the Polish government, which at that time had already established good relations with the West, was supposed to contribute, from Petliura’s point of view, to the process of international recognition of Ukraine. Of course, the Ukrainians had a weaker position in these negotiations than the Poles, who had already consolidated their state.

In exile

After the defeat and expulsion of the Polish-Petliura troops from Ukraine, the Riga Peace Treaty was signed, and Petliura emigrated to Poland. In 1923, the USSR demanded that Warsaw extradite Petliura, so he moved to Hungary, then to Austria, Switzerland and in October 1924 to France.

Murder of Petliura

Schwarzbard himself, in his first confessions to the French police, said that he had heard about brutal pogroms from fellow believers whom he met in 1917 on the road from St. Petersburg to Odessa. This is evidenced by publications in the French press of that time: in the newspapers Eco de Paris, Paris-Midi and others. Schwarzbard's lawyer, Henri Torres, put forward a different version of the defense: about 15 Schwarzbard relatives, including parents, killed in Ukraine by Petliurists during the Jewish pogroms (the Jewish Encyclopedia also writes about this). Torres justified Symon Petliura’s personal responsibility for the pogroms of Ukrainian Jews by the fact that Petliura, as head of state, was responsible for everything that happened on the territory he controlled.

Petliura’s associates and relatives presented more than 200 documents at the trial, indicating that Petliura not only did not encourage anti-Semitism, but also harshly suppressed its manifestations in his army. However, they were not taken into account, since lawyer Torres testified that most of them were drawn up after the fact, after the expulsion of the Petliuraites from Ukraine, and none were signed by Petliura personally.

Ukrainian historian Dmitry Tabachnik, who devoted several works to the murder of Petliura, refers to the Jewish historian Semyon Dubnov, who claimed that the archives of Berlin contain about 500 documents proving Petliura’s personal involvement in the pogroms. The historian Cherikover spoke similarly at the trial.

The Paris investigation in 1927 did not take into account the testimony of witness Eliya Dobkovsky, who gave written testimony about the participation in the case of Mikhail Volodin, whom he considered an agent of the GPU (A. Yakovlev’s book “The Parisian Tragedy”). Volodin, having appeared in Paris in 1925, actively collected information about the chieftain, was personally acquainted with Schwartzbard and, according to Dobkovsky, helped him prepare the murder. The involvement of the GPU in organizing the murder of Petliura in 1926 was testified in the US Congress by OGPU employee Pyotr Deryabin, who fled to the West [unauthorized source?].

Schwartzbard was completely acquitted by a French jury.

According to his comrades-in-arms, Simon Petlyura tried his best to stop the pogroms and cruelly punished those who took part in them. For example, on March 4, 1919, Petlyura’s “ataman” Semesenko, twenty-two years old, gave his “Zaporozhye Brigade”, stationed near Proskurov, the order to exterminate the entire Jewish population in the city - Semesenko, on the eve of the pogrom, declared that there would be no peace in the country until There will be at least one Jew left there. On March 5, the entire “brigade” of 500 people, divided into three detachments, led by officers, entered the city and began killing Jews. They broke into houses and often massacred entire families.
Over the course of the whole day, from morning to evening, more than a thousand people were killed, including women and children. They killed exclusively with cold steel. The only person killed by a bullet was an Orthodox priest who, with a cross in his hands, tried to stop the fanatics. A few days later, Semesenko imposed an indemnity of 500 thousand rubles on the city and, having received it, thanked in an order the “Ukrainian citizens of Proskurov” for the support they provided to the “People’s Army”.

However, witnesses A. Chomsky and P. Langevin, who spoke at the Schwarzbard trial, testified that the “trial” and “sentence” were staged, and Semesenko himself was secretly released on the orders of Petlyura.

The killer of Simon Petliura, anarchist SHVARTZBURD, comes from Izmail.

Shulem-Shmil Schwarzbard (also known as Shulim Shvartsburd, Sholem-Shmuel Schwarzbard and Sholom Schwarzbard: fr. Samuel (Sholom Schwarzbard; August 18, 1886, Izmail, Bessarabia Governorate - March 3, 1938, Cape Town, South Africa) - Jewish poet, publicist and an anarchist who killed Simon Petlyura and was acquitted by a French court. He wrote in Yiddish under the pseudonym “Bal-Haloymes” (Dreamer).

Shulem-Shmil Shvartsburd was born in the provincial Bessarabian town of Izmail, located on the banks of the Danube, in 1886. He lived with his family in Balta, where he early became interested in anarchist ideas, was arrested several times and took part in the First Russian Revolution, after the suppression of which he left Russia. For some time he lived in Romania, Lemberg, Budapest, Vienna, Italy, and in 1910 he settled in Paris, where he worked as a watchmaker. With the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, together with his brother, he joined the French Foreign Legion (Legion Estrangere), participated in hostilities for three years, distinguished himself, and was awarded the Order of the Combat Cross (Croix de Guerre), the highest award of the legion.

