Simon Petliura
Petliura before the revolution
“Signs of Semyon Petlyura: height 166 cm, average build, intelligent appearance, serious, has a habit of putting his left leg forward and keeping his hands in front of him; hair on the head is light blond, long, straight, parting on the right side, eyebrows and mustache are light brown, beard is rare, reddish, eyes are gray, large, myopic; in the evening light reads with glasses; the skull is correct, round, the forehead is flat and wide, the nose is straight, the face is oblong ... "
The son of a bourgeoisie, a Poltava citizen, as was usual then among the commoners - study at the seminary, because a priest is free and prestigious, and at the same time a revolutionary socialist atheist, for which he was expelled from the seminary. There were a lot of them, and the authorities themselves created the problem, making secular studies problematic for admission. Humanitarians - descendants from the lower classes were presented with a choice: seminary or nothing. Young people chose seminary, simultaneously hating both religion and the state. Many have traveled this way, and as a result, they became the fuel of the revolution.
In 1901, from the birth of Christ, the half-educated seminarian chose: either to go into the revolution in earnest, as, say, Stalin did, in exactly the same situation, or ...
Petliura, without breaking with the revolution, chose a career. He leaves for the Kuban, becomes a teacher, writes articles in the Poltava region for Austro-Hungarian newspapers ...
So our hero would have lived his life between the blackboard and the pen, but the security department intervened. For prophylaxis, Petliura is searched and dismissed from his post as a teacher at a women's school in Yekaterinodar.
And in 1904 they were going to be arrested at all, from which, however, Petliura fled to Galicia. In general, there is something strange in this stories: in 1901-1902, in Poltava, a wave of arrests of members of the RUE (revolutionary Ukrainian party) - Petliura avoids detention, in the Kuban arrests and searches - Petliura is not touched, recognizing the literature found during a search, safe for the state, in 1904 all friends of Petliura are detained according to Yekaterinodar, leaflets and a hectograph are found at his house, but Petlyura himself at this time is resting at the dacha of a major official who patronizes him. Then, all the same, arrest, but the political and organizer of the revolutionary circle is released on bail, and he calmly leaves for a state with which Russia has rather hostile relations, from where the subversive Ukrainophile work was carried out ... Still, the Security Department worked in the empire for what something to their standards.
In Galicia, Petliura became the favorite of Hrushevsky, the leader of the Ukrainianophiles of that time. However, he did not stay long in Austria-Hungary, the first revolution began in Russia and Petliura illegally crosses the border, unnoticed by either the border guards or the gendarmes, gets to Poltava, where he participates in the revolutionary congress. And in October 1905, an amnesty was given in Russia, and Petliura joined the USDLP, as it were, a party of Social Democrats and Marxists, but at the same time a national party, so to speak, of nationalist internationalists. And almost immediately in the Central Committee of the party.
The party, to be honest, was so-so, reformed moderate social-nationalists RUPovtsy and youth from raznochinets in the amount of a couple of hundred people. And then he moved to St. Petersburg, where he published a magazine for the agitation of Ukrainian students called "Vilna Ukraine", and from there - to Stockholm:
At the IV Unity Congress of the RSDLP, the Ukrainian delegation from the USDLP proposed uniting with the RSDLP on a federal basis, provided that only the USDLP would represent the interests of the Ukrainian proletariat. This proposal, as "nationalist", was rejected by the majority of the congress.
I can imagine the reaction of the Social-Democratic Marxists, a party that is serious and principled in adhering to the Marxist theory, when a party, previously unknown, declared that they represent the workers of Kiev and Kryvyi Rih, Donbass and Odessa, Nikolaev and Yekaterinoslav ... the eyes did not see and they were not aware of their existence, in fact, the work among the workers of the USDLP began only before the elections to the second State Duma.
The next stage of his life is associated with working for big business:
On the recommendation of Mikhail Grushevsky, Petliura was hired for the well-paid job of the executive secretary of the daily newspaper Rada (Council), which was published with his own money by the philanthropist and wealthy landowner of the Kherson province Yevgeny Chekalenko.
Chekalenko is a millionaire and an oligarch, a landowner and Marxists cannot stand his heart, he dreams of Ukraine, but for himself and people like him, without any Marxism-socialism.
And Petliura has quite taken root in such a circle, writes theatrical reviews and political articles, however, in parallel he writes for the USDRP newspaper, arguing, in fact, with himself. However, not for long - in 1907 the newspapers were slowly closed, and Petliura himself became an accountant in St. Petersburg, moving away from the revolution in favor of everyday life.
