Who are the Petliurists
Head Ataman Simon Petlyura (center) and Colonel Yevgeny Konovalets (right behind Petlyura) take the oath of Sich Riflemen. Starokonstantinov, summer 1919.
The fall of Skoropadsky's state
Skoropadsky's Ukrainian state was supported only by German bayonets ("Vulgar operetta" by Skoropadsky"; "We will be just a bedding for other nations"). His dream of a state with firm power, with people fluent in both Ukrainian and Russian, with its own army and strong industry, in alliance with White Russia, was unrealistic. Another mirage.
The people of Little Russia were split into several parties, each with its own ideal. Some dreamed of communism, others of a “Ukrainian nation”, free from Reds, Jews (as the Jews were called - Author's note) and Muscovites. Still others stood for White Russia - united and indivisible, and joined the ranks of the White Army. The fourth, led by Father Makhno, dreamed of complete freedom. The fifth simply robbed and gathered entire bandit armies.
In November 1818, Germany capitulated, the Germans began evacuating their army from the Little Russian provinces. Skoropadsky's state was left without a patron. But I didn’t have time to find new ones. The hetman tried to come to an agreement with Ataman Krasnov and Denikin, and through him with the Entente, but did not have time. With a manifesto of November 14, Skoropadsky proclaimed Ukraine an integral part of the future non-Bolshevik Russian Federation.
On the same day, leaders of the dissolved Central Rada at a secret meeting in Kyiv decided to rebel against the hetman and restore the UPR (Ukrainian People's Republic). A Directory was elected to lead the uprising, headed by Vladimir Vinnychenko, who was already the head of the UPR government. Commander-in-Chief (Chief Ataman of the Army and fleet) former Minister of War of the UPR Symon Petlyura was appointed. The Petliurists raised an uprising, which was supported by numerous gangs and part of Skoropadsky’s own army.
Within a month, Petliura's troops overthrew the hetman's regime. On December 14, 1918, Skoropadsky signed a manifesto renouncing power and fled Kyiv along with the departing German troops.
The Petliurists occupied Kyiv and massacred Russian officers. Several thousand people became victims of Ukrainian nationalists. At the same time, throughout the country, nationalists robbed and slaughtered Jews. Thus, the bandits of Petliura’s ataman Semesenko massacred half a thousand Jews in Vinnitsa and one and a half thousand in Proskurov.
“In the carriage is the Directory, under the carriage is the territory”
The power of the Petliurites in Kyiv lasted only a month and a half. During this time, the city only managed to change the signs on stores from Russian to Ukrainian.
Formally, all of Little Russia was under the authority of the Directory; in fact, its power did not extend beyond the boundaries of large cities and railway junctions. There has been no power in Little Russia since the collapse of the Russian Empire. Even the iron and disciplined Austro-German army, which occupied the Western Russian provinces, did not have enough strength to control the vast territory. Only cities, railways, important points and punitive raids on hostile territory in order to seize valuable resources, provisions, fodder, and punish rebellious natives.
The leaders of the Central Rada were able to raise 200–300 thousand people to overthrow the Hetmanate. However, they did not have an idea that would unite everyone and competent managers to create a new state. Most of their forces are simply gangs. After the victory, they returned to the villages to realize their victory, engaged in robbery, dividing up the land, and destroying the landowners' estates and enterprises that still survived or were restored under the hetman. Jews were slaughtered. They were also joined by simple anarchists who did not recognize any authority.
There was also a powerful “red”, pro-Soviet part of the rebel movement. Red partisans who fought with the Hetman and German troops. They took an active part in the overthrow of the Hetmanate. Local Bolsheviks, various “independent” Social Democrats, Socialist-Revolutionary “Borotbists” adjoining them. They mainly controlled the local administrative apparatus and enjoyed the support of the rural population.
The officer cadres whom the Hetmanate recruited to form the Ukrainian army openly opposed the Bolsheviks and the Reds.
An interesting fact is that the national army was formed on the basis of Russian officer and non-commissioned officer personnel. Everything happened again after 1991, when a new Ukrainian army was created on the basis and personnel of the Soviet army. Therefore, the basic school of the current Ukrainian army is Soviet.
However, the Directory could only count on a small part of the officers, on small detachments of “free Cossacks” and Galician “Sich Riflemen”. Most of the officers looked at the White Army with sympathy.
