Читать книгу The Slaughter of the Jews in the Ukraine in 1919 - Elias Heifetz - Страница 6

ON the ninth of November, 1918, the revolution broke out in Germany. The consequence was a political crisis in German-occupied Ukraine and a revolt against German domination.

On the thirteenth of November a political general strike was determined upon at a general meeting of the Central Bureau of the Ukrainian Labor Union. Everywhere in the basin of the Donetsk where the Austrian troops retired there was a revolt. On the fifteenth of November the movement began in the Government of Kiev, district of Tarascha. Everywhere insurgent bands were formed under the leadership of Makhno, Grigoriev and others. At the head of the movement was a Directory and later Petlura. Yekaterinoslav, Kharkov and Odessa went over to the Directory. On the eleventh of December Kiev was occupied.

The rebellion of Petlura was not so much under the banner of nationalism as under that of Socialism and partly also of Bolshevism. The radical watchwords of the city gave expression to the general sentiment, particularly the desire of the villagers to obtain complete rights of disposition of the soil. This demand had the support not only of the rich peasants under the leadership of the "independent" socialists, but also of the middle peasants under the leadership of the socialist parties of the left. The city proletariat inclined to the Bolsheviki. Petlura entered Kiev as a national hero, but he was followed by his shadow, the Bolshevist Soviet power. As early as the middle of November there was formed in Kursk the Ukrainian Soviet Government, which began a campaign against the Directory. Advancing from north to south, the Bolsheviki occupied Gomel, Glukhov, Sumy, Kharkov, Yekaterinoslav, and finally on the second of February, Kiev; Kharkov having been occupied by the Red Army even before Petlura's entrance into Kiev.

The international position of the Directory was also altogether difficult. Their negotiations with the Entente and Rumania through General Grekov in Odessa led to no result. The Entente held fast to the principle of a "united and undivided Russia" and supported Denikin.

Fermentation began among the troops of the Directory. These may be divided into two groups, insurrectionist and regular troops. When Petlura entered Kiev in December, 1918, at the head of the Directory, the peasant rebels formed the majority of his military force. Radically disposed as a result of the long guerilla warfare against the rule of the Germans and the Hetman, they formed at that time a disciplined mass, who had been for a great part through the school of the imperialistic war. In general, however, this mass was politically unstable and always divided, protecting the Ukrainian Republic whenever there was danger on the right, and becoming disloyal when there was a rebellion on the left. The regular troops were mainly enrolled in Odessa through the so-called military Rada, which stood under the military and political leadership of the most reactionary elements in the Ukrainian national movement (the independents, Ataman-Verbitski and Doctor Luzenko), from the circles of the wealthiest peasants as well as the nationalistically minded mobs of Ukraine. These formed the bands of Gaidamaks. They were joined by the Galician sharpshooters who had been war prisoners in Germany and had received there a particular Ukrainian nationalistic training. At the head of the army was a group of reactionaries. The political leadership was in the hands of the "independent*' Doctor Luzenko, the military leadership was in the hands of Konovaletz. Kavenko was emissary.

The leaders were confronted by an enormously difficult problem, that of welding into a unit a mass of troops in which the majority were radical while the minority were in favor of a national military dictatorship. Such a fusion of the army was an absolute necessity. The anti-Semitic agitation began. The bands of Gaidamaks had long been hostile to the Jews. At a time when the relations were still friendly, a number of Jews were attacked by them with the cry, "Cut down the Jews!" Konovaletz, the military leader of the troops of the Directory, selected for this special purpose from the Gaidamaks two Ukrainian Cossacks and certain well-disciplined bands, held together by their common hatred of the Bolsheviki and the Jews. These were the so-called "Kureni Smerti" (Clans of Death). Here also belonged special bands under the leadership of various "Batki." These bands were united by love of fighting in common, by reverence for and obedience to the Batko and by various peculiar privileges which they enjoyed. "They fight well, therefore they are permitted to plunder." This was the judgment of the military chiefs.