In 1917 - after being seriously wounded during the Battle of the Somme and undergoing treatment - he was demobilized and after the February Revolution, in August he and his wife returned to Russia. At first he worked as a watchmaker in Balta, but in January 1919 in Odessa he joined the Red Army and until mid-1920 he participated in the fighting of the Civil War in Ukraine in the ranks of the Kotovsky brigade. After the suppression of the political opposition, however, he became disillusioned with Soviet power and again left for Paris, where he opened a watch workshop. It soon became clear that all members of his family (15 people in total) were killed during the wave of Jewish pogroms that swept across Ukraine in 1918-1920.

Rudata.ru›wiki/Samuil_Isaakovich_Shvartsburd

In 1925, I learned from the newspapers about the stay of Simon Petlyura in Paris, who in those years in Jewish circles was widely considered responsible for the mass atrocities committed by the troops under his command in Ukraine. During the massacres and violence against the Jewish population of Ukraine during the Civil War, at least 50 thousand people were killed, more than 300 thousand children were left orphans. A number of historians believe that the real numbers were higher (more than one and a half thousand Jews were brutally killed in the notorious Proskurov pogrom of 1919 alone), and although Petlyura, apparently, did not personally give any orders in this regard, to prevent the atrocities of his subordinates he did not consider it necessary.

On May 25, 1926, at the corner of Boulevard Saint-Michel and Rue Racine, Schwarzbard approached Petlyura, who was looking at a shop window, and, making sure in Ukrainian that it was indeed Simon Petlyura in front of him, shot him three times with a revolver, after which he calmly waited for the police to arrive and surrendered. weapon and announced that he had just shot a murderer. Petliura died nearby, at the Charity Hospital on Rue Jacob, fifteen minutes after his arrival.

Schwartzbard's trial began a year and a half later on October 18, 1927, and received wide publicity. Famous people of various persuasions stood up for the defendant, including philosopher Henri Bergson, writers Romain Rolland, Henri Barbusse, Maxim Gorky, physicists Albert Einstein and Paul Langevin, politician Alexander Kerensky and others; The preparation of expert materials for the defense was carried out by the former Prime Minister of Hungary Mihaly Károlyi. The defense was led by the famous French lawyer Henri Torrez. Eight days later (October 26), Schwartzbard was acquitted by a majority of the jury and immediately released from La Sante prison, within the walls of which he spent a year and a half of preliminary investigation. Already in the same 1927, in Schwarzbard’s homeland in Bessarabia, a book of reports on the progress of the trial was published in Yiddish in two editions (3. Rosenthal Der Schwarzbard-Process - Schwarzbard Process. Undzer Zeit: Chisinau, 1927) - the first in a series of books on this topic that will be published in different countries and in different languages.

In 1938, Sholom Schwartzbard died suddenly of a heart attack in Cape Town.

Izmail-city.org›articles/1540-shvarcburd

The purpose of this article is to find out how the death (execution) of SIMON PETLYURA is included in his FULL NAME code.

Watch "Logicology - about the fate of man" in advance.

Let's look at the FULL NAME code tables. \If there is a shift in numbers and letters on your screen, adjust the image scale\.

16 22 41 53 84 101 102 120 130 143 158 172 175 176 194 204 216 245 251 254 264 288
P E T L Y R A S I M O N VA SIL EVICH
288 272 266 247 235 204 187 186 168 158 145 130 116 113 112 94 84 72 43 37 34 24

18 28 41 56 70 73 74 92 102 114 143 149 152 162 186 202 208 227 239 270 287 288
S I M O N V A S I L EVICH P E T L Y R A
288 270 260 247 232 218 215 214 196 186 174 145 139 136 126 102 86 80 61 49 18 1

PETLURA SIMON VASILIEVICH = 288 = 63-DEAD + 225-SHOT AT CLOSE BLOCK.

We read: 16 = GIB...; 22 = GIBE...; 34 = DEAD...; 63 = DEATH.

We will find this number if we divide the code of the letter “N” in the word SIMON, equal to 14, by 2. 14: 2 = 7.

SIMO... = 56 = EXECUTED + 7 = 63 = DEATH.

VASILYEVICH PETLURA = 218 = \ 102-PETLURA, SHOT + 116-VASILIEVICH-\ SHOT \ + 7 = 225 = SHOT AT point blank range.

225-SHOT AT BLOCK BLOCK - 63-DEATH = 162 = ENDED HIS CENTURY.

288 = BULLETS FIRED FROM A NAGAN.

288 = 102-SHOT + 186-DEATH OF ORGANISM.

288 = 204-\ 102-SHOT + 102-DEATH\ + 84-ORGANISM.

288 = 186-\ 69-END + 117-QUICK...\ + 102-DEATH.

186 - 102 = 84 = SUDDEN.

288 = 74-MASSACRE + 214-KILLED AT POINT POINT FROM A NAGAN.

214 - 74 = 140 = INTO THE HEART.

