A memorial plaque dedicated to the 1917 revolution is smashed in Odesa

Unidentified persons smashed a memorial plaque commemorating the activities of Rumchorod and the establishment of Soviet power in the city in 1918.

According to an international correspondent, the plaque was hanging on the facade of building 9 on Primorsky Boulevard.

The correspondent saw the fragments of the plaque on the morning of May 9. "Rumchorod" is the abbreviated name of the central executive committee of deputies of the Soviets of the Romanian Front, the Black Sea Fleet, and the Odesa District (Kherson, Tavria, parts of Podillia and Volyn provinces), a revolutionary body founded by the first front and district congress of Soviets, which took place from May 10 to 27 (according to the new style, from May 23 to June 9) in 1917 in Odesa. The majority of the first convocation was made up of Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries.

After the second congress, Rumchorod opposed the Central Rada and, with the help of enlarged front-line units, took over power in Odesa, trying to extend its influence to Bessarabia, which was occupied by Romanian troops. On January 25, 1918, in Odesa, the Central Executive Committee of Rumchorod declared that it was the supreme authority on the Romanian front and in the Odesa region and that it alone had the right to disband, reorganize, and form new military units. The Executive Committee declared the interference of the UCR bodies in the demobilization of the army illegal and canceled the order of the commissioner in Odesa, Viktor Poplavko, to disband a number of units of the Odesa garrison. CEC

On February 5, the Central Executive Committee of the Soviets published a resolution stating that it considered itself to be at war with Romania and announced the mobilization of volunteer units and a transport flotilla in Odesa and the Tiraspol, Kherson, Akkerman, Bendery, and Odesa districts.

In late February, Rumchorod issued a decree to arrest the richest Odesa residents with a ransom demand of 10 million rubles. On the initiative of Serhiy Gutnyk, the ransom was collected and the mortgages were released on March 4. On the same March 4, due to the approach of German-Austrian troops, the Central Executive Committee of the Soviets of Rumchorod decided to establish an Emergency Defense Headquarters to operationally manage the city's defense and put its armed forces on alert, as well as to mobilize. However, in March 1918, Austrian troops occupied Odesa, and Rumchorod evacuated to the east to Russia, where it was liquidated in May. When the Bolsheviks retreated, they took the Odesa merchant fleet with them.

Кирило Бойко