Hetman Skoropadsky: “We are all Russian people! Skoropadsky Pavel Petrovich.

On December 14, 1918, His Serene Highness the Most High Pan Hetman of All Ukraine Pavel Skoropadsky abdicated and secretly fled to Berlin. He ruled under the German protectorate for less than a year, but managed to make a significant contribution to the Ukrainization of the territories under his control. At the same time, according to experts, modern Kyiv traces its continuity to the Ukrainian People's Republic of Symon Petliura, which replaced the Ukrainian state of Skoropadsky. RT found out why the hetman did not become a cult figure for the modern Independent Republic.

Pavel Skoropadsky came from an old noble family. His paternal ancestor, Ivan Skoropadsky, was the hetman of the united army of Zaporozhye. So for Pavel Skoropadsky, the hetmanship was almost a hereditary matter.

In 1886, at the age of thirteen, Pavel Skoropadsky entered the Corps of Pages. Since then, his life for many years was firmly connected with the army. Skoropadsky participated in the Russian-Japanese and First World Wars. Among his six orders received for military merits are the Order of St. Anne, fourth class, and the Order of St. George, fourth class. Skoropadsky successfully moved up the career ladder, and in 1916 he was awarded the rank of lieutenant general.

The February Revolution and the abdication of Nicholas II found Skoropadsky on the Southwestern Front in Volyn, where he commanded the 34th Corps of the Russian Imperial Army.

In March 1917, on the initiative of the Partnership of Ukrainian Progressives, the Ukrainian Central Rada was formed, which included representatives of various Ukrainian organizations - from political to professional. In April, the Rada unilaterally proclaimed “autonomy of Ukraine.” The well-known ideologist of “Ukrainianism” Mikhail Grushevsky became the chairman of the UCR.

In 1917, Skoropadsky recognized the power of the Rada. At the same time, he did not share socialist ideas. At the end of 1917, Skoropadsky fought with Bolshevik units that were advancing on Kyiv. His popularity grew, facilitated by his personal courage and skillful command, and this irritated the leadership of the UCR.

In October 1917, by the decision of the All-Ukrainian Congress of Free Cossacks, Skoropadsky was elected general ataman. In this post, he defended the interests of the 1st Ukrainian Corps, which was left without supplies, which grew out of the 34th Corps of the Russian Imperial Army. However, the UCR, wanting to weaken Skoropadsky’s influence, blocked all his efforts.

To save the corps, Skoropadsky resigned from the post of ataman, but this did not help - soon the demoralized Ukrainian army collapsed. At the end of April 1918, it was Skoropadsky, with the support of the German occupation forces, who carried out a coup, the result of which was the elimination of the UCR.

• Emperor Wilhelm II of the German Empire and Hetman Skoropadsky at a meeting at the Headquarters of the High Command in Spa, August 1918
• Wikimedia Commons

The Ukrainian state, or the Second Hetmanate, was created under the protectorate of Germany. Skoropadsky became the head of this state entity. He adopted the official title “His Serene Highness the Most High Pan Hetman of All Ukraine” on April 29, 1918 at the All-Ukrainian Congress of Grain Growers in Kyiv.

Short-lived hetmanship

Skoropadsky served as Hetman for less than a year. His short-lived power relied on the support of the German occupation forces. All of Skoropadsky’s attempts to create a full-fledged army ran into fierce resistance from Western “partners” who feared the strengthening of the new Ukrainian authorities.

However, the decisions made by the hetman during the months he was in power concerned not only the military. In August 1918, Skoropadsky issued the law “On the compulsory study of the Ukrainian language and literature, as well as the history and geography of Ukraine in all secondary schools.” At the same time, it is known that Skoropadsky himself did not know the language.

During the same period, the Ukrainian State University opened in Kyiv. A similar institution began its work in the city of Kamenets-Podolsky, and departments of Ukrainian language, literature, history and law were opened in Russian-language higher educational institutions. In November, Skoropadsky decided to found the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, which was to be headed by the famous Russian scientist Vladimir Vernadsky.

In November 1918, Germany, defeated in World War I, began withdrawing units from the territories occupied by the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. When troops of the UPR Directory led by Simon Petlyura and Vladimir Vinnychenko entered Kiev in mid-December, Pavel Skoropadsky abdicated power and secretly fled to Berlin with his wife Alexandra Durnovo and children.

The couple got married in 1897 without receiving the blessing of the bride's father. The maid of honor of the court, the daughter of the infantry general Durnovo, was a rich bride, and her father believed that Skoropadsky coveted a dowry. In their marriage, Pavel Skoropadsky and Alexandra Durnovo had six children. One of the sons, Daniil Skoropadsky, continued his father’s work, participating abroad in the hetman movement.

In Germany, the family lived on a pension of 10 thousand marks per year, assigned by the German authorities. In addition, in 1926-1927, another 45 thousand marks were allocated to cover Skoropadsky’s debts.

