Petro Dyachenko Петро Дяченко
Petro Dyachenko
Born	January 30, 1895 Berezova Luka, Poltava Oblast, Ukraine
Died	April 23, 1965(1965-04-23) (aged 70) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Allegiance	Ukrainian People's Republic Second Republic of Poland
Service/branch	Polish Army Polissian Sich Ukrainian National Army Army of the Ukrainian People's Republic
Years of service	1914–1945
Rank	Lieutenant-General (UNR)
Commands held	2nd Division UNA Ukrainian Liberation Army 1st Calvary Regiment of the Black Zaporozhians
Battles/wars	World War I Ukrainian War of Independence Polish-Bolshevik War World War II
Awards	Cross of St. George Iron Cross 2nd Class

Petro Havrylovych Dyachenko (January 30, 1895 – April 23, 1965) was Ukrainian Military Leader, commander of the Black Zaporozhets, the 2nd division of the Ukrainian National Army, the anti-tank brigade "Free Ukraine".

Military ranks — colonel of the Army of the Ukrainian People's Republic (from June 23, 1920), corporal general (with seniority from October 15, 1929; order Army of the Ukrainian People's Republic, No. 6, February 1, 1961).

The regiment of Black Zaporozhets under the leadership of Petro Dyachenko distinguished itself in the battles near Sydoriv and Voznesensk. Mykhailo Omelyanovych-Pavlenko called the Black Zaporozhian regiment the best regiment of the Ukrainian Army.

He graduated from the Real School in Myrhorod .

Participant of the First World War: a volunteer in the Russian Imperial Army, a private, later a non-commissioned officer, and after studying at the School of Ensigns in Orenburg, an officer (in 1917, a staff captain).

In 1917 he joined the army of the Ukrainian People's Republic. 1918  — a participant in the liberation of Poltava and Crimea under the command of Colonel Petro Bolbochan. A centurion (since 11/23/1918) and a henchman (since 1/17/1919 ) of a separate "partisan" henchman in the Zaporizhzhya regiment under Petro Bolbochan.

After the coming to power of Hetman Pavlo Skoropadskyi on April 29, 1918, Petro Dyachenko did not leave the army, but continued his service in the cavalry hundred of the 2nd Zaporizhzhya Regiment of the Army of the Ukrainian State. During the anti-hetman uprising, the hundred was deployed in the separate horse camp named after Ataman Petro Bolbochan. On November 23, 1918, Dyachenko was appointed a centurion, and on January 17, 1919, he was appointed an officer.

Under the Command of Bolbochan

On January 22, 1919, in Kremenchuk, by order of Simon Petliura, Omelyan Voloh arrested Colonel Petro Bolbochan, one of the most authoritative figures among the Ukrainian army. The cavalry division of centurion Petro Dyachenko immediately went to Kremenchuk to relieve its commander. By the way, in the village Kryukove, the Cossacks disarmed a unit of the Volochiv 3rd Haydamatsky Regiment, which accompanied the arrested. Only Bolbochan's personal request kept Dyachenko from further use of weapons.

The Zaporozhians continued to take care of the fate of their beloved commander. But their requests were ignored. The appeal of the commanders of the Black Zaporozhians and division to return Colonel Bolbochan to them, which was also signed by Petro Dyachenko, remained unanswered.

Dyachenko and other Black Zaporozhian Senior Officers intended to contact the Sich riflemen and jointly seize the trains with the government and hold them until Colonel Bolbochan was released. But Bolbochan categorically forbade them to hold this action. However, when the black men learned that Colonel Bolbochan was being tortured, Petro Dyachenko prepared a strike group that was to attack the Balyn station, where the former commander of the Black Zaporozhian Cossacks was being held . This group, in addition to the Black Zaporozhian regiment , included hundreds of Nalivaikiv and Mazepyn regiments. However, without the consent of Bolbochan himself, Dyachenko did not dare to take this risky step.

When Petliura arrived at the front and the Cossacks raised the issue of the commander's return to him again, the Chief Ataman assured "that a hair will not fall from Colonel Bolbochan's head and his arrest is temporary . " Petliura confirmed the promise with the word of honor. Petro Dyachenko admitted that, when the Black Zaporozhians found out about Bolbochan's execution, Petlyura lost his popularity among the officers and Cossacks of the regiment by the end of the war .

On June 27, 1919, the Chief Ataman ordered to rename the kurin named after Petro Bolbochan to the regiment, but without the name of the disgraced colonel. That is how Petro Dyachenko became the commander of the Zaporozhian Cavalry Separate Cavalry Regiment of the Zaporozhian Corps [uk], later renamed the Cavalry Regiment of the Black Zaporozhian Cossacks .

The First Winter Hike

Petro Dyachenko took part in the First Winter Campaign . Knight of the Order of the Iron Cross . The regiment commanded by Dyachenko, on the eve of the Winter campaign, numbered 212 sabers, 11 heavy machine guns "Maxim", 9 light machine guns "Lewis", one cannon. A total of 417 Cossacks and officers.

