After Skoropadskyi's name was heard in the hall, the conversations did not stop, but they changed.
Most of those present knew the name. For some, it was associated with his command of large formations and his military service; for others, with the Ukrainian military movement of recent months. But knowing the name of a general was one thing. Proposing him as Chief Ataman of the Cossacks, whose representatives had arrived from completely different parts of the former Empire, was another.
The chairman looked across the hall.
—"The candidacy of Skoropadskyi has been proposed. Who will substantiate the nomination?"
For several seconds, no one answered.
Then Pyotr Krasnov rose from his seat.
The hall grew quieter.
He stepped slightly forward.
—"I will."
Krasnov looked across the delegates.
—"I nominate Pavlo Petrovych Skoropadskyi for the position of Chief Ataman of the Free Cossacks."
He paused.
—"And before anyone asks why him, I will say this plainly. I know this man personally. We served together, and more than once we found ourselves in situations where a commander had to make a decision without being able to shift responsibility to anyone else."
The hall listened attentively.
Krasnov continued:
—"I saw him in the army. I know his attitude toward discipline, toward officers, and toward soldiers. He understands that military force does not exist because of weapons alone. It exists because of organization, command, and responsibility."
He spoke calmly, without trying to turn his speech into a political declaration.
—"I believe Skoropadskyi is suited to this position."
One of the delegates rose.
—"But Skoropadskyi is primarily connected with Ukraine."
Krasnov nodded.
—"He is. I do not deny that."
He paused briefly.
—"But we are not choosing an ataman for the Don, the Kuban, or Transbaikal. Each Host will retain its own ataman and its own command. We are discussing a man who will represent the Free Cossacks where we have a common position."
Several delegates nodded.
Krasnov continued:
—"If we wanted to place one man above all Cossack forces, I would not propose Skoropadskyi. In fact, I would not support such a position at all. The Don has its interests. The Kuban has its own. The Terek has its own. The same is true of the other Hosts."
He placed a hand on the edge of the table.
—"But if we need a common voice, Skoropadskyi can provide it."
The representative of Transbaikal looked at him carefully.
—"You speak of him as a soldier."
—"Because I know him as a soldier."
—"But the position will not be purely military."
Krasnov gave a slight smile.
—"That is precisely the difficulty. We are not choosing a politician or a new commander of a united army. We need a man whom different Hosts can accept."
He looked across the hall.
—"And his military authority becomes an advantage here. He does not have to please every one of us. It is enough that we can trust him with what we all agree upon."
The room fell silent for a moment.
Then the Kuban representative stood.
—"And what if one day he decides that the authority of the Chief Ataman is not enough?"
Krasnov answered without a smile this time.
—"Then we must define that authority in advance."
The chairman nodded.
—"That is exactly what has been proposed."
Krasnov continued:
—"Skoropadskyi must not command the Don Host. He must not command the Kuban. He must not interfere in the affairs of Transbaikal or any other Cossack Host without its consent. His task is representation and coordination of those matters on which the congress has genuinely reached a common position."
After that, the nature of the discussion began to change.
The delegates were no longer arguing only about Skoropadskyi himself. They were also discussing the position he was being asked to assume.
The chairman made a note and then looked at Krasnov again.
—"You have known him for a long time?"
—"Long enough."
—"And you trust him?"
Krasnov answered immediately.
—"Yes."
The certainty of the answer was stronger than any lengthy explanation.
He paused for a moment before adding:
—"I have seen him command men. I have seen how he treated his officers. And I have seen that, for him, an order was never simply words on paper. Behind it were always people who had to carry it out."
For a moment, Krasnov was no longer speaking about politics, but about a man he genuinely knew.
Memories of their former service passed through his mind.
Army headquarters.
Long meetings.
Maps spread across tables.
Short conversations between officers before another order was given.
Skoropadskyi had always struck him as a man who preferred to understand a situation before giving an order. He could be strict, but that strictness was not an end in itself. To him, discipline was a tool without which an army became nothing more than an armed crowd.
Krasnov understood well why that mattered now.
There were fewer and fewer men like that after the revolution.
—"I am not saying that Skoropadskyi never makes mistakes," Krasnov continued. —"No such commander exists. But I know that he understands the cost of a decision. And I know that he will not demand from others what he is unwilling to do himself."
The hall fell silent again.
After that, the floor was given to a representative of the Ukrainian delegation.
—"I support the nomination."
Several heads turned toward him.
—"Not because Skoropadskyi is Ukrainian. And not because he is a general. But because we need a man who can preserve at least some connection between those who still retain military organization."
He spoke briefly.
—"We are losing everything that once held the army together too quickly. If even the Cossacks cannot agree at least on representation, then each of us will continue acting entirely on our own."
The words provoked little opposition.
Too many of those present understood how quickly the old system was collapsing.
The chairman looked at the list of delegates.
—"Are there any other candidates?"
No answer came.
Several men exchanged glances, but no other name was proposed.
The chairman then said:
—"In that case, the candidacy of Pavlo Petrovych Skoropadskyi remains the only one submitted for consideration."
