Pugachev's Rebellion
Pugachev's Rebellion (Peasants' War 1773-75, Cossack Rebellion) of 1773-75 was the principal revolt in a series of popular rebellions that took place in the Russian Empire after Catherine II seized power in 1762. It began as an organized insurrection of Yaik Cossacks headed by Yemelyan Pugachev, a disaffected ex-lieutenant of the Imperial Russian Army, against a background of profound peasant unrest and war with the Ottoman Empire. After initial success, Pugachev assumed leadership of an alternative government in the name of the assassinated Tsar Peter III and proclaimed an end to serfdom. This organized leadership presented a challenge to the imperial administration of Catherine II.
Controversy surrounding the Lviv pogroms of 1941
In November 2007 the then President Viktor Yushchenko's visited Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. Government minister Tommy Lapid approached him voicing his disapproval of awarding Roman Shukhevych with Ukraine's highest title of "Hero of Ukraine," stating that Shukhevych had taken part in the Lviv pogroms as commander of the Nachtigall Battalion. Yushchenko replied: "No archives today can confirm any action of a punitive nature, in which soldiers of the UPA and other similar organizations took part", and stated that he was confident about it. At a foreign policy forum in Jerusalem, Yushchenko defended the award of Hero of Ukraine given posthumously to Roman Shukhevych for his role in fighting for Ukraine's independence. Addressing the charges from Holocaust researchers that Nachtigall took part in anti-Jewish atrocities in Lviv in June–July 1941, Yushchenko replied: "I have materials, documents, saying that in the course of grander context of Ukrainian rebellion, Shukhevych signed a petition that prohibited massive persecutions (of civilians)." During Yushchenko 's visit to Israel, he and the Israeli President Shimon Peres agreed to form a joint Israeli-Ukrainian working group to study their common history, including Shukhevych's role in it.