The conduct of these troops in quiet and, if I may say so, pogromless times, and the attitude toward them of the military authorities, are exhibited in a glaring light in a sketch of a memorial prepared by Abrrius, the head of the police of Zhitomir, and handed to the Directory in the name of the administration of the city of Zhitomir. In this cautiously written memorial the authors request the Directory to remove from the city the troops which were quartered there during the first pogrom (the sketch in question was composed in the time between the first and the second pogroms). The soldiers are "very much demoralized, have absolutely no occupation and in connection with the mob strike fear and terror into every inhabitant. . . . This refers especially to the 'Sotnias' of the commandants. The city administration and the, investigating commission had full opportunity to convince themselves that persons in military cloaks caught with stolen goods were in the service of the Sotnias of the commandants. When they were arrested and brought before the commandant, he at once set them free, whereupon they had the impudence to visit the administration and the investigating commission again and again and demand the return of the stolen property. This demand the investigating commission sometimes granted in view of the defiant attitude of the offenders and the circumstance that they had been let go without any punishment. Later these same persons, armed, drove in droshkas through the city, where they no doubt kept up their nefarious doings."

After the first pogrom the city administration organized night patrols of the inhabitants to prevent robbery (a kind of self-defense). The commandant gave his consent to the organization. "Immediately thereafter the city administration in the first night of the patrol's duty found themselves face to face with serious misunderstandings. In the first place, the commandant had given an order that no Cossack was to be arrested, and there were no exceptions to this rule. By this order all possibility was removed of doing anything to stop the excesses committed by the persons in gray cloaks. On the other hand, despite the requests of the administration, the commandant gave a special order in which he explained to the soldiers the purpose and the task of the night patrols. The night patrols were attacked by persons in soldiers' uniform and by Cossack officers. They began to disarm the city patrols, first in single cases, then more and more frequently, and finally the disarmament assumed a systematic and general character. Besides, the persons in military cloaks evidently were supported by the law, which prohibited any action against them, and became more defiant and shameless every day. A band of eight persons passed through the main streets at one o'clock in the afternoon and robbed the passersby of their purses and valuables under the pretext of looking for arms. Despite the complaints of the administration the excesses remained unpunished. Attacks on dwellings became more and more frequent, while at the same time the city patrols were disarmed and robbed. The bandits took away their caps, watches, shoes, abused and insulted them at every step and indulged in anti-Semitic incitations. "Later the city administration which had reported the matter to the commandant and commander of the corps was astounded to read in the papers an order by which it was made a duty of the military patrols to shoot down not only the plunderers but also those whom the patrols regarded as enemies of the Republic and propagandists of Bolshevism. In this way the peaceful population was handed over to the arbitrary and unlimited whims of a degenerate and unruly mob in gray coats, and the city administration was deprived by this order of every possibility of organizing any resistance against the robbers and authors of violence."

In this way the soldier bands were systematically trained for the pogroms. They were demoralized, the life, honor and property of the peaceful population were given over to them and they disposed of life and death.

They carried out the order of their chiefs, because the orders were for and not against them. They still maintained discipline. Later, in consequence of impunity, they lost all discipline and degenerated simply into robber bands.

As long as discipline still prevailed among them, the pogroms instituted by them clearly bore the character of the execution of a military command. The Jewish persecutions began and ended at a signal, mostly open, sometimes secret.

All the pogroms carried out by the regular troops of the Directory followed a certain common general plan. They were intensified in number and in degree of cruelty in times when the Directory felt itself especially threatened by the Bolsheviki, they were reduced in intensity when the Bolsheviki were driven out of the Ukraine by the troops of Denikin. The resolution of the council of ministers of the Petlura Government to take radical measures against the pogroms dates from the eighteenth of August, the proclamation of Petlura to the army on the same subject dates from the twenty-sixth of August, i.e., from the day when the Soviet power had already been driven out of the Ukraine by Denikin and the days of their stay in Kiev were numbered. The pogroms organized by the Directory assumed in the year 1919 a definite form.