He paused.
—"But before we proceed to the vote, the authority of the position must be defined conclusively. The Chief Ataman does not receive the right to command individual Cossack Hosts. He represents the decisions of the congress and maintains communication between Cossack organizations within the authority granted to him."
Krasnov nodded.
That was what mattered most to him.
He was not seeking to create a new chain of command.
He wanted the many scattered Cossack forces to have a man who could speak with a common voice when they had a common position.
Now the decision belonged to the congress itself.
The chairman took the list of delegates in his hands.
—"We will now proceed to the consideration of the candidacy of Pavlo Petrovych Skoropadskyi."
The hall became quiet once again.
Now the delegates had to decide whether the man whom Krasnov had known since their earlier service would become the Chief Ataman of the Free Cossacks.
The discussion of Skoropadskyi's candidacy continued without the tension of the earlier debate.
The main questions had already been settled. Now the delegates had to decide whether they were truly prepared to entrust Skoropadskyi with the position they had just agreed to create.
The chairman gave the floor to a representative of the Don Host.
—"We have already discussed the authority of the position. Therefore, I see no reason to return to whether the Chief Ataman should command individual Hosts. He should not. That has been made clear. But I want to emphasize something else. If we choose a man who will speak on behalf of the congress, his voice must carry weight. Otherwise, the position itself has no meaning."
Several delegates supported him.
After him, the representative of the Kuban spoke.
—"The Kuban Host is prepared to support Skoropadskyi's candidacy on the condition that the independence of our Host is preserved. We did not come here to hand our command over to anyone."
The chairman confirmed:
—"That has already been established as a principle."
The representative nodded and returned to his seat.
Then a delegate from the Transbaikal Host rose.
He spoke much more briefly.
—"We are far from most of the forces represented here. Therefore, it is especially important to us that the new Chief Ataman does not become a superior over those who are thousands of kilometers away. If we are speaking about representation and communication between Cossack organizations, we are prepared to support the candidacy."
A clear understanding was gradually forming in the hall.
Most of the delegates did not see Skoropadskyi as a future supreme commander. His candidacy was acceptable precisely because the position was limited.
The chairman looked toward the Ukrainian delegation.
—"Are there any additional remarks?"
One of the representatives stood.
—"Only one. I believe it is necessary to state separately that the election of the Chief Ataman does not cancel the authority of local Cossack bodies. Otherwise, in a few months we may find ourselves in the same situation we are trying to prevent now."
The chairman wrote down the proposal.
—"It will be included in the resolution."
After that, Krasnov asked for the floor once more.
This time his speech was very brief.
—"I believe we have already said everything necessary. I proposed Skoropadskyi because I know him as an officer and believe he is capable of fulfilling the role we have defined today. But the decision must belong neither to me nor to the Don delegation. It belongs to the entire congress."
He sat down.
There were almost no other speakers.
The chairman announced that the congress would proceed to the vote.
The secretaries prepared the lists. The delegates were reminded once again of the proposal: to elect Pavlo Petrovych Skoropadskyi as Chief Ataman of the Free Cossacks, with the authority established by the congress and without the right to directly command individual Cossack Hosts.
The vote took place without much delay.
The secretaries began counting the ballots.
The hall became unusually quiet.
People exchanged glances as they waited for the result. For many present, this was the first time since the revolution that representatives of such different Cossack regions had attempted to make a common decision.
Finally, one of the secretaries handed a sheet to the chairman.
He read it carefully and raised his head.
—"According to the results of the vote, Pavlo Petrovych Skoropadskyi has been elected Chief Ataman of the Free Cossacks."
Applause broke out across the hall.
It was not equally strong everywhere. In some places, people applauded enthusiastically; elsewhere, only a few delegates joined in. But overall, the result was accepted calmly.
The chairman waited for the noise to subside.
—"The decision has been made."
The words sounded simple.
There were no grand declarations about the creation of a new state.
No united army was announced.
No common headquarters was established to which all Cossack forces would have to answer.
The congress had elected a man who was to become a common representative.
And that was the most important result.
One of the delegates quietly said to his neighbor:
—"We'll see what comes of it."
The other replied:
—"At least now we have someone to speak with."
The chairman continued the session.
—"The next question is the final approval of the regulations concerning the Chief Ataman and the nature of the Free Cossacks."
After the announcement of the result, the tension had eased somewhat.
But the work was not yet finished.
The election of Skoropadskyi alone did not answer the main question: what exactly did the Free Cossacks represent, and what real authority did the newly elected Ataman possess?
That was what the congress still had to determine.
After the announcement of the election results, the chairman did not close the session.
The election of the Chief Ataman was an important decision, but by itself it did not determine what exactly the Free Cossacks represented or what authority the elected man would possess.
On the table before the presidium lay a draft regulation prepared during the earlier discussions.
The chairman picked it up.
—"Comrades, we must now define the substance of the decision we have made. We have elected a Chief Ataman. But if we do not define his authority, before long everyone will understand this position differently."
The hall became quiet.
