Troubles. 1919 year. On April 6, 1919, Odessa, without meeting any resistance, was occupied by the detachments of Grigoriev. The ataman trumpeted about his "grandiose" victory over the Entente around the world: "I defeated the French, the victors of Germany …" It was the "finest hour" of the ataman. He was greeted as a triumphant, and Grigoriev finally became arrogant. He spoke of himself as a world strategist and a great commander.
Red commander
In January 1919, Grigoriev realized that Petliura's case had been lost. The Red Army occupied almost all of the Left Bank, except for the Donbass. In addition, the interventionists attacked from the south and in January occupied the entire Black Sea region, which Grigoriev considered his fiefdom.
On January 25, Petlyura ordered Grigoriev's division to join the South-Eastern group of the UPR army and begin preparations for an offensive against the Whites east of Aleksandrovsk and Pavlograd. Here, from mid-December 1918, the Petliurites fought with the White Guards. In addition, in these steppes he fought with the whites and Makhno, but he was an enemy of the Directory. As a result, Pan Ataman Grigoriev decided that it was not worth fighting with such strong opponents - the Whites and the old man Makhno, behind whom the local peasantry stood. He ignored Petliura's order.
Thus, Grigoriev became "his own ataman." He did not follow the orders of the UNR army headquarters, kept all the trophies for himself, periodically his soldiers robbed state property and the local population. On January 29, 1919, Grigoriev broke with the Directory by sending a telegram in which he announced that he was going to the Bolsheviks. Atman called on the commanders of the Zaporozhye corps to follow him. However, the corps commanders did not follow the traitor's example, and until April 1919 the Zaporozhye corps held back the movement of the Grigoriev region west of Elizavetgrad. The Grigorievites attacked the Ukrainian units of the Yekaterinoslavsky kosh and Colonel Kotik, retreating under the pressure of the Reds. In response, the Directory declares the chieftain outlawed.
Grigoriev establishes a connection with the Reds. The rebellious chieftain sends his representative to the Revolutionary Committee of Elizavetgrad and reports that he is “the chieftain of all the troops of independent Soviet Ukraine”. In the Revolutionary Committee of Alexandrovsk, Grigoriev sends a telegram in which he confirms his solidarity with the actions of the Soviet Bolshevik-Left SR government of the Ukrainian SSR. On February 1, 1919, Grigoriev contacted the red command and proposed to create a united Bolshevik-Left SR command - the Revolutionary Military Council of the Ukrainian Red Army. The chieftain boastfully reports that 100 thousand army is walking under him. In a telephone conversation with the commander of the Ukrainian Front, Antonov-Ovseenko, Grigoriev set the following conditions for the unification: inviolability of the organization and command, independence of armament, support and equipment; the independence of the troops and the occupied territory, the preservation of their trophies for the Grigorievites. The Soviet leadership, in order to gain a valuable ally, partially satisfied the demands of the chieftain. On the question of power, the Bolsheviks promised that power would be coalitional and completely freely chosen by the people at the All-Ukrainian Congress of Soviets.
In early February 1919, Grigoriev knocked out the Petliurists from Krivoy Rog, Znamenka, Bobrinskaya and Elizavetgrad. The betrayal of the Grigorievites led to the collapse of the Petliura front. Many units loyal to Petliura were scattered or went over to the side of the Reds. The remaining Petliurites fled from the central part of Little Russia to Volyn and Podolia.
On February 18, the leaders of the Red insurrectionary movement of Little Russia were gathered in Kharkov for a meeting with the government of the Ukrainian SSR. Grigoriev first met with the commander of the Ukrainian Front Antonov-Ovseenko. The Grigorievites became part of the 1st Zadneprovsk Ukrainian Soviet Division under the command of Dybenko. The 1st brigade was formed from the detachments of Ataman Grigoriev (the Makhnovists entered the 3rd brigade). The brigade consisted of about 5 thousand fighters with 10 guns and 100 machine guns.
When on February 28, 1919, Grigoriev's headquarters, which was located in the district of Alexandria, was visited by the commander of the Kharkov group of Soviet troops Skachko, he discovered a complete lack of organization and discipline, the decomposition of the brigade and the absence of communist work in the units. Grigoriev himself disappeared to avoid meeting with his immediate superior. Skachko, seeing complete anarchy in the units of the Grigorievites, suggested eliminating the brigade headquarters, and removing the chieftain himself. However, the command of the Ukrainian Front still wanted to use Grigoriev, so they preferred to close their eyes to the "chieftaincy". The red command continued to prefer not to notice the bandit antics of Grigoriev's "fellows".