The former His Serene Highness the Lord Hetman of All Ukraine died on April 26, 1945 in the hospital of the Metten Monastery, having received a severe concussion as a result of the bombing of the Anglo-American Air Force.

According to the Ukrainian historian Yaroslav Pelensky, the period of Skoropadsky’s reign can be characterized as a “bureaucratic-military dictatorship.”

“I considered agreeing to the role of president of the republic disastrous for the entire country, and it would be better not to start this matter. The country, in my opinion, can only be saved by dictatorial power; only by the will of one person can order be restored to us, the agrarian question be resolved and democratic reforms that are so necessary for the country be carried out,” Skoropadsky would later write in his memoirs.

Historical memory

Pavel Skoropadsky has not become a cult figure for modern Ukrainians. In a conversation with RT, the president of the Ukrainian Center for System Analysis, Rostislav Ishchenko, noted that modern Kyiv traces its continuity not from Skoropadsky’s Ukraine, but from the Ukrainian People’s Republic of Symon Petlyura.

“Skoropadsky’s statehood was an attempt to escape from the Bolsheviks, and not a desire to create Ukraine,” the expert emphasized.

• Memorial plaque to P.P. Skoropadsky in Kyiv
• Wikimedia Commons

According to the scientific director of the Military Historical Society, Mikhail Myagkov, Pavel Skoropadsky, while certainly an opponent of the Bolsheviks, “was not a Russophobe and a supporter of the separation of Ukraine - both political and cultural-civilizational - from Russia.”

“I consider it senseless and disastrous for Ukraine to break away from Russia, especially culturally,” Skoropadsky noted in his book “Memoirs. End of 1917 - December 1918."

Reflecting on the fate of the Ukrainians, the hetman noted the inadmissibility of abandoning Russian culture.

“With the existence and free development of Russian and Ukrainian culture in our country, we can flourish, but if we now abandon the first culture, we will only be litter for other nations and will never be able to create anything great,” he wrote.

Some words of the former hetman sound especially relevant today.

“The Great Russians and our Ukrainians, through their joint efforts, created Russian science, Russian literature, music and art, and to abandon this high and good thing of ours in order to take the wretchedness that the Galicians so kindly offer to us, Ukrainians, is simply ridiculous and unthinkable,” — wrote Skoropadsky.

According to Myagkov, Ukrainian statehood did not and could not take place in those years, since it was closely connected with Russia.

“The political ambitions of the nationalists who took advantage of the situation were implicated in the interests of other states. After Russia withdrew from the war, Ukraine was occupied by the Germans and Austrians. Their puppet protege Skoropadsky came to power, who later fled with the German troops,” Myagkov said in an interview with RT.

At the same time, according to the expert, “the majority of citizens were in favor of Ukraine remaining part of a single state, together with Russia, and the events associated with the so-called independence were largely inspired from the outside.”

PAVEL PETROVICH SKOROPADSKY(1873-1945), Russian and Ukrainian military and statesman, hetman of Ukraine. Born on May 3 (15), 1873 in Wiesbaden (Germany) into a noble family. Father P.I. Skoropadsky is a major landowner of the Chernigov and Poltava provinces, colonel of the Russian army, a direct descendant of the Ukrainian hetman I.I. Skoropadsky (1708-1722). Mother M.A. Miklashevskaya is from an old Cossack family. After graduating from the St. Petersburg Corps of Pages, he received the rank of cornet and was appointed squadron commander of the Cavalry Guard Regiment (1893). In 1895 he became a regimental adjutant. In 1897 he was promoted to lieutenant. In 1898 he married A.P. Durnovo, the daughter of the Moscow Governor-General. He took part in the Russo-Japanese War: he commanded a hundred of the 2nd Chita Cossack Regiment, then served as an aide-de-camp to the commander-in-chief of the Russian troops in the Far East, General N.P. Linevich. Awarded the Arms of St. George and the Order of St. Vladimir. In December 1905, he was promoted to colonel and appointed aide-de-camp to Emperor Nicholas II. In 1910-1911 he commanded the 20th Finnish Dragoon Regiment. In 1911 he was appointed commander of the Life Guards Cavalry Regiment. In 1912 he was promoted to major general. During First World War commanded the 1st Brigade of the 1st Guards Cavalry Division, then appointed commander of the 3rd and later the 5th Guards Cavalry Division. In 1916 he became lieutenant general. In January 1917, he received command of the 34th Army Corps.

After the February Revolution, which caused the rise of the autonomist movement in Ukraine, he found himself in a difficult position - subordinate to the Provisional Government and the Supreme Command, Skoropadsky was forced to reckon with the Central Rada (the body of all-Ukrainian power created by local national parties on March 4 (17), 1917), since his the corps was located on territory under its control. When the Provisional Government recognized the legitimacy of the Central Rada (July 2 (15), 1917), it began to Ukrainize its corps, which was called the “1st Ukrainian”. On October 6, the congress of the Free Cossacks in Chigirin proclaimed him ataman.

