Symon Petliura

Revolution in Ukraine

Rise to power

In May 1917 Petliura attended the First All-Ukrainian Congress of Soldier Deputies held in Kyiv as a delegate. On 18 May he was elected head of the Ukrainian General Military Committee. With the proclamation of the Central Rada on 28 June 1917, Petliura became the first Secretary (Minister) for Military Affairs.

Disagreeing with the politics of the then chairman of the General Secretariat Volodymyr Vynnychenko, Petliura left the government and became the head of the Haydamaky Kish, a military formation of Sloboda Ukraine (in Kharkiv). In January–February 1918 the Haidamaky Kish was forced back to protect Kyiv during the Uprising at the Kyiv Arsenal Plant and to prevent the capture of the capital by the Bolshevik Red Guard.

After the April 1918 Ukrainian coup d'état, Pavlo Skoropadskyi's government arrested Petliura and incarcerated him for four months in Bila Tserkva.

Petliura participated in the Anti-Hetman Uprising of November 1918 and became a member of the Directorate of Ukraine as the Chief of Military Forces. Following the Bolshevik takeover of Kyiv (February 1919) and the emigration of Vynnychenko from Ukraine, Petliura became the leader of the Directorate on 11 February 1919. In his capacity as head of the Army and State, he continued to fight both Bolshevik and White forces in Ukraine for the next ten months.

1919

With the outbreak of hostilities between Ukraine and Soviet Russia in January 1919, and with Vynnychenko's emigration, Petliura ultimately became the leading figure in the Directorate. During the winter of 1919 the Petliura army lost most of Ukraine (including Kyiv) to Bolsheviks and by 6 March relocated to Podolia. In the spring of 1919 he managed to extinguish a coup-d'etat led by Volodymyr Oskilko who saw Petliura cooperating with socialists such as Borys Martos. During the course of the year, Petliura continued to defend the fledgling republic against incursions by the Bolsheviks, Anton Denikin's White Russians, and the Romanian-Polish troops. By autumn of 1919, most of Denikin's White Russian forces were defeated — in the meantime, however, the Bolsheviks had grown to become the dominant force in Ukraine.

1920

On 5 December 1919, Petliura withdrew to Poland, which had previously recognized him as the head of the legal government of Ukraine. In April 1920, as head of the Ukrainian People's Republic, he signed an alliance in Warsaw with the Polish government, agreeing to a border on the River Zbruch and recognizing Poland's right to Galicia in exchange for military aid in overthrowing the Bolshevik régime. Polish forces, reinforced by Petliura's remaining troops (some two divisions), attacked Kyiv on 7 May 1920, in what proved a turning point of the 1919–21 Polish-Bolshevik war. Following initial successes, Piłsudski's and Petliura's forces had to retreat to the Vistula River and to the Polish capital, Warsaw. The Polish Army, supported by Ukrainian units, defeated the Bolshevik Russians in the end, but the Red Army remained in parts of Ukraine and therefore Ukrainians were unable to secure their independence. Starting from late 1920, Petliura directed the affairs of the Ukrainian government-in-exile from Tarnów in Lesser Poland. When the Soviet government in Moscow requested Petliura's extradition from Poland, the Poles engineered his "disappearance", secretly moving him from Tarnów to Warsaw.

After the revolution

Life in exile

Bolshevik Russia persistently demanded that Petliura be handed over. Protected by several Polish friends and colleagues, such as Henryk Józewski, in late 1923, one year after the establishment of the Soviet Union, Petliura left Poland. Travelling through Budapest, Vienna, Zurich and Geneva under the pseudonym Stepan Mohyla, in October 1924 he arrived to Paris together with former Ukrainian prime minister Viacheslav Prokopovych.

In Paris, Petliura directed the activities of the government of the Ukrainian National Republic in exile. In October 1925 he established the Ukrainian-language newspaper Tryzub, 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 flair. The question of national awareness was often of significance in his literary work.

Living in Paris, Petliura spent a lot of time reading books and took daily walks around the city, visiting art galleries, museums and historical cemeteries.

Assassination

On 25 May 1926, at 14:12, by the Gibert bookstore, Petliura was walking on Rue Racine near Boulevard Saint-Michel of the Latin Quarter in Paris and was approached by Sholem Schwarzbard. Schwarzbard asked him in Ukrainian, "Are you Mr. Petliura?" Petliura did not answer but raised his walking cane. Schwarzbard pulled out a gun, proclaimed "dirty dog, killer of my people, defend yourself!" and shot him five times. Evading a lynch-mob attempting to avenge Petliura, Schwarzbard surrendered to the police with a note reading: "I have killed Petliura to avenge the death of the thousands of pogrom victims in Ukraine who were massacred by Petliura's forces without his taking any steps to prevent these massacres." The wounded Petliura was transported to the Charité hospital, where he died at 14:35 on the same day.

