{{Short description|Ukrainian politician (1888–1938)}} {{Fnh|Petrovych|Zatonsky|lang=Eastern Slavic}} {{more citations needed|date=January 2013}} {{Use mdy dates|date=April 2026}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Volodymyr Zatonsky | native_name = {{Nobold|Володимир Затонський}} | native_name_lang = uk | image = Zatonskij Volodymyr.jpg | caption = Zatonsky in 1933 | order = Chairman of TsVK | term_start = March 19, 1918 | term_end = April 18, 1918 | predecessor = Yukhym Medvedev | successor = reorganized as ''Uprising Nine'' | order2 = Secretary of Education | prime_minister2 = Mykola Skrypnyk | term_start2 = December 30, 1917 | term_end2 = April 18, 1918 | predecessor2 = Office established | successor2 = Himself (as Narkom of Education) | order4 = Chairman of Halych Revkom | term_start4 = July 8, 1920 | term_end4 = September 21, 1920 | predecessor4 = Office established | successor4 = Office disestablished | order3 = Narkom of Education | prime_minister3 = Georgy Pyatakov <br> Christian Rakovsky | term_start3 = November 28, 1918 | term_end3 = ? | predecessor3 = Himself (as Secreatary of Education | successor3 = ? | birth_date = {{Birth date|1888|7|27|mf=y}} | birth_place = Lysets, Podolia Governorate, Russian Empire | death_date = {{Death date and age|1938|7|29|1888|7|27|mf=y}} | death_place = Kyiv, Ukrainian SSR, {{nowrap|Soviet Union}} | alma_mater = Kyiv University | party = RSDLP (Mensheviks) (1905–1917)<br />Russian Communist Party (1917–1937) | spouse = Olena Raskina | children = Dmytro Zatonsky | awards = {{Order of the Red Banner}} }}
'''Volodymyr Petrovych Zatonsky''' ({{langx|uk|Володи́мир Петро́вич Зато́нський}}; {{langx|ru|Влади́мир Петро́вич Зато́нский}}; July 27, 1888 – July 29, 1938) was a Soviet politician, academic, Communist Party activist, full member of the Ukrainian SSR Academy of Sciences (from 1929) and Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union (from 1936).
==Early life== Zatonsky was born in the village of Lysets in of Ushytsia uyezd, Podolia Governorate, Russian Empire (now in Kamianets-Podilskyi Raion, Khmelnytskyi Oblast, Ukraine) into the family of a volost pysar.
==Political career== thumb|left|Zatonsky prior to 1912
He joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) party as a Menshevik in 1905. In March 1917 he joined the Bolsheviks as the member of the Kyiv Committee, later joining the Kyiv revkom as well. He was one of few who initiated the organization of the Congress of the Workers-Peasants and Soldiers deputies as well as the military coup in Kyiv. Zatonsky participated in the fight against the Central Rada. [[File:Затонський Коцюбинський Бубнов 1918.jpg|thumb|left|Members of the Ukrainian Military Revolutionary Committee, Volodymyr Zatonsky, Yuriy Kotsyubynsky, Andrei Bubnov, 1918]] When the Red Army took over Kyiv in 1918 after the January Uprising, Zatonsky recalled that he only narrowly escaped execution as a counterrevolutionary when only Vladimir Lenin's mandate saved his life.<ref>''Budivnytstvo Radianskoyi Ukrainy'' (Kharkiv: 1928)</ref>
At the beginning of 1918 he was the Head of the Ukrainian delegation from the Ukrainian People's Republic of Soviets for the Brest-Litovsk Peace Conference. From March 19 to April 18, 1918, he was Chairman of the All-Ukrainian Central Executive Committee. In July 1918 he was a commissar of a strike force against the Left Socialist-Revolutionary rebellion in Moscow.
