Panteleimon Belochub

Panteleimon "Panteley" Fyodorovich Belochub (, , romanized: Panteleimon Fedorovych Bilochub), (May, 1892 – not earlier than April 15, 1929), was a Ukrainian soldier best known as one of the commanders of the Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine, a major belligerent force during the Russian Civil Wars of 1917 – 1921.

Early life

Panteley Fyodorovich Belochub was born in May 1892 in a family of Azov Greeks in the village of Stary Krym, Mariupol County, Ekaterinoslav Province, Russian Empire. Panteley's father, Fyodor Belochub, died of tuberculosis when the child was only one and a half months old. The widowed mother remarried, leaving young Pamteley in the care of his paternal uncle, Themistocles Belochub. The boy grew up in a large and relatively affluent family, in the company of seven cousins, who treated him as a brother.

On May 1, 1913, Panteleimon married Varvara Kior. In the same year he was conscripted into the Russian Imperial Army. On August 1, 1914, Varvara gave birth to Pantaleimon's daughter, Ekaterina.

In October 1919, the RIAU found itself blocking the path of Denikin's White forces, which were retreating southward under the pressure of the Red Army. Seeing this development as an opportunity, Nestor Makhno attacked the Whites, but found his mainly-peasant detachments unable to match the well-organized units of the Armed Forces of South Russia (AFSR), which were still maintaining cohesion regardless of the recent defeats. Soon the RIAU was forced to abandon its "capital" in Huliaipole as well as all of the Dnieper's left bank, crossing the river over the Kichkas Bridge, near Alexandrovsk (present-day Zaporizhia), and blowing up the bridge behind them. White General Revishin decided not to pursue the RIAU across the river, focusing instead on a mopping-up operation against the remnants of the Makhnovist detachments on the left bank.

While the AFSR commanders were concentrating their forces on the left bank of the Dnieper, they maintained a relatively light presence on the right bank. Nestor Makhno took advantage of this situation and moved decisively on Ekaterinoslav, taking the city from the Whites on November 10, 1919. Belochub distinguished himself during the Ekaterinoslav offensive, in the battle against the units of the 2nd Terek Cossack Division, AFSR, near the village of Stepove on November 8, 1919, and was wounded in this engagement.

During the Ekaterynoslav operation, the Makhnovists coordinated their actions with Bolshevik detachments in and around the city. Upon taking Ekaterinoslav, the two political groups continued to cooperate, and the local organization of RCP(b) operated openly. Even within its own ranks, the RIAU counted a considerable number of communists. The most notable of them was Mikhail Polonsky, a regimental commander in RIAU. This process of rapprochement was interrupted by the arrest of Polonsky, who was accused of subversive activity in favor of the Red Army and of conspiracy to assassinate Nestor Makhno.

Panteleimon Belochub was arrested by the Makhnovist Counterintelligence along with Polonsky on December 2, 1919. Apparently, Polonsky tried to persuade Belochub to switch sides from the RIAU to the Reds, promising the support of Ivan Fedko, a senior commander in the Red 11th Army. According to Belochub's official interrogation record, he was released the same evening, after a lengthy "conversation" with Nestor Makhno. Polonsky and a group of his associates, however, were summarily executed. This incident led to a sharp deterioration of the RIAU relations with the Red Army and Bolsheviks.

In the Civil War, alliances shifted often. Yesterday's bitter rivals at times found themselves bonding together against a common enemy. On October 15, 1920, Nestor Makhno signed a Treaty of Political and Military Alliance with the Red Army – this time against Baron Wrangel's White Forces in Crimea. In November 1920 RIAU assisted the Reds in the Siege of Perekop. Belochub took part in this operation as an artillery commander. The Red Army, having barely secured the victory over the Whites, turned on their RIAU allies in a relentless pursuit across Southeastern Ukraine and Southern Russia. Regardless of the overwhelming numerical superiority of their pursuers, the Makhnovists kept fighting through the winter of 1920–1921. Upon regaining his freedom, Panteleimon returned to his native village of Stary Krym and soon was elected mayor, a position that he held until 1927.

While holding an elected office in the 1920s, Belochub maintained relationships with his wartime comrades, RIAU veterans. However, there is no evidence to suggest his involvement in the underground anarchist organizations. The wave of arrests that devastated these organizations in 1924 did not affect him. In a 1927 meeting with the former RIAU Chief of Staff, Viktor Belash, Belochub described himself as a "tired" anarchist.

Rebellion attempt and death In 1927 Panteleimon Belochub resigned from the local government, focusing entirely on running his own farm. It seemed as if his rebel past was behind him. However, much changed in 1928, when the Soviet authorities resumed systematic requisitions of grain and other foodstuffs from the peasants and farmers across the former Makhnovshchina and the whole of Ukraine. These systematic requisitions continued into the early 1930s and led to the widespread artificial famine, known in Ukraine as "Holodomor," literally "Death by Starvation." Holodomor claimed millions of lives in Ukraine with the death toll peaking in 1933.

According to the files of the Soviet secret police, OGPU (the successor to the Cheka), Panteleimon Belochub responded to the food requisitions by preparing armed resistance. Together with his former comrade-in-arms, Abram Budanov, he organized a small band of Makhnovist fighters and began stockpiling weapons and ammunition. At the same time, Budanov, having gained access to a printing press at a factory in Mariupol, published leaflets, calling upon the industrial workers, farmers, and peasants to rise up against the tyranny of the Soviets.

Belochub and Budanov were not alone in their resolve to resist the regime. Various anarchist leaders began similar preparations in other regions of Ukraine. For example, the former chairman of the RIAU Revolutionary Military Council, Ivan Chernoknizhny, was preparing an armed insurrection in Mezhova Raion, Dnipropetrovsk Okruha (now Synelnykove District, Dnipropetrovsk Region) of Ukraine.

The Soviets conducted a show trial of the Bilochub-Budanov group in Kharkiv, then the Ukrainian capital. Both organizers of the uprising were sentenced to death on 15 April 1929. The remaining ten defendants were sent to labor camps for ten years.

Belash's memoirs shed some light on Belochub's views. For instance, Belash claimed that Belochub strongly objected to any reconciliation with the communists. Belochub held no illusions about the risks of furthering the anarchist cause in the conditions of the Soviet state. He considered recruitment among the younger generations as irresponsible. In his view, the new recruits would just end up in prisons and forced labor camps before being able to make a difference. Belochub believed that the struggle had to be carried on by the old guard, who would bring in the new recruits only upon gaining some military success in the new war.