Simon Petlura

Simon Petlura

Leader of Ukrainian nationalists
Date of Birth: 17.05.1879
Country: Ukraine

Biography of Symon Petliura

Symon Petliura was a Ukrainian political and revolutionary figure, as well as the head of the Directorate of the Ukrainian People's Republic (UNR) from 1919 to 1920. He was born into a lower-middle-class family in Poltava and studied at the Poltava Theological Seminary. In 1900, he joined the Revolutionary Ukrainian Party and worked as a journalist, advocating for left-nationalist views. He was one of the founders and leaders of the Ukrainian Social Democratic Labour Party.

During World War I, Petliura worked in the All-Russian Union of Zemstvos and Cities, which was established in 1914 to assist the Russian Empire government in organizing army supplies. After the proclamation of the Ukrainian People's Republic, he became the military secretary of the new government but soon resigned. He participated in battles against the Red Army and opposed the dictatorship of Hetman Skoropadsky (Ukrainian State). In November 1918, he led a rebellion against Skoropadsky, and on December 14, his militia captured Kyiv. The Ukrainian People's Republic was restored, with Volodymyr Vynnychenko as its leader.

From February 10, 1919, after Vynnychenko's resignation, Petliura effectively became the sole dictator of Ukraine. He formed a new UNR army, which attempted to stop the Red Army from capturing the entire territory of Ukraine. Petliura tried to negotiate with the White Guard command of the Armed Forces of South Russia for joint actions against the Bolsheviks, but without success. In 1920, after the defeat of Petliura's army in the Soviet-Polish War (Petliura was an ally of Józef Piłsudski), he emigrated to Poland.

In 1923, the USSR demanded the extradition of Petliura, so he moved to Hungary, then to Austria, Switzerland, and finally to France. Petliura was assassinated on May 25, 1926, by anarchist Sholom Schwartzbard, who, according to Soviet legend, sought revenge for the 15 of his relatives, including his parents, who were killed by Petliura's supporters during Jewish pogroms in Ukraine. Schwartzbard was fully acquitted by a French jury.

However, there is a series of documentary evidence that Bolsheviks (and prior to the revolution, Black Hundreds) and "ataman" gangs were the organizers of the pogroms. Petliura, as the head of the state, signed several orders against the perpetrators of the pogroms. In 1919, the Bolsheviks were not interested in good relations between Ukrainians and Jews, and the pogroms became one of the main ways to destabilize the situation in the republic, especially if the blame is placed on Petliura's supporters. Some historians believe that Schwartzbard was an agent of Soviet security organs, as Petliura was still considered dangerous for the USSR. From Petliura's appeal to the people dated March 18, 1921: "The Jewish population – small traders, craftsmen, and workers – who, like all workers, earn a piece of bread through their labor, is also oppressed and robbed by Bolshevik orders. Goods from merchants' shops, tools, and machinery from craftsmen are taken away for the commune. Isn't this ruin for the Jewish population? Can the robbed Jewish population rejoice in the Bolshevik robbers while starving to death? No. The Jewish population, like you peasants, is waiting for, and will not wait for liberation from the communist robbers." The myth of Petliura's pathological Russophobia is widespread since Soviet times. At the same time, his personal security chief and counterintelligence chief was Russian, with the surname Chebotarev, and the Minister of Justice was Russian, with the surname Shelukhin.

In Soviet historiography, encyclopedias, and dictionaries, Symon (Semen) Petliura is portrayed as a counter-revolutionary, although in the Directorate government, he represented the Social Democratic Party and made decisions in conjunction with very left-wing and revolutionary social democrats (such as Vynnychenko) and Socialist-Revolutionaries.

© BIOGRAPHS