The October revolution was met with hostility. He submitted to the Central Rada and was appointed commander of the armed forces of the Ukrainian People's Republic proclaimed on November 7 (20). From December 3 (16), he conducted successful military operations against the Bolshevik-influenced units of the South-Western Front and detachments of the Ukrainian Soviet government based in Kharkov; was able to prevent the establishment of Soviet power in most of Ukraine. On December 29 (January 11), in protest against the Rada’s decision to dissolve the 1st Ukrainian Corps, he resigned.

The capture of Kyiv by the Bolsheviks on January 26 (February 8), 1918 forced him to go underground. After the entry of German troops into Kyiv and the restoration of the power of the Central Rada, he headed the officer-Cossack organization "Ukrainian People's Community". On April 29, 1918, at the congress of “grain growers” ​​(large landowners), he was proclaimed “hetman of all Ukraine”; By order of the commander of the German troops, Field Marshal G. Eichhorn, the Central Rada was dissolved. The Ukrainian People's Republic ceased to exist, giving way to the Ukrainian state led by the hetman.

Having received power, Pavel Skoropadsky directed his efforts to create an independent Ukrainian state with all the necessary attributes: a law on Ukrainian citizenship was adopted, the state emblem was approved, its own monetary system was introduced, several national divisions were formed, the autocephaly of the Ukrainian Church was proclaimed, the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences was organized, two state universities. His domestic policy was based on the revival of the historical Ukrainian tradition (hetmanship as a political form, the constitution of the Cossacks as an estate) and on the restoration of pre-revolutionary orders (land ownership, freedom of trade and private enterprise). Ukrainization, however, did not mean pursuing a nationalist (anti-Russian) course. The regime supported the organizations of Russian officers, although it prevented them from creating large military formations. His support was from right-wing conservative circles. The Hetman cleansed the state apparatus of representatives of democratic parties, subjected left-wing nationalists (Ukrainian Socialist Revolutionaries and Social Democrats) to repression, and carried out punitive expeditions against peasants who seized landowners' lands. In foreign policy, he focused on Germany and its allies, confirmed all the agreements previously concluded by Ukraine; nevertheless, he achieved recognition from the Entente and a number of neutral countries. He entered into an agreement with the nationalist authorities of Crimea and entered into a military alliance with the Cossack governments of the Don and Kuban.

After the defeat of Germany and the beginning of the evacuation of German troops from Ukraine, he tried to rely on the Entente and the White movement. He abandoned the slogan of an independent Ukraine and declared his readiness to fight for the restoration of a united Russia together with the Volunteer and Don armies. He began to form Russian officer squads. However, the uprising raised against him in mid-November by the leaders of the Ukrainian National Union (V.K. Vinnychenko, S.V. Petliura), and the successful offensive (with the neutrality of the Germans) of Petliura’s troops against Kyiv led to the disintegration of the hetman’s troops and the collapse of the Ukrainian state. On December 14, 1918, Skoropadsky renounced power and, under the guise of a wounded German major, left Kyiv, leaving the city and its few defenders (five thousand white officers) to the mercy of fate.

In 1918-1945 he lived in Germany. It was the center of attraction of the monarchical wing of the Ukrainian emigration. During Second World War actively collaborated with the Germans. In April 1945, he fled from besieged Berlin to the south, but on the way he was bombed by Allied aircraft and was mortally wounded. Pavel Skoropadsky died on April 26 in a hospital in Metten (Bavaria).

Ivan Krivushin

Source - Wikipedia

Pavel Petrovich Skoropadsky

Portrait of Pavel Petrovich Skoropadsky
in the garb of the Hetman of Ukraine

His Serene Highness Pan Hetman of All Ukraine
April 29 - December 14, 1918
Religion: Orthodoxy
Birth: May 3, 1873 Wiesbaden, Hesse, German Empire
Death: April 26, 1945 (age 71) Metten Monastery, Bavaria, Germany
Genus: Skoropadskie
Father: Pyotr Ivanovich Skoropadsky
Mother: Maria Andreevna Skoropadskaya

Military service
Years of service: 1893-1917, 1917-1918, 1918
Affiliation: Russian Empire
Ukrainian People's Republic
Military branch: Cavalry
Rank: Lieutenant General; adjutant general
Lieutenant General
Hetman
Commanded by: Horse Life Guards Regiment
(April 15, 1911 – October 3, 1914)
34th Army Corps
(22 January - 2 July 1917)
Battles: Russo-Japanese War
World War I
Russian Civil War

Pavel Petrovich Skoropadsky (adv. Pavel Petrovich Skoropadsky, Ukrainian Pavlo? Petrovich Skoropa?dsky, May 15, 1873, Wiesbaden, Germany - April 26, 1945, Metten, Bavaria, Germany) - Russian general, Ukrainian military and political figure; Hetman of Ukraine from April 29 to December 14, 1918.

