Nikolay Shchors - Revolutionary Period

Revolutionary Period

Upon his recovery on December 30, 1917 from the Simferopol City hospital Shchors was released from the military service due to health problems and at the beginning of 1918 he arrived back to his home village of Snovsk. Accidentally, since the January of 1918 the government of the Soviet Russia started military aggression against the Ukrainian People's Republic accusing the latter in sabotaging the frontlines of the Russian Imperial Army and impeding military maneuvers of the Red Army. In less than three weeks the "Red Guards" occupied most of the Left-bank Ukraine. Right before the elections to the Ukrainian Constituent Assembly the Red Army of Mikhail Muravyov sacked Kiev. The government of Ukraine was appealing to world powers to provide some military assistance and finally finding it in a face of the Central Powers that were eager to cooperate.

Sometime after the arrival to his native land he became acquainted with the chairman of a local Cheka Fruma Rostova (real name Khaikina) whom he married in the fall of 1918. Fruma in her early 20s was conducting so-called "cleaning" (zachistka) in the region, an ambiguous Cheka term. Simultaneously around that time Shchors also was enrolled into the Russian Communist Party (bolshevik). In March–April, 1918 he commanded a joint detachment of Novozybkovsky district that fought against the Ukrainian Army and German invaders as a part of the 1st Insurgent Division. In September 1918 he formed the 1st Bohun Regiment and lead it against German forces and Hetman's army. In November 1918 he took command of the 2nd brigade of the 1st Ukrainian Soviet division (Bohun and Tarashcha regiments) and took Chernihiv, Kiev and Fastiv from the Ukrainian Directory. On February 5, 1918 Shchors was appointed mayor of Kiev.

Between March 6 and August 15, 1919 Shchors again led the 1st Ukrainan Soviet division in its impetuous offensive and liberated Zhytomyr, Vinnytsia, and Zhmerynka from Petlyura. Then he smashed the main forces of Petlyura near Sarny - Rivne - Brody - Proskuriv.

In summer 1919 the Polish army began a major offensive. Shchors attempted to hold the line near Sarny - Novohrad-Volynsky - Shepetivka, but was forced to retreat east by the superior numbers of the enemy. The 1st Ukrainan Soviet division was merged with the 44th Rifle Division and Shchors was appointed its new commander. Under his command the division defended the Korostensky railroad junction allowing the evacuation of Kiev and the escape of the southern group of the 12th Army from encirclement.

According to an official version, while fighting in the front lines of Bohun regiment, Shchors was killed in very obscure circumstances near the Biloshitsa village (now Shchorsivka village, Zhytomyr Oblast) on August 30, 1919. However, according the version of Ukrainian student of local history Holovatyi, Shchors was killed by a commissar of the 12th Division near Korosten after the decision of Revolutionary military council. Shchors was buried in Samara, far from the battlefield, for unclear reasons.

Shchors' widow's maiden name was Fruma Khaikina. Her revolutionary name was Rostova, after the heroine of War and Peace, Natasha Rostova. Their daughter married noted Soviet physicist Isaak Markovich Khalatnikov.