May 25, 2026 marks the 100th anniversary of the death of the Head of the UNR Directory and the Chief Ataman of the UNR Army and Navy, Symon Petliura.

In the conditions of the existential War for Independence of Ukraine, worthy commemoration of the memory of Symon Petliura, proper recognition and popularization of his contribution to the creation of the Ukrainian state, culture and army, are of particular importance. In order to consolidate and form the historical consciousness of the Ukrainian people, preserve national memory and properly commemorate and honor memorable dates and anniversaries, on December 18, 2025, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted Resolution No. 4748-IX «On the celebration of memorable dates and anniversaries in 2026–2027» with Appendix No. 3 «On measures to honor the memory of Symon Petliura». This appendix provides for the holding of thematic exhibitions, lectures, evenings dedicated to Symon Petliura in educational and cultural institutions (paragraph 4 of paragraph 3). 

An important element of historical education, an effective factor in fostering patriotism and increasing interest in the history of Ukraine among pupils and students is the study of the life and activities of Symon Petliura. The materials of the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance for the content of lessons and thematic events dedicated to the Head of the UNR Directory and the Chief Ataman of the UNR Army and Navy present him as a leader of Ukrainian statehood, organizer of the Ukrainian army, publicist, journalist, literary and theater critic, and figure who became a symbol of the Ukrainian national liberation movement. 

Key messages

At the end of May, Ukraine honors the memory of Symon Petliura - May 25 marks the 100th anniversary of his death at the hands of a Moscow agent.

Symon Petliura is a symbol of the Ukrainian national liberation movement. As the head of the Ukrainian state, organizer of the Ukrainian armed forces during the Ukrainian Revolution, and Chief Ataman of the UNR troops and fleet, he made an exceptional contribution to Ukrainian statehood at the beginning of the 20th century and resistance to Russian aggression during the Ukrainian Revolution of 1917-1921. 

It was in the confrontation with Bolshevik Russia that Symon Petliura became for Ukrainians the personification of the idea of freedom, and for his enemies - a bandit, after whose name entire generations of followers were named. Petliura's followers, like Mazepa's followers and Bandera's followers, instilled fear and hatred in Russians, because the love of freedom, determination and indomitability in Ukrainians were awakened precisely by such powerful personalities as Mazepa, Petliura, and Bandera.

In scientific publications, textbooks and dictionaries of the USSR, the «Petliurists» were defined as «a counter-revolutionary bourgeois-nationalist movement in Ukraine during the period of foreign military intervention and civil war, led by one of the leaders of the petty-bourgeois nationalist party of Ukrainian Social Democrats, Petliura». Participation in the «Petliurists», that is, in the struggle for an independent Ukraine, remained a reason for accusations in the USSR for a long time. The Petliurists were portrayed exclusively in negative contexts, they were given unattractive epithets and an unpleasant appearance. The image of the Petliurists as pests, traitors and opponents of the new Soviet government quickly entered Soviet life. 

Throughout his life, Symon Petliura fought for Ukrainian independence not only with weapons, but also with words: as a journalist, art critic, editor of leading Ukrainian magazines. In the most severe times of Russian censorship, he organized illegal printing houses. Even in emigration, the leader of the UNR continued his publishing business - he founded the magazines "Tabor", "Tryzub", and others, which turned words into weapons in the fight for a free Ukraine.

In 1921, Symon Petliura was forced to leave the territory of Ukraine. However, he did not abandon the political struggle for the independence of the UNR. The Soviet secret services did not leave Petliura alone, they set out to defame and disgrace the name of Symon Petliura and his supporters.

The assassination of Symon Petliura had a profound impact on the Ukrainian emigration. A member of the UNR government, diplomat Oleksandr Shulgin recalled that the event united the previously disparate circles of the Ukrainian emigration. Symon Petliura proved by his life and death that only in unity can Ukrainians stand and win.

It has been 100 years since the death of Symon Petliura, but he remains a symbol of the struggle for a free Ukraine. In his honor, toponymic objects are named in settlements, monuments are erected, and murals are painted. And most importantly, the memory of Symon Petliura is immortalized in the modern Ukrainian army. Soldiers of the UNR Army and the Chief Ataman himself wore a sleeve trident on their uniforms. Continuing Petliura's traditions, the trident became part of the military identity of the Defense Forces of Ukraine. Since 2017, it has become part of the uniform of Ukrainian soldiers. The 152nd Separate Jaeger Brigade has received an honorary name - named after Symon Petliura. The brigade's servicemen defend our country on various directions of the Russian-Ukrainian front.