Quick reading of the FULL NAME code:

VASILIEVICH PETLURA = 218-SHOT BY A BULLET - SIMON = 70-SHOOT\, EXECUTED\\ = 148.

148 = END OF LIFE.

SIMON VASILIEVICH = 186-\ 69-END + 117-QUICK... \ - 102 = PETLURA-\ DEATH, SHOT \ = 84.

84 = SUDDEN.

PETLURA SIMON = 172-\ 102-SHOT + 70-EXECUTED\ - VASILYEVICH = 116-SHOT\ = 56.

56 = EXECUTED.

288 = 232\ 84-SUDDEN + 148-END OF LIFE\ + 56-EXECUTED.

232 - 56 = 176 = HEART DAMAGE.

Let's decrypt individual columns:

102 = SHOT
_____________________________
187 = SHOT IN REVENGE

70 = STUNNED \ = EXECUTED \

232 = SUDDEN END OF LIFE

232 - 70 = 162 = ENDED ITS CENTURY.

176 = HEART DAMAGE
________________________________
113 = KILLED DIRECTLY

176 - 113 = 63 = DEATH.

56 = EXECUTED
_____________________________________
247 = INTENTIONAL MURDER

56 = EXECUTED
________________________________________
247 = 102-SHOOT + 145-DIED

247 - 56 = 191 = 102-SHOOT + 89-DEATH.

216 = 97-MURDER + 119-DENIED LIFE
___________________________________________
84 = SUDDEN

216 - 84 = 132 = DEATH.

DEATH DATE code: 05/25/1926. This = 25 + 05 + 19 + 26 = 75 = REVENGE = INTERRUPTED \ life \ = HEART.

288 = 75-HEART + 213-SUDDEN SHOOTING IN...

288 = 213-SUDDEN SHOOTING IN... + 75-HEART.

213 - 75 = 138 = COMPLETION OF LIFE\ and\.

220 = 66-KILLED + 154-SHOT DOWN.

Code of the full DATE OF DEATH = 220-TWENTY-FIFTH OF MAY + 45-\19 + 26\-(code of the YEAR OF DEATH) = 265.

265 = 120-END OF LIFE + 145-DIED.

288 = 265 + 23-OUTSIDE\.

Code for the number of full YEARS OF LIFE = 76-FORTY + 66-SEVEN = 142 = KILLED FROM NAGAN\a\.

288 = 142-FORTY SEVEN + 146-SHOT IN THE HEART.

288 = 143-KILLED FROM NAGAN + 145-DIED.

Let's look at the column:

176 = 63-DEATH + 113-KILLED DIRECTLY
__________________________________________
113 = FORTY SEVEN \ = KILLED DIRECTLY

For a long time he was called “the worst enemy of the Ukrainian people,” “the leader of counter-revolutionary gangs,” “a traitor who sold Ukraine to everyone.” Today, for many, he is a “great patriot,” “a hero of the Ukrainian revolution,” “the leader of the national liberation movement who gave his life for the freedom of Ukraine.” May 2009 marked the 130th anniversary of his birth.

He was born in the suburbs of Poltava in the family of a cab driver. As a child, I didn’t stand out in anything special. He helped his father, studied at the bursa, then at the seminary. After the first year of seminary, Semyon (that was his real name) was left for the second year. In the end, he was expelled from the seminary. Some time later, Petlyura tried to pass the exams for the seminar course as an external student, but failed. So he remained a dropout. And this is a direct path to revolution.

While still in the seminary, Petliura began to call himself in the French manner and demanded that others address him that way. But even under his new name he remained an unremarkable person. He was a member of the Revolutionary Ukrainian Party (RUP). Distributed leaflets. Gotcha. Was arrested. Released on bail (father had to sell the only tithe of forest land that belonged to the family). Fled abroad. After the announcement of amnesty in 1905, he returned to his homeland. He joined the Ukrainian Social Democratic Labor Party, which was formed on the ruins of the RUP. But even in this dwarf party he played a secondary role.

With the defeat of the revolution, Petliura’s revolutionary activities also died out. He gets a job at the Ukrainian-language newspaper Rada. But he didn’t fit in at court (he was too uncultured and ill-mannered). Simon Vasilievich moves to another Ukrainian-language newspaper - Slovo. Becomes its editor. Writes articles. And among other things, he is trying to settle scores with former employers. He accuses the Rada of... Ukrainian nationalism. (An interesting detail: the label “Ukrainian bourgeois nationalism” is not at all an invention of Soviet times. Before the revolution, the newspaper “Slovo”, edited by Petlyura, was engaged in attaching this label to opponents. Except that it sounded a little different: “petty-bourgeois Ukrainian nationalism”).

In 1909, Slovo closed due to lack of readers. Simon Vasilyevich leaves for St. Petersburg. Works as an accountant in a private company. In the evenings he attends meetings of the Ukrainian Community. Joins the Masonic lodge. It helps your career. Over time, the Masons help Petliura move to Moscow (there, by the age of thirty, he has the first and only woman in his life). When the magazine “Ukrainian Life” opened in 1912, Simon Vasilyevich got a job there. Here he meets the beginning of the First World War.