And in 1911, having finally retired from politics, Semyon-Simon moved to Moscow and got married, working in the insurance company "Russia" and at the same time continuing to write articles for newspapers. So our revolutionary would have died out at home and work, but war has come to the world. The same one, the First World War, and Simon Petliura again changes his guise:
When crossing the border, Russia's opponents will, of course, try to attract the Ukrainian population to their side and sow confusion among them with all sorts of promises of political and national promises. Ukrainians will not succumb to provocative influences and will fulfill their duty as citizens of Russia in this difficult time to the end, and not only on the battlefield, in the ranks of an abusive army fighting against violators of world peace and law, but also as citizens - ordinary people who are obliged to the best of their ability and opportunities to facilitate the successful fulfillment of the extremely responsible task by the Russian army, which has fallen to its lot.
He turns into a patriot-state-holder, a supporter of war and ... a freemason-liberal:
The formation of such a political orientation in the war was associated with Petliura's "work" in the Masonic lodges, which were guided, first of all, by England and France (the Entente).
In 1915, Petliura was mobilized into the army, however, to the orderlies, and not to the front-line infirmary, but to the ambulance train, and then to the authorized representatives of Zemgor, where he becomes what the front-line soldiers will call Zemgussars with contempt and with whom this episode is connected. :
Nicholas II: They are complaining about you that you hamper the initiative of society when supplying the army.
Manikovsky: Your Majesty, they already profit from the supply by 300%, and there were times when they received even more than 1000% of the profits.
Nicholas II: Well, let them profit, if only they would not steal.
Manikovsky: Your Majesty, but this is worse than theft, it is an open robbery.
Nicholas II: Still, there is no need to irritate public opinion.
Manikovsky: Your Majesty, they already profit from the supply by 300%, and there were times when they received even more than 1000% of the profits.
Nicholas II: Well, let them profit, if only they would not steal.
Manikovsky: Your Majesty, but this is worse than theft, it is an open robbery.
Nicholas II: Still, there is no need to irritate public opinion.
And Petliura becomes neither more nor less, but the representative of Zemgor on the Western Front, and this is colossal money and opportunities. By that time, 36-year-old Petliura was already a fully formed personality, an undoubted careerist, a bit of a socialist and a Ukrainianophile. And at the beginning of March 1917, the Central Council and the autonomy of Ukraine were proclaimed in Kiev.
In the events of the revolution
Petliura got to Kiev only in May 1917, where he immediately began his career as a politician and military man in new conditions. Just these days, a military congress is taking place in Kiev, where the radical Mikhnovsky, the author of the Ukrainian commandments (full of xenophobia and anti-Semitism), was promoted to the head of the congress, and the USDLP opposed him with Petliura. We must pay tribute to the front-line soldiers - they did not support Mikhnovsky, but they did not support Petliura, whom they did not know, and whose zemgusar was openly irritated by the people who fought.
Nevertheless, he got into the presidium, and this predetermined a lot in the fate of Ukraine for the next four years. It is difficult to imagine a worse figure for that time than the Minister of War of the rebellious outskirts of the former empire - a populist and socialist without service experience. The uniform does not make a person a soldier, and Zemgor's privileges - an officer, and not understanding how the military organism lives, it was possible to do something like this ... Petliura will do it.
“Ukraine for Ukrainians! Therefore, expel the oppressor foreigners from everywhere from Ukraine! ... Do not take women from other nations as your wives, because your children will be your enemies; do not be friends with the enemies of our people ... "
But against the background of the author of these commandments Mikhnovsky, the moderate Semyon is not the worst option. True, there was a better option - Skoropadsky, who, being a career general, proposed maintaining discipline and organization of the army. But the peculiarity of the crowd is that it follows attractive slogans, Mikhnovsky's ideas did not reach the people, but neither did the ideas of war and discipline.
And in the end, everything will come to the notorious otamanism, but this is already in 1919, but for now the year is 1917. In Petrograd, the Provisional Government, in Kiev, its commissar, the City Duma, the Soviet of Workers' Deputies and the Central Rada. All of them consider themselves to be power, but at the same time anarchy is only growing, and Petliura is building an army, well, how he is building ...
“... we do not need a standing army, but nationwide armament, militia ... The danger is that when the bourgeoisie is organized, the army will defend its interests against the interests of democracy and the peasantry. That is why these regiments "named after the hetmans" may have an element of danger in them when they are created on a permanent basis ... "
The General Secretary of the Central Rada did not consider the army necessary at all, putting it on the militia. And supporters of other points of view were squeezed out of the Rada ruthlessly. The officers especially got:
"All senior officers, even if they were pure-blooded Ukrainians, were treated with deep distrust by Petliura and his closest associates."