Coming from a family of landowners. Great-great-grandson of Hetman Ivan Skoropadsky's brother, son of retired colonel of the Cavalry Guard Regiment Pyotr Ivanovich Skoropadsky (1834-1887) and Maria Andreevna Skoropadskaya.
In 1893 he graduated from the Corps of Pages, 1st category, and was released from the chamber pages to the cornets of Her Majesty's Cavalry Regiment. Served as regimental adjutant (1896-1904).
Participant in the Russo-Japanese War.
From September 4, 1910, he commanded the 20th Finnish Dragoon Regiment.
From April 15, 1911, he commanded the Life Guards Cavalry Regiment, at the head of which, with the rank of major general, he went to the front of the First World War of 1914-1918. In 1914 he was awarded the Order of St. George, 4th degree.
In 1914-1915 he commanded the 1st Brigade of the 1st Guards Cavalry Division, the Combined Cavalry Division and the 5th Cavalry Division.
From April 2, 1916, lieutenant general and commander of the 1st Guards Cavalry Division.
From January 22 to July 2, 1917, he commanded the 34th Army Corps. Adjutant General of Nicholas II. On the initiative of the commander of the Southwestern Front L.G. Kornilov and with the tolerant attitude of his immediate superior - the commander of the 7th Army V.I. Selivachev, he carried out the Ukrainization of parts of the corps entrusted to him.

In Ukraine after 1917

Under his leadership, a united Ukrainian front was created on the basis of the Southwestern and Romanian fronts. He was involved in the formation of a national army through the Ukrainization of front-line units. But on December 29 of the same year he resigned. At the end of 1917, he headed the national police units formed by the Central Rada, which bore the name: “Free Cossacks.”

Hetman
On April 29, 1918, taking advantage of the protracted crisis of the Central Rada of the UPR, relying on the support of the German occupation command, and the sympathy of the officer circles of the former Russian army and the wealthy Ukrainian peasantry, and the Cossack class, he carried out a coup d'etat, being elected hetman of Ukraine at the Congress of Grain Growers, which was attended by representatives of the landowners and peasantry (landowners), abolished the Ukrainian People's Republic. The Ukrainian State was established. Accepted the official title: “His Serene Highness the Clearly Majestic Pan Hetman of All Ukraine.”
Reforms
During Skoropadsky's reforms, the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences and the Ukrainian University in Kamenets-Podolsky were created. At the same time, Skoropadsky relied on old, imperial officials who did not perceive anything Ukrainian. He also supported some whites who were opponents of Ukrainian independence. This was one of the reasons why, without the support of the Germans, Skoropadsky had no supporters left among those residents of Ukraine who supported the idea of ​​​​its independence. In the economy and social sphere, all socialist transformations were canceled: the working day at industrial enterprises was increased to 12 hours, strikes and walkouts were prohibited, a significant part of the harvest collected by peasants was subject to requisition, a tax in kind was introduced, the remainder was not even enough for sowing, in addition, peasants were attacked by the ataman armies, since they also needed food (to fulfill Ukraine’s obligations to Germany and Austria-Hungary under the Brest-Litovsk Peace), large landownership was restored. On October 16, 1918, a Universal “about the renewal of Cossacks” was published in Ukraine, but the reform did not find support among the population. In addition, the Hetman's Universal and the government law on the re-creation of the Cossacks issued on its basis did not endow the Cossacks with any special status or rights.

Military policy
At the same time, he did not give up attempts to create a combat-ready army: the Blue and Gray divisions were formed (from Ukrainian prisoners of war, formed in Germany). The hetman's support was the Serdyutsk division. But these attempts were met with hostility by the German command, which saw danger in the deployment of the Ukrainian army.

Departure for Germany
After the revolution in Germany, German troops began to leave the territories occupied as a result of the Brest-Litovsk Treaty. At the same time, the uprising of the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen, initiated by the Republican conspirators, began. Having lost German support, after a short civil war, Skoropadsky's regime collapsed. In mid-December 1918, Kyiv was captured by the troops of the UPR Directory, formed on November 13, 1918, led by Simon Petlyura and Vladimir Vinnychenko. Skoropadsky himself abdicated the Throne on December 14, 1918 and secretly left Ukraine, going to Berlin.
A contemporary of the events, who personally met with the hetman shortly before his abdication, former State Duma deputy N.V. Savich, gives the following version of the reasons for the fall of Skoropadsky:
...at the last moment before the evacuation, the Germans released Petliura and Galician gangs against the hetman and his government, thereby wanting to screw the allies. Moreover, they realized that both Gerbel and Skoropadsky himself were as independent as any Russian person in the Moscow region. Seeing that they were mistaken in these people, they settled scores with him at the last moment: they unleashed the forces of anarchy and decay against them.
Skoropadsky himself wrote in his memoirs about the Galicians:
...unfortunately, their culture, due to historical reasons, is too different from ours. Then, among them there are many narrow fanatics, especially in the sense of professing the idea of ​​hatred of Russia. It was these kind of Galicians who were the best agitators sent to us by the Austrians. It doesn’t matter to them that Ukraine will suffocate without Great Russia, that its industry will never develop, that it will be entirely in the hands of foreigners, that the role of their Ukraine is to be populated by some kind of vegetating peasantry.