Petliura responded to this terrible event with a special article. Calls on Ukrainians to fulfill their patriotic duty on the battlefield. He himself does everything possible to avoid mobilization. The Masonic "brothers" define it as Zemgor - the All-Russian Zemstvo and City Union, a public organization involved in supplying troops. Work in Zemgora guaranteed exemption from conscription into the army and, in addition, was very profitable in financial terms. This is how Petliura “fought” until 1917.

The revolution opened up new prospects for him. Simon Vasilievich travels to Kyiv, where the Ukrainian movement has intensified. And he arrives on time. The newly created Central Rada is preoccupied with creating its own armed forces. On her initiative, the Ukrainian Military Committee was founded. But Lieutenant Nikolai Mikhnovsky, who was vying for the post of head of the committee, did not suit the Central Rada politicians. Mentally unbalanced, imagining himself to be a Ukrainian Napoleon, he did not want to obey anyone. There were no other candidates. This is where Petliura turned up. Although not a military man, but related to the army, obedient (as they thought then), Simon Vasilyevich was a suitable candidate. And he ended up at the head of the “Ukrainian troops”. Troops that still needed to be created.

At the beginning of "glorious" deeds

The task turned out to be difficult. It was mainly deserters who responded to the committee's call. As one of the participants in those events recalled, these “volunteers” were ready to declare themselves not only Ukrainians, but also Chinese, just so as not to fight. The slogan: “We will not go to the front until Ukrainian regiments are formed from us” appealed to them. Of course, even having organized themselves into such regiments, the deserters did not want to hear about the front. They cursed Petlyura, who came to them with persuasion, threatening to kill him if he came again. Frightened Simon Vasilyevich learned his lesson. Creating real shelves is a risky business. It is much safer to sit in an office and write orders, knowing in advance that no one will carry them out. This is what Petlyura did.

However, while the “military committee” was something like a “private shop,” the “activities” of its chairman looked like innocent fun. Complications began after the fall of the Provisional Government and the proclamation of the Ukrainian People's Republic (UNR). Simon Vasilyevich became the General Secretary (Minister) of Military Affairs, but continued to “amuse himself” with order-making. In response to threats from the Council of People's Commissars to the Central Rada, Petliura ordered Ukrainian troops near Petrograd to begin operations against the Bolshevik capital.

It was hardly possible to come up with something more stupid. There were no “Ukrainian troops” near Petrograd. Unless you count the Ukrainian soldiers of the Northern Front as such, who these days abandoned their trenches en masse and went home. Petliura’s stupid (there’s no other word for it!) order only accelerated the Reds’ invasion of Ukraine. An invasion that revealed the worth of the “Ukrainian regiments” created by Simon Vasilyevich. They scattered even before the enemy approached...

In December 1917, Petliura was removed from the post of minister, accusing him of defeats. The accusation, to be honest, was not entirely fair. In conditions of general collapse, a truly courageous person, a professional, probably would not have been able to create combat-ready units from deserters. Where is Petlyura? They simply made him a scapegoat. But he did not remain in this role for long.

Successes and failures

In January 1918, Simon Vasilyevich became the commander of the Haidamak Kosh of Sloboda Ukraine. Kosh (about 150 fighters) was formed by former officer Nikolai Chebotarev. But being a little-known person, Chebotarev offered command to a more significant figure - the former Minister of War. At the head of the kosh, Petlyura set out from Kyiv to the “Bolshevik front”. True, he didn’t have a chance to smell gunpowder that time. An uprising broke out in the Ukrainian capital, and the Haidamaks had to urgently return back.

Petliura’s biographies tell how he showed unprecedented heroism in battles with the rebels, how he fearlessly led his cat to storm the Arsenal plant under enemy fire. This is all fiction. The Gaidamaks entered Kyiv when the uprising in most areas had already been suppressed. Arsenal, surrounded by UPR troops, still held out. But upon learning that reinforcements had approached the besiegers, the plant’s defenders lost heart. They stopped resisting.

But what the Petliurists really took part in was the execution of prisoners. It’s difficult to call the shooting of unarmed people heroic. Moreover, a few days later the Haidamaks, together with their “heroic” commander, fled in unison from the Red Guards who burst into Kyiv.

They returned with the Germans. At the request of the Central Rada, the German army launched an offensive against the Bolsheviks, drove them out of Right Bank Ukraine and approached Kyiv. To create the appearance of liberation of the capital by Ukrainian troops, the Germans stopped on the outskirts and allowed units of the UPR army into the city, which had already been abandoned by the Reds. Among them was the kosh of Slobodskaya Ukraine. But if the majority of Ukrainian formations, having paraded through the streets of Kyiv, went on to fight, the Petliurists were in no hurry. Simon Vasilyevich sought his appointment to a high post in the government and therefore delayed the kosh. Every morning the bodies of people killed and robbed by them were found on the streets. The patience of the Germans (and they were the real power) quickly ran out. Kosh was taken out of the city and disbanded. Petliura was dismissed. He found himself out of work again.