The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported on 27 May 1926 that Petliura's "pogrom bands" were responsible for killing tens of thousands of Jews.

Schwarzbard was an anarchist of Jewish descent, born in Ukraine. He participated in the Jewish self-defense of Balta in 1905. The Russian Tsarist government sentenced him to 3 months in prison for "provoking" the Balta pogrom. He was twice convicted of taking part in anarchist "expropriation" (burglary) and bank robbery in Austria-Hungary. He later joined the French Foreign Legion (1914–1917) and was wounded in the Battle of the Somme. It is reported that Schwarzbard told famous fellow anarchist leader Nestor Makhno in Paris that he was terminally ill and expected to die and that he would take Petliura with him; Makhno forbade Schwarzbard to do so.

Schwarzbard's parents were among fifteen members of his family murdered in the pogroms in Odesa. The core defense at the Schwarzbard trial was — as presented by the noted jurist Henry Torrès — that he was avenging the deaths of more than 50,000 Jewish victims of the pogroms, whereas the prosecution (both criminal and civil) tried to show that Petliura was not responsible for the pogroms and that Schwarzbard was a Soviet agent. After a trial lasting eight days the jury acquitted Schwarzbard.

According to a defected KGB operative Peter Deriabin, who was five years old at the time when Petliura was killed, Schwarzbard was a Soviet (NKVD) agent and acted on the order from a former chairman of the Soviet Ukrainian government and current Soviet Ambassador to France, Christian Rakovsky. The special operation of the GPU was consolidated by GPU agent Mikhail Volodin, who arrived in France 8 August 1925, and who had been in close contact with Schwarzbard.

It is claimed that in March 1926, Vlas Chubar (Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of Ukraine), in a speech given in Kharkiv and repeated in Moscow, warned of the danger Petliura represented to Soviet power. It was after this speech that the command had allegedly been given to assassinate Petliura.

Funeral

The memorial service for Symon Petliura was held in the Romanian Orthodox Church in Paris, which Petliura had attended for Sunday services. Petliura's coffin was decorated with a shield bearing a flower ornament depicting the Coat of Arms of Ukraine. The funeral train was adorned with the banner of the head of state (in 1992 it was transferred to the National Guard of Ukraine and is currently exhibited at the National Military History Museum in Kyiv), the flag of the 3rd Iron Division of the Ukrainian People's Army and a golden sabre covered with the otaman's hat.

The ceremony was presided by Romanian and Ukrainian Orthodox priests, and attended by Petliura's wife Olha and numerous guests, including head of the Ukrainian government-in-exile Andriy Livytskyi and Ukrainian army officers. Non-Ukrainian attendees included representatives of pro-independence governments from Georgia, Azerbaijan, North Caucasus and Turkestan, Polish diplomats, ordinary civilians and students from France, Czechia, England, Romania and other countries. Symon Petliura was buried on 30 May 1926 in the Cimetière du Montparnasse in Paris; his wife and daughter would be later interred in the same grave. The burial was accompanied with the singing of Taras Shevchenko's Testament. Vigils were also held in various countries populated by Ukrainian emigrants, as well as cities in Polish-controlled Volhynia and East Galicia. The service in Berlin was attended by Petliura's former political enemy Pavlo Skoropadsky.

In 1942 the chapel of the hospital where Petlura died was transferred to the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, becoming St. Volodymyr the Great's Cathedral. Every year on 25 May, the anniversary of Petliura's murder, a vigil is held by the Ukrainian community on his grave.

Family

During his work in Moscow, in 1910 Petliura married Olha Bilska (1885–1959), later also known under her husband's pseudonym Marchenko. The couple had a daughter, Lesia (1911–1942).

Petliura's two sisters, Orthodox nuns who had remained in Poltava, were arrested and shot in 1928 by the NKVD.^{[citation needed]}

A nephew of Symon Petliura, Stepan Skrypnyk, became Patriarch Mstyslav of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church on 6 June 1990.