The chairman began reading the main provisions.
The Chief Ataman would represent the Free Cossacks on matters for which the congress had adopted a common decision.
He would maintain communication between the individual Cossack Hosts.
He could speak on behalf of the Free Cossacks before other political and military organizations when the congress had granted him the appropriate authority.
At the same time, individual Cossack Hosts would retain their own governing bodies, command structures, and internal organization.
This point attracted the greatest attention.
The representative of the Kuban asked for the wording to be clarified.
—"It must be stated explicitly that the Kuban Host does not transfer to the Chief Ataman the right to command its units."
The chairman looked toward the secretary.
—"Write that down."
The secretary made a note.
The representative of the Don added:
—"The same must apply to the Don Host."
—"Of course."
—"And to the others."
The chairman nodded.
—"That already follows from the general principle. But if the congress considers it necessary, we can state it separately."
After a brief discussion, the wording was clarified.
The Chief Ataman would have no right to issue orders to individual Cossack Hosts without the approval of their own governing bodies.
The provision satisfied most of the delegates.
But then the question of creating a unified military command arose.
One of the representatives proposed establishing a common headquarters.
—"If we genuinely want to coordinate the actions of the Cossacks, an Ataman alone will not be enough. We need a headquarters capable of gathering information, maintaining communication between the Hosts, and, when necessary, organizing joint operations."
The proposal provoked an animated discussion.
The idea itself was understandable.
After the collapse of the old army, communication between different regions was becoming increasingly unreliable. In many places, commanders no longer knew what was happening hundreds of kilometers away. Sometimes news arrived several days late, while orders from the central authorities had already lost their former authority.
But creating a common headquarters would mean much more than simply maintaining communications.
It would require personnel, funding, transport, communications equipment, and its own system of administration.
The Transbaikal representative pointed this out.
—"We can create a headquarters on paper. But who will maintain it? And how will it command forces that are thousands of kilometers apart?"
Someone answered:
—"It does not necessarily have to command them."
—"Then it will not be a headquarters in the military sense."
After a short discussion, the proposal was not included among the mandatory institutions of the Free Cossacks.
Instead, the congress agreed on a simpler system of communication between the individual Cossack organizations.
The next question was even more difficult.
A unified Cossack army.
The proposal was raised almost immediately after the discussion of the headquarters.
If there was a Chief Ataman, why not create common Cossack units under his command?
Some delegates supported the idea.
But within a few minutes, it became obvious how difficult it would be to implement.
The Don had its own structure.
The Kuban had its own.
The Terek was operating under completely different circumstances.
The Ukrainian Cossacks were developing national formations.
Transbaikal was separated from the western regions by an enormous distance.
In addition, every Host had its own governing bodies, supply depots, commanders, and political interests.
It was impossible to unite all of this with a single decision.
The chairman stated the obvious conclusion:
—"If we announce the creation of a unified army today, we will create nothing but a name. We have neither the men, nor a unified command, nor a unified supply system for such an army."
There were almost no objections.
The words were too practical to be easily challenged.
The idea of a unified Cossack army was therefore abandoned.
There would be no common military budget either.
No unified Cossack government would be created.
No body would be established with the authority to dispose of the lands of the various Cossack regions.
Each Host would continue to exist independently.
But now they would have a common political forum.
The Free Cossacks.
Its purpose was not to create a new state or attempt to restore the old system in its previous form.
It was to become a place where representatives of the different Cossack Hosts could discuss common issues and, when necessary, make joint decisions.
The final question concerned the title and status of the Chief Ataman.
The chairman read the final wording:
—"Pavlo Petrovych Skoropadskyi is elected Chief Ataman of the Free Cossacks. His authority extends to the representation and coordination of the common decisions of the congress and does not abolish the independence of individual Cossack Hosts."
For several seconds, the hall was silent.
The wording was much more modest than some of the proposals that had been heard at the beginning of the session.
But that was precisely why representatives from such different regions could accept it.
No one was handing Skoropadskyi an army.
No one was giving him their lands.
No one was placing their own forces under his direct command.
They were giving him something else—the right to speak on behalf of those who had agreed to speak together.
The chairman looked across the delegates.
—"Are there any objections?"
This time, no one rose.
—"Then the regulation is approved."
The secretary recorded the final decision.
The chairman set the documents aside.
For several seconds, the hall remained quiet.
Then he stood.
—"Comrades, the main questions of the congress have been considered. The decisions have been made. The session of the Free Cossacks is hereby closed."
The chairman struck the table with the gavel.
The delegates began to move.
People rose from their seats, gathered their documents and mandates. Some exchanged brief remarks, while others continued discussing the decisions that had just been adopted.
But the main work was finished.
The representatives of the Ukrainian, Don, Kuban, Terek, Orenburg, Ural, Siberian, and Transbaikal Cossacks had not created a unified army.
They had not created a common state.
They had not even placed their forces under a single command.
Instead, they had created a limited but common political representation and elected Pavlo Petrovych Skoropadskyi to lead it as Chief Ataman.
The congress had completed its work.