The Assassination of Petlura
Symon Petlura, who was head of the Directorate of the Ukrainian National Republic in 1919, had moved to Paris in 1924 and was the head of the government-in-exile of the Ukrainian People's Republic. Sholom Schwartzbard, who had lost his family in the 1919 pogroms, held Symon Petlura responsible for them (see the discussion on Petlura' role in the pogroms). According to his autobiography, after hearing the news that Petlura has relocated to Paris, Schwartzbard became distraught and started plotting Petlura's assassination. A picture of Petlura with Józef Piłsudski published in the Encyclopedia Larousse allowed Schwartzbard to recognize him.
On May 25, 1926, at 14:12, by the Gilbert bookstore, he approached Petlura, who was walking on Rue Racine near Boulevard Saint-Michel of the Latin Quarter, Paris, and asked him in Ukrainian, "Are you Mr. Petlura?" Petlura did not answer but raised his cane. Schwartzbard pulled out a gun shooting him five times and, after Petlura fell to the pavement, twice more. When the police came and asked if he had done the deed, he reportedly said, "I have killed a great assassin." Other sources state that he attempted to fire an eighth shot into Petlura, but his firearm jammed.
Read more about this topic: Sholom Schwartzbard