Historical background of the Cossack clan

On May 22, 1879, Symon Petlyura was born into a family with a history dating back several centuries. Symon's great-great-grandfather, Ostap Petlyura, was the ataman of the Platnirovsky kuren. After the destruction of the Sich in 1775, by order of Empress Catherine II, and according to research by Poltava local historian Anatoly Chernov, Ostap "managed to move across the Dnieper floodplains to the Samara Monastery. Ostap's son Omelko painted icons for the Samara Zaporozhian Cathedral." After the establishment of a stud farm in Pavlograd, Omelko Petlyura got a job there. Later, his son Pavlo was born - Symon Petlyura's grandfather. He moved to Poltava, where he organized a carriage company, and his son Vasyl inherited the family business and expanded it. Vasyl Petlyura died in 1909.

His paternal grandmother, Hanna Petliura, nee Cholovskaya, came from a priestly family. After her husband's death, she was tonsured a nun and became the abbess of the Toplovsky Convent in Crimea. Later, Simon's sister Euphrosyne also became a nun in the same convent, but she tragically died in 1918.

My maternal grandfather, Alexei, also became a monk after becoming a widow. He helped found the Kyiv Ioninsky Skete. He died as a hieromonk. 

Mother Olga grew up in a priestly family with Cossack roots, the Marchenkos. The woman devoted herself to raising 9 children and running the household. In 1919, she was arrested by the Bolsheviks, but when they released her, she died on the third day.

Brothers and sisters

Symon had 8 sisters and brothers. All children received their primary education at the parish school. Brothers Ivan, Fedir, Oleksandr and Symon himself studied at the Poltava Theological Seminary. Only Ivan went further, graduating from the Kyiv Theological Academy. He died of tuberculosis in 1900. Fedir became an agronomist in Kobelyatskyi district, belonged to the Revolutionary Ukrainian Party. He died under unclear circumstances in 1907. The younger Oleksandr became a soldier. He rose to the rank of colonel in the Army of the Ukrainian People's Republic. After the Soviet occupation of Ukrainian lands, he ended up in Canada, where he died in 1951.

The fates of the Petliura sisters were different. Tatyana became the wife of the owner of a candle factory. Marina and Feodosia lived in Poltava all their lives. In 1924, they were first arrested by the Chekists, but were released. In 1927, the sisters managed to return their parents' house, which had previously been nationalized. In 1937, the sisters were arrested again, and with them their nephew Sylvester Skrypnyk - Marianne's son, brother of the Patriarch of Kyiv and All Ukraine of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church Mstislav (Stepan Skrypnyk). On November 19 of the same year, all three were shot by the decision of the "troika". 

«"First Lady" of the UNR

His wife Olga and daughter Lesya became the family support and inner balance for Symon Petliura during the times of great upheaval. It was the family that remained for him the space where he could find peace and regain strength.

Olga Bilska was born on December 23, 1885 in the village of Mala Divitsya, Poltava province. She was orphaned early, and her grandmother was engaged in raising the girl. She graduated from the Pryluky Women's Gymnasium with honors, with the title of home teacher. She moved to Kyiv, where she worked at the private Zherebetskaya Gymnasium.

In 1908, at a visit to distant relatives in Kyiv, the girl met Petliura. She met him again at a Ukrainian community party in Moscow. Love broke out between the young people, a university student Olga and an accountant at a transport company, publisher of the magazine "Ukrainian Life" Symon. The couple took an active part in the life of the Ukrainian diaspora in Moscow: they organized concerts, literary evenings, etc. Since 1910, they lived in a civil marriage. On October 25, 1911, their daughter Lesya was born. The couple got married on January 18, 1915.

Since 1917, the family has been in Kyiv. Olga and her husband plunged into the whirlpool of the Ukrainian Revolution. She participated in the activities of women's societies, cared for the wounded in hospitals. In January 1918, shortly before the occupation of Soviet Russia by the army, the leadership of the UNR left the capital. Olga and her seven-year-old daughter remained in Kyiv. They lived under a different surname, often changing their place of residence, fleeing persecution.

In 1919, Petliura's friends helped his family emigrate. At first, Olga lived in Krakow, later moved to Warsaw to her husband. On October 16, 1924, Petliura moved to Paris, but his wife and daughter arrived there a year later, when Lesya finished the third grade of high school. To pay for her daughter's education with private tutors, Olga earned money by embroidering. The murder of her husband undermined her health: she quickly lost her hearing and vision... She passed away on November 23, 1959. She was buried next to her husband.

Poet Lesya

The Petliur couple named their only daughter Larisa (Lesya) in honor of Lesya Ukrainka. The girl grew up in an environment where Ukrainian traditions prevailed. As a child, Lesya dressed in traditional Ukrainian clothes and was a pupil of the "Plast".

