Career in The Ukrainian Army
In December 1917 he switched to Ukrainian service where his first assignment was the 2nd Serdyuk Division which was only starting to form and at that time consisted out a small officer corps. One of the Hrekov's first remarkable subordinates on the side of the Ukrainian People's Army was a colonel Petro Bolbochan. At one time the Russian prime-minister Vladimir Lenin was offering 50,000 rubles in silver for the head of colonel Bolbochan. During the same time Hrekov was appointed the chief of the Kiev Military District and was partially involved in the formation of the Sich Riflemen Halych-Bukovyna Kurin (Battalion) led by Yevhen Konovalets. The unit became the main supporter of the Central Rada and Mykhailo Hrushevsky. After the fall of Kiev early in 1918 Hrekov retired from the Ukrainian People's Army. From December 1918 until January 1919 he was assigned to undertake negotiations with French forces occupying Odessa on behalf of the Directorate of Ukraine. After a conflict with Petliura and leftist Ukrainian politicians, he was forced to resign his post and on 16 May 1919 assumed command of the Ukrainian Galician Army offered to him by Yevhen Petrushevych.
The Galician army faced against the better equipped the Heller's Army was pushed from Lviv all the way to Husyatyn at Zbruch river. Hrekov's presence there electrified the Galician soldiers, who were on the verge of defeat at the hands of the Poles during their war against them; many veterans of that war recalled the period under his command as the high point of their war experience. Under Hrekov's command, between 9 June and 5 July the army of the West Ukrainian People's Republic experienced its greatest success during the Chortkiv offensive, when the Poles were thrown back over 200 km (124 mi). Soon, however, the Polish forces were able to recover half of their yielded territory and stabilize the frontlines. As a result Hrekov became quite popular among the Ukrainians of eastern Galicia. Following a conflict with the leadership of the West Ukrainian National Republic (it is rumored that the head of the West Ukrainian National Republic was pressured by Petliura to let Hrekov go, because Petliura feared Hrekov's popularity and disliked his opposition to Petliura's socialist policies ) Hrekov and his family left for Romania in July 1919.
Read more about this topic: Oleksander Hrekov
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