Not for long. Perhaps, with the help of former colleagues in the Masonic lodge (they are never former), Simon Vasilyevich was made the head of the Kyiv provincial zemstvo. In this position he met the hetman's coup. Unlike most Ukrainian figures, the head of the Kyiv Zemstvo did not immediately go over to the opposition. On the contrary, he became a frequent visitor to Skoropadsky, asking for a loan of one hundred million rubles (“for zemstvo activities”). The hetman did not object. However, he suggested that money be allocated to pay certain bills. Petliura wanted to have the entire amount at his complete and uncontrolled disposal. The refusal pushed him into the camp of the enemies of the hetman’s regime.

The opposition did not worry Skoropadsky much. There was practically no fighting with her. Only from time to time one of the oppositionists was arrested for several days. This is what they did with Petlyura. But Simon Vasilyevich was unlucky. Two days after the arrest, the Russian Socialist Revolutionaries killed the German Field Marshal Eichhorn in Kyiv. The terrorist attack led to a tightening of repression. Perhaps that is why Petliura was not released on time. Or maybe in the whirlpool of events they simply forgot about him. Be that as it may, Simon Vasilyevich had to spend a long three and a half months behind bars. But every cloud has a silver lining. Being in prison raised his authority. And when Petliura was released, he was immediately offered to take part in a conspiracy against the hetman.

Chief Ataman

The anti-Hetman uprising was the peak in Petliura’s political career. While the other conspirators were conferring, Simon Vasilyevich secretly rushed to the White Church. There stood a regiment of Galician Sich Riflemen - the striking force of the conspiracy. Petlyura told the archers that he was authorized to start an uprising. He proclaimed the re-establishment of the UPR and declared himself the chief ataman of the republican troops. Not suspecting that there was an impostor in front of them, the archers obeyed. Later, officers of the UPR army cursed and said that Petliura started the uprising “yak Pylyp z konopel”, without sufficient preparation. But what did the lives of several hundred or even thousands of people mean to Simon Vasilyevich? The main thing is that he (he!) was in charge, he became the chief ataman!

In fact, when the real leaders of the conspiracy arrived in the Streltsy camp, it was already too late. The rebels were sure that their leader was Petliura. To expose him would be to cause unnecessary confusion. And everything was left as is. Moreover, military leadership talent was not required from the chief ataman. Combat operations were led by rifle commanders. And the enemy was weak - the resistance of the hetmans was broken in four weeks.

The entry of the victors into Kyiv was marked by mass murders and robberies. The bloody Sabbath continued throughout the Petliur era. During the period of the civil war, power in Kyiv changed 13 times, but, according to Kyiv inhabitants, under no one was the rampant criminality as violent as under Petliura. Meanwhile, a new thunderstorm was approaching. The rebel groups consisted mainly of peasants dissatisfied with Skoropadsky's land policy. Having overthrown the hetman, they went home. Simon Vasilyevich had only the archers and small units of the Haidamaks at his disposal. And from the east the red troops of the Ukrainian Soviet Republic were again advancing.

It was still possible to be saved. French troops landed in southern Ukraine. The French were ready to help with troops and weapons, but demanded that “bandit Petlyura” resign. Simon Vasilyevich could not agree to such a sacrifice. Negotiations broke down. The UPR was doomed. Some of Petliura's leaders delicately call their exodus from Kyiv in February 1919 an "accelerated retreat." But this was not a retreat. It was a shameful flight. The Reds drove the chief ataman all the way to the border. Only after moving to Galicia did he catch his breath. Everyone thought that Petliurism was over. However, the situation changed again.

In the summer of 1919, the offensive of Denikin's army began. Unable to restrain the White Guards, the Bolsheviks chose to surrender the territory of the Ukrainian Right Bank to Petlyura. They hoped that the chief ataman would not come to an agreement with Denikin. And they were not mistaken. The Petliurists (reinforced by reinforcements from Galicians) clashed with the Whites in Kyiv itself (where both entered from different sides almost simultaneously). The White Guards did not intend to conflict, but the Haidamaks were raising trouble. The skirmishes escalated into battle. Here it became clear who was who. The Petliurites outnumbered the enemy seven times. But Denikin had an army, Petliura had a gang. At the first shots, the army of the chief ataman began to scatter. Several thousand UNE soldiers surrendered (the number of those who surrendered exceeded the number of White Guards who took them prisoner). Simon Vasilyevich was in despair. He dreamed of riding into Kyiv on a white horse. Khreshchatyk has already been decorated with portraits of the chief ataman. A ceremonial parade was being prepared. And everything had to be cancelled. For Petliura it was a tragedy.