On December 6, 1919, the remnants of the Ukrainian army left the Lubar  — Chortoriya [uk]  — Myropil district for the encampment of the people of Denikin . The Ukrainian army was walking through a terrible swamp against a strong wind and snow. They borrowed horses and fodder from the people of Galicia whom the soldiers of the UNR Army met near the railway line Kozyatyn  — Kalynivka (promised to return them as soon as they left the people of Denikin).

On December 11, 1919, they approached Golendra station. It was captured by the 4th Hundredth Regiment of the Black Zaporozhets almost without firing a single shot. Those Denikin residents who surrendered were captured, others who tried to escape were beheaded. Having destroyed the railway and telegraph, they moved on to Samhorodok [uk] .

On December 17, 1919, Dyachenko and fifty Cossacks attacked the volunteers in the town of Yurkivtsi . The volunteers did not have time to deploy into a row, and began to hastily shoot back with machine guns. In the attack, one of the best Cossacks of the regiment was killed - Ivan Dubin of Bunchuzh from Lokhvytsky [uk]. Among the trophies are three heavy machine guns, 30 wagons with property, 40 officers, their wives and two dozen privates. Mykola Bredov [uk] almost fell into Ukrainian captivity during the battle . In the village of Kapitanivka , which is 20 versts from Golovanivsk , a hundred Black Zaporozhians jumped on the enemy road, attacked it, forcing it to flee. In the evening of February 1, 1920 year the regiment of chernoshlychniks entered the village to Vilshan Dyachenko declared a day of rest on February 2.

On February 8, 1920, a regiment Black Zaporozhians [uk] jumped on Smila, after Dyachenko, together with the Mazepyn people, occupied the Bobrynska station, where they captured 11 echelons with property. It turned out to be the quartermaster of the front.

On February 13, 1920, in severe frost, the regiment of Black Zaporozhets marched through the village in a long column. Khudyaks to the Dnipro . Dyachenko together with the Cossacks moved to the left bank and began an offensive on Zolotonosha . At 7 a.m. on February 14, the Zaporozhians already left for this county town. A wild blizzard raged. At 7 o'clock in the morning on February 15, the Cossacks saw the gray buildings of Zolotonoshi. The station was occupied by the 2nd hundred. The station guard and commandant were captured. The prisoners reported that there were two special units of up to 500 men with machine guns in the city. These were international parts. 3rd and 4th hundreds under the command of lieutenant Broje [uk] went to the city. They flew to the middle of the city without firing a single shot. But the reds began to put up stiff resistance. They had to leave in a hurry, leaving behind even the slaughtered Cossacks. It was a shame for the Black Zaporozhia [uk]. To repel the dead, Colonel Petro Dyachenko sent the 2nd company, the rest of the 1st company and the company named after P. Sahaidachny to help. He ordered the others to advance in infantry. The enemy was pushed beyond the Zolotonoshka River, but he strengthened himself there.

Due to the lack of ammunition, the Cossacks on foot could not advance further, and the cavalry did not dare to cross the river, because the ice was extremely slippery. Having held half of the city until the evening, the Zaporizhia retreated to Dengy [uk] . On the way, they broke up the communist department. Later, the UNR Army returned to the Right Bank . The Zaporizhia crossed the Dnipro on February 18, 1920.

On March 1, 1920, the regiment of Black Zaporozhets attacked Golovanivsk [uk] . 50 communists were killed, another 60 were captured. Since Petro Dyachenko did not mention their fate in his memoirs, it is not difficult to predict that they were killed.

On March 4, 1920, the regiment went to Khoshchevata. Here the communists were supported by the local population. 40 Reds died as a result of an unexpected Zaporozhye attack.

On March 5, 1920, the black men were already in Hayvoron . Having learned from a Galician defector that the town of Bershad was occupied by the 3rd Galician Corps, which, together with the Red Army, numbered up to 12 thousand people, they decided to carry out a risky operation. Petro Dyachenko entrusted the matter to his deputy, lieutenant Brozhe. He fulfilled the task meticulously - without spilling Ukrainian blood, he disarmed the galleys, the battery and the machine gunner without firing a single shot. In Bershad, the Black-Shlychniks captured four cannons and cartridges for them, two heavy machine guns and more than 120 horses. Captain Dyachenko lined up the captured Galicians and offered to transfer to the regiment. Only 50 riflemen agreed to become Cossacks. They were mainly gunners. The rest remained in the red camp.

April 1920 came . The army of Omelyanovich-Pavlenka, which has been fighting for the fifth month in isolation from the Ukrainian government, without receiving any help from it, has reached a critical limit. Lacking cartridges and shells, on April 14, 1920, she approached the city of Voznesensk , where the Reds had concentrated large stocks of weapons and equipment. The battle for Voznesensk was to decide the fate of the Ukrainian army. And this city had to be taken with bayonets and sabers. Not the last role in the liberation of Voznesensk was played by units of the Black Zaporizhia.

On May 6, 1920, in the Yampol region, a detachment of the Black Army met with a detachment of the 3rd Iron Division [uk] , which was advancing from the west. "The spirit of the army has risen, the mood is indescribable. Despite the terrible fatigue, the army is again ready to attack the enemy..."  - recalled UNR political officer Vasyl Sovenko.