THE JANUARY POGROMS

These were confined principally to the eastern part of the government of Volhynia, because the troops of Petlura were obliged at that time, under the pressure of the Bolsheviki who were advancing toward Kiev from the north and northwest, to retire while fighting. Here belong the pogroms in Ovruch (December 31 to January 16), as well as in the villages of Potapovichi and Geshovo (December 31). As these pogroms are very significant, I shall take them up in more detail.

Ovruch is a capital city in the government of Volhynia with a population of about 10,000. More than two-thirds of the inhabitants are Jews. The mass of the Jewish population are not interested in politics and have not produced any well-known revolutionists. During the Jewish persecutions under the tsar, Ovruch was spared.

It was not until December, 1917, at the time of the Rada and under the influence of the agitation of the Polish landed proprietors and the old tsarist officials, that the peasants of the surrounding villages began the destruction of Jewish shops. Dwellings were untouched. Under the influence of White-Russian Bolsheviki, Bolshevist sentiments made their appearance among the peasants of Ovruch. The Little-Russian Dmitriuk, who stood at the head of the "Ovruch Republic" after the fall of the Ataman, and the Jew Friedman, made protestations against the Bolshevist tendency. The result was that Dmitriuk was put to death and Friedman made his escape by flight.

Their place was taken by the Clans of Death and later by a special band of freebooters with the Ataman Kozyr-Zyrka at the head. After the reception of a deputation of representatives of public organizations, mainly Poles and former tsarist officials, the Ataman gave an order to arrest the Jewish Rabbi and have him brought before him. On the 26th of December about two o'clock, the order was carried out and the Rabbi was brought to the office of the commandant. He remained there until ten o'clock in the evening, exposed the whole time to the insults and abuses of the Cossacks. Finally at ten o'clock he was brought before the Ataman. The latter received him with extreme rudeness, and after, an examination conducted "not without prejudice," he said to him, "I know that you are a Bolshevik, that all your relatives and all Jews are Bolsheviks. Know that I am going to destroy all the Jews in the city. Get them together in the synagogue and inform them of what I have told you." Sporadic attacks with robbery and murder followed. Under the pressure of the Bolshevist peasants of Pokalev, Kozyr-Zyrka found it necessary to retire. On the 31st of December, having received considerable reinforcements, he advanced on Ovruch. On the way thither, in the neighborhood of the village Potapovichi, the road had been made impassable. Being told that this had been done by the Jews, the Cossacks took their revenge by putting a number of Jews to death and violating some of their women. From there they proceeded to the village of Geshovo, where they murdered two old men, a teacher and a butcher. On the 31st of December the Cossacks entered Ovruch and began to plunder and murder the Jews. The pogrom was introduced by the violation of ten Jewish girls in the market place and the murder of the Jews who opposed the bandits. Later the Cossacks came out in bands, searched the houses, took money and property, beat old men, dishonored women and put to death young people. If one had money he could purchase his life. Thus the family Rosenmann bought a kind of "protection certificate" for twelve thousand rubles. They were told that their name was registered in the office of the staff, and they were as a matter of fact left undisturbed. The Jews were disgraced, having been compelled to dance before Kozyr-Zyrka, who amused himself by urging one of them on by the: stroke of a whip. They were ordered to sing Jewish songs, but it so happened that none of them remembered the words by heart. Accordingly they were placed in chairs with fool's caps on their heads and lights in their hands, the words were read to them and they were made to sing. Kozyr-Zyrka and his friend lay in their beds shaking with laughter, so uproariously that the bed broke under the friend. The Jews were then compelled to fix up the bed and the officer remained in it. One of the Jews was so overcome by the humiliation that he began to weep. Thereupon he was told that his punishment would be one hundred and twenty lashes.

Seventy thousand rubles was the price the Jews paid to be spared the pogrom which had been instituted by the order of the Ataman. The Jews were ordered to assemble in the public square and were told by Kozyr-Zyrka that he had the right to destroy all the Jews, and that he would do so if any one of them as much as touched the hair of a single Cossack. He had done this in Potapovichi, shooting down a Jewish spy with his own hand. He advised the Jews to strangle with their own hands any Bolshevist they might find among them. When Kozyr-Zyrka had finished the speech, the Jews saluted, and the rabbi proposed to take an oath of loyalty to Ukraine from all the Jews and to put a special body of Jewish fighters at his disposition. The Ataman thereupon said that he did not need a Jewish oath nor a Jewish body of fighters. He would let the Jews breathe the air of the Ukraine, but they must not forget his warning. Before his departure a group of thirty-four Jews were trapped by treachery and shot.

