Symon Petlura
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Symon Petlura (Ukrainian: Симон Петлюра (Simon Petljura); in English, also occasionally spelled "Simon Petliura" or "Petlyura"; May 10, 1879 – May 25, 1926) was a publicist, writer, journalist, Ukrainian politician and statesman, a leader of Ukraine's unsuccessful fight for independence following the Russian Revolution of 1917.
During the Russian Civil War, he was briefly Head of the Ukrainian State. In 1926 Petlura was assassinated in Paris.
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[edit] Biography
Petlura was born in Poltava, the son of Vasyl' Petlura and Olha Marchenko, urban dwellers of Cossack background. His initial education was obtained in church schools and he initially planned to become an orthodox priest. In 1895 he studied for the priesthood at the Poltava Orthodox Seminary. In 1898 he joined a secret Ukrainian society within the confines of the Orthodox Seminary. When this was discovered he was expelled from the seminary in 1901.
In 1900 while in the Poltava Seminary he joined the Ukrainian Revolutionary Party (RUP). In 1902 under the threat of arrest he moved to Yekaterynodar in the Kuban where he worked as a school teacher and later worked in the archives of the Kuban Cossack Host. In December 1903 he was arrested for organizing a branch of RUP in Katerynodar and for publishing inflammatory anti-tsarist articles in the foreign press outside of Russia. He was released in March 1904 moving briefly to Kyiv and then emigrating to the Western Ukrainian city of Lviv (then Lemberg) which was then part of Austria-Hungary.
After amnesty was declared at the end of 1905 he returned briefly to Kyiv and then moved to the Russian capital of Petersburg in order to publish a monthly magazine with a Socialist-democratic leaning called "Vil'na Ukrayina" (Free Ukraine). After the closing of this magazine in July 1905 he moved back to Kyiv where he worked in the magazine "Rada" (Council). From 1907-1909 he became the editor of the magazine "Slovo" and also a co-editor of the magazine "Ukraina".
With the closure of these journals by the Russian Imperial authorities Petlura was forced to move to Moscow in 1909, where he worked briefly as an accountant. There he married Olha Bil'ska. From 1912 he was a co-editor of the Russian language journal "Ukrainskaya zhizn'" (Ukrainian life) which he continued to edit till 1917.
[edit] The Revolution in Ukraine
As a delegate to the first All-Ukrainian Army Congress in Kyiv in May 1917 he was elected head of the Ukrainian General Army Committee. With the proclamation of the Ukrainian Central Council (28.06.1917) he became the first secretary for military matters. Disagreeing with the politics of the Head of the General Secretariat Volodymyr Vynnychenko he left the government and organized the "Haydamaka Regiment of Sloboda Ukraina" which in January-February was successful in stopping [Bolshevik]] aggression in Kyiv.
After the Hetmanate Putsch (28.04.1918) he was arrested administration and spent 4 months incarcerated in Bila Tserkva.
After being released, he participated in the anti-Hetmanate putsch and became a member of the Directorate of Ukraine as the Chief of Military Forces. With the fall of Kyiv and the emigration of Vynnychenko from Ukraine, Petlura became the leader of the Directorate. In his capacity as head of the Army and State he continued to fight both Red and White Russian aggression in Ukraine for 10 months.
In January 1919, on the outbreak of war between Ukraine and Soviet Russia, he became the leading figure in the Directorate. In the Russian Civil War, he fought against the Bolsheviks, Anton Denikin's White Russians, the Germans, Pavlo Skoropadsky's Ukrainians, Poles and Romanians. In late 1918 Ukraine was occupied by White Russian forces, but by autumn 1919 most of the Whites were defeated but in the meantime the Soviets had become the dominant force in Ukraine.
By the end of 1919, Petlura withdrew to Poland, which recognized him as the head of the legal government of Ukraine. In March 1920, as head of the Ukrainian People's Republic, he signed an alliance in Lublin with the Polish government, agreeing to a border on the River Zbruch and recognizing Poland's right to Lviv and Galicia in exchange for Polish help in overthrowing the Bolshevik regime. In 1920, Polish forces, reinforced by Petlura's remaining troops (some 2 divisions), attacked Kyiv in a turning point of the Polish-Bolshevik war (1919-1921) (7.5.1920). Following temporary successes, Piłsudski's and Petlura's forces were pushed back to the Vistula River and the Polish capital, Warsaw. The Polish Army managed to defeat the Bolshevik Russians, but were unable to secure independence for Ukraine, which after the Peace of Riga was divided between Poland and Soviet Russia. Petlura directed the Ukrainian government-in-exile from Tarnów and, later, Warsaw. In October Petlura and his forces were interned by the Poles in Kalisz.
