Petlyura

Symon Petliura
Симон Петлюра
Chief Otaman Symon Petliura
2nd Chairman of the Directorate
In office 11 February 1919 – May 1926
Preceded by	Volodymyr Vynnychenko
Succeeded by	Andriy Livytskyi1
Secretary of Military Affairs
In office 28 June 1917 – 6 January 1918
Prime Minister	Volodymyr Vynnychenko
Preceded by	position created
Succeeded by	Mykola Porsh
Personal details
Born	Symon Vasylyovych Petliura (1879-05-10)10 May 1879 Poltava, Poltava Governorate, Russian Empire
Died	25 May 1926(1926-05-25) (aged 47) Paris, France
Nationality	Ukrainian
Political party	RUP (1900–1905), USDLP (1905–1919)
Spouse(s)	Olha Bilska () (1885–1959, m.1910)
Children	Lesya (1911–1941)
Alma mater	Poltava Orthodox Seminary
Occupation	Politician and statesman
Signature
Military service
Allegiance	Ukrainian People's Republic
Service/branch	Ukrainian People's Army
Years of service	1914–1922
Rank	Chief Otaman
Commands	Haidamaka Kish of Sloboda Ukraine
Battles/wars	Ukrainian–Soviet War Kiev January Uprising Anti-Hetman Uprising Polish–Soviet War
1Government in exile.

Symon Vasylyovych Petliura (Ukrainian: Си́мон Васи́льович Петлю́ра; May 22, 1879 – May 25, 1926) was a Ukrainian politician and journalist. He was the Supreme Commander of the Ukrainian Army and the President of the Ukrainian National Republic during Ukraine's short-lived sovereignty in 1918–1921, who led Ukraine's struggle for independence following the fall of the Russian Empire in 1917.

After defeat of the Ukrainian Army he went abroad and led the Ukrainian government into exile. On May 25, 1926 Petliura was assassinated in the center of Paris by Russian-Jewish anarchist and bolshevik Sholom Schwartzbard, who purportedly carried out the assassination on the orders of the Russians, in revenge for the deaths of Jews during pogroms staged by members of Petlyura's army.

Petliura was born on May 22 (Gregorian calendar, 10 May on Julian calendar), 1879, in a suburb of Poltava, Ukraine, the son of Vasyl Pavlovych Petliura and Olha Oleksiyivna (née Marchenko), of Cossack background. His father Vasyl Pavlovych was a Poltava city resident and had owned a transportation business. Petliura's mother was a daughter of an Orthodox hieromonk (priest-monk). Petliura's initial education was obtained in parochial schools, and he planned to become an Orthodox priest.

During his years (1895–1901) in the Russian Orthodox Seminary in Poltava, Petliura joined the Hromada society in 1898. When his membership in Hromada was discovered in 1901, he was expelled from the seminary. In 1900 Petliura joined the Revolutionary Ukrainian Party. In 1902, under threat of arrest, he moved to Yekaterinodar in the Kuban where he worked for two years initially as a schoolteacher and later as an archivist for the Kuban Cossack Host where he helped organize over 200,000 documents. In December 1903, he was arrested for organizing a RUP branch in Yekaterinodar and for publishing inflammatory anti-tsarist articles in the Ukrainian press outside of Imperial Russia (in Lviv). He was released on bail in March 1904, moving briefly to Kiev and then emigrating to the Western Ukrainian city of Lviv then in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.