Historical role

Role in pogroms

Petliura is considered a controversial figure connected with the pogroms of Jews during his rule of the Ukrainian National Republic. According to Peter Kenez, "before the advent of Hitler, the greatest mass murder of Jews occurs in Ukraine in the course of the Civil War. All participants in the conflict were guilty of murdering Jews, even the Bolsheviks; however the Volunteer Army had the largest number of victims." The number of Jews killed during the period is estimated to be between 50,000 and 200,000. A total of 1,236 violent attacks on Jews had been recorded between 1918 and 1921 in Ukraine. Among them, 493 were carried out by Ukrainian People's Republic soldiers under the command of Symon Petliura, 307 by independent Ukrainian warlords, 213 by Denikin's army, 106 by the Red Army, and 32 by the Polish Army.

The newly formed Ukrainian state (Ukrainian People's Republic) promised Jews full equality and autonomy. Arnold Margolin, a Jewish assistant minister in Petliura's UPR government, declared in May 1919 that the Ukrainian government had given Jews more rights than they enjoyed in any other European government. However, after 1918, military units became involved in pogroms against Jews. During Petliura's term as Head of State (1919–20), pogroms continued to be perpetrated on Ukrainian territory.

Petliura's role in the pogroms has been a topic of dispute since his assassination in 1926 and the succeeding Schwarzbard's trial. Petliura's own party, USDRP, denied his complicity in the episodes of anti-Jewish violence in Ukraine between 1918 and 1920. This led to the creation of a commission by the Labour and Socialist International, which had to define if Petliura could be held responsible for the crimes. A summary prepared by Menshevik representative Raphael Abramovitch concluded, that while Petliura didn't personally order the pogroms, his government tolerated them, and open condemnation of the crimes by Ukrainian authorities only started after they attempted to gain international support by improving own public image. The publishing of the report in 1928 caused a protest from USDRP representative Isaak Mazepa, who accused the commission's members of attempts to disrupt relations between Ukrainians and Jews. At the same time, a publication by the Polish Socialist Party claimed, that the result of the commission's investigation had rehabilitated Petliura. As an answer to this claim, Abramovitch wrote a letter to the editor's office, in which it was stated, that although Petliura had not organized the pogroms, he didn't combat them energetically enough due to "national-tactical reasons". Abramovitch's point of view was supported by Poale Zion.

Shortly after Petliura's assassination, Revisionist Zionist leader Ze'ev Jabotinsky in his interview to Jewish Morning Journal stated, that "Neither Petliura nor Vynnychenko or the rest of the distinguished members of this Ukrainian government were ever people who could be called 'pogromists.' [...] I know well this type of Ukrainian nationalist intellectual with socialist views. I grew up with them; together with them, I conducted a struggle against antisemites and Russifiers — Jewish and Ukrainian. No one will convince either me or other thinking Zionists of southern Russia that people of this type can be regarded as antisemites." However, one year later, in a letter to Paris-based Russian-language newspaper Posledniye Novosti, Jabotinsky claimed, that his position had been interpreted incorrectly. In his article Petliura and the Pogroms, which appeared soon thereafter, he once again insisted on the non-complicity of Petliura and the broader Ukrainian national movement in the pogroms, but held them responsible for being unable to stop those crimes.

In 1969, the journal Jewish Social Studies published two opposing views regarding Petliura's responsibility in pogroms against Jews during his reign over Ukraine, by scholars Taras Hunczak and Zosa Szajkowski. Later the Journal published letters from the two authors. According to Hunczak, Petliura actively sought to halt anti-Jewish violence on numerous occasions, introducing capital punishment for carrying out pogroms. Conversely, he is also accused of not having done enough to stop the pogroms and being afraid to punish officers and soldiers engaged in crimes against Jews for fear of losing their support.

Role in the development of Ukrainian culture

An active participant of social life, during his seminary years Petliura took part in strike actions demanding the introduction of Ukraine-oriented subjects in schools. He frequently performed as a singer (his most favourite songs were reportedly Ivan Franko's Ne pora ("It's not time"), Shaliyte ("Rage, Tyrants") and Shevchenko's Zapovit ("Testament")) and conducted a students' choir. One of the causes of his expulsion from the institution was the choir's performance of a cantata by Mykola Lysenko, which had been banned by Russian censorship. After being expelled, Petliura earned his bread through private lessons. Despite the hardships, he was enthusiastic about the promotion of Ukrainian culture among ethnic Russians, and even made a Russian translation of one of the works by Ivan Franko.

As the editor of numerous journals and newspapers, Petliura published over 15,000 critical articles, reviews, stories and poems under an estimated 120 noms-de-plume. His articles were dedicated to various cultural topics, including popular education, opening of the Archaeological Museum in Katerynoslav, excavation at the Zaporozhian Sich, performances of Ukrainian theatre in Kuban, publication of the Ukrainian Bible in London etc.

