Belochub, Panteleimon Fedorovich (1892-1929)

Pantaleimon Belochub was born into a peasant family in the village of Stary Krim in Mariupol county. According to Viktor Belash he became an anarchist with sympathy for the Bolsheviks in 1917. He joined the Makhnovist movement in March 1919 and commanded the 2nd Horse Artillery Battery of the Yekaterinoslav Corps of the Makhnovists in autumn and winter 1919.

On November 8th, 1919 he took part in the defeat of the 2nd Tersky Division of the Red Army at the village of Stepovaya.

In the same month he was somehow connected to the conspiracy by the Communist Polonsky to kill Makhno and other Makhnovist commanders. He was arrested on 2nd December 1919 by the Makhnovist counterintelligence, testified against Polonsky, and was released.

He took part in the attack on the White forces of Wrangel in autumn 1920 and the Makhnovist raids in the winter of 1920-1. In February 1921, together with a group of gunners, he deserted the Makhnovists and give himself up to the Bolsheviks for amnesty.

Returning to his native village, he became chair of the village council, a post he held until 1927. After this he engaged in economic work.

Belochub was one of the ex-Makhnovists invited to the underground conference of the Nabat Confederation of Anarchists to be held in August 1924 at Kharkov. Before it took place, and probably thanks to Viktor Belash, now working as a provocateur and informer for the Soviet security services, 70 anarchists were arrested.
In 1927 Belash undertook a tour of the Ukraine, taking in Mariupol, with the express purpose of discovering anarchist and Makhnovist networks. He met up with Belochub and Avraam Budanov, another old Makhnovist artillery man, who were both suspicious of him. When asked whether he took part in anarchist activity Belochub replied that he was not interested in “anarchist prehistory”. This seemed to work as he was not arrested, However , he and Budanov and others were involved in agitation and propaganda among workers and peasants in the Mariupol area, with the distribution of duplicated leaflets.

Belochub and Budanov were arrested in late 1928, Belochub being apprehended on November 23rd. They had intended resisting the forced collectivisation of the peasants, and were ready to move to armed action according to the OGPU, who claimed to have discovered hidden arms caches,

He was arrested by the OGPU on November 23rd and condemned on April 15th 1929 for anarchist activity, participation in the Makhnovist movement and preparation of an armed uprising.15th 1929 and shot soon after, along with Budanov.

Nick Heath

Sources:

Dubovik. A. The Anarchist Underground in the Ukraine in the 1920s and 1930s:
https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/b2rcr2
http://www.hrono.ru/biograf/bio_b/belochub.html
https://ru.openlist.wiki/Белочуб_Пантелеймон_Федорович_(1892)