In 1920-1922 she studied in Prague, where she mastered Czech. The poet and translator Maksym Slavynsky, who was closely acquainted with her, helped her to learn about Lesya Ukrainka's work. In Czechoslovakia she became friends with the writing family of Vasyl Koroliv-Stary and his wife Natalena Koroleva. In Poland she became friends with the artist Viktor Tsymbal.

She had a hard time surviving the murder of her father. Life's hardships caused tuberculosis. Her mother took her daughter to a sanatorium in Cambo-la-Bain in the hope that the air of the Pyrenees would help overcome the illness. The most painful thing was that doctors forbade her to study. She had to take up science in absentia. In her letters and notes, she recorded interesting details of life in Europe of that time, in particular the Czech Republic and France, observations about culture and literature. She contributed to the Ukrainian magazine "Young Life". Lesya Petliura's extraordinary talent is evidenced by her creative output: poetry, articles, epistolary works, and drawings.

Lesya Petliura died on November 6, 1941. She was buried with her father and mother at the Montparnasse Cemetery in Paris. 

Revolutionary Youth: From Seminarian to Rebel

Throughout his life, Symon Petliura fought for Ukrainian independence with words: as a journalist, art critic, editor of leading Ukrainian magazines. During the most severe times of Russian censorship, he organized illegal printing houses. And he embarked on the path of revolutionary journalism thanks to song. When Mykola Lysenko arrived in Poltava in 1901 for the Shevchenko holidays, where Petliura studied at the theological seminary, the music-loving seminarian invited the composer to listen to the seminary choir under his direction perform Lysenko's cantata "The Thresholds Are Beating" to the words of Taras Shevchenko. The seminary rector burst into the unauthorized concert, accused Lysenko of a "Mazepin intrigue," and Petliura was expelled from the last year of the seminary.

From Kuban to Lviv

In 1902, Symon Petliura moved to the Kuban, where he and like-minded people founded an illegal printing house to distribute revolutionary appeals to the population. He researched the archives of the Zaporozhian Cossacks, and thus began his journalistic career. He sent his first publications to the Lviv "Literary and Scientific Bulletin". He wrote mostly about culture: about education and theater, archaeological finds, the Kuban expeditions of Alexander Koshyts, later known as "the godfather of Shchedryk". He criticized the Russian church as an instrument of the tsarist Russification policy.

In 1905, Symon Petliura moved to Lviv, where he worked as a co-editor of the Revolutionary Ukrainian Party magazines "Peasant" and "Labor". In 1906, he edited the magazine "Free Ukraine" in St. Petersburg. In 1907, he became the secretary of the newspaper "Rada" in Kyiv. In addition to socio-political journalism, Petliura wrote reviews of Ukrainian and foreign books, published music and theater reviews, and printed anniversary dedications to cultural figures. At the same time, he headed the theater department of the magazine "Ukraine", became the editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Slovo" and a director at the Mykola Sadovsky Theater. 

«"Ukrainian Life" in Moscow

In 1910, the already well-known journalist moved to Moscow, where he headed the printed tribune of Ukrainianism in the heart of the enemy empire - the magazine "Ukrainian Life". During the years 1912-1916, as the editor of the publication, he worked with the best Ukrainian authors. He himself wrote, again a lot about culture. In 1914, he prepared an entire issue for the 100th anniversary of Taras Shevchenko. When in 1917 Petliura returned to Kyiv and headed the military ministry of the UNR, he did not forget about culture. In one of his appeals to the population, he asked citizens to donate money to purchase Ukrainian literature for the front.

In exile, the leader of the UNR continued his publishing business. Since 1923, he founded and edited the magazines "Tabor", "Tryzub", and others, which, even after the death of Symon Petliura, became an opportunity for Ukrainians scattered throughout the world to turn words into weapons in the fight for a free Ukraine.

In the First World War

During the war, Symon Petliura made a statement that Ukrainians, being subjects of the Russian Empire, should loyally fulfill their duty to it, and expressed hope that in the future the attitude of the tsarist authorities to the Ukrainian question would change. In early 1916, he entered the service of the All-Russian Union of Zemstvos, held the position of plenipotentiary of the main All-Russian Zemstvo Congress, and chairman of the Control Board of the Zemstvo Union on the Western Front.

At the head of the Ukrainian military movement

After the overthrow of the Russian autocracy, he initiated and organized the Ukrainian Congress of the Western Front in Minsk in April 1917. He was elected chairman of the Ukrainian Front Council and delegated to the First All-Ukrainian Military Congress, which took place on May 18-21, 1917 in Kyiv. 

Based on Petliura's report, a resolution "On the Ukrainization of the Army" was adopted, and the need to demand recognition of Ukraine's autonomy from the Provisional Government was announced.