From the above description it is clear that the main figure of the pogroms instituted and organized by Petlura's troops was the Ataman, who dictated his will to his bands or gangs, his watchword being, "Cut down the Jews, for they are communists."

The course of the pogrom in Ovruch was comparatively moderate. There were insults, plunder, and to some extent dishonor of women and a few cases of murder. It was still possible to redeem one's life with money, a favor which was later taken away. The position of the Directory was not yet finally undermined by the military defeat. There was already agitation in the army in favor of pogroms, but the military leaders had not yet given the word to destroy everything Jewish.

In January the first pogrom took place in Zhitomir (7th to loth of January). It was organized by the retreating forces of Petlura.

The Directory withdrew under the pressure of the Bolshevist troops. The commands of the Batki bear generally the character of anti-Jewish agitation and unequivocal provocation of the Jews.

On the 16th of January, a declaration of Hetman Volynetz was posted in the houses of Medzhibozh, Government of Podolia, which read as follows:

"By order of the high government authorities of the Ukrainian Republic, I enter the district of Medzhibozh at the head of my army to assist the local authorities in their fight against the Jewish and Bolshevist bands who are disturbing the peace and order of this district. Our ignorant peasant population, which forms the greater part of these bands, are deceived by the enemies of the Ukraine, who receive a great deal of money for this purpose. It is said that the little Jew Mushlin, born in Medzhibozh, received seven million karbovantzy from the Russian Bolshevist Comrades for the organization of Bolshevist bands."

On the 20th of January a proclamation of Captain Diachenko was circulated in Bielaia Tserkov, reading as follows:

"I learned from a reliable source that the Jewish population of the city and district of Bielaia Tserkov is agitating against the power of the Directory. I give them warning hereby that if any demonstration should take place as a result of the Jewish activities, I will hold the Jewish population wholly responsible, as has already been done in Zhitomir and in other places in Ukraine."

In an advertisement in the official "Information Bureau of the Ukrainian People's Republic," which was circulated in the district of Kremenchug, are found the following inciting lines: "As regards the Jewish bourgeoisie who maintain a hostile attitude to the Ukrainian Republic, it will do them no good. The Ukrainian people have friends at present and are not afraid of their enemies everyone will get what he deserves. It is desirable that the Jewish people should declare themselves as quickly and as unequivocally as possible whether they will go together with the Ukrainian people, as the Jews in Galician Ukraine have already done."

On the 11th of January the following announcement was found posted in Felshtin:

"The first warning to the Jewish population.

"I have learned that the Jewish population is confusing the minds of the peasants. I warn the Jews that the Information Bureau is well instructed. They will all have to pay dear for this offence, and the peasants themselves will make them pay. You have no one from whom to expect help!

"Head of the Information Bureau.

"………………."

(Signature illegible)

The Jewish community of Vinnitza received from the Chief of Staff of the Second Army Corps of Podolia the following reply to their request for a suppression of the pogrom excesses in Proshna: "The corps commandant gives the following reply to your request, 1. It will be best if you yourselves should see to it that the members of the Proshna community should not agitate for the Soviet deputies. 2. No other measures can be taken, otherwise the Cossacks will think that the military force intended for the protection of the place is supporting the Bolsheviki, and will put all the inhabitants to death."

In an order of the Ataman Gavrishko, "To all the presidents of the great villages and village magistrates of the district of Priluki," special attention is called to the fact that a portion of the Cossacks, as a result partly of the influence of agitation and of the mean Bolshevist Jews, and partly of the moneys handed over to them, have succumbed to the movement of the agitator Koptuk and are supporting the Soviet power.