Further fate
Lived in Germany as a private individual at the address: Berlin-Wannsee, Alsenstrasse 17. During World War II, he consistently refused offers of cooperation received from the Nazis. He was fatally shell-shocked as a result of the bombing of the Plattling station near Regensburg by Anglo-American aircraft and died a few days later in the hospital of the Metten monastery. He was buried in Obersdorf.

Awards
Order of St. George, IV degree
Order of St. Anne, 2nd class with swords (1906)
Order of St. Anne, 3rd class with swords and bow (1904)
Order of St. Anne, IV class (1904)
Order of St. Stanislaus, 2nd class with swords (1905)
Order of St. Vladimir, III degree (1909)
Order of St. Vladimir, IV degree with swords and bow (1905)
Golden Arms (1905)
Order of the Red Eagle (1918)

In the eyes of contemporaries

“Average height, proportionally built, blond, with regular facial features, always carefully, accurately dressed, Skoropadsky’s appearance did not stand out at all from the general environment of the guards cavalry officers. He served excellently, was distinguished by great diligence, rare conscientiousness and great diligence. Extremely cautious, able to remain silent, and well-mannered, he was appointed regimental adjutant as a young officer and held this position for a long time. The bosses were very pleased with him and willingly promoted him, but many of his comrades did not like him. He was accused of dryness and isolation. Subsequently, in the role of boss, he showed the same basic traits of his character: great conscientiousness, efficiency and perseverance in achieving the intended goal. The impulse, scope and speed of decisions were alien to him.”
Wrangel P. N. Notes
Skoropadsky could not stand gypsies and, as always, evoked true boredom with his absent-minded look and aimlessly fixed gaze somewhere. Only Skoropadsky, the future hetman, began to ask me about academic courses. He asked for advice on where he could get textbooks, since he hoped, with considerable conceit, to master them himself, without any academy. It seemed unnecessary to me to explain to him that the matter was not so much in the books he read, but in the mental training that work in the junior year of the academy provided.
[Ignatiev A.A.] Fifty years in service

On November 11, 1918, Germany admitted defeat in the First World War. And just three days later, its Ukrainian ally, Hetman Skoropadsky, proclaimed another reunification of Ukraine with Russia.

1918 Hetman Skoropadsky with his staff officers anxiously peers into the unknown future of Ukraine

The hetman thought very quickly. A letter to the Ukrainian people, in which he explained the sharp turnaround in foreign policy, appeared in the Kyiv press on November 14. But Pavel Petrovich signed it on the 13th. Just two days were enough for the former lieutenant general of the Russian imperial army, and now the ruler of an “independent power,” to understand: the Germans are in trouble, an alliance with them is also impossible, which means that he needs to get out on his own, relying only on God and political dexterity.

But the main piquancy of the situation was that the hetman’s charter proclaimed a federation with Russia, which, in fact... did not exist. Of course, she existed as a kind of spiritual ideal. However, in fact, at the end of 1918, in the neighborhood of “Skoropadiya,” as the hetman’s state was often jokingly called, there were two Russias at once, which were in a state of irreconcilable war with each other. Red - with its capital in the Moscow Kremlin. And white, consisting of the independent All-Great Don Army led by Ataman Krasnov and the Volunteer Army of General Denikin, stationed in the Kuban.

This second white Russia, with which Skoropadsky decided to unite, was also not distinguished by unity. Denikin steadfastly adhered to his orientation toward the Entente countries. Ataman Krasnov, on the contrary, adhered to a pro-German line in foreign policy. But both of them fought with the Reds, although they looked at each other disapprovingly. The Don Ataman, even with the consent of the Germans, who turned a blind eye to this, supplied ammunition to the Denikins. Therefore, when they reproached the Don people for betraying the ideals of loyalty to the allies and even called the Don rulers “a prostitute who makes money on a German bed,” they answered, not without malice: “If the Don government is a prostitute, then the Volunteer Army is a cat living on the means of this prostitute.” .

1917 Russian General Skoropadsky

Naturally, it was easier for Skoropadsky to come to an agreement with the flexible Krasnov than with the stubborn Denikin. Do not think that the letter of November 14 appeared spontaneously. Having traveled to Berlin and anticipating the imminent fall of the “great German friend,” the hetman throughout the autumn went through various options for his survival in future politics. On the one hand, he conducted secret consultations with Kyiv nationalists led by former Prime Minister of the Central Rada Vladimir Vinnichenko. On the other hand, on November 1 (almost two weeks before the collapse of the Germans on the Western Front) I personally met with Ataman Krasnov. Naturally, it’s also secret.