With persistent demands by Bolshevik Russia to hand over Petlura in late 1923 Petlura, under an assumed name, escaped from Poland, traveling initially to Budapest, then Vienna, Geneva and finally settling settled in Paris in 1924.
[edit] Paris and Emigration
In Paris Petlura directed the activities of the government of the Ukrainian National Republic in exile. He launched a weekly paper "Tryzub" (Trident) and continued to edit and write numerous articles under various pen names with an emphasis on questions dealing with national oppression in Ukraine. These articles were written with a literary flare. The National question was of significant importance in his literary articles and critisism.
His articles had a significant impact on shaping Ukrainian national awareness. He published articles and brochures under a variety of nom-de-plumes such as V. Marchenko, V. Salevsky, I. Rokytsky, O. Riastr as well as other pseudonyms.[1]
[edit] Role in pogroms
During Petlura's term as Head of State, pogroms continued top be perpetrated against the Jews of Ukraine.
At that time it is estimated that a third of Europe's Jewry lived in Ukraine in the Pale of Settlement. During the Russian Civil War, an estimated 70,000 to 250,000 civilian Jews were killed in the atrocities throughout the former Russian Empire. In Ukraine itself, the estimates of civilian Jews killed range from 35,000 to 50,000 during the period 1919-20.
Some historians suggests that Petlura did not do enough to stop the pogroms, and in this way encouraged them as a means to strengthen his base of support among his soldiers, commanders and the peasant population at large, by appealing to their antisemitic sentiments. [2]
Petlura's supporters on the other hand have claimed that Petlura himself was not an anti-Semite, and that he tried to stop anti-Jewish violence by introducing capital punishment for the crime of pogroming. [3] [4]
[edit] Assassination
On May 25, 1926, while window shopping along a Paris boulevard, Petlura was approached by a Jewish anarchist and convicted criminal named Sholom Schwartzbard who pulled out a gun, and shot him three times.
Schwartzbald's parents were among 15 members of his family murdered in the Russian pogroms. The core of his defence was—as presented by barrister Henri Torrès—that he was avenging the deaths of victims of the pogroms. This premise found favour with the French jury, which acquitted him.
Petlura is buried in the Cimetière du Montparnasse in Paris, France.
His two sister's, who were Orthodox nuns, and who had remained in Poltava, were arrested and shot by the NKVD in 1928.
[edit] Notes
- ^ *Encyclopedia of Ukraine - Paris-New York 1970, Volume 6, (p.2029-2030)
- ^ See Friedman, Saul S.. Pogromchik: The Assassination of Simon Petlura. New York : Hart Pub, 1976.
- ^ Symon Petlura. Against pogrom. The Appeal to Ukrainian Army.
- ^ Symon Petlura. The Articles, letter, the documents. 2006. - Т. IV. - 704 s. ISBN 966-2911-00-6
[edit] Sources
- Encyclopedia of Ukraine - Paris-New York 1970, Volume 6, (p.2029-2030)
[edit] External links
- English
- Time Magazine on the Petlura trial (Time Magazine on the Petlura trial)
- Turning the pages back...May 25, 1926 (Ukrainian Weekly account of shooting of Petliura)
- Review of books on Petliura
- Review of Henry Abramson's A Prayer for the Government: Ukrainians and Jews in Revolutionary Times
- "Over The Years," Inem Loif Fun Yoren Excerpt from a book by Petlura's assassin explaining his actions[1].
- The Odyssey of the Petliura Library and the Records of the Ukrainian National Republic during World War II
- Non-English
- "Unknown Symon Petliura: history of an interview," Zerkalo Nedeli (Mirror Weekly), July 7-13, 2001. Available online in Russian and in Ukrainian.
- "A Belated Idealist," Zerkalo Nedeli (Mirror Weekly), May 22-28, 2004. Available online in Russian and in Ukrainian.
- "Symon Petliura as opponent of Jewish pogroms," Zerkalo Nedeli (Mirror Weekly), July 25-31, 1996. Available online in Russian.
| Leaders of Ukraine since 1917 |
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 West Ukrainian National Republic (1918–1919): Kost Levytskyi • Yevhen Petrushevych
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