1. Symon Petliura was the Supreme Commander of the Ukrainian People's Army and led the Ukrainian People's Republic during the Ukrainian War of Independence, a part of the wider Russian Civil War.
34 Facts About Symon Petliura
1. 2.
Symon Petliura became the leader of the Directorate in early 1919, after the Bolsheviks invaded Ukraine and drove the UNA to Galicia.
3.
Symon Petliura initially directed the government-in-exile from Poland, but eventually settled in Paris.
4.
In 1926, Symon Petliura was assassinated in Paris by Jewish anarchist Sholem Schwarzbard, who had lost relatives in the pogroms.
5.
Symon Petliura's father, a Poltava city resident, had owned a transportation business; his mother was a daughter of an Orthodox hieromonk.
6.
Symon Petliura obtained his initial education in parochial schools, and planned to become an Orthodox priest.
7.
Symon Petliura studied in the Russian Orthodox Seminary in Poltava from 1895 to 1901.
8.
Symon Petliura contributed numerous articles to the Ukrainian-language press in Galicia.
9.
Symon Petliura went to Moscow in 1909, where he worked briefly as an accountant.
10.
Tsarist censors closed this magazine, and Symon Petliura moved back to Kyiv.
11.
In 1909, these publications were closed by Russian imperial police, and Symon Petliura moved back to Moscow to publish.
12.
Symon Petliura was the chief editor of this publication from 1912 to 1914.
13.
In Paris, Symon Petliura continued the struggle for Ukrainian independence as a publicist.
14.
In May 1917 Symon Petliura attended the First All-Ukrainian Congress of Soldier Deputies held in Kyiv as a delegate.
15.
Symon 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.
16.
On 5 December 1919, Symon Petliura withdrew to Poland, which had previously recognized him as the head of the legal government of Ukraine.
17.
Symon Petliura directed the affairs of the Ukrainian government-in-exile from Tarnow in Lesser Poland, and when the Soviet government in Moscow requested Symon Petliura's extradition from Poland, the Poles engineered his "disappearance", secretly moving him from Tarnow to Warsaw.
18.
Symon Petliura introduced the awarding of the title "People's Artist of Ukraine" to artists who had made significant contributions to Ukrainian culture.
19.
Symon Petliura saw the value in gaining international support and recognition of Ukrainian arts through cultural exchanges.
20.
In Paris, Symon Petliura directed the activities of the government of the Ukrainian National Republic in exile.
21.
Symon Petliura launched the weekly Tryzub, and continued to edit and write numerous articles under various pen names with an emphasis on questions dealing with national oppression in Ukraine.
22.
Symon Petliura's articles had a significant impact on the shaping of Ukrainian national awareness in the early 20th century.
23.
Symon Petliura is considered a controversial figure connected with the pogroms of Jews during his rule of the Ukrainian National Republic.
24.
On 25 May 1926, at 14:12, by the Gibert bookstore, Symon Petliura was walking on Rue Racine near Boulevard Saint-Michel of the Latin Quarter in Paris and was approached by Sholem Schwarzbard.
25.
Symon Petliura participated in the Jewish self-defense of Balta in 1905.
26.
Symon Petliura was twice convicted of taking part in anarchist "expropriation" and bank robbery in Austria-Hungary.
27.
Symon Petliura later joined the French Foreign Legion and was wounded in the Battle of the Somme.
28.
Symon Petliura was buried alongside his wife and daughter in the Cimetiere du Montparnasse in Paris.
29.
Symon Petliura's statue, unveiled in Vinnytsia in October 2017, was denounced as disgraceful and deplorable by the World Jewish Congress.
30.
In modern-day Ukraine, Symon Petliura has not been as lionized as Mykhailo Hrushevsky, since Symon Petliura was too closely associated with violence to make a good symbolic figure.
31.
For part of the Western Ukrainian diaspora, Symon 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.
32.
Symon Petliura's name became synonymous with the call for freedom.
33.
Symon Petliura continues to be portrayed by the Ukrainian people in its folk songs in a manner similar to Taras Shevchenko and Bohdan Khmelnytsky.
34.
Symon Petliura is likened to the sun which suddenly stopped shining.