The rendezvous of the two “independent” rulers took place at the Skorokhodovo station between Poltava and Kharkov. In his memoirs, Krasnov exquisitely calls this event a “political date.” Indeed, how else can you define it? This was not an official state visit, which is trumpeted in the newspapers with appropriate etiquette pomp. It’s just that two generals secretly decided to meet in a quiet, cozy place. The hetman arrived on his personal train. He was accompanied by the Minister of War, Colonel Slivinsky, a large retinue, a guard of former tsarist officers and, just in case, a German convoy. Since the time was turbulent, and gangs were playing pranks around the railway, German help was not superfluous.

General Krasnov also appeared on the train, accompanied by the German representative Major Kokenhausen, adjutants and his escort, dressed, as the Don ataman noted not without pride, “in the old Cossack uniform of 1914.” Krasnov considered himself a more serious ruler than Skoropadsky. The hetman's retinue, dressed in the new Ukrainian fashion in caftans with hussar cords, even evoked slight irony in him.

But these small decorative details did not interfere with the appetite of the contracting parties. First, the hetman and ataman had breakfast in the cabin of Skoropadsky’s train as the “host”, and then they were left alone. Here the hetman opened up. “You, of course, understand,” he said, “that I, the aide-de-camp and general of His Majesty’s retinue, cannot be a generous Ukrainian and talk about a free Ukraine, but at the same time, it is I, thanks to my closeness to the sovereign, who must say, that he himself ruined the cause of the empire and that he himself was to blame for his downfall.”

This excursion into the recent past evoked complete understanding from Krasnov. And Skoropadsky continued, moving on to pressing problems: “There can be no question of returning to the empire and restoring imperial power. Here, in Ukraine, I had to choose - either independence or Bolshevism, and I chose independence. And rightly, in this independence "There is nothing bad. Let the people live the way they want. I don’t understand Denikin. To push, to push everything - it’s impossible... What kind of power do you need to have for this? No one has this power now."

The practical result of this meeting “underground” at the highest level was the decision that Krasnov would agree with General Denikin on joint negotiations with the hetmans. “I ask you to be a mediator between me, Denikin, the Kuban people, Georgia and Crimea,” Skoropadsky said a historical phrase, “in order to form a common alliance against the Bolsheviks. We are all Russian people, and we need to save Russia, and we can only save it ourselves.” .

"THEY CALL ME A TRAITOR"

The hetman complained to Krasnov about the Denikin press, which was persecuting him. Skoropadsky was especially outraged by the articles of the former editor of the Kievlyanin newspaper Vasily Shulgin, who now published a daily White Guard leaflet in Yekaterinodar. Apparently, Shulgin really annoyed the hetman, scourging him for his Berlin visit to Kaiser Wilhelm: “He writes God knows what articles about me. He calls me a traitor. And the whole intelligentsia, all those public figures whom I saved from the Bolshevik noose, stuck to him! "

The Hetman was never angry at the caricatures of himself in Bolshevik newspapers. The Reds were psychologically his enemies. Pavel Petrovich took it for granted that they were poisoning him. But attacks from among his “friends” caused him childish resentment. After all, Shulgin and other “public figures” came to Denikin from Red Russia through Hetman Kyiv. It was Pavel Petrovich who created the regime that allowed them to freely infiltrate the Don and Kuban. Officially, thousands of Shulgins went to visit relatives in Ukraine, but everyone knew that the hetman was covering for them and freely allowing them into the territory controlled by the White Guards.

A USELESS ATTEMPT: KRASNOV TRYING TO PEASURE DENIKIN

Ataman Krasnov broke up with Skoropadsky on November 1 around 6 pm. The next day he was already in his capital Novocherkassk, which proves: not all trains ran like turtles in revolutionary times. Immediately after his return, Krasnov sent a letter to General Lukomsky, who was responsible for political issues around Denikin. “Yesterday I saw Hetman Skoropadsky,” wrote the Don Ataman. “The purpose of our meeting is to establish more friendly relations, to merge separate parts of fragmented Russia, to unite for a common fight against Bolshevism... You understand perfectly well that the hetman cannot speak loudly about the fight against the Bolsheviks , because he does not have an army for this and is forced to “play peace" with the Soviet Republic. But secretly, both he and those Russian people who surround him want and are ready to help the Don Army, the Volunteer Army, and the Kuban in this our common cause... The Hetman is ready to share with all of us the property of warehouses, ammunition, shells, etc., he is ready to help financially, because Ukraine is still richer than the Don and the Volunteer Army."

