Troubles. 1919 year. For a short period of time, Grigoriev felt like the sole owner of a huge area with the cities of Nikolaev, Kherson, Ochakov, Apostolovo and Alyoshka. Formally, the Kherson-Nikolaev region was part of the UPR, but Grigoriev was the real ruler-dictator there. Pan Ataman felt himself to be a "major political figure" and spoke with Kiev in the language of ultimatums.
Soldier Grigoriev
Nikifor Alexandrovich Grigoriev was born in the Podolsk province, in the town of Dunaevts, in 1885. The real surname of the future "head ataman" was Servetnik, he changed it to Grigoriev, when the family at the beginning of the century moved from Podillya to the neighboring Kherson province, to the village of Grigorievka.
He graduated from only two classes of elementary school (the lack of education in the future will remind of himself), studied to be a paramedic in Nikolaev. As a volunteer, he participated in the Japanese campaign as a volunteer. He proved himself in battle, becoming a brave and experienced fighter. Promoted to non-commissioned officer. After the war, he studied at the Chuguev Infantry Cadet School, which he graduated in 1909. He was sent to the 60th Infantry Regiment of Zamost in Odessa with the rank of ensign.
However, in a peaceful life, his ebullient energy did not find a way out. Grigoriev retired, served as a simple excise official, and according to other information - in the police in the district town of Alexandria. With the outbreak of war with the Central Powers, he was mobilized into the army, fought as an ensign on the Southwestern Front. He again proved himself as an experienced and courageous soldier, was awarded the St. George Cross for bravery and rose to the rank of staff captain.
After February, Grigoriev headed the training team of the 35th regiment, located in Feodosia, from the fall of 1917 he served in the garrison of Berdichev. He became a member of the Soldiers' Committee of the Southwestern Front. The soldiers liked him for his recklessness, simplicity of relationships with lower ranks (including drinking). Among the personal qualities of Nicephorus, those who knew people singled out: personal courage (he persuaded the rank and file to go into battle, himself giving them an example), military talent and cruelty (he knew how to keep subordinates in obedience), talkativeness and boastfulness, and at the same time ambition and secrecy. They noted his deep ignorance and zoological anti-Semitism (hatred of Jews), characteristic of Little Russian peasants, and a tendency to drunkenness.
How Grigoriev became "involved in politics"
Troubles allowed Grigoriev to turn around, "engage in politics." After attending the congress of front-line soldiers and falling under the influence of S. Petliura, Grigoriev decided that the "finest hour" was Ukrainization. He became actively involved in the Ukrainization of the army, supported the Central Rada. From the volunteers, Grigoriev forms a Ukrainian shock regiment and receives the rank of lieutenant colonel. Petliura instructed Grigoriev to create Ukrainian units in the Elizavetgrad district.
Grigoriev supported Hetman Skoropadsky, and for his loyalty to the new regime he received the rank of colonel and became the commander of one of the units of the Zaporozhye division. The Troubles allowed such adventurers as Grigoriev to make the most dizzying career, to become part of the military-political elite. Within a few months, Grigoriev revised his priorities and changed his political "color". He goes over to the side of the rebellious peasants, who began to oppose the systematic robberies of the Austro-German occupiers and the hetman's detachments, which returned the land to the landowners.
The young colonel establishes contact with the opposition "Ukrainian National Union" and Petliura, participates in the preparation of a new coup d'etat in Little Russia. Grigoriev organizes detachments of insurgent peasants in the Elizavetgrad region to fight the Austro-German troops and the hetman police (Warta). The first rebel detachment, numbering about 200 people, Grigoriev gathered in the villages of Verblyuzhki and Tsibulevo. Proved himself to be a successful leader. The rebels captured the Austrian military train at the Kutsivka station, capturing rich trophies, which made it possible to arm 1,500 people. This and other successful operations created the image of a successful chieftain-ataman in the eyes of the rebels of the Kherson region. He became the chief chieftain of the north of the Kherson region. By the fall of 1918, under the command of Grigoriev, there were up to 120 detachments and groups with a total number of about 6 thousand people.