As a result, no Ukrainian army was ever built, moreover, the units promoted by the USDRP did not go into battle with either the Germans or the Bolsheviks, but regularly rioted and held rallies.
However, this was an all-Russian problem, by eliminating military discipline, the Provisional Government received a complete collapse of the armed forces, and under what slogans the soldiers did not go to the front - the tenth thing. Anarchy also grew, deserters since weapons dispersed en masse to their homes.
Civil war
After the October Revolution, the position of the Rada was unambiguous.
At three o'clock in the afternoon in the hall of the Pedagogical Museum there was an emergency meeting of the Central Council. It was announced that all power in Ukraine (8 provinces + Northern Tavria) is transferred to the Central Rada as the highest legislative power (head M. Hrushevsky) and the General Secretariat as the highest executive power (head V. Vinnichenko).
In those conditions, this was tantamount to a declaration of war. The situation was aggravated by flirting with the Don Cossacks and the admission of anti-Bolshevik units to the Don, which led to the ultimatum of the Council of People's Commissars and Muravyov's attack on Kiev. By that time, there were already two UPR: one - in Kharkov, pro-Bolshevik, and the second - in Kiev.
What is the role of Petliura in this?
And he remained in the shadow of Hrushevsky and Vynnychenko, supporting all their decisions. He pressed (with executions and torture) an uprising at the Arsenal plant, tried to organize a rebuff to Muravyov (unsuccessfully), and intrigued behind the backs of his comrades, secretly flirting with the Entente countries and the White movement.
It was during this period that Petliura's socialism (in many respects ostentatious and in his youth) was finally exhausted, before us is a candidate for dictatorship and a man savvy in intrigue. Even his departure from service in mid-December played into Petliura's hands only - he was not involved in the collapse of the Central Rada, and a sharp change in position towards the support of officers and Russia made him somewhat popular. And his opposition to the Germans only added points to the piggy bank. All this will play a role in due time, but for now the Germans, the hetman coup and the arrests of members of the USDLP, including Petliura, are in Kiev.
He did not sit for a long time, Hetman Skoropadsky, realizing, in principle, that he had no support besides the Germans, flirted with the former, and Petliura was released, like his party comrades.
In the carriage Directory, under the carriage - the territory
You can write the history of the Directory for a long time and in detail, or you can write a thesis and briefly. In principle, it appeared as a kind of result of a peasant uprising against the German-Austrian occupiers and the hetman, who personified them. No, they organized themselves, from among the last government of the Central Rada, but the support came from below.
And the rest was just logical - both the peasants, who went home, for the hetman was all, and the attempt to unite with the ZUNR, which arose on the ruins of Austria-Hungary and fought with the Poles, and otamanship, because the army formed from detachments of fellow countrymen in conditions war of all against all, could not rob, in the complete absence of discipline, and even wild anti-Semitism with pogroms, which Petliura did not organize, of course, but which he did not want and could not interfere. It is also logical that the Directory eventually fell, and the UPR was headed by his own mini-Napoleon, which became our hero, and even the final development of Petliura's personality, recorded by his comrades-in-arms:
"Tattoo! Lize the devil at the hut! Darma, Sinu, Abi is not a Muscovite! "
After that, Petliura, failing to come to an agreement with the Entente, negotiates with the Poles in an extremely cynical way, handing over the Ukrainian Volhynia to Poland and concluding an alliance with the ZUNR. However, this did not help, the Polish troops retreated and, despite the miracle on the Vistula, received only the territories transferred to them under the agreement with Petliura.
And then there was emigration and death at the hands of a Soviet intelligence agent, who, in addition to work, took revenge for the Jewish pogroms. There remains the conclusion of Vinnichenko, Petliura's comrade-in-arms and opponent for decades:
S. Petlyura, this little obedient servant of Western reaction, a puny ladіator of the imperialist Caesars, an unfortunate slave of his petty popularity and a typical product of a petty national philistinism involved in major national and social cataclysms.
And a new myth today, about a great and wise ruler.
In fact, Petliura is no better than many others, as well as no worse, perhaps. Any revolution is a wave that brings up random people. It happens, and geniuses, like the same Napoleon, and sometimes - and bourgeois sons who want the best, but do not know how and do not have the necessary qualities for something more. And it ends, as a rule, very badly: military groupings uncontrolled by the command are guaranteed atrocities and robberies, and the civilian population pays for the ambitions.
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