After the congress, Petliura was elected to the Ukrainian General Military Committee, created to coordinate the Ukrainian military movement and spread the Ukrainization of military units of the Russian army and navy. The committee was subordinate only to the Ukrainian Central Rada (UCR) and did not recognize Russian authority over it. Petliura headed it and became part of the UCR.

Secretary General of Military Affairs

At the Second All-Ukrainian Military Congress in Kyiv in June 1917, he advocated the creation of a large Ukrainian army, although he saw the danger in this. With his participation, the Ukrainian Central Executive Committee adopted the First Universal, which proclaimed the autonomy of Ukraine within Russia. 

In the General Secretariat, its executive body, created by the Ukrainian Central Committee on June 28, 1917, Symon was elected Secretary General of Military Affairs. His main task was the Ukrainization of the army. While working on the creation of Ukrainian military units, he encountered opposition from the Russian government and pro-Russian forces, as well as some members of the Council who advocated a pacifist position.

He was part of the delegation that negotiated with the Ukrainian Volunteer Regiment named after Hetman Pavlo Polubotko. The Polubotkos opposed the Second Universal of the Ukrainian Central Executive and concessions to the Petrograd authorities, demanding that all power belong to the Central Rada. Petliura called on the soldiers not to embark on the path of anarchy, so as not to disrupt the plan for the Ukrainization of the army.

On November 2-13, 1917, he was an active participant in the Third All-Ukrainian Military Congress in Kyiv, which demanded from the Ukrainian Central Committee the immediate proclamation of the Ukrainian People's Republic, the complete Ukrainization of the army and navy, and the conclusion of peace. 

After the Bolshevik coup on November 7, 1917, Symon Petliura resolutely defended the country from both the Provisional Government and the Bolsheviks. On November 13, he ordered Ukrainian troops to seize all the most important government facilities in Kyiv.

On November 20, the Ukrainian Central Democratic Republic proclaimed the Ukrainian People's Republic, and Petliura at that time organized the Serdyukov divisions and led the disarmament of pro-Bolshevik units and Red Guard fighters in the capital by Ukrainian troops. 

From the position of minister to a volunteer formation

In December 1917, Bolshevik Russia began a war of aggression against the Ukrainian People's Republic (UNR).

On the last day of 1917, in protest against the pro-Bolshevik orientation of the head of the General Secretariat, Vynnychenko, Petliura resigned from the government.

In early January 1918, he headed the Haidamak Kish of Slobodsk Ukraine. In Kyiv, he formed a kuren of black haidamaks (up to 150 soldiers) from volunteers of the Second Infantry Youth School, which became part of the Kish. 

In the fight against the Bolsheviks

He led the Haidamakis to fight against the Bolshevik troops. His baptism of fire took place in the Poltava region in the battles for Hrebinka.

Later, Kish joined in suppressing the January Bolshevik uprising in the capital. Petliura took part in defensive battles in Kyiv against the invasion of Bolshevik troops under Mikhail Muravyov.

On February 9, 1918, in Brest (Brest-Litovsk), the UNR on the one hand and Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey, and Bulgaria on the other signed a peace treaty, according to which the Quadruple Alliance recognized the UNR and also provided armed assistance in the fight against the external aggressor. 

After the retreat of Ukrainian troops from the capital on the night of February 10, 1918, a reorganization took place in the town of Hnativka. All units were combined into the Separate Zaporizhzhia Detachment. Together with it, the revived, hardened, motivated Ukrainian army also included Kish, led by Symon Petliura, and the First Kurin of Sich Riflemen under the command of Yevhen Konovalets. 

The Haydamaks, led by Petliura, together with other Ukrainian units, allied German, and Austro-Hungarian troops, went on the offensive against the Bolshevik aggressor. They were the first to enter the capital, and after its liberation, held a parade in honor of the victory.

Kish became one of the most combat-ready Ukrainian units. The soldiers with whom Petliura defended the independence of Ukraine side by side in battles remained his associates and confidants. These were Oleksandr Udovichenko, Mykola Chebotariv, Serhiy Delvig and Omelyan Volokh. However, as the example of the latter showed, not all of them justified his trust.

At the end of March 1918, Petliura, under pressure from circumstances, was forced to leave military service and headed the Kyiv Provincial Zemstvo, and a month later he created and headed the All-Ukrainian Union of Zemstvos.

Head of the Directory. The Path to Conciliarity

On December 19, 1918, the rebel troops solemnly entered Kyiv, which meant the restoration of the power of the Ukrainian People's Republic. An important step was the proclamation of the Universal on January 22, 1919, on the unification of the UNR with the Western Ukrainian People's Republic, which appeared in November 1918 in Lviv. The Act of Unification was intended to unite the Ukrainian lands into one state.