For the power of the Soviets

Much has been written about Petliurism. But both Soviet historians and their opponents carefully avoided one topic - the role of Simon Vasilyevich in the establishment of Soviet power in Ukraine. And he played a significant role. Wanting to take revenge on the whites, the chief ataman stopped hostilities against the Bolsheviks. He passes through his territory the red divisions, defeated by Denikin’s troops near Odessa and, it would seem, doomed to death. The UPR delegation is conducting negotiations in Moscow on the subordination of the Petliura army to the Revolutionary Military Council, which was to include a representative of Petliura. Without waiting for the end of the negotiations, Simon Vasilyevich orders an offensive against the Whites.

It seems that he calculated everything correctly. The main forces of the White Guards are concentrated against the Reds. In Right Bank Ukraine, Denikin has less than 10 thousand soldiers. The chief ataman has 40 thousand (the majority are Galicians). The Bolsheviks promise to help with weapons and ammunition. Father Makhno is operating in the rear of Denikin’s troops. Everything is working out in Petlyura’s favor. But…

It took the Whites only two weeks to defeat the enemy. The Petliurites surrendered en masse. The Galician units went over to Denikin. The Haidamaks rebelled. Even the personal guards left Simon Vasilyevich’s command. He flees to Volyn. There are still loyal troops there. You can organize a defense. But Petliura thinks only about her own salvation. And then an episode occurred that should have been called funny if it were not for the sad circumstances that accompanied it.

Many people probably remember anti-Soviet political jokes. One of them told how the October Revolution almost failed (the white armored car was stolen, and Lenin exchanged the second armored car for a cap). And few people knew that this story was based on a real fact. Only it all happened not to the “leader of the world proletariat,” but to the “hero of the Ukrainian revolution.” He ran, unconscious from fear. Where? The Poles were the closest. The latter, however, demanded that an armored car be given to them for a place in a freight car heading to Poland. This was the only armored car remaining in the UPR army. Captured in battle, he was the pride of the Haidamaks. But Simon Vasilyevich “waved without looking.” Petliura’s adjutant Alexander Dotsenko, who told this story, forever remembered the eyes of Petliura’s soldiers and officers who watched their “most valuable treasure in the war” being taken away. But the chief ataman had no time for sentimentality. Finding himself in a carriage filled with various rubbish, he smiled happily and rejoiced at the successful deal. Probably, at that moment, Simon Vasilyevich did not realize that his political death had come.

Natural ending

Why did the UPR die? First of all, due to the lack of popular support. The idea of ​​an independent Ukraine was not popular then. But there was another reason - Simon Vasilyevich Petliura. He was in the wrong place and he knew it. The chief ataman was an incompetent commander, but he did not resign. Feeling how despised he was by professional soldiers, he was suspicious of career officers, and this affected the combat effectiveness of his troops. He had little understanding of government affairs. But instead of recruiting smart assistants, he carefully made sure that no one from his circle was smarter than himself. As a result, the cabinet of ministers of the UPR consisted of people “downright terrible in their intellectual squalor” (this, according to Dotsenko, was the general opinion about the then Ukrainian government). And it is not so important whether Petliura’s ministers were “complete idiots” (as Stepan Baran, deputy chairman of the National Rada, a kind of parliament in the UPR, said about them) or simply figures who did not possess “statesmanship” (as Simon Vasilyevich’s longtime friend Alexander would put it) Salikovsky). Those in power were incapable of governing the country. There couldn’t be anyone else next to Petliura. And therefore its ending is natural.

For a short time, the chief ataman returned to Ukraine with the Poles. But he was no longer the boss here. Jozef Pilsudski even rode into Kyiv on a white horse in May 1920. Simon Vasilievich was allowed to come later. And then - a new flight. Misadventures in emigration. Tragic end in Paris.

Death of a hero?

On May 25, 1926, at the beginning of three o'clock in the afternoon, an already middle-aged and clearly worn-out man was sadly wandering along one of the Parisian streets (not crowded at this afternoon). He was sparsely dressed. A worn jacket and worn-out shoes indicated an unenviable financial situation. There was nowhere for the man to rush. A little before reaching the intersection, he stopped at the window of a bookstore, looking at the publications displayed there. At that moment, a man in a work blouse caught up with him and called him by name. As soon as the owner of the worn jacket turned around, the man pulled out a revolver and opened fire. The first shots knocked the unfortunate man onto the sidewalk. Turning pale from pain and fear, he managed to shout pleadingly: “Enough! Enough!” But the killer continued to shoot. A total of seven bullets were fired before a nearby police officer disarmed the gunman. The latter did not resist, did not try to break free and run away. His victim, writhing in agony, was taken to a nearby hospital. But the help of doctors was no longer needed. This is how Simon Vasilyevich Petlyura ended his life.

The killer turned out to be Samuel Schwartzbard, a Jew, a native of the Russian Empire, who lived in Ukraine for a long time. Schwartzbard stated that he wanted to avenge the deaths of his loved ones who died in pogroms against Jews during the Civil War. Representatives of historical science from the Ukrainian diaspora confidently spoke about the “hand of Moscow.” True, without providing any convincing evidence. The “Kremlin trace” is also actively “searched” by modern Ukrainian historians. But so far no success. “Despite all the obvious connections between Schwarzbard and the NKVD, no documentary evidence of the involvement of the Soviet secret service was found,” notes the comments to the memoirs of Isaac Mazepa, prime minister of the Petliura government.