Armored train "Sich Strelets"
Zoological nationalism and banditry
Having no support among the people, the Directory of Vinnychenko and Petlyura tried to maintain its dictatorship with the help of terror and propaganda of the most animal nationalism, chauvinism.
Petlyura’s directive to the Inspector General of the UPR Army noted:
"I know that
1) some commanders use the Moscow language outside of service,
2) our language is not used in family life,
3) at parties organized by army units, the wives of commanders chat loudly in the same Moscow language, insulting our sense of dignity and thereby making a depressing impression on the Cossacks,
4) there are commanders who do not consider it impossible for themselves to loudly declare their sympathy for Russia, etc.”
1) some commanders use the Moscow language outside of service,
2) our language is not used in family life,
3) at parties organized by army units, the wives of commanders chat loudly in the same Moscow language, insulting our sense of dignity and thereby making a depressing impression on the Cossacks,
4) there are commanders who do not consider it impossible for themselves to loudly declare their sympathy for Russia, etc.”
The Petliura press widely propagated the ideas of a “Great Ukraine”. Plans were proposed for the eviction of all Russians (that is, those who had not renounced their Russian origin), and the restoration of the “natural” borders of Ukraine from the Carpathians to the Don and from the Black Sea to the Vistula. The territories of Voronezh, Kursk, Novorossiysk provinces, Stavropol Territory, Don, Kuban, Bessarabia, and part of Poland were included in Ukraine. The Petliurites wanted to get colonies in Siberia, the Far East and Turkestan.
In the territories controlled by the Petliurists, anti-Semitism flourished. The number of Jewish pogroms increased sharply. According to various sources, Petliurists killed 50–60 thousand Jews.
Ordinary banditry flourished. Various atamans and batki, who were formally subordinate to the Directory, considered themselves the real masters of their feeding territories. Numerous gangs with their atamans formally recognized Petliura as their Chief Ataman, and under the Ukrainian yellow-blue flag they expropriated the property of Jews, landowners, the bourgeoisie, and wealthy Cossacks (kulaks) in their favor. Large indemnities were imposed on the surviving Jews.
Ukraine was divided into feeding territories by the gangs of atamans Grigoriev in the Kherson region, Tyutyunnik, Volokh, Struk, Sokolovsky, Bozhko in the Sich, the “red death smoke” of Angel in the Chernihiv region, the “black death smoke” of Hutsol in Volyn, the gang of ataman Marusya Nikiforova and other less famous ones.
Ataman Angel, whose detachment was called the “Red Smokehouse of Death” for the red hoods on their caps, staged a major pogrom in Zhitomir. Vinnichenko demanded that the ataman be shot, but Petliura did not want to sacrifice such a valuable personnel. Ataman Zeleny (Terpilo) formed the Dnieper flotilla in the Obukhov and Trypillya region, robbed river transport and practically paralyzed traffic on the Dnieper.
When Ukraine became “independent” in 1991, the activities of such characters began to be glorified. Streets were named in their honor, monuments were erected, films were made, etc. It is obvious that the villagers who lived in the area of their activity experienced something and suffered when the wealthy segments of the population were robbed. But in general, the activities of their gangs finished off the already badly destroyed economy of Little Russia.
From a region flourishing under the rule of the Russian tsars, the outskirts of Ukraine again turned into a Wild Field with the law of the strong (a rifle gives birth to power), with a completely destroyed economy, infrastructure and culture. The population switched to subsistence farming, fortunately there was such an opportunity.
Dissenters
The Directory was also noted for its active support of those priests who decided to break with the Orthodox Church and create an “independent” Ukrainian church. The schismatics translated the divine service into “Ukrainian language.” Taras Shevchenko was declared a “holy prophet”, the days of his birth and death (February 25 and 26 according to the old style) were included in the number of church holidays. They decided to punish ridicule of the “Mova” with expulsion from the church.
The independent priests did not forget themselves. The compulsory daily wearing of cassocks was abolished and it was allowed to wear any clothes one wishes; the mandatory wearing of long hair and beards was abolished; divorces, second and third marriages were allowed; the privileges of monasticism were abolished, white clergy could occupy episcopal sees, etc.
In this way, story - not a teacher, but an overseer: she doesn’t teach anything, but only punishes for not knowing the lessons (V. O. Klyuchevsky). Everything that destroyed Little Russia after 1917 was largely repeated after 1991.
Simon Petliura (1879–1926), chief ataman of the army and navy of the UPR in 1920
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