However, at this moment the Ukrainian state found itself facing a new wave of external aggression. At the end of 1918 - beginning of 1919, Soviet Russia started a war against the UNR for the second time. In these circumstances, Symon Petliura took on a key role in preserving Ukrainian statehood. Back in January, at a meeting of the Directory, representatives of political parties and troops, Petliura spoke out sharply against the Bolsheviks. He repeatedly stated that a strong army was necessary for the defense of Ukraine and the development of state affairs.

«"The state is above parties"»

On February 5, 1919, the Red Army captured Kyiv for the second time. Government institutions were evacuated from the city. The head of the Directory, Vynnychenko, left the state leadership and went abroad. On February 11, in Vinnytsia, Symon Petliura became the de facto sole leader of Ukraine, combining the positions of the head of the Directory and the Chief Ataman of the Army. In order to distance himself from narrow party interests, he left the Ukrainian Social Democratic Labor Party and positioned himself «above the party.». 

During 1919, the UNR government found itself at war on several fronts – against Bolshevik forces and the Volunteer Army of General Anton Denikin, which advocated the restoration of a "united and indivisible Russia". Despite this, Petliura led the military and political resistance, striving to preserve the international subjectivity of the UNR. He paid considerable attention to diplomatic contacts with the Entente powers, as well as negotiations with Romania and Poland.

In the "triangle of death"«

At the end of 1919, the UNR Army, exhausted by battles and a typhus epidemic, found itself in the "triangle of death" in the area of Lyubar - Chortoriya - Myropyl. In the north and east they were opposed by the Red Army, in the south by the White Army, and in the west by the Polish army.

In the end, there were two ways to escape: cross the Ukrainian-Polish border and lay down their arms or switch to partisan methods of struggle. On December 5, the high command of the UNR troops decided to begin the First Winter Campaign of the UNR Army and approved the departure of Symon Petliura to Warsaw to complete political negotiations with Poland.

Ukrainians and Jews: a tragedy of provoked hatred

The late 19th and early 20th centuries were marked by a wave of pogroms against the Jewish population in Ukraine. Among the reasons were: Russian Empire propaganda, which formed a stereotypical vision of Jewish life among the Ukrainian peasantry, the negative image of the «Jew-Bolshevik» spread by political movements hostile to the Soviet government, and the absence of centralized power during the Ukrainian Revolution. 

According to Canadian researcher Henry Abramson, representatives of antagonistic ethnic groups (Jews and Ukrainians) attempted to establish effective political relations.

With respect and sympathy

A native of Poltava, Symon Petliura grew up in the environment of the provincial center of the empire, where Poles, Russians, Jews and Ukrainians coexisted. As a young participant in the Ukrainian public movement, he was interested in the lives of other ethnic groups, condemning in his own texts the Jewish pogroms, the deprivation of Jews of the opportunity for education and political activity, and popularized publications dedicated to local imperial minorities. In particular, he wrote a preface to the play "The Jews" by playwright Yevgeny Chirykov about the pogrom in the city of Iasi.

Ministry of Jewish Affairs

As one of the leaders of the UNR Directory, and later its sole leader, Petliura actively established interethnic relations. Jewish national and personal autonomy was restored: local power was transferred to public assemblies (kegil), and the newly created Ministry of Jewish Affairs was included in the main executive body of the Directory - the Council of People's Ministers of the UNR. Yiddish became one of the official languages. Figures of Jewish origin held positions in the executive institutions of the Directory.

Soldiers and officers of Jewish origin participated in the campaign against Kyiv in the summer of 1919, the Polish-Bolshevik War of 1920-1921, and the First and Second Winter Campaigns.

With the assistance of the Head of the Directory, Jewish education and culture developed. A department of Jewish history and literature was established at Kamianets-Podilskyi University. A system of teacher and "Froebel" (pedagogical) courses was developed at state and private expense, primary and secondary schools, and kindergartens were restored. In cooperation with Jewish educational initiatives ("Culture League"), several national acting troupes were created in the local theater. 

Representatives of the Jewish community were included in the newly created Extraordinary Commission, which investigated the facts of the pogroms, and the victims were provided with appropriate monetary compensation or the return of lost property.

Ukrainian-Jewish relations during the period of emigration

In emigration, Petliura closely followed the political and social life of national minorities. Together with the leaders of the Zionist movement, a project was agreed to create Jewish armed formations on the territory of Ukraine. On September 4, 1921, during the preparation for the Second Winter Campaign, the Carlsbad Agreement was concluded, which provided for the formation of Jewish military organizations for self-defense on Ukrainian territory liberated from the Bolsheviks. On behalf of the Directory, Maksym Slavynsky signed, and on the other side, Volodymyr Zhabotynsky.