Version one: crime of the GPU

Purely hypothetically, one can, of course, assume that Schwarzbard acted on orders from Moscow. But the question arises: “Why?” The explanations given by the supporters of the “Chekist” version boil down to the fact that, they say, Petliura posed a danger to the Bolsheviks as the leader of the Ukrainian movement. The point, however, is that by the mid-1920s he was not a leader of any kind. The Galicians (and they were the backbone of the Ukrainian movement) fiercely hated the former head of the Directory as a traitor who agreed on behalf of the Ukrainian People's Republic (UNR) to give Galicia to the Poles. Without power, without an army, without money, hated and despised, Petliura had no chance of becoming a leader again. Suffice it to remember that only a few hundred people signed up for the Pro-Petliura Union of Ukrainian Emigrant Organizations of France. The Bolsheviks knew all this very well. And although Soviet propaganda continued to call the entire Ukrainian movement “Petliura,” the Kremlin was not at all mistaken about this. Any attempts by Simon Vasilyevich to become a leader again were doomed to failure. They could only cause new squabbles among the emigrants, which naturally played into the hands of the Bolsheviks
Something else also attracts attention. Murder of Ataman Alexander Dutov. The kidnapping and murder of Ataman Boris Annenkov, generals Alexander Kutepov and Evgeny Miller. Liquidation of Colonel Yevgeny Konovalets. These are operations brilliantly carried out by Soviet intelligence. Having completed the “work,” the performers calmly walked away from persecution. Not a single agent was caught. In the case of Petlyura, the killer did not even run away. This does not look like a special operation by the GPU. Thus, the version of the “hand of Moscow,” even if it has a right to exist, still seems unlikely.

Version two: revenge for pogroms

This version seems the most plausible. Refuting it, domestic historians point out that Petliura was not an anti-Semite, did not organize Jewish pogroms, and sometimes even tried to prevent them. The “army” of the UPR largely consisted of individual gangs led by their own atamans (“batkas”). They obeyed the command of Chief Ataman Petliura only nominally. In fact, each “father” arbitrarily ruled the controlled territory. It was these atamans who basically organized the pogroms. They organized it in defiance of Petliura’s prohibitions (they didn’t care about his prohibitions). Simon Vasilyevich most often could not prevent them or punish them for what they had done. And even if in some cases he could, he was afraid to do it. Words condemning the pogroms were first heard nine months after they began. This is the famous order No. 131. It didn’t cost the “fathers” anything to oppose him, undermining the already precarious position of the head of state. When a delegation of Jews once again broke through to him at the Mamienka station with a plea to stop the pogrom, he declared: “Listen, I I don't interfere with what my army does, and I can't stop them from doing what they think they need to do!" (From the transcript of the trial of S. Schwarzbard). It was during the period of bloody pogroms of February-August 1919 that Simon Petlyura became a complete anti-Semite. This was greatly facilitated by the terrible pogrom in Proskurov on February 15-18, 1919 by Ataman Samosenko, commander of the Zaporozhye Cossack Brigade named after Petliura, and the 3rd Haidamaks Regiment (both units were regular troops of the Ukrainian People's Republic). In a few hours, mostly with cold steel (a shot cost 50 rubles), about 1,500 thousand people were killed. In general, in three days – up to 4 thousand. According to the Committee of the Russian Red Cross in Kyiv, Petliura's regular troops committed pogroms in 120 cities and towns, the gang of br. Sokolovsky - in 70, Zeleny's gang - in 15, Struk's gang - in 41, the gang of Sokolov and his assistants - in 38, Grigoriev's gang - in 40, the gangs of Lyashchenko, Golub and others - in 16), and in total by September 1919 Pogroms were committed in 353 cities and towns.
Was Schwartzbard aware of these nuances? Hardly. He saw only what an ordinary man in the street who found himself in the whirlpool of those events could see. Were there pogroms in Ukraine? Were. Those who called themselves soldiers of the UPR “army” took part in them. And this “army” and the republic itself was led by Simon Vasilyevich Petlyura.

Third version: Masonic.

This version is not discussed by historians. Journalists don't talk about her.

Long before the revolution, Simon Vasilyevich joined the Masonic lodge. This boosted his career. Largely thanks to the assistance of the “Order of Freemasons” (as the Masons are sometimes called), Simon Vasilyevich ascended to the heights of power and found himself at the head of the UPR. However, in 1919, significant differences emerged between Petliura and the order.

