Its leader was otaman Nykyfor Hryhoriv, who gathered around him guerrilla troops of peasants rebelling against food requisitions and repression led by the Cheka.

Hryhoriv, who hid from the pursuit with the rest of his supporters and reached the area controlled by Nestor Makhno's Revolutionary Insurgent Army, announced his joining the Makhnovist movement.

Hryhoriv's uprising disintegrated the Ukrainian Front of the Red Army and largely thwarted its command's plans to march to Bessarabia, join the region to the Soviet state, and then intervene in Hungary and extend the communist revolution to Romania.

[5] Bolshevik party activists were directed to the areas of the Mykolaiv, Kherson and Odesa under the control of Hryhoriv, in order to organize the power structures, conscript people into the Red Army and requisition food.

[7] Simultaneously, after the conquest of Odesa, Hryhoriv dismissed his troops for a three-week "rest", allowing the soldiers to return to their places of origin, instead of supporting Nikolai Khudiakov [ru] in the attack on Tiraspol.

[11] Recognizing that there were many reasons in Hryhoriv's arguments and observing the mood among his soldiers,[12] Antonov-Ovseenko decided to persuade him to continue his service in the Red Army.

Seeing an ambitious adventurer in the otaman, the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Front entrusted him with the prestigious mission of the march to Bessarabia, convincing him that winning victories over the Romanians would allow him to contribute to spreading the revolution in Europe and ensure him enormous personal fame.

[17] On 29 April, Antonov-Ovseenko, alerted by reports of attacks on communists in the places where Hryhoriv's soldiers were stationed, went again to Oleksandriia, returning from another inspection at Nestor Makhno's headquarters of Huliaipole.

[18] At the same time, in the Kherson Governorate, where Hryhoriv's soldiers were stationed, mass peasant riots began against forced food requisitions and repression by Cheka.

[19] On 7 May, Bolshevik commissars in Yelysavethrad and at Hryhoriv's staff informed Kyiv and Odesa party organizations that the Otaman had rebelled against the government of the Ukrainian SSR.

"The Otaman called for the organization of village, district and provincial councils, each with 80% of seats reserved for Ukrainians, 5% for Jews and 15% for the rest, with the admission of representatives of all parties and non-party members that supported the concept of Soviet power.

[21] A day later, the Otaman's troops reached Katerynoslav, from which the Red Army units hurriedly retreated, as the garrison of the nearby Verkhnodniprovsk defected to the rebels.

[26] Anatoly Skachko [ru], commanding the Bolshevik forces in Katerynoslav, panicked at the news of the coming rebels and, contrary to Antonov-Ovseenko's orders, did not even attempt to defend the city.

[28] On 19 May, a group of troops under the command of P. Yegorov defeated supporters of the Otaman at Kremenchuk, and the Dnieper war flotilla finally left Cherkasy.

[32] Hryhoriv's supporters held Boryslav, Kakhovka, Nikopol in their hands for some time, attacking military transports going to Crimea and making raids towards Oleksandriia.

[35] Hryhoriv's uprising disintegrated the Ukrainian Front of the Red Army and largely thwarted its command's plans to march to Bessarabia, join the region to the Soviet state, and then intervene in Hungary and extend the communist revolution to Romania.