Song as a weapon: cultural diplomacy of the UNR

To gain international recognition and support for Ukraine from the Western world in the war with Russia, in January 1919, Symon Petliura initiated a cultural diplomacy project by sending the Ukrainian Republican Chapel abroad. He was inspired by the song "Legend" by Mykola Leontovych to verses by Mykola Vorony, which was performed by the choir under the baton of Oleksandr Koshyts on the poet's creative anniversary. The composition so impressed the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the UNR Army that he immediately instructed the conductor to go on tour to Paris. At that time, the Paris Peace Conference was beginning in France, where the leaders of the victorious powers in World War I were drawing up a post-war map of the world. Symon Petliura hoped that, in accordance with the right of nations to self-determination, declared by US President Woodrow Wilson, Ukraine would also be recognized as having the right to independence.

Triumphal tours

In 1919-1924, the chapel under the Maestro's direction performed in over 200 cities in 17 European and American countries. The concerts were attended by queens, presidents, famous cultural figures, and art critics. Everyone admired the Ukrainian songs arranged by Mykola Lysenko, Mykola Leontovych, Kyrylo Stetsenko, and Oleksandr Koshyts. The hit of the tour was Mykola Leontovych's "Shchedryk." Everywhere the audience asked for an encore song, and the halls resounded with "Vive l`Ukraine!".

«A masterpiece of folk art,» they wrote about the composer’s pearl in Brussels. «The best song in the repertoire,» noted critics in London. «Whoever has experienced the beautiful singing of the Ukrainian Republican Chapel cannot help but love Ukraine with all his soul,» summed up the professor from Prague. 

Symon Petliura corresponded with the singers during their tour, and personally lobbied for funding for the choir during Ukraine's war for independence. Shocked Dutch critics called him "the commander-in-chief in love with art." However, Western politicians never recognized Ukraine.

From "Shchedryk" to "Carol of the Bells"«

In 1922, the choir of Oleksandr Koshits moved to America. Symon Petliura continued to ask the Maestro in letters to bring Ukrainian independence to the world with a song. On October 5, 1922, the choir performed triumphantly at New York's Carnegie Hall: "Shchedryk" was first heard on the American continent. In 1936, an English-language version of the composition appeared - the carol "Carol of the Bells", which is now sung by the whole world at Christmas. The idea of Symon Petliura, who was fascinated by Ukrainian songs all his life and invested in culture during the war, embodied the will of Taras Shevchenko: "Our thought, our song will not die, will not perish... That's where, people, our glory, the glory of Ukraine!".

Petliura-Piłsudski Union

The imperialist encroachments of the Russians on the independence of Ukraine and Poland forced both sides to negotiate. The Ukrainian elite had to choose: to stop the liberation struggle for independence or to continue the struggle, to conclude an agreement, ceding territories. Petliura chose the latter. The negotiations ended with the signing of the Warsaw Treaty, known as the Petliura-Piłsudski alliance. In exchange for the recognition of the independence of the UNR and military assistance, Galicia and Western Volhynia were ceded to Poland. «This was a forced concession in order to preserve statehood in the remaining territory,» says historian, professor Vladyslav Verstyuk. 

1920: in defense of Europe

The allied armies of the two states set off for the Dnieper region against the Red Russian occupiers. The military campaign initially developed successfully. On May 7, 1920, Polish and Ukrainian troops entered the capital of the UNR, Kyiv, and pushed the Bolsheviks back across the Dnieper. On May 9, a parade of Ukrainian and Polish troops took place along Khreshchatyk.

Later, the Red Army seized the strategic initiative, occupying Kyiv. In July, the Bolshevik First Cavalry Army of Semyon Budyonny broke through to Lviv, and in August this army was already near Warsaw. «Miracle on the Vistula» — this is the name under which the defense of Warsaw went down in history. The victorious battle in the suburbs of the Polish capital saved its independence and prevented its transformation into another Soviet republic. Heroism, selflessness and military skill were shown by the soldiers of the 6th Rifle Division of the UNR Army under the command of Marko Bezruchko. 

The Polish leadership supported the UNR government in exile, created living conditions for interned soldiers of the UNR Army, and accepted rebel chieftains who were fleeing Bolshevik persecution. 

November Raid 1921

In November 1920, Ukraine came under Bolshevik control. The UNR Directorate moved to Tarnow, Poland. In January of the following year, Petliura gathered senior officers of the UNR Army to create the Partisan-Insurgent Headquarters to organize a campaign known as the November Raid, or the Second Winter Campaign. It took place in October and November 1921 in three groups. The Podolsk, led by Mykhailo Palii-Sydoryansky, defeated several Red cavalry units and reached Borodyanka in the Kyiv region, but, not meeting the main forces, returned to Poland. The Volyn group of Yuriy Tyutiunnyk eliminated a number of small Bolshevik detachments, but was defeated by Kotovsky's cavalry in the Zhytomyr region, and 360 soldiers were shot near the village of Bazar on November 21, 1921. The last to set out on the campaign was the Bessarabian group of Andriy Huly-Hulenko. Having crossed the Dniester, it occupied several border villages and part of Tiraspol, but was forced to retreat to Romania. The second winter campaign demonstrated the readiness of Ukrainians to gain statehood at any cost.