General Krasnov. He loved and knew how to write, but he never convinced Denikin

Krasnov wrote that one should not rely on the allies, that these illusions only weaken the white troops, that two-thirds of the Don Cossacks “do not have tolerable boots,” and one-third do not have them at all: “they are shod in bast shoes, even the officers.” In such a situation, it would be stupid to refuse the financial assistance offered by the hetman. Warehouses in Ukraine were indeed bursting with overcoats, shoes, ammunition and even helmets left over from the former imperial army. All this property, prepared during the World War, could now be thrown against the Reds. And if the hetman proposes to convene a general congress of representatives of the Volunteer Army, Crimea, where there was a separate government, Kuban and Don, then we need to meet him halfway and create a common political union. “You cannot share the skin of a bear without killing the bear itself,” Krasnov appealed to Denikin. “It is difficult, almost impossible, for each of us to kill this bear separately. We must unite.”

But Denikin believed that only he had the right to the truth. He, a former graduate of the Kyiv Infantry School, and also half-Pole on his mother’s side, wanted to be doubly Russian in the eyes of those around him. And psychologically, the former Kyiv cadet found the very idea of ​​some kind of separate, even semi-independent Ukraine within the White Russian Federation offensive. “The hands extended by the hetman and ataman,” Krasnov sadly stated, “remained not accepted.”

BLUFF OF THE LAST HETMAN

The hetman had one more chance to remain in power, albeit, as he recalled, in a “plucked” form. To do this, he had to agree to the convening of the Ukrainian National Union on November 17, which was proposed by Vinnychenko and company. But Skoropadsky rightly thought that this “council” of various nationalist parties was simply a camouflaged attempt to take power away from him.

Dopetlyurivsky Kyiv. Kept the appearance of the royal capital city

Getman decided to improvise. Although Denikin did not support him, and Krasnov himself needed help, Pavel Petrovich composed a letter to the Ukrainian people and proclaimed a federation with “virtual” Russia, which itself did not recognize him. This was a propaganda step that was supposed to give the hetman volunteers from among the Russian officers demobilized after the First World War who overflowed Kyiv. According to some sources, in the capital of Ukraine there were up to 15 thousand people.

The newspapers published calls to join the volunteer squads of Colonel Svyatopolk-Mirsky and General Kirpichev. Their members immediately decorated the left sleeve of their greatcoats with a tricolor white-blue-red chevron - exactly like in Denikin’s army. This was the most combat-ready contingent in the troops of the unexpectedly “whitened” hetman.

TO Kyiv WITH A TRIDENT AND A RED FLAG

But few people know that part of Petliura’s army, which moved against the hetman immediately after the announcement of the “federation” with Russia, marched towards Kyiv not under yellow-blue, but under red flags. These Petliurists fought not so much for the independence of Ukraine as against the bourgeoisie and "Akhvitser". The decision to launch an anti-Hetman uprising was made on the evening of November 13 - literally a few hours before the letter appeared in the newspapers. Those historians who claimed that the Petliura uprising was spontaneous and caused only by Skoropadsky’s “betrayal” of the interests of Ukraine are telling a lie. It was being prepared long before the pro-Russian maneuver of the last hetman. And even if Pavel Petrovich had remained an “independent” and not a federalist, Vinnichenko and Petliura would still have rushed to overthrow him. They wanted power. Loyalty to the idea of ​​Ukraine was primarily a ritual formula for all participants in this confrontation. After all, very soon after the victory over the hetman, Vinnychenko will take the position of a federalist in relation to Red Russia, and Petliura will easily pay for the unequal alliance with Poland in Western Ukraine.

"USS on Varti." The Sich Riflemen became the main force in the anti-Hetman coup at the end of 1918

And the Bolsheviks not only knew about the preparation of the anti-Hetman uprising. They directly assisted him. After all, it was very profitable to bring down Ukraine with Ukrainian hands. In Kyiv in the fall of 1918, the diplomatic mission of Red Russia, headed by the Ukrainian communist Manuilsky, operated completely openly. He negotiated with future Petliurists and even promised financial support from Moscow in exchange for permission to enter the victorious Petliurist Ukraine into the Communist Party. Ukrainian sources do not deny the fact of such negotiations, although they claim that everything was limited to verbal agreements and without financial investments. Nevertheless, the Council of People's Commissars in Moscow knew that Petlyura was going to “take down” Skoropadsky. This allowed the Reds to prepare for the overthrow of Petliura himself, using the month of another internal Ukrainian struggle for power.

