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Nykyfor Oleksandrovych Hryhoriv (or Grigoryev rus., real surname Servetnyk; – 27 July 1919) was a Ukrainian military leader noted for repeatedly switching sides during the Ukrainian War of Independence and Soviet-Ukrainian war. He is today considered one of the most influential rebel leaders of the Otamanshchyna phenomenon.
In November 1918, as the Imperial German and Austrian armies were withdrawing from Ukraine, an anti-Skoropadskyi uprising broke out in the Dnieper basin. The Directory headed by Volodymyr Vynnychenko and Semen Petlura came to power. The troops under the command of Hryhoriv captured and Oleksandriia, after which he declared himself the ataman of the insurgent forces of "the land of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia and Taurida", although he actually controlled only Kherson. Hryhoriv's 6,000-strong force rejoined the Ukrainian People's Army as a separate division under the command of otaman Oleksander Hrekov, but his command over these units was limited.
On 2–10 March 1919, Hryhoriv fought a fierce, ultimately victorious battle for Kherson against the Allied interventionists. Then, on 15 March, acting against the orders of the Ukrainian Front's commander Vladimir Antonov-Ovseyenko, he captured Mykolaiv, which was actually controlled by the local Bolsheviks. On 6 April 1919, Hryhoriv's brigade captured Odesa, which had been abandoned the day before by French intervention troops. On the spot, Hryhoriv allowed his troops to commit looting and transport the stolen goods to their place of origin.
However, Hryhoriv actually sent his troops for a three-week "rest", allowing the soldiers to return to their places of origin. His brigade scattered throughout Kherson, taking weapons, equipment and supplies, and for the next three weeks his soldiers engaged in looting. They also committed antisemitic pogroms and murdered activists of local party committees. Hryhoriv's troops then stopped recognizing the Bolshevik command. They began to distribute leaflets, which called on peasants to fight against the Bolsheviks in the ranks of "otaman Hryhoriv's partisans". In Yelizavethrad, Hryhoriv's troops destroyed the party headquarters and disarmed a Red battalion. On 8 May 1919, Hryhoriv issued the Universal, in which he called for "the Ukrainian people to take power into their own hands" and proclaimed "the dictatorship of the working people, the power of the people's councils of Ukraine." He called for the organization of village, district and governorate councils, with 80% of seats reserved for Ukrainians, 5% for Jews and 15% for other ethnic minorities in each, admitting representatives of all parties and non-party people that supported the concept of council power. He gained some support from the peasants, who turned against the Bolsheviks, refusing to accept forced food requisitions and repressions by the Cheka.
At the beginning of May, Hryhoriv's armed forces seized the area between Mykolaiv, Dnipro, Kremenchuk and Cherkasy. At the same time, Katerynoslav was handed over to the otaman by the Black Sea Regiment of sailor Orlov, until then fighting on the side of the Reds. Hryhoriv was also joined by sailors in Mykolaiv and Ochakiv, and even found some support in Podolia. At its peak, he commanded 15–23,000 people. On 10 May, the defense council of the Ukrainian SSR declared Hryhoriv to be an outlaw. On 15 May 1919, Red troops under the command of Oleksandr Parkhomenko recaptured Katerynoslav, but then they were quickly driven out of it again. Nevertheless, after the first clashes with the Red Army, Hryhoriv's troops began to surrender or return to the Reds' command. The main grouping of Hryhoriv's forces was defeated in battle at Kamianka. By the end of May 1919, Hryhoriv's rebellion was suppressed by the Red Army, the area he occupied was again under the control of the Bolsheviks, and the forces led by him shrunk to 3,000. However, his uprising had led to the collapse of the Ukrainian Front of the Red Army, contributed to the defeat of the Reds by the Armed Forces of South Russia in the Battle for the Donbas, and prevented the Red Army from marching further towards Bessarabia in support of the Hungarian Soviet Republic.
Hryhoriv's supporters managed to hold on to Beryslav, Kakhovka and Nikopol for some time, attacking military transports going to Crimea and raiding towards Oleksandriia. On 27 July 1919, Nestor Makhno met with Hryhoriv, proposing a joint fight against both the Red and White armies. Both commanders decided to join forces, but their agreement quickly collapsed. Hryhoriv considered going over to the side of the Whites and subordinating himself to Anton Denikin, which the Makhnovists considered a betrayal. Hryhoriv was shot and his troops joined Makhno's forces.
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