In 1918–1922, the Orthodox
Motronynskyi Monastery became the center of the Ukrainian insurgent movement against the invaders (German occupiers and Russian
"white" and
"red" invaders), led by the
Chuchupaky brothers. Because of the coup, at the request of the abbot, residents of the village of Melnyky formed a self-defense unit to protect the monastery from looting. The detachment was headed by Oleksiy Chuchupak and consisted of 22 people. Later, in 1919, the detachment turned into a regiment, and
Vasyl Chuchupak was elected commander of the regiment (before that he was an ensign of the Russian Imperial Army, and even earlier – a village teacher). His brother Petro Chuchupak became chief of staff of the regiment. During the occupation of Ukraine by the
Denikin's troops, the regiment took part in their expulsion from
Cherkasy. The regiment was constantly replenished and its number reached 2,000 people. Subsequently, the Kholodny Yar Republic was formed. Its territory covered more than 25 surrounding villages and had about 15,000 peasant insurgent army, whose soldiers called themselves Cossacks, and their commanders —
otamans (in memory of the military tradition of the Cossacks). In November 1919, the otaman of the Katerynoslav and Kherson regions, Andriy Hulyi-Gulenko, arrived in Kholodny Yar. The Chief Otaman of the Kholodny Yar was
Vasyl Chuchupak. Otamans Gerasym Nesterenko-Orel, Tryfon Gladchenko, Mykhailo Melashko, Sirko, Oko,
Chorny Voron (Chornoguzko),
Mefodiy Golyk-Zalizniak, Semen Vovk, Oleksa Kotsyubenko, Kalyuzhny, D. Kanatenko, 1st and 2nd Olexandrian Regiments were subordinated to him. After the death of Vasyl Chuchupak, the Kholodny Yar Republic was headed by the Deputy Chief Otaman, Ivan Derkach, a member of the Kholodny Yar Insurgent Committee. He commanded the armed forces of the Kholodny Yar region during the anti-Soviet uprising in the spring and autumn of 1920. In March 1920, the Steppe Division of the
UPR Army, numbering between 12,000 and 18,000 men, liberated
Kherson from the
Bolsheviks and led a successful offensive to the west (via
Bilozerka) along the Kamyanka-Yehradivka-Ruzhychiv-Chyhyryn line. The division stopped in the Kholodny Yar tract, where it joined the Kholodny Yar Armed Forces. On 24 September 1920, in Medvedivka, where
Koliivshchyna once began, a meeting of the Kholodny Yar Otamans took place, attended by commanders of the Steppe Division and otamans of other regions. At this meeting, Kostya Blakytny was elected Chief Otaman of all insurgent units of the Kholodny Yar and its environs. The influence of the Kholodny Yar was not limited to Cherkasy region. The authorities of the Kholodny Yar Republic were also recognized by coastal villages (up the Dnipro to Cherkasy: Ratseve, Tinky, Borovytsia, Topylivka, Sagunivka, Khudyaky, Buzhyn, Lesky, and others). Otaman Gerasim Nesterenko-Orel was the last of the Chief Otamans of the Kholodny Yar elected at the general representative congress of all otamans of the republic. To the south was a short-lived , which was then subordinate to Kholodny Yar, the largest place of resistance in
Central Ukraine.
The fall of the Republic One of the stages of the
Cheka's special operation to liquidate the Kholodny Yar Republic was the so-called "amnesty" promised to those insurgents who would surrender voluntarily. The transition took place in the village Zhabotyn on the 4th (in other documents on the 7th) August 1921. Ivan Petrenko, Chairman of the Kholodny Yar District Headquarters, Otamans Derkach, Vasylenko, Oleksa Chuchupak, S. Chuchupak, Tovkachenko (Tovkach), Temny, Lytvynenko, Pinchenko, and more than 20 Otamans and 76 security guards, including Ponomarenko and Wislow, were amnestied. After that, the "amnestied" wrote a letter to the otamans Khmara, Zagorodny,
Zaliznyak and others calling for an end to the struggle and the transition to the side of the Ukrainian Soviet government. On 29 September 1922, the Cheka] lured some atamans to an alleged gathering in
Zvenyhorodka. They were allegedly convened to prepare for an all-Ukrainian uprising. Many atamans were arrested there. On 9 February 1923 Kholodny Yar Republic insurgents, all sentenced to death, took part in a four-hour battle/failed
prison uprising in
Kyiv's
Lukyanivska Prison that killed 38 prisoners and one
Red Army soldier. == Legacy ==