SKOROPADSKY, PAVEL PETROVICH(1873–1945), Russian and Ukrainian military and statesman, hetman of Ukraine. Born on May 3 (15), 1873 in Wiesbaden (Germany) into a noble family. Father P.I. Skoropadsky is a major landowner of the Chernigov and Poltava provinces, a colonel in the Russian army, a direct descendant of the Ukrainian hetman I.I. Skoropadsky (1708–1722). Mother M.A. Miklashevskaya is from an old Cossack family. After graduating from the St. Petersburg Corps of Pages, he received the rank of cornet and was appointed squadron commander of the Cavalry Guard Regiment (1893). In 1895 he became a regimental adjutant. In 1897 he was promoted to lieutenant. In 1898 he married A.P. Durnovo, the daughter of the Moscow Governor-General. He took part in the Russo-Japanese War: he commanded a hundred of the 2nd Chita Cossack Regiment, then served as an aide-de-camp to the commander-in-chief of the Russian troops in the Far East, General N.P. Linevich. Awarded the Arms of St. George and the Order of St. Vladimir. In December 1905, he was promoted to colonel and appointed aide-de-camp to Emperor Nicholas II. In 1910–1911 he commanded the 20th Finnish Dragoon Regiment. In 1911 he was appointed commander of the Life Guards Cavalry Regiment. In 1912 he was promoted to major general. During the First World War, he commanded the 1st Brigade of the 1st Guards Cavalry Division, then appointed commander of the 3rd and later the 5th Guards Cavalry Division. In 1916 he became a lieutenant general. In January 1917 he received command of the 34th Army Corps.

After the February Revolution, which caused the rise of the autonomist movement in Ukraine, he found himself in a difficult position - subordinate to the Provisional Government and the Supreme Command, he was forced to reckon with the Central Rada (the body of all-Ukrainian power created by local national parties on March 4 (17), 1917), since its corps was in the territory under its control. When the Provisional Government recognized the legitimacy of the Central Rada (July 2 (15), 1917), it began to Ukrainize its corps, which was called the “1st Ukrainian”. On October 6, the congress of the Free Cossacks in Chigirin proclaimed him ataman.

The October revolution was met with hostility. He submitted to the Central Rada and was appointed commander of the armed forces of the Ukrainian People's Republic proclaimed on November 7 (20). From December 3 (16), he conducted successful military operations against the Bolshevik-influenced units of the South-Western Front and detachments of the Ukrainian Soviet government based in Kharkov; was able to prevent the establishment of Soviet power in most of Ukraine. On December 29 (January 11), in protest against the Rada’s decision to dissolve the 1st Ukrainian Corps, he resigned.

The capture of Kyiv by the Bolsheviks on January 26 (February 8), 1918 forced him to go underground. After the entry of German troops into Kyiv and the restoration of the power of the Central Rada, he headed the officer-Cossack organization “Ukrainian People's Community”. On April 29, 1918, at the congress of “grain growers” ​​(large landowners), he was proclaimed “hetman of all Ukraine”; By order of the commander of the German troops, Field Marshal G. Eichhorn, the Central Rada was dissolved. The Ukrainian People's Republic ceased to exist, giving way to the Ukrainian state led by the hetman.

Having received power, P.P. Skoropadsky directed his efforts to create an independent Ukrainian state with all the necessary attributes: a law on Ukrainian citizenship was adopted, the state emblem was approved, its own monetary system was introduced, several national divisions were formed, the autocephaly of the Ukrainian Church was proclaimed, and the Ukrainian Academy was organized Sciences, two state universities have been opened. His domestic policy was based on the revival of the historical Ukrainian tradition (hetmanship as a political form, the constitution of the Cossacks as an estate) and on the restoration of pre-revolutionary orders (land ownership, freedom of trade and private enterprise). Ukrainization, however, did not mean pursuing a nationalist (anti-Russian) course. The regime supported the organizations of Russian officers, although it prevented them from creating large military formations. His support was from right-wing conservative circles. The Hetman cleansed the state apparatus of representatives of democratic parties, subjected left-wing nationalists (Ukrainian Socialist Revolutionaries and Social Democrats) to repression, and carried out punitive expeditions against peasants who seized landowners' lands. In foreign policy, he focused on Germany and its allies, confirmed all the agreements previously concluded by Ukraine; nevertheless, he achieved recognition from the Entente and a number of neutral countries. He entered into an agreement with the nationalist authorities of Crimea and entered into a military alliance with the Cossack governments of the Don and Kuban.

After the defeat of Germany and the beginning of the evacuation of German troops from Ukraine, he tried to rely on the Entente and the White movement. He abandoned the slogan of an independent Ukraine and declared his readiness to fight for the restoration of a united Russia together with the Volunteer and Don armies. He began to form Russian officer squads. However, the uprising raised against him in mid-November by the leaders of the Ukrainian National Union (V.K. Vinnychenko, S.V. Petliura), and the successful offensive (with the neutrality of the Germans) of Petliura’s troops against Kyiv led to the disintegration of the hetman’s troops and the collapse of the Ukrainian state. On December 14, 1918, Skoropadsky renounced power and, under the guise of a wounded German major, left Kyiv, leaving the city and its few defenders (five thousand white officers) to the mercy of fate.

In 1918–1945 he lived in Germany. It was the center of attraction of the monarchical wing of the Ukrainian emigration. During World War II he actively collaborated with the Germans. In April 1945, he fled from besieged Berlin to the south, but on the way he was bombed by Allied aircraft and was mortally wounded. He died on April 26 in a hospital in Metten (Bavaria).

Ivan Krivushin