To strengthen the moral and political state of the Grigorievites, Commissar Ratin and 35 communists were sent to the brigade. On the other hand, the Left SRs had a strong position among the Grigorievites. So, a member of the Borotbist party, Yuri Tyutyunnik, became the chief of staff of the brigade. Personality "loud", one of the prominent adventurers of the Time of Troubles. A participant in the World War, after the revolution he took part in the Ukrainization of the army, supported the Central Rada and became the organizer of the "free Cossacks" in Zvenigorod. In 1918, Tyutyunnik's Cossacks fought with the Reds and controlled a significant part of central Little Russia, then he raised a powerful Zvenigorod uprising against Hetman Skoropadsky and the German invaders. He was arrested and sentenced to death, escaped death only because of the fall of the Hetmanate. After his release, he goes over to the side of the Reds, and persuades Grigoriev to betray Petliura. However, soon Tyutyunnik, realizing that the power of the Bolsheviks did not promise him the first roles in Little Russia (Grigoriev also realized), began to conduct anti-Bolshevik activities in the brigade.
Odessa operation
In February 1919, the Grigorievites launched an offensive in the Black Sea region. By this time, the French interventionists had already completely decomposed and lost the aura of invincibility. They turned out to be "tough" even for the semi-bandit formation of Grigoriev, which consisted of peasant rebels and various rabble, including outright criminals.
After a week of fighting, the Grigorievites took Kherson on March 10, 1919. The allied command, when they began to storm the city, began to transfer reinforcements on ships, but the French soldiers at first refused to land and then go into battle. As a result, the allies left Kherson, the Greeks and French lost, according to various sources, about 400 - 600 people. Having captured the city, the Grigorievites killed the Greeks who had surrendered to them at the mercy of the Greeks. Demoralized by unexpected defeat, the French command surrendered without a fight and Nikolaev. All troops were evacuated to Odessa, where the French only now decided to create a fortified area. As a result, the allies surrendered the 150-kilometer territory between the Dnieper and the Tiligul estuary, with a strong fortress Ochakov and military depots without a battle. The Grigorievites without much trouble captured two rich cities from a raid. The brigade commander Grigoriev captured huge trophies: 20 guns, an armored train, a large number of machine guns and rifles, ammunition, and military property.
Having captured two large cities in southern Russia, Grigoriev sent a telegram to the white military governor of Odessa, Grishin-Almazov, demanding to surrender the city unconditionally, threatening otherwise to remove the skin from the general and pull it on a drum. Soon the Grigorievites won new victories. At the Berezovka station, the Allies concentrated a silt detachment - 2 thousand people, 6 guns and 5 tanks, the latest weapon at that time. However, the allies panicked and fled to Odessa without much resistance, abandoning all heavy weapons and echelons with supplies. Grigoriev then sent one of the captured tanks to Moscow as a gift to Lenin. After Kherson, Nikolaev and Berezovka, the Petliura detachments covering the French zone of occupation fled or went over to the side of Grigoriev. In fact, only Timanovsky's white brigade was now holding back the front.
Grigoriev's popularity increased even more, people flocked to him. Under the leadership of Grigoriev there were about 10 - 12 thousand motley fighters. The brigade, consisting of 6 regiments, horse and artillery divisions, is deployed into the 6th division of the 3rd Ukrainian Soviet Army. The Reds were opposed in the Odessa region by 18 thousand French, 12 thousand Greek, 4 thousand whites and 1.5 thousand Polish soldiers and officers. The allies had the support of the fleet, heavy weapons - artillery, tanks and armored cars. Thus, the Entente had complete superiority over the Grigoriev brigade. However, the allies did not want to fight, they were already collapsing, while they did not give the white the opportunity to mobilize forces and repulse the enemy.
At the end of March 1919, the Supreme Council of the Entente decided to evacuate the allied forces from the Black Sea region. At the beginning of April 1918, the Clemenceau ministry fell in France, the new cabinet first of all ordered the return of troops from Little Russia and an end to the intervention. Allied forces were ordered to clear Odessa within three days. They finished even faster - in two days. On the night of 2 to 3 April, the French agreed with the Odessa Soviet of Workers' Deputies on the transfer of power. On April 3, the evacuation was announced. On April 4, chaos reigned in the city. In the city, seeing the flight of the invaders, the "army" of Mishka Yaponchik raged - raiders, thieves, bandits and hooligans "cleaned" the bourgeoisie, who were left without protection. Banks and financial offices were robbed first. The flight of the allies came as a complete surprise to the refugees and whites who were simply abandoned. Only a part of the refugee, leaving property, was able to escape on the ships of the allies. Most were thrown to the mercy of fate. Some of the French soldiers did not have time to evacuate. Whoever could, ran towards the Romanian border. Timanovsky's brigade, along with the remaining French and refugee columns, retreated to Romania. The White Guards who remained in the city also broke through there.