The agitation and the military failures excited the army against the Jews. In Annapol, Government of Volhynia, Petlura's men instituted a pogrom under the watchword: "Kill the Jews, also the Jewish children!" Before this, officers of Petlura's armies appeared at the meetings which were held in that place and cried shame on each other because the Jews had driven them out of Berdichev.

The attitude of the higher military authorities of the Directory toward these events appears from the following report of Mr. Gutermann, who was at that time a member of the Central Jewish Relief Committee for the pogrom victims and later authorized agent of the relief committee of the Red Cross for the population who suffered from the pogroms.

FROM MR. GUETERMANN'S REPORT

In the first days of February, 1919, a deputation of the Zhitomir city administration and other public organizations was sent to Vinnitza, where the Directory and All-Ukrainian government were then situated. As a representative of the Relief Committee for the people who suffered from the pogroms, I took part in the deputation. In Berdichev we were joined by a similar delegation of the Berdichev city administration and the administration of the province, as well as by a deputation of the Jewish community. The representatives of the latter were Krasny, now minister for Jewish affairs in the Petlura government, and the well-known Fania Nurenberg, active in public affairs. The purpose of my journey, as well as Krasny's and Fania Nurenberg's, was to receive the money appropriated by the Ukrainian Government, at the request of Revutzky, the minister for Jewish affairs, for the relief of the population of Zhitomir and Berdichev who had suffered from the pogroms.

On the second and third days after our arrival in Vinnitza, we, i.e., the representatives of Zhitomir and Berdichev, were asked by Revutzky to call on him at his hotel apartment with Kovenko, the commandant of the city of Vinnitza and the leader of the Clans of Death (who had instituted the pogroms in Zhitomir and Berdichev), in order to establish the responsibility for the pogroms.

The thought of a meeting with Kovenko, the former president of the Investigation Commission and the murderer of Gogol, the president of the Jewish Kriegerbund (union of soldiers) a fact which Chekhovski, the Minister of the Interior, had also alluded to in a conversation with the delegation of the Socialistic parties received by him the thought of meeting with this Kovenko appeared to us, to say the least, frightful. On the following day, as we were having dinner at the restaurant of the Hotel Savoy, Revutzky summoned us to come at once to his room, where they were expecting us. In spite of everything we all, for one reason or another, went, Madame Nurenberg, Krasny and myself. We found there Kovenko, three leaders of the Clans of Death and a Hetman, who, as we learned later, was the Ataman Pashchenko himself. Paschenko was the Ataman of the Clans of Death who himself instituted the pogroms in Berdichev and Zhitomir, had exacted large sums of money from rich Jews in Zhitomir, and whose staff, living at the railway station, had murdered seventeen Jews and among them old men. His guilt was so firmly established that the Ukrainian government had to arrest him, and Sumkevich, the Commissar of the Government of Volhynia, had to declare that Pashchenko, who was without question responsible for everything, would be severely punished.

The fact that Pashchenko was free in the Savoy Hotel, where the ministers of the Ukrainian Government were staying; that after the meeting he went for dinner to the restaurant where the members of the Directory were taking their meals, made the entire meeting useless. Among other things Novikov, a member of the Zhitomir city administration, recognized in the officer on duty at the building in which the Directory was located, the leader who was responsible for the most horrible episode during the whole Zhitomir. pogrom, which took place on Theatre Street, when all the men of the Weinstein house were brought out, and some shot, while the rest were undressed, and while being led to the railway station were beaten to death on the way with sabers and the butt ends of guns.

The meeting was opened by Revutzky with a speech in which he said that the charge that the government had instituted the pogroms reflected on him also as a member of the Government, and that he therefore desired that the question should be settled at this meeting, which was participated in by representatives of the Clans of Death as well as of Zhitomir and Berdichev.