The events that took place in Ukraine in 1917-1919 convinced the top leadership of the organization that attempts to implement the idea of ​​​​an independent Ukrainian state were premature. Indeed: the majority of Ukrainians (Little Russians) in national terms did not separate themselves from the Great Russians. Slogans of independence were not popular among the population. A forced separation of Ukraine from Russia would cause a backlash among the masses, strengthening the desire for unification. “The Ukrainian people have no consciousness, do not show organizational abilities, the Ukrainian movement arose thanks to German influences, the current situation is so chaotic,” the influential American freemason Ljord told the former Minister of War of the UPR Alexander Zhukovsky in Paris in 1919.

In connection with the current situation, the Freemasons adjusted their political plans. In the Parisian lodges (Paris was one of the world centers of Freemasonry) the project of transforming the former Russian Empire into a Union of Republics was discussed. An important place in this project was given to Ukraine. It was to become one of the union republics, in a federal connection with other parts of the disintegrated empire. Only after a long time, when the Ukrainians managed to firmly establish the consciousness that they were an independent nationality (and not the Little Russian branch of the Russian nation), did the Freemasons consider it possible to raise the question of the state independence of Ukraine.

The project was actively supported by the head of Ukrainian Freemasonry Sergei Markotun. But Petliura didn’t like the plan. Simon Vasilyevich saw better than anyone else that the people do not want separation from Russia. In a narrow circle, he even once called the Ukrainians an “immature nation” for this. The problem was different. In an independent Ukraine, Petliura could lay claim to the leading role. In Ukraine, which is in a federal connection with Russia, no. Petlyura rejected the project, demanding immediate support from the Freemasons for the idea of ​​complete independence of the country. He quarreled with Markotun and left his subordination. True, in order not to break with the order, Simon Vasilyevich immediately founded and headed the new “Grand Lodge of Ukraine”. But the highest Masonic authorities did not approve of the “rebellion.” The order was strong because it knew how to put strategic plans above the ambitions of its individual members. And without such support, Simon Vasilyevich quickly became what he was before - a political zero.

Petlyura did not give up. Finding himself in exile, he negotiated with the “free masons,” sought recognition of his “lodge,” and tried to regain the support of the order. To no avail. And yet hope did not die. Simon Vasilyevich passionately desired a return to big politics. Most likely, this desire was especially inflamed in May 1926. Just then a coup d'état organized by the Freemasons took place in Poland. A member of the order, Józef Pilsudski, who several years ago seemed to have lost power forever, again became the head of the country. The Order helped him return.

Petlyura wanted the same for himself. He probably again began to seek support in the Masonic lodges. And, perhaps, having again encountered a refusal, he snapped, tried to blackmail the “brothers”, threaten with exposure, giving away Masonic secrets. The order always responded to such threats in the same way. The answer to Simon Vasilyevich could have been Schwarzbard’s shots...

This version is confirmed by the acquittal of the killer. You can have different attitudes towards the identity of the killer and his victim. The extent of Petliura’s responsibility for the Jewish pogroms can be assessed differently. The judges could take into account mitigating circumstances and punish the offender not too harshly. In the end, it was possible to obtain a pardon from the President of France. But the jury was faced with clearly formulated questions: “Is the accused Samuil Schwartzbard guilty of voluntarily shooting at Simon Petliura on May 25, 1926? Did his shots and the wounds from them lead to death? Did Schwartzbard have the intention to kill Simon Petliura?” To give a negative answer to these questions meant to openly mock justice.

In conclusion, an interesting detail. On the eve of the trial, Leon Blum, a prominent French politician and member of parliament (who later became prime minister), was approached by Schwartzbard's wife. She asked the politician to use all his influence to save her husband from a death sentence (which, according to the law, was quite possible to receive for murder). Blum told Madame Schwartzbard that she had nothing to worry about - the defendant would be acquitted. And so it happened. Leon Blum was a Freemason...

Dry residue.

The third version has only one weak point. Like the first, it has the only indisputable fact - the presence of Freemasons (like the first - the presence of Bolsheviks). But the facts in both versions are chronically lacking. Their supporters easily classify anyone as a Freemason or an agent of the Cheka-NKVD-KGB-FSB, depending on the views of the authors of such versions. But besides the Freemasons in France there were also numerous Jews and just normal people (of whom the jury consisted). One more important fact should be taken into account. The trial took place just a few years after the French invasion of Russia. The French hated the Bolsheviks, rightfully accusing them of betraying their Entente allies during the First World War. Finally, the French bourgeoisie were simply afraid of the revolutionary movement that had risen throughout Europe and the strengthening of the left thanks to the Bolshevik victory in Russia. And yet, the version of the “Hand of Moscow” was not accepted. And numerous testimonies of atrocities, and testimonies of French citizens, played their role. When at the trial one of the witnesses unbuttoned her blouse to prove the atrocities of the Petliurites (her breasts were cut off), the jury’s decision was a foregone conclusion.

When preparing the article, I read about a hundred testimonies of witnesses and accused (and the Bolsheviks tried some of the captured Petliurists). After this, Yavorivsky’s bill from Yulia Tymoshenko’s bloc on celebrating Petliura’s birthday at the state level seems like a mockery.