Simeon Pravda

Simeon Pravda (Ukrainian: Симеон Правда) was a Ukrainian military commander, known mainly for his persecution of the Mennonite colonists of Schönfeld, which preceded the Eichenfeld massacre.

Biography

Simeon Pravda was born in the southern Ukrainian village of Liubymivka. He began work as a miner but later went to work on the railways, where he lost his legs in an accident, leaving him no longer able to work. He then became a traveling beggar, moving between villages by cart, along with his mother.

Following the victory of Nestor Makhno's insurgent forces at the battle of Dibrivka, in November 1918, Pravda gathered a partisan band around himself and occupied the Mennonite colony of Schönfeld. Pravda and his detachment robbed the residents at gunpoint, loading up all of their carts with money and valuables, before taking them back to Liubymivka. Pravda's detachment then lent direct assistance to the Makhnovists, attacking the Ukrainian nationalist positions at Zherebets on 20 November and capturing Makhno's home town of Huliaipole on 27 November.

Pravda returned to Schönfeld on 29 November and moved into the house of the Warkentin family, who had since fled to Molotschna, turning the village into their headquarters. Although their first weeks in Schönfeld were characterised by intolerance for the local colonists, the disposition of the Mennonites eventually softened relations between the two, with Pravda and his followers even forming friendships with some of the colonists. From Schönfeld, Pravda's followers carried out a series of raids on nearby villages, often killing innocent people that were known by the local colonists or publicly executing Russian landowners.