One of the leaders from Galich, who was not in Zhitomir at the time of the pogrom, but had been sent there by Kovenko to establish the circumstances of the pogrom and the responsibility therefor, declared that the pogrom was instituted mainly by Jews, that it had begun before the Clans of Death had arrived, and that Pashchenko had not enough forces at his disposal to check the pogrom. We all protested against this shameless declaration. I called attention to the fact that in Kiev there was a letter of a certain Hodman who had been beaten by soldiers of the Clans of Death in Fastov. He wrote in the letter that he had heard from soldiers that Clans of Death had gone to Zhitomir to institute Jewish pogroms. The letter arrived in Kiev on the day before the pogrom broke out in Zhitomir. I also called their attention to the fact that the Investigating Commission in Zhitomir had in their possession a note signed by Pashchenko and addressed to the well-known bandits Bek and Dimitrienko, in which they were ordered to appropriate the money in the Azov bank which belonged to the rich Jew, Rabin. I also asked Pashchenko how, if it was true that the only reason the pogroms continued was that he had not enough forces at his disposal to stop them, he could explain the fact that at the station, where he himself had been with his staff, seventeen Jews had been killed, among them some very old men.

Madame Nurenberg reported on the pogrom in Berdichev, which had been directly instituted by the Clans of Death and Pashchenko. Krasny reported, on the basis of the deposition of Zolodar, the acting Mayor of Berdichev, that Pashchenko had declared publicly in the city magistrate's office that he was going to Zhitomir "to get even with the Jews."

Pashchenko made no denial. Kovenko, however, always defended him and the Clans of Death. Kovenko did not justify them nor deny their participation in the pogrom, but in cynical fashion he abused the whole of Jewry and accused them of lending support to the Bolsheviki.

Quivering with anger he struck his fists on the table, and his. whole speech was nothing but an incoherent hysterical cry, to the effect that the Clans of Death had acted according to instructions, that the Jews hated the Ukrainians and that the Jews themselves had taken part in the pogrom. "The Clans of Death are the glory of the Ukrainian army, Pashchenko is the best son of Ukraine, and if he had not been arrested, we should not have lost Kiev. Now that he is free again we shall regain Kiev. They are my Clans of Death. When the Clans of Death marched to Kiev, they hurried so that they upset all the vehicles that were in their way, for they knew why they must hurry to Zhitomir. The Jews have plundered the city. We were not shy, we killed and killed and will kill again. Even this night I will have fifty men hanged in Vinnitza. I am a 'gendarme', and do not feel a bit embarrassed about it."

When Revutzky began to say something about a rehabilitation of the Ukrainian army, Kovenko cried out, "We do not need its rehabilitation."

The most terrible thing at this meeting were the objections which one of the leaders of the Clans of Death, a typical criminal, raised. They made our blood run cold.

"As we were approaching Zhitomir," he said, "there came out of one of the trenches two Jews with two long beards like this (a gesture to indicate the length of the beard) and shot at us. When I asked them why they were shooting at us, they replied that they hated the Ukrainians, whereupon I pierced them through." He also said that he had himself killed three Jews in Zhitomir because they plundered the shops during the pogroms. "At the station I caught two Jews with proclamations against the Directory and ran them through with my sword."

When I asked Revutzky the next day why he had arranged this depressing meeting, he said he wanted to know what truth there was in the statement that Kovenko had been the real organizer of the pogroms. I am fully convinced he was.

(Signed) P. GUETERMANN.

To this objective document it must be added that Krasny, who took part in the conference just mentioned, later became minister for Jewish affairs in the Petlura government.

In February, 1919, the position of the Directory became worse. The Bolshevists occupied Kiev. Petlura' s troops finally evacuated the Governments of Kherson, Poltava and Kiev. The pogroms gained in extent. They are reported in Yelisavetgrad (4th and 5th of February), Novo-Mirgorod (about the same time), Piriatin and a number of other places in the Government of Poltava. At the railway station of Ramodan, Bobrinsky and other towns, Jews were thrown out of the cars and shot down.

