Troubles. 1919 year. 100 years ago, at the end of May 1919, a major uprising of Ataman Grigoriev was suppressed in Little Russia. Adventurer Nikifor Grigoriev dreamed of the glory of the leader of Ukraine and was ready to commit any crime for the sake of glory. For two weeks in May he managed to become the main figure of Little Russian politics, with the potential opportunity to become the bloody ataman of all Ukraine.
However, Grigoriev was not a great politician, nor a military leader, but only an ambitious adventurer. Its ceiling was a regiment commander. During the "Russian turmoil" dozens, hundreds of such Grigorievs walked across Russia. Sometimes they imagined themselves as new Napoleons and achieved great popularity for a short period. But they lacked the intelligence, education, and instinct to achieve more.
Prerequisites for the uprising in Little Russia and Novorossiya
After the Reds occupied Kiev and Little Russia for the second time, and quite easily, since the people were tired of hetmanism, interventionists and chieftaincy, the situation in Ukraine soon escalated again. The peasant war and the criminal revolution, which began in Little Russia with the beginning of the "turmoil", were only temporarily muted and soon flared up with renewed vigor.
The growth of socio-political tension in the southwestern Russian region was provoked by the policy of "war communism". By the spring of 1919, the previously pro-Soviet sentiments of the Little Russian countryside were rapidly changing. The Council of People's Commissars of the Ukrainian SSR and the command of the Red Army tried to ensure large supplies of foodstuffs from Little Russia (on the basis of surplus appropriation and grain monopoly) to the cities of central Russia. The problem was that a significant part of the past harvest and livestock had already been taken out by the Austro-German invaders. As a result, the village was subjected to new plunder.
An unpleasant addition to such a food policy for the peasants was a new attempt at collectivization, which, in the context of the continuing Civil and Peasant War, was a clear "exaggeration". Such radical reforms require other conditions, peacetime. In March 1919, the 3rd All-Ukrainian Congress of Soviets was held in Kharkov, which adopted a resolution on the nationalization of the entire land. All landlord and kulak lands (and their share in the fertile lands of the South of Russia was large), which were the main producers of agricultural products, passed into the hands of the state, and state farms and communes were created on their basis. However, in the conditions of revolution and turmoil, the peasants have already carried out a "black redistribution" of the landlord's land, also stole implements, tools, and divided the cattle. The hetman regime and the Germans tried to return the land to the owners, but met with resistance. And after the overthrow of the Hetmanate, the peasants again seized the land. And now they were going to take it away from them again. It is clear that this provoked resistance, including armed resistance. A new stage of the peasant war began. The peasants did not want to return the land, give away grain, serve in the army and pay taxes. The idea of living in communities of free farmers was popular.
The Bolsheviks did not stand on ceremony with the rebels. The district and front-line Cheka and Revolutionary Tribunals were active. Competent, honest personnel were a big problem. In the conditions of personnel shortage, many representatives of the Soviet government, the party, the Cheka and the Red Army themselves looked like murderers, robbers and rapists (some of them were). The Soviet authorities in the countryside were often dispersed, themselves were punished, and, deprived of the support of the population, quickly disintegrated. The Soviet apparatus had a large element of appointees who were indifferent to everything, opportunists, careerists, “repainted” enemies, declassed elements (lumpen) and outright criminals. It is not surprising that drunkenness, theft and corruption flourished in the Soviet authorities (the situation was the same for the whites in the rear).
In the young Soviet state apparatus, national-corporate groups began to form (which would eventually become one of the prerequisites for the collapse of the USSR). At the same time, among the Chekists, commissars, members of the Communist Party there were many international cadres - the Balts, Jews, Hungarians, Austrians, Germans (former prisoners of war of the Central Powers who remained in Russia for various reasons), Chinese, etc. The uprisings often crushed international units. Therefore, surplus appropriation, punitive expeditions, the "Red Terror", etc. were associated with foreigners. This caused a new surge of xenophobia and anti-Semitism, which had powerful roots since the days of Polish rule.
The government of the Ukrainian SSR, the command of the Red Army also made a number of serious mistakes, failed to properly respond to the development of negative trends. It was connected with the need to ensure large deliveries of grain from Little Russia to Central Russia; the fight against the Donetsk group of whites in the east and the Petliurists in the west. In addition, Moscow was preparing to "export the revolution" to Europe. Yes, and with cadres in the government of the Ukrainian SSR was also bad.
Atamanschina
It is not surprising that as soon as winter ended, the roads dried up and became warmer, it became possible to spend the night in the ravines and forests, the peasants and bandits again took up arms. Again, detachments of all kinds of atamans and bateks (field commanders) began to walk around Little Russia, some were ideological - with a national color, leftists (but enemies of the Bolsheviks), anarchists, and others were outright bandits. In broad daylight, bandits robbed shops in cities. The same elements that plundered Little Russia under the banner of Petliura, then went over to the side of the Red Army, now became "green" again.
The point was that the Directory regime was unable to create a regular army. The army of the Directory consisted mainly of partisan, semi-bandit formations, peasant rebels who fought against the interventionists and the troops of the Hetmanate. During the offensive of the Red Army, these formations for the most part went over to the side of the Reds. This was due to their low combat capability, they simply could not fight the red troops, as well as the growth of pro-Soviet sentiments in the village. As a result, the previously insurgent, Petliura units became part of the army of the Ukrainian SSR. At the same time, they retained their composition, commanders (chieftains, bateks). In particular, among such detachments was the Kherson division "Ataman of the insurgent troops of the Kherson region, Zaporozhye and Tavria" N. A. Grigoriev. It became the 1st Zadneprovsk Ukrainian Soviet Brigade, and then the 6th Ukrainian Soviet Division. The Grigorievites waged active hostilities in the south of Little Russia.
