Pantaleimon Belochub

Panteleimon Fedorovich Belochub was an anarchist, Black Army commander and farmer.

Life

Born into a peasant family in rural Ukraine, he became an anarchist who sympathised with the Bolsheviks in 1917, and joined the Black Army of Ukraine in 1919 and commanded a horse artillery unit. He helped defeated Red Army units at the battle of Stepovaya, and was arrested by the Kontrrazvedka for conspiracy to assasinate Makhno but was later released. He helped defeat the White Army at the battle of Wrangel in 1920 and deserted the Makhnovists in February 1921, giving himself up to the Bolsheviks for amnesty.

He returned to his native village and worked as a farmer and became chair of the village council. He was invited to the underground Nabat conference in Kharkov, but it was sabotaged by an unknown person (Viktor Belash is suspected) and turned into the Cheka, leading to 70 anarchists being arrested. Pantaleimon tried to find other anarchists in 1927 across Ukraine, and met Belochub and Avraam Budanov, who were highly suspicious of him. But they agreed and distributed anarchist pamphlets to workers and peasants in Ukraine, being arrested for it in 1928, and Pantaleimon was executed by firing squad in 1929.