Simon Petliura

Biography

Simon Petlyura is an outstanding figure in the Ukrainian national liberation movement of the XX century. His personality is ambiguous, connected with murders and pogroms. But the Chief Ataman, undoubtedly, had a tremendous impact on the history of his native country.

Childhood and youth

Simon Petlyura was born in Poltava in 1879 in a large family. His father worked as a cab driver, the Petliuras lived poorly. At a young age, the young man was preparing to become a priest, first received an elementary education at a church school, then studied at the city seminary. He was expelled from his last year for his passion for political journalism. Self-taught Petlyura has written hundreds of fascinating articles on various topics in his short life. At the age of 21, the young man joined the Revolutionary Ukrainian Party, moved to Lviv in 1903, and worked as a journalist in the publications "Slovo", "Peasant", and "Good News". The frequent change of publishing houses is associated with the revolutionary mood of the young man, besides, his views often became too radical for liberal newspapers and magazines.

In 1908, Simon managed to move to Moscow, and rent a room near the city university – he sometimes went there as a free listener. Petlyura earns a living as a journalist: she writes articles, writes the

history of Little Russia in the famous magazine "Slovo".

In his spare time, he studies the history of his native country: his reading allows him to enter the circle of Little Russian intellectuals, where he meets the historian Mikhail Grushevsky. The social circle allowed provincial Petlyura, despite the lack of higher education, to become an educated person. It was Grushevsky who helped Simon take the first steps towards fleeting dictatorial glory, initiating him into a Masonic lodge.

Politics and war

During the First World War, Petlyura held the position of deputy commissioner of the All-Russian Union of Zemstvos and Cities, engaged in supplying the Russian army. There, for the first time, civilian Simon tried on a military uniform: paramilitary activity

y brought him closer to the front and allowed him to conduct political propaganda in the Ukrainian ranks.

The revolution of 1917 found Simon in Belarus, on the Western Front. Petlyura manages to get into the maelstrom of events related to the national liberation movement in Ukraine, the man becomes one of the leading figures of Ukrainian politics. In June, Simon was appointed Secretary for Military Affairs of the first Ukrainian government, which was headed by Vladimir Vinnichenko.

The position was soon abolished, but Petlyura continues to form regiments and battalions voluntarily, even though Vinnichenko has repeatedly stated the futility of creating a Ukrainian army. In December 1918, the troops formed by Petliura occupied Kyiv. On the 15th he took power, but the reign lasted 45 days. On the night of February 2, Simon fled the country.

Once in power, Petlyura had practically no experience of real leadership of people. His policy in recent years has been aimed only at seizing power, then he hoped for the help of European rulers. But Paris and London in those days had no time for Kyiv, they shared territories after the end of the First World War. After the welcoming speeches and banquets, Simon was in turmoil: how to govern the country?

One day the ruler proclaimed the capitalization of commercial banks, a couple of days later he canceled the decisions. During his short government, he emptied the treasury in the hope of financial

l and military European assistance. Meanwhile, the anarchists were approaching Kyiv, the Red Army was advancing from the east. Under the fear of dictatorship, the cornered ruler fled from Kyiv and "sat on the bottom" for several years.

In March 1921, after the Riga Peace Treaty was signed, Petlyura immigrated to Poland. In 1923, the Soviet Union demanded that Polish officials extradite Petlyura, so Simon fled first to Hungary, from there to Austria, then to Switzerland, and in 1924 ended up in France.

Personal life

In 1908, at a meeting of the Ukrainian community in Moscow, Simon met a young student Olga Belskaya. Common views and origins

brought the young people closer together, Petlyura tried to visit Moscow as often as possible. In 1910 they began to live in a civil marriage, five years later Olga and Simon officially signed and got married.

In 1911, the student realized that she was expecting a child. Olga's parents, strict people of conservative views, found out about the birth of their granddaughter only a few months later – the girl was so afraid of the reaction of her relatives. Olya went to Kyiv to give birth, got stronger after giving birth, and returned to Moscow, to Simon. From that time until Petlyura's death, the couple did not part.

Olga's wife is probably Petlyura's only woman. He was modest and shy about communicating with ladies. Further biography of Simon shows that the man is monogamous, and politics has become the meaning of life for him.

Lesya Petlyura inherited Dad's literary talent and became a poet. Her life was short: at the age of 30, in 1941, she died of tuberculosis in Nazi-occupied Paris. Lesya had no children. Simon's sister and nephews, who remained in Ukraine, were repressed and shot in 1937, rehabilitated in 1989.

Death

Petlyura died on May 25, 1926, the cause of death was seven bullet wounds. The murder should have happened 15 days earlier. On May 10, Simon was celebrating his birthday in a restaurant and did not even realize that at the next table, the bandit Nestor Makhno was persuading "NKVD" agent Samuel Schwarzbard not to touch Petlyura. There were times when Simon saved Nestor from his own "colleagues" who suspected the leader of corruption, and he tried to repay the same.

Makhno could only delay the massacre of the head of the UNR government: on May 25, Schwarzbard shoots Petlyura in the doorway of a bookstore on Racine Street. The criminal was immediately detained by the police, he did not try to hide and deny it, saying that he had dealt with Simon on the grounds of revenge because of the Jewish pogroms organized by him in 1918-1920. The Ukrainian politician is buried at the Paris cemetery de Montparnasse.

The murderer was acquitted by the jury at the trial. Only in 1954, a former employee of the KNB, Pyotr Deryabin, testified to Congress that the murder was ordered, and initiated by the NKVD. His wife Olga lived to see this news and died in 1959.

In 2017, Ukrainian director Oles Yanchuk released the documentary drama "The Secret Diary of Simon Petlyura", which tells about the last stage of the politician's life and his death. The director and producer aimed to tell the younger generation the truth about the events of that time, the financing of the picture states.

Memory

• May 16, 2005 - A decree was signed on perpetuating the memory of Simon Petlyura, as well as the installation of monuments in Kyiv and other cities of Ukraine, on assigning his name to individual military units;

• streets in the following cities are named after Petlyura: Lviv, Rivne, Ternopil, Ivano-Frankivsk, Shepetovka;

• February 11, 2008 - The Commission of the Kyiv City Administration on Naming and commemorative Signs decided to rename one of the streets of Kyiv Simon Petlyura Street;

• June 16, 2009 - The Kyiv City Council Commission on Local Self-Government, Regional, International Relations, and Information Policy recommended that the Kyiv City Council rename Komintern Street in the Shevchenko district of the capital to Simon Petlyura Street;

• May 29, 2009 - The National Bank of Ukraine put into circulation a commemorative coin with a face value of 2 hryvnias "Simon Petlyura";

• On October 14, 2017 – a monument to Simon Petlyura was unveiled in Vinnytsia, and a postage stamp with his photo was issued.