Ataman of the insurgent troops of the Kherson region, Zaporozhye and Tavria
In mid-November 1918, in connection with the defeat of the German bloc in the war (the Skoropadsky regime sat on German bayonets), a powerful uprising broke out in the center of Little Russia, led by members of the Directory Vinnichenko and Petliura. A few weeks later, the Petliurites already controlled most of Little Russia and laid siege to Kiev. On December 14, 1918, Skoropadsky signed a manifesto of abdication and fled with the Germans.
Meanwhile, the Grigorievites drove the Germans and hetmans out of the village of Verblyuzhki and Alexandria. Grigoriev proclaimed himself "Ataman of the insurgent troops of the Kherson region, Zaporozhye and Tavria." True, it was bragging. He then controlled only one district of the Kherson region, and never appeared in Zaporozhye and Tavria. In Zaporozhye, Makhno was the owner. In December 1919, the Grigorievites invaded the Northern Black Sea region, defeated the combined detachments of the hetmans, Germans and white volunteers. On December 13, after an agreement with the German command, the ataman occupied Nikolaev. In Nikolaev at that time there were several authorities - the city council, the ataman and the UNR commissar. Grigoriev made the city his "capital" and soon occupied a large territory of Novorossiya with his gangs. The Grigorievites captured a huge booty. Formally, the ataman acted on behalf of the UNR Directory. Under his command was the Kherson division - about 6 thousand soldiers (4 infantry and 1 cavalry regiments).
For a short period of time, Grigoriev felt like the sole owner of a huge area with the cities of Nikolaev, Kherson, Ochakov, Apostolovo and Alyoshka. Formally, the Kherson-Nikolaev region was part of the UPR, but Grigoriev was the real ruler-dictator there. Pan ataman felt like a "major political figure" and began to talk with Kiev in the language of ultimatums. He demanded the post of Minister of War from the Directory. The Directory could not fight the ataman, so for his "pacification" they gave him the post of commissar of the Alexandria district. Grigoriev continued to argue with the Kiev government, showed independence, clashed with the neighboring Petliura division of Colonel Samokish and the army of Batka Makhno. Formally remaining on the "right" positions, the chieftain conspires with the "left" - the party of Ukrainian Socialist-Revolutionaries-Borotbists, who were at enmity with Petliura and sympathized with the Bolsheviks. At the same time, Grigoriev openly declared that "the communists must be cut!"
Grigoriev could not become the sovereign master of the Northern Black Sea region. At the end of November 1919, Entente troops (Serbs, Greeks, Poles) began to arrive in Odessa, where a strong garrison of Austro-German troops was still located. In December, a French division arrived in Odessa. At this time, the troops of the Directory and the rebels occupied almost the entire Black Sea region and entered Odessa on December 12. At first, the Allies controlled only a small seaside "Union zone" of Odessa (port, several seaside quarters, Nikolaevsky Boulevard). On December 16, the French, Poles and White Guards of Grishin-Almazov drove the Petliurists out of Odessa. On December 18, the allied command demanded that the Directory withdraw its troops from the Odessa region. Petliura, fearing war with the Entente and wanting an alliance with the Western powers, ordered the withdrawal of the troops of the Southern Front of the UNR army under the command of General Grekov. Later, at the request of the allied command, the Petliurites freed a large bridgehead for the French troops, sufficient to supply the population of Odessa and the Entente grouping.
Grigoriev, not wanting to put up with rivals, demanded that Petliura stop negotiations with the allies and resume the struggle for the Black Sea region. To negotiate with the rebellious chieftain, in January 1919, Petliura arrived to meet with him at the Razdelnaya station. The cunning chieftain demonstrated complete loyalty to Petliura. Although he has already decided to go over to the side of the Bolsheviks and in two weeks will change the Directory.
Odessa Mama
Odessa, the main Russian trade port in the South of Russia, was of key importance in the Northern Black Sea region at that time. It was the main center of grain export and at the same time the center of smuggling from the Balkans and Turkey. This city was a major center of crime before World War II, and in 1918 it became a real all-Russian "raspberry". The Russian customs disappeared, and the Austrian and then the French occupation authorities turned a blind eye to many things and were easily bought. As a result, life in Odessa at this time resembled a tragicomic carnival.
