Early rebel groups Among the first rebel squads created during the
Russian Civil War was the
anarchist Black Guard led by
Maria Nikiforova, whose forces in September 1917 established control over
Oleksandrivsk and
Katerynoslav. Nikiforova cooperated with
Bolshevik commander
Mikhail Muravyov, and her units disbanded Ukrainian garrisons in several cities of
Southern Ukraine, proclaiming the establishment of "workers' and peasants' power". The Black Guard played an important role in the disarmament of
White guards and took part in the revolutionary terror in
Crimea. In March 1918 Nikiforova's troops were expelled from
Uman and
Yelysavethrad by the
Ukrainian Sich Riflemen, and in April lost control over the rest of their territory to the
Ukrainian People's Army's Zaporozhian Corps. Remains of the Black Guard dispersed around the country, but came under attack by
Mikhail Drozdovsky's White Guard. After retreating to
Taganrog, they were disarmed by the Bolsheviks, and Nikiforova herself was imprisoned. Following the establishment of the
Ukrainian State by
hetman Pavlo Skoropadsky, attempts of the government to restore landholdings captured by peasants to their previous owners led to a wave of uprisings. In summer 1918 unrest engulfed
Katerynoslav and
Kherson governorates. The most prominent rebel groups in those territories were led by Yukhym Bozhko, Mykola Hryhoriev and
Nestor Makhno. During that period insurgents opposed both the hetman's administration, as well as
German and
Austrian troops
occupying Ukraine. The revolts were spurred by propaganda spread by Bolsheviks,
Ukrainian Social-Democrats and
Ukrainian Socialist-Revolutionaries.
Cooperation with Bolsheviks In July 1918
Socialist politician Mykola Shynkar organized a peasant rebellion. The revolt spread around
Zvenyhorodka and
Tarashcha povits, but was soon suppressed by government forces and their German allies. After this failure, Ukrainian socialists headed by
Volodymyr Vynnychenko established contacts with Bolsheviks through their Ukrainian representative
Dmytro Manuilsky. Soon thereafter, rebel squads emerged in the areas of
Kyiv,
Chernihiv,
Sumy and
Kharkiv under the leadership of otamans
Zelenyi, Anhel,
Kotsur and Shynkar. Many of the insurgents were Bolsheviks, who sometimes headed the units'
revolutionary committees. , 1919 The emergence of the phenomenon of
otamanshchyna was connected with the
Anti-Hetman Uprising of late 1918, when a countrywide revolt led by the
Directorate deposed the
German-supported Hetmanate. During that period, approximately 100,000 rebells around
Dnieper Ukraine formed into armed squads, many of which were headed by self-proclaimed otamans. United by a common goal of deposing the Skoropadsky regime, this motley assortment of peasants, village elders, schoolteachers and army officers soon became critical of the Directorate and deserted its army en masse. During the early 1919, many otamans and their supporters joined the
invading Bolshevik armies. According to
Paul Robert Magocsi, it was Ukrainian peasants who composed the majority of
Red Army units during its advance against
Kyiv under command of
Antonov-Ovseenko, who formally acted on the orders of
the Ukrainian Soviet Government based in
Kursk.
Anti-Bolshevik uprisings Despite their initial cooperation with the Bolsheviks, the otamans had little understanding of
Communist ideology; the same was even more true about their subordinates. Instead, they tended to view themselves as descendants of
Zaporozhian Cossacks and
haidamaks, and saw their duty in liberating the people from all perceived oppressors, including
landowners,
Russian and
Ukrainian nationalists,
Jews or even Bolsheviks themselves. In many cases, local otamans engaged in simple maraudery, taking advantage of
anarchic conditions in Ukraine. Among their victims were not only wealthy landowners, merchants and artisans, but also poor peasants whose villages found themselves in the way of their military bands. As most otamans and their supporters were peasants, the Bolshevik policies of
collectivization and
forced confiscation of grain alienated them from the Soviet regime. By April 1919, peasant uprisings in Ukraine reignited with a new force, and a number of powerful otamans who had fought on the Bolshevik side turned against them. Among the first otamans to abandon the side of the Bolsheviks were Zelenyi and Anhel, followed by
Hryhoriev. The wave of revolts resulted in murders of numerous Bolshevik officials, as well as
pogroms against
Jews,
Germans and other minorities. Throughout 1918 and 1919, 1236 pogroms were reported across Ukraine, attacks on towns became commonplace and anarchy ruled the countryside. In the summer of 1919, the greater part of Ukrainian territory was controlled by various
peasant armies, meanwhile Bolshevik control was limited to cities. This contributed to the
expulsion of Red Army troops from
Kyiv and most of Ukraine by the end of August.
Leon Trotsky recognized peasant uprisings to have been a chief cause of Bolsheviks' failure to hold onto Ukraine. At the same time, forces of the otamans also opposed the
Entente and the White Movement, forcing them to retreat from Ukrainian territory.
Suppression The end of the active phase of the
Polish-Soviet War in October 1920 also signified the end of the
Ukrainian revolution, and allowed
Ukrainian Bolsheviks backed by
Soviet Russia to establish a
lasting government over the exhausted country, ending the period of peasant uprisings and anarchy. However, following the introduction of
NEP in 1921, the government-imposed
in-kind tax and
class warfare led to a new wave of peasant revolts. By April 1921, 102 armed bands roamed the countryside of Ukraine and
Crimea. The situation was exacerbated by a severe
drought, which resulted in a
famine, killing an estimated 1,5 to 2 million people. It was not until 1923 that the situation in Ukriane began to stabilize following the reintroduction of elements of
market economy. Nevertheless, separate armed rebel squads in Ukraine continued their opposition to Soviet regime until as late as 1930. ==Notable otamans==