Symon Petliura. Resistance Through the Network

Communications of a Young State

During the Ukrainian War of Independence, communication depended on the postal service and telegraph, while newspapers were the only mass media — radio broadcasting in Ukraine began only in 1924. Newspapers were sold on the streets, at railway stations, and near government buildings; some copies were delivered by post and military couriers. The postal system of the UNR was built on the foundations of the imperial infrastructure. After the trident was approved as the state emblem in 1918, the Ministry of Posts and Telegraphs began replacing imperial seals and postmarks with Ukrainian ones. Postage stamps and postal cancellations became attributes of state authority. The first issues were provisional: imperial Russian stamps received overprints with the trident or new denominations. This allowed circulation to begin quickly without a full production cycle. On March 1, 1918, the UNR introduced the hryvnia, divided into 100 shahs. At the same time, stamp-currencies with denominations of 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50 shahs were issued, bearing the inscription: “Circulates on par with coin currency.” The designs for the 30, 40, and 50 shah stamps were created by Heorhii Narbut, while the 10 and 20 shah stamps were designed by Anton Sereda.

Symon Petliura’s Soft Power

One of the instruments of the UNR’s cultural diplomacy — and of what Dutch newspapers called “the commander-in-chief in love with art” — was the triumphant international tour of the Ukrainian Republic Capella led by Oleksandr Koshyts. We quote historian Tina Peresunko in Istorychna Pravda: “Symon Petliura found a remarkable way to overcome Western European ignorance,” wrote the Belgian newspaper Ons Vaderland after the Brussels premiere of Shchedryk in January 1920. “This military commander, trying to save his country from the trap of Bolshevism and Tsarism, is capable not only of waging war. He knows that the sword alone is powerless, and in order to win the sympathy of Western Europe, he introduces us to the art of his country. Ukraine — the land of black soil, the homeland of Gogol — becomes for us the land of song. He internationalizes the Ukrainian question through song!”

A Mobile Chancellery

In 1919, the government of the UNR moved together with the front line. Along with the government traveled printing type, seals, archives, official forms, and field offices. Government printing houses in the cities produced orders, proclamations, newspapers, and postal materials. Postal service functioned inconsistently, but telegraph communication between headquarters and the front was maintained continuously. Interestingly, in Vinnytsia — three times the temporary capital of the UNR — Symon Petliura’s chancellery was located in the building of the Ministry of Posts and Telegraphs, the former mansion of metallurgical magnate Borukh Lvovych, known as the “iron king.” This was a strategic decision, as the Vinnytsia Post and Telegraph Office stood directly across the street. It should be noted that Lvovych had died in 1913, and the building later stood abandoned because of the war. Today, the street bears Symon Petliura’s name, and until recently several Vinnytsia radio stations operated from the mansion. Later, under the Directorate, a stamp series featuringhistorical figures and Symon Petliura himself was printed in Vienna. Some of these stamps never entered regular postal circulation and were instead used by émigré organizations.

Paris and the Tryzub Journal

For the Ukrainian émigré community, the postal service became the infrastructure of statelessness: letters replaced government meetings, journals replaced territory, and subscribers replaced administrative networks. Editorial offices, archives, diplomatic missions, libraries, and publishing houses operated in exile. Having previously worked as an editor and journalist, Petliura launched the weekly Tryzub in Paris. The journal was printed in French printing houses and then mailed to Poland, Czechoslovakia, Canada, the United States, and Ukrainian communities across Europe. Some issues were smuggled into Soviet Ukraine through Poland and Galicia. Later, the Ukrainian Library named after Symon Petliura was established in Paris, housing archives, letters, and part of the Tryzub editorial collection. After the Second World War, Ukrainians in the displaced persons camp in Rimini, Italy, created their own camp postage stamps. They featured prominent Ukrainian figures, including Symon Petliura. The stamps were designed by Sviatoslav Yatsushko, a soldier of the Ukrainian National Army.

The 100th Anniversary of the Assassination

On May 25, 1926, Symon Petliura left his apartment in Paris and walked toward the Latin Quarter, looking at shop windows. Near the Gibert bookstore on Rue Racine, a man approached him and asked in Ukrainian: “Are you Mr. Petliura?” He then fired several shots. Petliura died in hospital less than half an hour later. Samuil Schwartzbard, Petliura’s assassin, was a communist who had previously lived in Odesa. During the trial, Schwartzbard claimed he killed Petliura in revenge for anti-Jewish pogroms in Ukraine. Before the jury trial, his lawyer Henri Torrès even published a book portraying “Petliura as the chief organizer of pogroms.” This narrative became widespread in the international press and remained the dominant explanation of the assassination for decades. However,Ukrainian historians view the killing as an operation beneficial to Moscow, while the Paris trial itself is seen as an attempt to discredit both the UNR and Petliura in the eyes of the West.

Petliura and Ukraine’s Jewish Community

Mass anti-Jewish pogroms did indeed occur in Ukraine in 1919 — tragically, not for the first time. However, there is no evidence that Petliura initiated pogroms or ordered them to be carried out. On the contrary, the government of the UNR issued orders punishing pogrom participants, and some perpetrators were tried by military tribunals. In January 1919, the Directorate adopted a law on national-personal autonomy for Jews; Yiddish was recognized as one of the republic’s official languages, and the government included a separate Ministry of Jewish Affairs. In addition, representatives of the Jewish community were included in the Extraordinary Commission established to investigate pogroms, while victims received financial compensation or restitution of lost property. As we can see, Russia has long cynically accused others of crimes they did not commit — including crimes committed by Russia itself. The next time you hear Leontovych’s Shchedryk or see Narbut’s tridents and grapevine ornaments, remember Symon Vasylovych Petliura as well — a man who made an enormous contribution to Ukrainian statehood and, one might say, to the Ukrainian national brand.

---