There were many refugees in Odessa, the city was the second all-Russian center of flight after Kiev. After the uprising of the Petliurites and the offensive of the Red Army in Little Russia, a huge stream, with the addition of refugees from Kharkov, Kiev and other cities, poured into the seaside Odessa. They hoped for the protection of the Entente. A large mass of refugees became an excellent nutritious "broth" for the local underworld and thieves, bandits from all over Little Russia.
The allies, despite their apparent power, turned out to be a dummy. Politicians and the military could not decide what they were doing in Russia. They constantly hesitated, promised a lot, immediately forgot about their words. One thing was certain - they did not want to fight. And they interfered with the whites, who were ready, under the cover of the Entente, to form powerful formations and start an offensive. The French were negotiating with the Directory and did not want to aggravate the situation. Relations with Denikin did not work out, he behaved too independently and did not see the owners in the French. Therefore, the French troops were completely inactive and decayed. The soldiers, after the fronts of the World War, came to Russia as for a picnic, lounged around, ate, drank, engaged in various speculations. As a result, they decomposed worse than the Russian units after the February Revolution of 1917. And they could not fight even with Grigoriev's gangs.
At the same time, the French did not allow the creation of a strong army and the White Guards to cover themselves with their bayonets. General Timanovsky, Markov's assistant, a brave and skillful commander, arrived from Denikin's army to Odessa. Here, on the basis of numerous refugees, under the cover of the Allies, in the presence of huge warehouses of weapons and military property of the old Russian army in Tiraspol, Nikolaev and the island of Berezan near Ochakov, there were excellent opportunities for the formation of white units. But the French did not allow this to be done. They banned mobilization in the Odessa region and proposed the idea of "mixed brigades", where officers are selected from the natives of Ukraine, privates are volunteers, units are controlled by French instructors, and they are subordinate only to the French command. Denikin opposed such a plan. It is clear that it was not possible to create such "mixed" units. Also, the French refused to transfer the property of the former tsarist army to the Volunteer Army, citing the fact that the warehouses belong to the Directory. The French, possessing huge reserves, did nothing to help Denikin's army. Moreover, even Timanovsky's volunteer brigade, the only combat-ready unit of the Whites, which was formed, and which was under the operational control of the French, was supplied with sea from Novorossiysk.
During the expansion of the zone of French occupation in the winter of 1919 to Kherson and Nikolaev, the commander of the Entente forces in southern Russia, General d'Anselm, prohibited the introduction of a white administration outside Odessa. As a result, several authorities acted in the zone of occupation at once, which aggravated the general confusion. So, in Nikolaev there were five authorities at once: the pro-Soviet city Duma, the Commissar of the Directory, the Council of Workers' Deputies, the Council of Deputies of the German garrison (thousands of German soldiers did not evacuate, remaining in the city) and the French. In Odessa itself, in addition to the French and the white military governor Grishin-Almazov, there was also an unofficial power - a gangster. In Odessa, even before the war, there was a strong crime, while with national groups. The Troubles further aggravated the situation - the complete collapse of the law enforcement system, the mass of the unemployed, beggars, former soldiers accustomed to death, weapons. New criminals fled here from places where they were crushed - from Soviet Russia, where a new statehood and law enforcement system was gradually taking shape. Smuggling became legal, and banditry seemed easy and profitable. The king of the local mafia was Mishka Yaponchik, who had an entire army under him, thousands of fighters.
Meanwhile, while the French were inactive and interfered with the actions of the White Guards, while Odessa lived in vanity, speculation and machinations, the external situation became worse and worse for the interventionists. The Red Army quickly occupied Little Russia, the Petliurism finally degenerated, the troops of the Directory went over to the side of the Reds or turned into outright bandits. By February 1919, the Red Army was concentrated on the front from Lugansk to Yekaterinoslav, targeting Rostov-on-Don, Donbass, Tavria and Crimea. In Odessa, a carefree life, fun, rampant criminality, enrichment and political intrigue continued. It is not surprising that the invaders quickly surrendered Odessa, practically without a fight. All the enormous power of the Entente in Odessa - 2 French, 2 Greek, 1 Romanian divisions (35 thousand soldiers), a large number of artillery, a fleet, turned out to be a soap bubble that burst at the first threat.
Renault tanks with French tankers, locals and volunteers in Odessa. Source:
