Mykhailo Kovenko () was a Ukrainian military and political figure.

Biography

Born in a village of Hryazne (today Chernechyna) of Okhtyrka county on November 8, 1888, Kovenko finished his school near

Kharkiv Kharkiv, also known as Kharkov, is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city in Ukraine.

Liubotyn Liubotyn or Lyubotyn (, ; ) is a city in Kharkiv Raion, Kharkiv Oblast, eastern Ukraine. It hosts the administration of Liubotyn urban hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine. Population: History The city was established in 1650 by Ukrainian C ...

in 1899. Later Kovenko emigrated to Germany where he finished a technical school in

Altenburg Altenburg () is a city in Thuringia, Germany, located south of Leipzig, west of Dresden and east of Erfurt. It is the capital of the Altenburger Land district and part of a polycentric old-industrial textile and metal production region betw ...

(

Duchy of Saxe-Altenburg Saxe-Altenburg () was one of the Saxon duchies held by the Ernestine duchies, Ernestine branch of the House of Wettin in present-day Thuringia. It was one of the smallest of the German states with an area of 1323 square kilometers and a populati ...

) and

Technische Universität Darmstadt The Technische Universität Darmstadt (official English name Technical University of Darmstadt, sometimes also referred to as Darmstadt University of Technology), commonly known as TU Darmstadt, is a research university in the city of Darmsta ...

Darmstadt Darmstadt () is a city in the States of Germany, state of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Frankfurt Rhine Main Area, Rhine-Main-Area (Frankfurt Metropolitan Region). Darmstadt has around 160,000 inhabitants, making it the ...

(

Grand Duchy of Hesse The Grand Duchy of Hesse and by Rhine () was a grand duchy in western Germany that existed from 1806 to 1918. The grand duchy originally formed from the Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt in 1806 as the Grand Duchy of Hesse (). It assumed the name ...

) in 1910. In 1910 Kovenko joined the 1st Caucasus Railway Battalion. In 1914 he worked as an engineer assistant for servicing mills at the Kharkiv department of merchant guild "Abram Volkenstein and sons". From October 1915 to July 1916 Kovenko headed a technical bureau of Mechanical Shops department for the Southwestern Front committee of All Russian Land Union (Zemskoi Soyuz). In 1916 he joined the Ukrainian Social Democratic Labor Party and from July 1917 member of the

Central Council of Ukraine The Central Rada of Ukraine, also called the Central Council (), was the All-Ukrainian council that united deputies of soldiers, workers, and peasants deputies as well as few members of political, public, cultural and professional organizations o ...

where he represents the All-Ukrainian Soviet of Workers Deputies. By the end of 1917 Kovenko switched to the Ukrainian Party of Socialist-Independists which stood in opposition to government and arose from the Ukrainian People's Party of Mikhnovsky. On September 17, 1917, he was appointed as a director of Election bureau for the General Secretariat of Interior. On December 3, 1917, Kovenko was a

Free Cossacks Free Cossacks () were Ukrainian Cossacks that were organized as volunteer militia units in the spring of 1917 in the Ukrainian People's Republic. The Free Cossacks are seen as precursors of the modern Ukrainian national law enforcement organiz ...

instructor for protection of elections. In January 1918 as the leader of

he was appointed the city commissar of Kiev of the

. On January 16, 1918, due to advance of the Russian Red Guards Kovenko was installed to the position of Kiev city special commandant participating in the defense of Kiev against the Russian troops and extinguishing the Bolshevik uprising at Arsenal factory. He conducted numerous arrests against the

Left Socialist-Revolutionaries The Party of Left Socialist-Revolutionaries-Internationalists () was a revolutionary socialist political party formed during the Russian Revolution. In 1917, the Socialist Revolutionary Party split between those who supported the Russian Pro ...

who joined Bolshevik government. On March 9, 1918, Kovenko was appointed as a representative of

Ministry of Foreign Affairs In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and relations, diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral r ...

of Ukraine for the German military administration. From May 1918 he served as a director of the

Arsenal Factory Arsenal Special Device Production State Enterprise (), also known as the Arsenal Factory, is one of the oldest factory, factories in Kyiv. History Pre-1918 The factory was established in 1764 as a repair and production facility of the Imperia ...

. In 1919 Kovenko was a chief editor of newspaper Ukrayina in

Kamyanets-Podilsky Kamianets-Podilskyi (, ; ) is a city on the Smotrych River in western Ukraine, western Ukraine, to the north-east of Chernivtsi. Formerly the administrative center of Khmelnytskyi Oblast, the city is now the administrative center of Kamianets ...

and a special commandant of

Vinnytsia Vinnytsia ( ; , ) is a city in west-central Ukraine, located on the banks of the Southern Bug. It serves as the administrative centre, administrative center of Vinnytsia Oblast. It is the largest city in the historic region of Podillia. It also s ...

. In 1919 he also headed the Supreme Investigative Commission in struggle against counterrevolution. In 1920 Kovenko emigrated to

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

where in 1922 he worked in a department of the League of Nations Ukrainian Association.

External links

Mykhailo Kovenko
Institute of History of Ukraine.
Ivanushchenko, H. ''Ukrainian Revival 1917-20 in the land of Sumy: an attempt for a documented reconstruction of events''

Koval, R. ''Mykhailo Kovenko - an organizer of Free Cossacks''

Enduring nation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kovenko, Mykhailo 1888 births 20th-century deaths People from Sumy Oblast People from Kharkov Governorate Ukrainian emigrants to Romania Ukrainian Social Democratic Labour Party politicians Members of the Central Council of Ukraine Technische Universität Darmstadt alumni