All participants of the Winter Campaign were awarded the Order of the Iron Cross . Petro Dyachenko was also awarded. And on June 23, 1920, he was promoted to the rank of colonel of the Army of the Ukrainian People's Republic.

Wounded near Burshtyn

In the summer of 1920, Dyachenko, at the head of his regiment, launched an attack on Burshtyn. The attack was through peatlands and hayfields, cut with ditches for water drainage. The enemy was retreating behind the haymakers. The rear guard of the Reds sat down in the ditches by the road and covered the retreat of their unit with machine gun fire. Enemy guns were also firing. Petro Dyachenko decided to use a flank attack to take over the enemy convoy, full of weapons and other military equipment, which the Zaporizhia were sorely lacking. With his saber raised, without looking back, the commander galloped on his swift-footed horse. During the attack, Petro Dyachenko was knocked off his horse, he received a serious injury - a fractured thigh bone. Cossacks carried the wounded commander from the battlefield. When he was lying under a pear tree with a broken leg, an enemy grenade hit the tree itself. Surprisingly, it did not break. Without completing a full course of treatment,

Camps for Internees

1920, like the previous year, ended with the November catastrophe. Petro Dyachenko and his fellow black men were sent to internment camps. He did not waste time - he arranged for his horsemen to join the Polish army, and tried to improve their living conditions. He himself worked as an ordinary worker. In 1921 - 1924  - in camps for internment . He had two sons in Poland. Yuriy was born on July 11, 1923, Oles on December 27, 1928 . This year, on July 20, Petro Dyachenko, in order not to lose his military qualifications and earn money to support his family, went to the Polish Army.

Officer of the Polish Army

From July 20, 1928, he served as a major in the Polish Army. Here are his positions in this army: so-called. at. the commander of the machine gun squadron (end of 1928), the commander of the line squadron (second half of 1931  ) of the 1st cavalry regiment named after Józef Pilsudski, assistant to the 1st deputy commander of the 3rd regiment of the Masovian cavalry brigade "Suwalki" ( November 1, 1934  — September 30, 1939 ). During his service, Petro Dyachenko graduated from the Higher Military School ( October 21, 1932  - November 1, 1934 ).

In 1936, the commander of the "Suwalka" cavalry brigade, Colonel Rudolph Kresher, gave the following assessment to the contract major of the Polish Army, Petro Dyachenko:

In 1934, he graduated from the Higher Military School.

The Second Liberation Competition

World War II found Petro Dyachenko on the Polish-Lithuanian border in Suwalki. As a contract officer of the Polish Army, Petro Dyachenko defended Poland against the Soviet troops in September 1939. In the battles against the Red Army over the Nieman river, he was wounded. His cavalry division fought its way to Lithuania, where it was interned.

Later, Dyachenko ended up in a camp for Polish officers near Königsberg. Soon the Germans released him, like many other Ukrainian senior officers. Dyachenko immediately reported to Volodymyr Salskyi, the Minister of Defense of the Government of the Ukrainian People's Republic .

On 25 June 1941, the Ukrainian General Council of Combatants was created in Kraków, which mainly included senior officers UPR Army. Mykhailo Omelyanovych-Pavlenko headed the Council, Vsevolod Petriv and Antin Kravs became his deputies. Petro Dyachenko became a member of its military-scientific and military-historical council, and on July 5, 1941, he headed the headquarters of the Ukrainian People's Revolutionary Army of Taras Bulba-Borovets. But soon he suddenly left his post. The head of the economic department of the regional military headquarters of the UPA-North group, Roman Petrenko, claimed that Dyachenko explained to him the reasons for his resignation.

In the future, Petro Dyachenko cooperated with the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists  — both with supporters of Stepan Bandera and with Andriy Melnyk, as well as with the Germans, in particular with their Sicherheitsdienst. Using his official position, he supplied Ukrainian insurgents with firearms, German military documents, and placed wounded insurgents in German hospitals.

From March 1944, Dyachenko ("Flower") participated in the organization of the Ukrainian Self-Defense Legion in the Kholm region (in German documents it was called the 31st SD battalion). In June of the same year, Dyachenko became the deputy commander of the Ukrainian Self-Defense Legion, its chief of staff, and in August he headed the legion. The unit numbered up to 570 soldiers, including 16 senior officers and 20 sub-senior officers.

On 30 January 1945, Colonel Petro Dyachenko turned 50 years old. In February, he became the commander of the 3rd Infantry Regiment of the Ukrainian Liberation Army. At the end of February 1945, with the permission and assistance of the Germans, he began to form a separate Ukrainian anti-tank brigade "Free Ukraine". Its basis was made up of senior officers UPR army, former Red Army soldiers and Ukrainians from the auxiliary anti-aircraft and fire-fighting units of Berlin. Petro Dyachenko personally staffed the team.

On 28 March 1945, the soldiers of the brigade swore allegiance to Ukraine. The oath contained the following words: