Biography Petliura - from Simon to the Grave

On a hot spring day in 1926, a decently dressed monsie was standing on the sidewalk in Paris, and he looked through the glass at the books on display. Another gentleman approached him, and called him quietly, calling his name and surname. The lover of literature turned around, and immediately there were shots, they rattled until the revolver's drum had completed a full turn. The gendarmes came running, they cautiously approached the killer, and he calmly gave them the weapon and surrendered.

So in 1926, on May 26, the biography of Petlyura Simon Vasilyevich, one of the most famous fighters for Ukrainian independence, forced emigrant and convinced anti-Semite, ended. He was only forty-seven years old, but he managed to become famous, and become an object of hunting for Soviet Chekists. The first suspicions fell on them. A carefully conducted investigation confirmed the truthfulness of Samuel Schwarzbad's words (that was the name of the shooter) who claimed that what he had done was revenge for a family of fifteen people who had been killed by Petliurists in Ukraine, and he himself was not a Bolshevik agent, but a simple Jew.

The jury completely acquitted the Schwarzbad, admitting that Petlyura Simon Vasilievich was responsible for the death of his relatives. The biography presented to the court rejected all doubts that the murdered person initiated numerous ethnic cleansings carried out against both the Jewish and the Russian population.

May 17, 1879 in a Poltava large family with a poor family, a boy was born, who was christened Simon. His father was a cabman, he could get an education only in the seminary, which he entered. Representations about what should be the future of Ukraine formed at the young man within the walls of this educational institution, in the same place he in 1900 became a member of the Revolutionary Ukrainian Party, a political organization of nationalist persuasion. The young man's hobbies were varied, he loved music and read Marx. In those years, among his friends there were many Jews, from which it can be concluded that he became an anti-Semite for political reasons.

For protests and insolence from the seminary Simon expelled (1901), and two years later arrested. For a long time, the freedom fighter of Ukraine languished in the dungeons, a year later he was released on bail, after which he took a job as an accountant for the insurance company "Russia", not forgetting about the party's underground work. In 1914, the seducer did not get to the front line, his service was not burdensome, he occupied the post of a commissar of the Union of Zemstvos.

The active political biography of Petliura began after the February Revolution. He immediately became the head of the General Military Committee of the Central Rada. The political situation made it possible to declare state sovereignty of Ukraine, which was immediately done. After the October coup, the armed forces of the independent republic were reorganized. Military ranks sounded a song for any nationalist patriot: "Kuran Ataman", "Ataman ataman", "Coroner" ...

The Ukrainian army should speak Ukrainian, and the Russian army should leave "nenka", such were the first orders. Independence, however, turned out to be sham, rather than real, after the conclusion of the Brest Peace Minister, the military minister came under the control of the German General Staff, along with the divisions of the "blue-jusper" subdued to him. The Germans soon preferred to deal with Hetman Skoropadsky. Biography Petliura in this period consists of continuous meandering maneuvers. He promises factories to the workers, land to the peasants, Ukraine to the Ukrainians and it is incomprehensible that the Germans and the Frenchmen.

Of all these tempting proposals, the most realistic possibility was to rob with impunity. Of course, it was forbidden to requisition the property of Ukrainians, but in such confusion, can you disassemble who is Jewish and who is "Moskal" ...

By 1919, the situation in Ukraine was completely confused. The Reds fought against the whites, the Entente introduced troops, the Poles also did not lose their heads, Nestor Makhno controlled the large territories, and the Petliurists adjoined all those who agreed to form a temporary alliance with them. The Reds and Denikin refused such help, and the Germans and the French demanded too high a price for their intercession.

The political biography of Petliura ended in 1921. If he was someone you need, then the Bolsheviks, in order to shoot him. From Poland, whose leadership increasingly tended to the decision on extradition, had to flee to Hungary, then to Austria, and finally to Paris. Here Stepan Mogila (Simon Vasilyevich Petlyura) is editing the magazine Trident, the printed organ of Ukrainian nationalists, articles in which are full of the word "Jew" and all its derivatives.

This continued for another couple of years. In 1926, it all ended. The funeral took place at the Parisian cemetery de Montparnasse.

Today in independent Ukraine, Petliura is remembered much less often than Mazepa or Bandera. It is not clear why this is so, because the methods of all three are so similar ...