Kholodny Yar Republic, Cold RavineRepublic or Kholodnoyarsk Republic was a self-proclaimed state formation, partisan movement on the lands of the Ukrainian People's Republic, in the Chyhyryn district of the Kyiv province, in the area of the Kholodny Yar forest tract. The village of Melnyky was its capital. Kholodny Yar Republic was the last territory in which Ukrainians continued to fight for an independent Ukrainian state before the incorporation of Ukraine into the Soviet Union as the Ukrainian SSR. Thus it was an important part of the Ukrainian War of Independence. During the Soviet era, the history of this entity and its figures was silenced or distorted because, according to many researchers, it could lead to an increase in undesirable attitudes from the point of view of the authorities in society.
History
In 1918-1922, the Orthodox Motronynsky Monastery became the center of the Ukrainian insurgent movement against the 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. 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 Republik 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 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, Mefodiy Golyk-Zalizniak, Semen Vovk, Oleksa Kotsyubenko, Kalyuzhny, D. Kanatenko, 1st and 2nd Olexandrian Regiments were subordinated to him. After the death of Vasyl Chuchupaka, the Kholodnoyarsk Republic was headed by the Deputy Chief Otaman, Ivan Derkach, a member of the Kholodnoyarsk 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 along the Kamyanka-Yehradivka-Ruzhychiv-Chyhyryn line. The division stopped in the Kholodny Yar tract, where it joined the Kholodny Yar Armed Forces. On September 24, 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 Kholodnoyarsk Republic were also recognized by coastal villages. 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.
One of the stages of the Cheka's special operation to liquidate the Kholodnoyarsk Republic was the so-called "amnesty" promised to those insurgents who surrendered voluntarily. The transition took place in the village Zhabotyn on the 4th August 1921. Ivan Petrenko, Chairman of the Kholodnoyarsk District Headquarters, Otamans Derkach, Vasylenko, Oleksa Chuchupak, S. Chuchupak, Tovkachenko, 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. The Russian Bolsheviks planned to eliminate the amnestied otamans from the very beginning, but did not dare to do so until November, when they set out to eliminate not only the otamans but also the entire insurgent, "suspicious" and "sympathetic" element in the Kholodny Yar area. Very soon, repression against the population became the main means of combating the insurgency. Families of insurgents and "kurkul" elements who helped the insurgents were evicted. Property, inventory and food supplies were confiscated from them. All able-bodied people were sent to labor units, disabled people were placed in cities and towns. The Kholodny Yar Republic lasted until 1922, when the Bolsheviks deceitfully lured the otamans into an ambush. However, even in captivity, within the walls of the Kyiv prison, the rebel leaders broke through the guards, seized weapons and tried to break free. During the unequal battle, they all died heroic deaths.