Beginning in November 1918 he was the Narkom of People's Education. While in that post he did everything in his power to shut down the Kamyanets-Podilsky State University as the concentration of the counter-revolutionary forces of Symon Petliura. From 1968 to 1997 the institute was named after Zatonsky.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://kamieniec-podolski.com/vydayushhiesya-lichnosti/zatonskij-vladimir-petrovich.html|title=Затонский Владимир Петрович | Сказка в камне | Каменец-Подольский|access-date=2019-08-04|archive-date=2016-03-04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304115936/http://kamieniec-podolski.com/vydayushhiesya-lichnosti/zatonskij-vladimir-petrovich.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> He personally was offered a position by Lenin as a representative of the Soviet Ukrainian People's Republic in the Russian SFSR.
On November 17–30, 1918, Zatonsky, Vladimir Antonov-Ovseyenko and Joseph Stalin became members of the Revolutionary Military Council (RMC) of the Special Group of Kursk Troops. The RMC developed a military-strategic plan for the liberation of Ukraine, and began to staff the front with troops. The headquarters of the formation was located in Kursk. From November 30, 1918, Zatonsky was a member of the RMC of the Ukrainian Soviet Army.<ref>От повстанчества к регулярной армии. Краснознамённый Киевский. 1979. С.с. 21-24.</ref><ref>Ратьковский И., Ходяков М. История Советской России. Глава 1. V. Боевые действия в конце 1918 — начале 1919</ref><ref>Ратьковский И., Ходяков М. История Советской России. Глава 1. V. Боевые действия в конце 1918 — начале 1919 гг. Выведен из состава кандидатов в члены ЦК на Январском пленуме ЦК 1938 года, уже после ареста.</ref>
In 1920 he was chairman of Galrevkom. In 1921 he received the Order of the Red Banner for the suppression of the Kronshtadt mutiny. Afterwards he held various government and Party positions in the Ukrainian Socialist Soviet Republic. In 1922 he was one of the persons who signed for the establishment of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics as the representative of the Ukrainian SSR. In September 1933 Zatonsky was appointed as chief editor of the Ukrainian Soviet Encyclopedia.
==Arrest and death== On November 3, 1937, he was arrested in a movie theater while he was with his family. Later the authorities conducted an unsanctioned search of his apartment searching for a proof of him being a spy for "bourgeois" Poland. After several days, his wife was arrested as well. He was charged with being a member of an anti-Soviet "{{ill|Ukrainian National Center|uk|Справа «Український національний центр»}}". On July 29, 1938, he was convicted after a 20-minute-long trial and sentenced to 10 years in prison without right of correspondence. During the Great Purge this was a euphemism for a death sentence, and the same day he was executed by firing squad. In 1956 Zatonsky, along with many others, was posthumously rehabilitated.
==References== {{Reflist}}
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{{s-start}} {{succession box | title=Director of Chervony Shliach | before=Mykola Khvylovy | after=Position abolished | years=1927–1936}} {{s-end}}
{{Ukrainian Bolshevik Revolution}} {{Presidents of Ukraine}} {{Soviet Ukraine Government (before 1938)}} {{Ministers of Education and Sciences of Ukraine}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zatonsky, Volodymyr}} Category:1888 births Category:1938 deaths Category:People from Khmelnytskyi Oblast Category:People from Ushitsky Uyezd Category:Russian Social Democratic Labour Party members Category:Mensheviks Category:Old Bolsheviks Category:Candidates of the Central Committee of the 17th Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) Category:Central Executive Committee of the Soviet Union members Category:Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine (Soviet Union) members Category:Education ministers of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic Category:Soviet foreign ministers of Ukraine Category:Deputies to the Ukrainian Constituent Assembly Category:Chairmen of the All-Ukrainian Central Executive Committee Category:Ukrainian diplomats Category:Full Members of the All-Ukrainian Academy of Sciences Category:Ukrainian revolutionaries Category:People of the Russian Revolution Category:Ukrainian Soviet Army personnel Category:Soviet people of the Ukrainian–Soviet War Category:Great Purge victims from Ukraine Category:Soviet rehabilitations