Historians Pavlo Gai-Nyzhnyk and Serhiy Gromenko gathered to talk about the ambiguous and controversial figure of the colonel within the walls of kmbs. Journalist Dmytro Shurkhalo moderated the meeting. The topic aroused lively interest, so many guests came to listen to the experts' discussion.

As you know, on April 22, 1918, during the Crimean operation under the leadership of Colonel Peter Bolbochan, the UNR army forced Sivash. It liberated Dzhankoy, the first nodal station in the Crimea, from the Bolsheviks. Thanks to this, the Ukrainian army got an opportunity to launch a further offensive and reached Simferopol before the Germans. Victory was achieved with minimal losses. Serhii Gromenko believes this is clearly Petr Bolbochan's achievement, which should be remembered. He is also the author of the book "Forgotten Victory." Pyotr Bolbochan's Crimean operation of 1918".

However, Bolbochan's biography later included participation in the anti-Hetman uprising, the loss of the Left Bank, the army chieftainship, and quarrels with Petliura. According to Dmytro Shurhal, all this is evidence of inconsistency and political immaturity, which ultimately led to the arrest and execution of our own.

Pavlo Gai-Nizhnyk called, first of all, to approach the figure of Peter Bolbochan in a balanced way, without prejudices, not to attach labels to either a hero or a traitor, and to use historical thinking.

After all, the fate of Pyotr Bolbochan generally appears to be tragic due to the many contradictions of the events of a century ago.

Petro Bolbochan: on the scales of Ukrainian history