Warsaw – Budapest – Vienna – Geneva – Paris

After the Second Winter Campaign, Ukrainians left the Dnieper region en masse. Symon Petliura understood that the internal life of Ukrainians abroad should be regulated, so he took care of the creation of emigration institutions. 

Because of the hunt for him by Moscow agents, he was forced to move frequently and each time to reorganize his own life. Finally, in the fall of 1924, he reached Paris.

Head of the State Center of the UNR in exile: the struggle continues 

Wherever he was, the Chief Ataman was engaged in journalism, and most importantly, he led the government in exile. The government-in-exile of the Ukrainian People's Republic was established in Poland in 1921, then underwent various transformations, until in 1924 in Paris it was named the State Center of the UNR. The Center directed its efforts to ensure that the states of the world recognized it and provided material, moral, and military support, primarily for intelligence, military, and information actions against the communist regime. 

Thanks to Petliura's organizational talents, the State Center of the UNR became the center of the long struggle of the Ukrainian people for a national state.

After the assassination of the Chief Otaman, the UNR Central Committee moved to France, Germany, and the USA, and when Ukraine regained its independence on August 24, 1991, having fulfilled its assignment, it resigned. This happened on August 22, 1992.

Murder in the Latin Quarter

In May 1926, Polish and Ukrainian political circles began to talk about a new campaign against the Soviets. This was associated with the return to power in Poland of Józef Piłsudski and the possible renewal of the alliance with Symon Petliura. For the Soviet authorities, Petliura was becoming an even more dangerous opponent, and this prompted the communists to physically eliminate him. 

On May 25, 1926, at about 1 p.m., Symon Petliura went to lunch at the Bouillon-Chartier restaurant on Racine Street near the hotel where he lived. An hour later, he came out and looked at the book display at the corner of Racine Street and Saint-Michel Boulevard. A man approached him and shot him with a revolver. Five of the seven bullets hit the body. The killer, Samuel Schwarzbard, surrendered to a policeman who ran to the scene. According to another version, the shooter was first grabbed by passersby, wanting to be lynched, but then handed over to the police.

The wounded Symon Petliura was taken to the nearest Charité clinic, where he died shortly after. On May 30, 1926, he was buried in the Montparnasse cemetery. 

Trial of a murderer

Samuel Schwarzbard stated during interrogation that the murder was revenge for the Jewish pogroms in Ukraine. During the arrest, a list of Ukrainian political figures was found on the killer – as a hint that Petliura might not have been the only target. It is known that Schwarzbard previously lived in Odessa and was a member of the Communist Party, and later became a French communist.

The thesis about the alleged «Petliura – the main organizer of the pogroms» was formed under the influence of a book, tendentiously compiled with the assistance of Soviet authorities, which was published in France on the eve of the trial by Schwarzbard’s lawyer, socialist Henri Torres, close to communist circles. French newspapers described Petliura as a «Ukrainian general guilty of the massacre,» which shaped public opinion not in favor of Petliura, and Soviet special services actively distributed these materials in the foreign press.

The trial of Schwarzbard took place in Paris in 1927. Schwarzbard was accused of premeditated murder, punishable by death. The accuser was lawyer Maurice Garsois; the murderer was defended by Henri Torres. Despite the fact that documents were presented at the trial about the attempts of Petliura and his government to stop the pogroms, the judge's decision was influenced by the position of the jury: "Acquit the accused." The verdict was announced on October 26, 1927: Petliura's widow was ordered to pay a fine of 1 franc for the work of the utilities that washed her husband's blood from the asphalt. Schwarzbard was released. The French public greeted this ending with applause.

The trial was exploited by Soviet propaganda. The murderer was made into a «people’s avenger» and Petliura was made into a «pogromist.» This damaged the reputation of the Ukrainian liberation struggle in the West.

Moscow propaganda against Petliura

 In 1921, Symon Petliura was forced to leave the territory of Ukraine. However, he did not abandon the political struggle for the independence of the UNR. The Soviet secret services did not leave Petliura alone, they set out to defame and disgrace the name of Symon Petliura and his supporters.