On April 6, Odessa, without meeting any resistance, was occupied by the detachments of Grigoriev. Grigorievites staged a three-day booze on the occasion of the victory. Ataman trumpeted about his "grandiose" victory over the Entente around the world: "I defeated the French, the victors of Germany …". It was the "finest hour" of the chieftain. He was greeted as a triumphant, and Grigoriev finally became arrogant. He spoke of himself as a world strategist, a great commander, moved in a large retinue, loved honor and flattery. At the same time, he was constantly drunk. The soldiers then adored him, because the chieftain not only closed his eyes to "freedom and will" in the units, but also handed out most of the trophies, and in Odessa a huge amount of loot was captured, not only trophies, but the personal property of civilians.
Conflict with the Bolsheviks
The arrogant chieftain immediately came into conflict with the Bolsheviks. After the "Odessa victory" the Grigorievites captured the most populated and richest city in Little Russia, the largest port, industrial center and abandoned strategic base of the invaders. Most of the Entente's reserves - weapons, ammunition, provisions, ammunition, fuel, various goods, everything was abandoned. Warehouses and wagons with various goods remained in the port. Also Grigorievites got the opportunity to plunder the property of the "bourgeois". Grigoriev made a huge contribution to the Odessa bourgeoisie. They immediately began to take trophies out in echelons to their native places, and seized a huge amount of weapons.
There were other contenders for this wealth - the local Bolshevik leadership and the mafia. Grigoriev tried to restrict the appetites of local residents of Odessa. Ataman vowed to cleanse Odessa of bandits, and put Yaponchik up against the wall. Particular discontent was caused by the commandant of Odessa, Tyutyunnik, who was appointed by Grigoriev, who was a very ambitious, harsh and, moreover, a political opponent of the Bolsheviks. The Bolsheviks demanded an end to wide requisitions (in fact, robbery) from the Odessa bourgeoisie. Also, the Bolsheviks of Odessa were against the export of trophies to the northern Kherson region. Grigorievites exported huge stocks of industrial goods, sugar, alcohol, fuel, weapons, ammunition and ammunition to their villages. The Red Command, represented by the Antonov-Ovseenko Front Commander, preferred to close their eyes to this. Odessa communists and the commander of the 3rd army Khudyakov demanded the reorganization of Grigoriev's division and the arrest of Pan Ataman himself. However, Grigoriev was not touched, his troops still hoped to use it for a campaign in Europe.
After a ten-day stay in Odessa, by order of the command, the Grigorievsk division was nevertheless withdrawn from the city. The Grigorievites themselves did not resist, they had already plundered a lot, they wanted to rest in their native villages, and in the city the situation almost reached a bloody battle. Local Bolsheviks literally bombarded the central authorities with messages about Grigoriev's counterrevolutionary nature, about the preparation of the division commander for an uprising together with Makhno. The ataman himself threatened the Odessa Revolutionary Committee with reprisals.
Soon Grigoriev entered into a new conflict with the Bolsheviks. In March 1919, the Hungarian Soviet Republic was created. Moscow saw this as the beginning of the "world revolution." Through Hungary it was possible to break through to Germany. However, the Entente and neighboring countries tried to suppress the flame of the revolution. Hungary was blockaded, Romanian and Czech troops invaded its borders. The Soviet government was considering moving troops to help Hungary. In mid-April 1919, the Red Army concentrates on the Romanian border. A plan appeared: to defeat Romania, return Bessarabia and Bukovina, create a corridor between Little Russia and Hungary, come to the aid of the Red Hungarians. Grigoriev's division, which had already distinguished itself by a "victory" over the Entente, was decided to be thrown into a breakthrough, "to save the revolution."
On April 18, 1919, the command of the Ukrainian Front invited the divisional commander to start a campaign in Europe. Grigoriev was flattered, called "the red marshal", "the liberator of Europe." It seemed that the move was successful. The troops of the chieftain were "half-red", if the campaign failed, it was possible to write off the fighting on the left SRs. The defeat of the Grigorievites also suited the Red military-political leadership, and the threat of rebellion was eliminated. Grigoriev, on the other hand, did not want to go to the front, his commanders and fighters were not interested in the revolution in Europe, they already seized huge booty and did not want to leave their homes. The peasants were more worried about the food policy of the Bolsheviks in Little Russia than the problems of the "world proletarian revolution." Therefore, Grigoriev evaded, asked the red command for three weeks to rest in his native places, to prepare the division before a long campaign. At the end of April 1919, the Grigorievsk division went to the Elizavetgrad - Alexandria area.
Thus, the Grigorievites, inspired by the latest major successes, returned to the Kherson region. And there "Moscow" food detachments and security officers were in charge. The conflict was inevitable. A few days later, the murders of communists, security officers and Red Army men began. Calls for the massacre of the Bolsheviks and Jews began.
