People of the Revolution and the USSR

Pavlo Petrovych Skoropadskyi

Павло Петрович Скоропадський

The last hetman of Ukraine, installed under German occupation in 1918

On 29 April 1918 in Kyiv, the All-Ukrainian Congress of Landowners rose and unanimously acclaimed Pavlo Skoropadskyi as Hetman of Ukraine with shouts of 'Long live the Hetman!'

A Ukrainian aristocrat and tsarist lieutenant general who commanded a corps in the First World War. In April 1918, backed by the German army that occupied Ukraine after the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, he overthrew the socialist Central Rada in a coup and was proclaimed Hetman of the Ukrainian State. During his eight-month rule he founded the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, established universities, and built diplomatic ties, but his pro-landlord agrarian policy and the German occupiers' forced grain requisitions provoked widespread peasant resistance. When Germany collapsed in November 1918, Symon Petliura's Anti-Hetman Uprising drove him from power; he abdicated in December and spent the rest of his life in German exile, refusing to collaborate with the Nazis.

Career timeline
  • 1893Commissioned as an officer in the Chevalier Guard regiment
  • 1904–1905Commanded Cossack units in the Russo-Japanese War, decorated for bravery
  • 1912Promoted to major general, aide-de-camp to Nicholas II
  • 1914–1916Commanded cavalry divisions in WWI, promoted to lieutenant general
  • 1917Commander of 34th Army Corps, Ukrainised it into the 1st Ukrainian Corps
  • 1917.10Elected Otaman of the Free Cossacks
  • 1918.04–12Hetman of the Ukrainian State
  • 1919–1945Exile in Germany, led the Hetmanite movement

Symon Vasyliovych Petliura

Симон Васильович Петлюра

Ukrainian independence leader who headed the People's Republic but whose role in pogroms remains fiercely contested

Do not separate the fate of Ukraine from the fate of Russia. If Russia suffers defeat, the consequences of this catastrophe will also affect Ukraine.

A social-democratic journalist from Poltava who rose from military secretary of the Central Rada in 1917 to commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian People's Army and head of the Directorate of the Ukrainian People's Republic. He fought to defend Ukrainian independence against Bolsheviks, White armies, and Poland, but was forced into exile, first in Poland and then Paris, after defeat in 1920. An estimated 50,000 Jews were massacred by forces under his command, and whether he was unable or unwilling to stop the killings remains fiercely disputed. In 1926 he was assassinated in Paris by the Jewish anarchist Sholem Schwarzbard, who called it vengeance for the pogroms.

Career timeline
  • 1900–1917Activist in the Revolutionary Ukrainian Party and USDRP; journalist leading the Ukrainian national movement
  • 1917.05–12Secretary of Military Affairs, Central Rada; led organization of Ukrainian armed forces
  • 1918.01–03Commander of Haydamaky Kish; suppressed Bolshevik Arsenal uprising in Kyiv
  • 1918.11–1919.02Chief of Military Forces, Directorate of Ukraine
  • 1919.02–1920.12Head of the Directorate and Supreme Commander, Ukrainian People's Army
  • 1920.04Signed Warsaw Treaty with Poland, forming anti-Bolshevik alliance
  • 1924–1926Published weekly Tryzub from exile in Paris

Nykyfor Hryhoriv

Никифор Григор'єв
Independent activity Counter-revolutionary forces Ukraine Ukraine c.1885–1919 ✕ Murdered

Ukrainian otaman who took Odesa for the Reds, then turned to revolt and pogrom

Proclaiming revolt in his May 1919 Universaл, he cried: "Ukrainian people! Take power into your own hands. Let there be no dictatorship of any one man or any one party."

The Ukrainian otaman who took Odesa for the Soviets in the spring of 1919, he rose against them in May and his troops massacred Jews at Yelysavethrad and elsewhere. He was shot by Makhno's men in July.

Career timeline
  • 1901–1907Volunteered for the imperial army, fought in the Russo-Japanese War, and won three Crosses of St George.
  • 1914–1916Served as an officer on the Southwestern Front in World War I, rising to staff-captain.
  • 1918Led peasant partisans in Kherson province against the Austro-German occupiers and the Hetmanate.
  • 1918–1919Served as chief of the Kherson Division of the Ukrainian People's Republic (Directory).
  • 1919.02Went over to the Red Army, commanding the 1st Zadniprovska Brigade and then the 6th Ukrainian Soviet Division, and took Odesa in April.
  • 1919.05Led the Hryhoriv uprising against the Red Army in May.
  • 1919.07Shot dead by Makhno's men in July.