21 Facts About Mykola Shchors

Mykola Shchors was born in the village of Snovsk of Gorodnya uyezd into a family of kulaks.

Mykola Shchors's father, Oleksandr Mykolayovich, was a locomotive engineer, according to the official Soviet historiography.

Mykola Shchors came from a town of Stowbtsy "in search of better life" to Snovsk where he was able to build a house.

Mykola Shchors's siblings were Konstantin, Akulina, Yekaterina, and Olga.

In 1906 Mykola Shchors's mother died giving a birth to another child.

About six months after the death of his wife, Mykola Shchors's father remarried, this time to Maria Konstantinovna Podbelo.

In 1910 Mykola Shchors enrolled in a military medical college in Kyiv, which had been established in 1833.

Mykola Shchors graduated from the school in 1914 and, upon receiving the rank of a junior physician assistant, was transferred to the Vilna Military District.

In September 1914, when the Russian Empire entered World War I, Mykola Shchors went to the front lines as part of the 3rd Light Artillery Division near Vilnius, where he served as a medical assistant and was wounded in battle.

Around that time, Mykola Shchors enrolled in the Russian Communist Party.

From 5 to 13 February 1919 Mykola Shchors was mayor of Kyiv.

Between 6 March and 15 August 1919 Mykola Shchors again led the 1st Ukrainian Soviet division in its offensive and took control of Zhytomyr, Vinnytsia, and Zhmerynka from the Ukrainian People's Republic.

Mykola Shchors attempted to hold the line near Sarny - Novohrad-Volynsky - Shepetivka, but was forced to retreat east by the more numerous, better trained, and better equipped Poles.

The 1st Ukrainian Soviet division merged with the 44th Rifle Division and Mykola Shchors was appointed its commander.

Mykola Shchors died after receiving a bullet in the back of his head.

Mykola Shchors body was buried in Samara, even though Mykola Shchors had no links with this city.

In 1926 the cemetery where Mykola Shchors was buried was closed and his widow did not request a reburial, so his grave was removed.

Mykola Shchors is the hero of an eponymous 1938 opera by Borys Lyatoshynsky.

In 1939 Aleksandr Dovzhenko made a film titled Mykola Shchors, which was awarded the State Prize of the Soviet Union in 1941.

In 1947 and 1948 Mykola Shchors' destroyed grave was searched for.

In Kyiv a 7-ton monument to Mykola Shchors that was erected in 1954, the year of the 300th anniversary of the Pereiaslav Agreement, was dismantled on 9 December 2023.