During his work at the Rada newspaper, Petliura wrote reviews of music, theatre, literature and arts, and also gave lectures on the topic of Ukrainian drama. He supported the introduction of socially important topics into the Ukrainian art and criticized the excessive reliance of Ukrainian culture on ethnographic material. Already during that time Petliura promoted Ukrainian cultural diplomacy and condemned antisemitic stereotypes in works of art. Petliura was also one of the first Ukrainian publicists to pay attention to the topic of economic security among art workers. His prolific work in both the Russian and Ukrainian languages helped shape the mindset of the Ukrainian population in the years leading up to the Revolution in both Eastern and Western Ukraine. Petliura's correspondence was of great benefit when the Revolution broke out in 1917, as he had contacts throughout Ukraine.

During his years in Russia's capital cities, Petliura played an active role in the life of local Ukrainian communities. Among others, he took part in the organization of the funeral of Ukrainian aviation pioneer Levko Matsiyevych, who died as a result of an air accident in Saint Petersburg in 1910. Working as an editor in Moscow, Petliura created numerous articles representing Ukrainian culture and its prominent figures for the Russian audience.

As head of the Ukrainian military, Petliura was aware of the importance of cultural work in the army. He called Ukrainians to donate books for soldiers fighting on the front and ordered to create libraries in military units. As head of the All-Ukrainian Zemstvo Union under the rule of hetman Skoropadsky, he saw the organization's aim in uniting people from all Ukrainian lands around the task of developing their national culture. Petliura's plans on the post included the creation public schools, establishment of a registry of valuable architectural monuments, repavement of historically important roads and development of a modern memorial complex at Taras Shevchenko's grave in Kaniv. Even during his imprisonment by the hetman's government Petliura continued his work, editing a literary collection and translating a novel by Colette.

During his time as leader of the Directorate, Petliura was active in supporting Ukrainian culture both in Ukraine and in the Ukrainian diaspora. He saw the value in gaining international support and recognition of Ukrainian arts through cultural exchanges. Most notably, Petliura actively supported the work of cultural figures such as the choreographer Vasyl Avramenko, conductor Oleksander Koshetz and bandurist Vasyl Yemetz, allowing them to travel internationally and promote an awareness of Ukrainian culture. Koshetz created the Ukrainian Republic Capella and took it on a global tour, giving concerts in Europe and the Americas. One of the concerts by the Capella inspired George Gershwin to write "Summertime", based on the lullaby "Oi Khodyt Son Kolo Vikon" All three musicians later immigrated to the United States.

Petliura introduced the awarding of the title "People's Artist of Ukraine" to artists who had made significant contributions to Ukrainian culture. A similar titled award was reintroduced after a significant break under the Soviet regime. Among those who had received this award was blind kobza player Ivan Kuchuhura-Kucherenko.

In emigration, Petliura continued the struggle for Ukrainian independence as a publicist. In 1924, he became the editor and publisher of the weekly journal Tryzub (Trident). Petliura's articles had a significant impact on the shaping of Ukrainian national awareness in the early 20th century. He published articles and brochures under a variety of noms de plume, including V. Marchenko, V. Salevsky, I. Rokytsky, and O. Riastr.

Soon after Petliura's assassination in 1926, a Ukrainian library named in his honour was established in Paris.

Image in the media

Petliura in Ukrainian folk songs

During the revolution Petliura became the subject of numerous folk songs, primarily as a hero calling for his people to unite against foreign oppression. His name became synonymous with the call for freedom. 15 songs were recorded by the ethnographer rev. prof. K. Danylevsky. In the songs Petliura is depicted as a soldier, in a manner similar to Robin Hood, mocking Skoropadsky and the Bolshevik Red Guard.

News of Petliura's assassination in the summer of 1926 was marked by numerous revolts in eastern Ukraine particularly in Boromlia, Zhehailivka (Sumy province), Velyka Rublivka, Myloradove (Poltava province), Hlynsk, Bilsk, Kuzemyn and all along the Vorskla River from Okhtyrka to Poltava, Buryn, Nizhyn (Chernihiv province) and other cities. These revolts were brutally pacified by the Soviet administration. The blind kobzars Pavlo Hashchenko and Ivan Kuchuhura Kucherenko composed a duma (epic poem) in memory of Symon Petliura. To date Petliura is the only modern Ukrainian politician to have a duma created and sung in his memory. This duma became popular among the kobzars of left-bank Ukraine and was sung also by Stepan Pasiuha, Petro Drevchenko, Bohushchenko, and Chumak.