One of the key tools in the arsenal of propaganda was cinema. In 1926, at the Odessa Film Studio, directors Aksel Lundin and Georgy Stabovy created the film «P. K. P.» («Pilsudski bought Petliura»). The plot of the film tells about the last period of the Directory’s struggle with the Bolsheviks – from the signing of the Warsaw Pact to the Second Winter Campaign. Real participants in those events were involved in the creation of the film: Grigory Kotovsky, the fighters of his unit and even the commander of the UNR troops, Yuriy Tyutiunnyk, who was captured by deception, so that there was a feeling of watching not a feature film, but a historical chronicle. According to the plot, Petliura appears as a narcissistic tyrant, an anti-Semite and a bribe-taker, and every phrase or action put into his role by the screenwriters only enhances this effect.

This was not Petliura's last appearance on the screen; Petliura's image would appear dozens of times in films, in particular in Oleksandr Dovzhenko's "Shchorsa" (1939), but the foundations of Petliura's new image were laid precisely by the "P. K. P." under the meticulous eye of the GPU in the person of Vsevolod Balytsky, People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the Ukrainian SSR.

In the sights of cartoonists

Petliura and the Petliuraites became permanent characters in caricatures for over 50 years, which were abundant in publications such as "Red Pepper", and the image of a Petliuraite as a pest, traitor and enemy of the new Soviet government quickly entered everyday life. In works of art, Petliura and the Petliuraites were depicted exclusively in negative contexts, they were given unattractive epithets and an unpleasant appearance. In scientific publications, textbooks and dictionaries, the "Petliura movement" was defined as "a counter-revolutionary bourgeois-nationalist movement in Ukraine during the period of foreign military intervention and civil war, led by one of the leaders of the petty-bourgeois nationalist party of Ukrainian Social Democrats, Petliura". Participation in the "Petliura movement", that is, in the struggle for an independent Ukraine, remained a reason for accusations in the USSR for a long time. Thus, in 1930, hundreds of people were accused in the show trial of the Union for the Liberation of Ukraine, and in 1948, Oleksandr Grekov, a former general of the UNR Army, was sentenced to 25 years for this. Petlyura himself appears in the "Great Soviet Encyclopedia" as the son of a coachman, expelled from the seminary, who constantly had problems with the law until he came to power. All definitions required a mention of the Jewish pogroms allegedly organized by Petlyura and the alliance with Poland.

Symbol of the struggle for a free Ukraine

… in bronze and granite

A monument to Symon Petliura appeared in Rivne on October 14, 2001. This bust made of granite and bronze was the only one in the country for a long time, until on August 24, 2018, a bust of Symon Petliura appeared on the boulevard of the same name in Ternopil.

On October 14, 2017, a monument to the leader of the UNR was solemnly unveiled in Vinnytsia near the building where the Field Office of the Chief Ataman was located. The sculpture recreates a historical photo taken in 1919 in Kamianets-Podilskyi.

The history of erecting a monument to Symon Petliura in his birthplace, Poltava, and the capital has been going on for several decades. Two presidential decrees, public statements by government officials and politicians have not moved things forward in Kyiv. 

Instead, in Poltava, the initiative, which was voiced in 1992 at the First All-Ukrainian Scientific Petliura Readings by the last President of the UNR in exile, Mykola Plavyuk, and the sixties leader Mykola Kulchynsky, finally took on clear outlines in 2021: an architectural competition was held, and a place for the monument was decided.

To mark the centenary of the Battle of Warsaw, a collective monument to the leader of the Ukrainian People's Republic, Symon Petliura, the leader of Poland, Józef Piłsudski, the Prime Minister of Hungary, Pál Teleki, and Charles de Gaulle, who was a military advisor at the time, was erected in the Polish city of Skierniewice. Today, it is the only monument to Petliura outside of Ukraine.

The memory of Symon Petliura is immortalized on memorial plaques in various cities and towns of Ukraine. In Kyiv, as well as in Poltava, there are currently two. Memorial plaques in honor of Petliura personally or events in which he participated are in Khmelnytskyi, Kamianets-Podilskyi, Bila Tserkva, Ternopil, Fastiv, etc.

...in toponymy

The name of Symon Petliura is immortalized in over 90 place names across the country. The return of his name to symbolic space has occurred mainly since 2014, that is, under the influence of decommunization and decolonization reforms.

...in eternity

The leader of the UNR passed away in the Charité clinic in Paris, as evidenced by memorial plaques in Ukrainian and French on both sides of the entrance to the Church of St. Volodymyr. Petliura was mourned in the Romanian Orthodox Church, and buried in the Montparnasse cemetery in Paris.

The assassination of Symon Petliura had a profound impact on the Ukrainian emigration. A member of the UNR government, diplomat Oleksandr Shulgin recalled that the event united the previously disparate circles of the Ukrainian emigration. Symon Petliura proved by his life and death that only in unity can Ukrainians stand and win.

Institute of National Remembrance