Hryhoriv Uprising

Hryhoriv Uprising
	Part of the Ukrainian War of Independence
	; Nikifor Hryhoriv and Vladimir Antonov-Ovseenko, commander of the Ukrainian Front of the Red Army, before the outbreak of the revolt, spring 1919
Date	7 May – 27 July 1919
Location	Kherson, Ukraine
Result	Uprising defeated Red Army recaptures rebel-held territory; Nykyfor Hryhoriv assassinated by the forces of Nestor Makhno;
Belligerents
Hryhorivshchyna	Ukrainian SSR
Commanders and leaders
Nykyfor Hryhoriv X; Yuriy Tyutyunnyk; Artem Maksiuta	Vladimir Antonov-Ovseenko; Kliment Voroshilov; Pavel Dybenko; Alexander Parkhomenko; Anatoly Skachko; Nikolai Khudiakov
Units involved
Peasant Division	Ukrainian Front 1st Ukrainian Army; 2nd Ukrainian Army; 3rd Ukrainian Army;
Strength
15,000	30,000

The uprising of Nykyfor Hryhoriv was an armed protest against the Bolshevik rule in Ukraine in May 1919, which covered the area between Mykolaiv and Kherson, Katerynoslav, Cherkasy, Kremenchuk and Kryvyi Rih. Its leader was otaman Nykyfor Hryhoriv, who gathered around him guerrilla troops of peasants rebelling against food requisitions and repression led by the Cheka.

On 8 May 1919, Hryhoriv published a Universal, in which he called for "the Ukrainian people to take power into their own hands" and proclaimed a "Soviet Ukraine without communists". His call was also taken up by the garrisons of the Red Army in Cherkasy, Verkhnodniprovsk and Katerynoslav, as well as sailors from Mykolaiv, Kherson and Ochakiv. Numerous pogroms took place in the area conquered by Hryhoriv's supporters. The uprising was suppressed at the end of May 1919 by units of the Red Army under the command of Kliment Voroshilov, Alexander Parkhomenko [ru] and Pavel Dybenko; peasant units in the face of clashes with larger regular forces dispersed, surrendered or defected.

On 22 May, the Red Army seized the center of the rebellion - Oleksandriia, and on 26-31 May, it again seized Mykolaiv, Ochakiv and Kherson. Hryhoriv, who hid from the pursuit with the rest of his supporters and reached the area controlled by Nestor Makhno's Revolutionary Insurgent Army, announced his joining the Makhnovist movement. In fact, however, he maintained contacts with Anton Denikin's White movement and considered recognizing his sovereignty, for which he was shot by Makhno. His troops joined with the Makhnovist forces.

Hryhoriv's uprising disintegrated the Ukrainian Front of the Red Army and largely thwarted its command's plans to march to Bessarabia, join the region to the Soviet state, and then intervene in Hungary and extend the communist revolution to Romania.