The Soviets also tried their hand at portraying Petliura through the arts in order to discredit the Ukrainian national leader. A number of humorous songs appeared in which Petliura is portrayed as a traveling beggar whose only territory is that which is under his train carriage. A number of plays such as The Republic on Wheels by Yakov Mamontov and the opera Shchors by Boris Liatoshinsky and Arsenal by Heorhiy Maiboroda portray Petliura in a negative light, as a lackey who sold out Western Ukraine to Poland, often using the very same melodies which had become popular during the fight for Ukrainian Independence in 1918.

Petliura continues to be portrayed by the Ukrainian people in its folk songs in a manner similar to Taras Shevchenko and Bohdan Khmelnytsky. He is likened to the sun which suddenly stopped shining.

Portrayals in film

Up to a dozen of films depicting Symon Petliura have been created, most of them in the Soviet Union and independent Ukraine. The most unique of them is the Soviet silent film P.K.P. (Pilsudski Bought Petliura) issued in 1926 and employing some real-life historical figures, including Petliura's former subordinate Yuriy Tyutyunnyk, as actors. Other Soviet movies depicting Petliura are Oleksandr Dovzhenko's Arsenal (1929) and Shchors (1939), as well as post-war Soviet films Pavel Korchagin (1956), The Truth (1957), Kyiv Woman (1958), Human Blood is not Water (1960), Peace to Huts, War to Palaces (1970), Kotsiubynskyi Family (1970), Old Fortress (1973–1976) and On the Blade of the Sword (1986). In most Soviet films the image of Petliura was represented in a comical and humiliating manner, however starting from the 1970s a more neutral, although still negative image started dominating. In independent Ukraine Petliura was depicted in films The Secret Diary of Symon Petliura (2018) and Kruty 1918 (2019).

Legacy

Attitudes in Ukraine

With the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, previously restricted Soviet archives have allowed numerous politicians and historians to review Petliura's role in Ukrainian history. Many consider him to be a national hero who strove for the independence of Ukraine. Several cities, including Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, and Poltava, the city of his birth, have erected monuments to Petliura, with a museum complex also being planned in Poltava. To mark the 80th anniversary of Petliura's assassination, a twelve-volume edition of his writings, including articles, letters and historic documents, has been published in Kyiv by Taras Shevchenko University and the State Archive of Ukraine. In 1992 in Poltava, a series of readings known as "Petliurivski chytannia" have become an annual event, and since 1993, they have taken place annually at Kyiv University.

In modern-day Ukraine, Petliura has not been as lionized as Mykhailo Hrushevsky (who played a much smaller role in the Ukrainian People's Republic), since Petliura was too closely associated with violence to make a good symbolic figure. In a 2008 poll of "Famous Ukrainians of all times" (in which respondents did not receive any lists or tips), Petliura was not mentioned (Hrushevsky came in sixth place in this poll). In the 2008 TV project Velyki Ukraïntsi ("Greatest Ukrainians"), he placed 26th.

In June 2009, Kyiv City Council renamed Comintern Street (located in Shevchenkivskyi District) as Symon Petliura Street to commemorate the 130th anniversary of his birth.

On 14 October 2017, Defenders Day of Ukraine, a statue commemorating Symon Petliura installed by local municipal authorities was unveiled in Vinnytsia, which had briefly served as the de facto capital of the Ukrainian People's Republic during Petliura's tenure in May–June 1920. The placement of the statue in the historical district of Yerusalymka, formerly known as the city's Jewish quarter, caused criticism from some members of the Jewish community, including the World Jewish Congress.

In November 2017 a tryzub modelled after the one worn by Petliura during his leadership in the Directory was introduced as the standard ensign of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on the order of Ukraine's defence minister Stepan Poltorak.

In 2021 the project of a monument to Petliura was presented in his native city of Poltava.

In December 2022, the city of Izium – recently liberated from Russian forces – decided to rename Maxim Gorky Street as Symon Petliura Street.

On 6 December 2025 President Volodymyr Zelenskyy awarded the 152nd Jaeger Brigade the honorary name "Symon Petliura".

Attitudes in the Ukrainian diaspora

For part of the Western Ukrainian diaspora, Petliura is remembered as a national hero, a fighter for Ukrainian independence, a martyr, who inspired hundreds of thousands to fight for an independent Ukrainian state. He has inspired original music, and youth organizations.