At the same time, the new Soviet units retained the territorial principle, which tied them to a certain area, fed themselves at the expense of the local population and retained their internal independence. There was no state supply of these units in the conditions of the collapse of the country's economy, and there was no monetary allowance for the commanders, or it was minimal. That is, they could not materially motivate the fighters of such units and their commanders. These units still lived off trophies, requisitions and outright looting, and were accustomed to living this way. In addition, many "Soviet" atamans continued to play an active political role, occupied administrative positions in county and volost government bodies, and participated in regional congresses of councils. Many Makhnovists, Grigorievites and former Petliurists continued to adhere to political currents hostile to the Bolsheviks - Ukrainian Left Socialist-Revolutionaries, anarchists or nationalists.
The situation was complicated by the fact that there were a lot of weapons in Little Russia. It remained from the fronts of the world war - Russian and Austro-German, from the Austro-German invaders, from the Western interventionists (mainly the French), who quickly fled, abandoning many warehouses with weapons, from the fronts of the Civil War, which several times rolled across the south western Russian regions.
Makhnovshchina
The most famous chieftain was Makhno, under whose command there was a whole army. His rebel army became part of the Red Army as the 3rd Zadneprovskaya brigade of the 1st Zadneprovskaya Ukrainian Soviet division. Then the 7th Ukrainian Soviet Division. Makhno's brigade retained internal autonomy and obeyed the Red command only in operational terms. Makhno's troops controlled 72 volosts with a population of 2 million. Neither Cheka detachments nor food detachments could enter this area, there was no collectivization there. It was a kind of "state within a state". Makhno expressed disapproval of the decisions of the 3rd All-Ukrainian Congress of Soviets on the nationalization of the land. The Makhnovists' program was based on the requirements: "socialization" of the land (the transfer of land to the public domain, which was the main part of the agrarian program of the SRs), as well as factories and plants; the abolition of the food policy of the Bolsheviks; rejection of the dictatorship of the Bolshevik Party; freedom of speech, press and assembly for all left-wing parties and groups; holding free elections to the Soviets of Working People, Peasants and Workers, etc.
The further, the stronger were the frictions between Makhno and the Bolsheviks. On April 10, in Gulyai-Polye, the 3rd Congress of Soviets of the Makhnovsky District, in its resolution, qualified the policy of the communists as "criminal in relation to the social revolution and the working masses." The Kharkov Congress of Soviets was recognized as "not a true and free expression of the will of the working people." The Makhnovists protested against the policy of the Bolshevik government, commissars and agents of extravaganza who shoot workers, peasants and rebels. Makhno said that the Soviet government had betrayed the "October principles." As a result, the Congress decided that it did not recognize the dictatorship of the Bolsheviks and against the "commissarism".
In response, Dybenko in a telegram called this congress "counter-revolutionary" and threatened to outlaw the Makhnovists. The Makhnovists responded with a protest and a statement that such orders do not frighten them and that they are ready to defend their people's rights. Only a little later, when Makhno met with Antonov-Ovseenko, the situation was resolved. Makhno rejected the most harsh statements.
In mid-April 1919, the formation of the 2nd Ukrainian Soviet Army from units of the group of forces of the Kharkov direction was completed. Makhno's brigade became part of the 7th Ukrainian Soviet Division. However, the red command sharply reduced the supply of Makhno's detachments. The question of removing the father from the command of the brigade began to be considered. There were demands: "Down with the Makhnovism!" However, it has not yet come to a complete rupture. At the end of April, Antonov-Ovsienko came to Gulyai-Pole with an inspection. Then, in early May, Kamenev arrived from Moscow. In the end, we agreed.
The beginning of the uprising
Thus, the Red Army in Little Russia, heavily diluted by rebel detachments, quickly disintegrated. In April - May, numerous violations are recorded in the army: pogroms, arbitrary requisitions, looting, various outrages and even direct anti-Soviet revolts. In March - April, the most tense situation was in the central part of Little Russia - Kiev, Poltava and Chernigov provinces. In late April - early May, the situation deteriorates sharply in Novorossiya - Kherson, Elisavetgrad, Nikolaev.
The situation was at its breaking point, all that was needed was a pretext for a large-scale explosion. At the end of April 1919, the Council of People's Commissars adopted a decree that canceled the election of the command staff. The units of the 6th Ukrainian Soviet Division of Grigoriev, set aside for reorganization in their native places of the Kherson and Elizavetgrad regions, completely disintegrated and began to resist the actions of food detachments and Soviet authorities. They began to kill the communists.
The Red Command planned to send the 3rd Ukrainian Army, which included Grigoriev's division, on a campaign to help Soviet Hungary. However, Grigoriev did not want to lead his troops to the front, he avoided in every possible way. On May 7, 1919, the commander of the 3rd Ukrainian Soviet Army, Khudyakov, ordered Grigoriev to end the riots or to resign as division commander. The Chekists of the Special Department of the Army tried to arrest Grigoriev, but were killed. Seeing that further conflict could not be avoided, on May 8, Grigoriev published the Universal "To the People of Ukraine and the Soldiers of the Red Army", in which he called for a general uprising against the Bolshevik dictatorship in Ukraine.