In Lubny a pogrom was prevented only because some hundred men among Petlura's troops made energetic resistance to the pogrom. They even opposed it with arms, designating themselves as the "Local Sotnia." They lost fourteen men, but they saved the city from the pogrom. In Kremenchug the pogrom was prevented at the cost of one and a half million rubles, which the Jews gave to the troops. At the same time pogroms took place in the Government of Kiev, at Vasilkov (7th and 8th of February), Rossovo (14th and 15th of February), Stiepantsy (14th of February), Radomysl (18th to 20th of February), Skvira (beginning and end of February). The most terrible pogrom of this month, which denoted a turning point from the primary "pillage" pogroms of the preceding period to the following "Jew-annihilating" pogroms, took place far behind the Petlura front, in Proskurov on the I5th of February and in Felshtin on the 16th of the same month. (These two pogroms are described in greater detail in A. I. Hillerson's report in the Appendix.)

Proskurov is the liveliest city in the Government of Podolia. It has about 50,000 inhabitants, half of whom are Jews. The democratic city administration consisted of 50 city commissaries of whom 26 were Christians and 24 were Jews. The mayor and the head of the assembly of city commissaries were Poles. Kiverchuk, formerly in the service of the tsar, was the commandant. The city was guarded by the militia. But the city administration did not trust them and organized a force of their own, the so-called "ward guard." At the head of it were mostly Jews. The chief was a Christian by the name of Rudnitzky, his second was Schenkmann, a Jew. Kiverchuk distrusted the defending force "because they were Jewish," and put all sorts of difficulties in their way.

At a congress of the Bolsheviki of the Government of Podolia, held in Vinnitza, where Petlura resided, (some say that the congress itself was provocatory in character) it was resolved that on the fifteenth of February a Bolshevist uprising should break out in Proskurov. The third Gaidamak regiment which already had experience in the institution of pogroms appeared on the scene. When the rumor spread in the city that an uprising was being prepared, Joffe, a member of the Jewish Labor Bund and presiding officer of a conference of all the socialistic parties of Proskurov, called the representatives of the parties to a consultation, at which members of all the factions including the Bolshevists were present. At this meeting they put in a protest and pointed out that the uprising would lead to a collapse. The communists pointed out that the question had already been settled, that the uprising had already been prepared, that it would break out simultaneously in the whole Government of Podolia, that in Proskurov a part of the garrison would side with the insurgents and that sixteen villages were ready to send them help. On the evening before the uprising, two representatives of the Bolshevists asked the ward guard what their attitude would be. The president, Rudnitzky, and his associate, Schenkmann, replied that the ward guard was not a party organization, that its exclusive purpose was the protection of the inhabitants and that they would be completely neutral in this case. At the same time Schenkmann pointed out that their attempt was inopportune and that it would inevitably lead to a Jewish pogrom. The answer was that these demonstrations would extend over the whole Government (province), and that a favorable result was assured. Schenkmann then tried to prove to the Bolshevist staff how senseless the uprising would be, but failed. The insurrectionists arrested Kiverchuk, whom they regarded, not without reason, as a dangerous advocate of the Black Hundred. After he was freed, Kiverchuk said that he, a representative of the city, had been imprisoned by the Jewish members of the ward guard.

The Ataman Semosenko took over the duties of Kiverchuk. The Gaidamak soldiers were again concentrated at the station. Arrests followed in the city. At the station, tables were set for the entertainment of the Gaidamaks, they were treated lavishly and given brandy and cognac. When the entertainment was over Semosenko made a speech in which he described the difficult position of Ukraine; he spoke of the sacrifices which the Ukrainians offered in the war and pointed out emphatically that the most dangerous enemies of the Ukrainian people and the Cossacks were the Jews, who must be cut down with the sword to save themselves and the Ukraine. He asked the Cossacks to swear that they would fulfill their duty and destroy the Jewish population, but must at the same time swear that they would not rob the Jews of their possessions and property. The Cossacks were led to the flags and took an oath to murder but not to rob. Having drawn themselves up the regiment band in front and the sanitary corps in the rear the Cossacks marched to the city along Alexandrovskaya street. Then they divided in groups of five to fifteen men and swarmed out into the adjoining streets, which were inhabited exclusively by Jews. With perfect sang-froid they entered two houses, drew their swords and began to cut down the Jewish inmates without regard to sex or age. They murdered old men, women and infants at their mothers' breasts. They were not content with killing, but thrust their victims through with their bayonets. They made use of their guns only when some persons succeeded in running out into the streets. Then they sent a bullet after them. The Jews were dragged out of the cellars and lofts and murdered. Hand grenades were thrown into the cellars, and entire families were put to death in the most brutal manner. The massacre lasted from two o'clock in the afternoon to five-thirty. It might have lasted till late into the night but the commander Taranovich, who had not been initiated into all the plans of Semosenko and Kiverchuk, was frightened when he saw these bloody orgies. When he had succeeded in obtaining an order from the commander Konovalov to put an end to the blood bath, he brought it to Semosenko, who said, "Good, it is enough for to-day." A trumpet signal was then given to the Gaidamaks to stop "work." Thereupon they assembled at a place determined beforehand and marched singing to their quarters behind the railway station. The pogrom was to be continued the next day (the Gaidamaks related that the massacre was to last three days). Thanks to the interference of the city administration, especially the city commissar Verkhola, the mass slaughter was stopped. In a proclamation, in which Semosenko declares the city and the canton under martial law, he writes, "I warn the population to stop anarchistic revolts, since I have the power to suppress them. I call the attention of the Jews in particular to this. You are a people hated by all nations. And yet you bring such confusion among the baptized. Do you really not want to live? Are you not sorry for your own people? As long as no one bothers you be quiet. Such a miserable nation, and yet they cause so much disturbance among a poor people!"

After the pogrom in Proskurov the bandits made it their purpose to annihilate this "miserable nation," which brings confusion among the baptized.

The pogrom in Felshtin was really an episode of the Proskurov massacre. It lasted several hours and cost the lives of about six hundred persons, that is, almost a third of the Jewish population numbering 1,900 souls. Many more women were violated here than in Proskurov. Most of those killed were first dishonored, and survivors underwent the same horror. Here too the pogrom stopped at a given signal. When the trumpet sounded, the Gaidamaks poured petroleum and benzine upon five of the best houses in the town and set them on fire. Thus these warriors crowned their work for the welfare of the Ukrainian Fatherland.

The month of March is marked by the successes in arms of Petlura's troops. In the beginning of March Petlura succeeded, by Sarin's march to Iskorost, in threatening Kiev. He occupied Iskorost, Malin, the station Irsha and on the 21st of March, Zhitomir. He was only 150 versts from Kiev. At the end of March the fortunes of war turned against him. Owing to quick reinforcements of the Bolsheviki, the breach through their front was made ineffective on April 1st. Zhitomir, Malin, Iskorost and other places were reconquered by the Bolsheviki. The greatest pogroms, as for example the second in Zhitomir, took place at the end of March. In this month Petlura' s army instituted the following pogroms: in Belashits (between the 7th and 12th of March), in Samgorodok (13th of March), in Iskorost and Ushomir (31st of March), and in Zhitomir (second pogrom, 22nd of March). Especially characteristic and significant for the conception of the entire political situation are the circumstances under which the second pogrom in Zhitomir took place. For this reason we quote a report of this pogrom made by the authorized agent, Lifschütz.

REPORT OF MR. LIFSCHUETZ OF THE SECOND POGROM IN ZHITOMIR.

On the 21st of March the Soviet troops left Zhitomir. Early on the 22nd the troops of Petlura entered. After the withdrawal of the Soviet troops, the prominent persons in the public life of Zhitomir decided to send a delegation to the troops of the Directory in order to prevent a pogrom. In view of the intense agitation against the Jews, the rumor spread that the Petlura troops would institute a pogrom in the city, and the delegation was to endeavor to keep them from carrying out their intention. In order to make the anti-Jewish agitation more effective in the circles of the ignorant population, especially the peasants, the rumor was circulated that during the presence of the Soviet troops the Bolsheviki, or, as was stated by all sorts of inciting police spies, the Jews, had put to death 1,700 Christians. As a matter of fact the Bolsheviki, according to the complete and exact data of the Extraordinary Commission, had, up to the time of their retirement from Zhitomir, put to death six persons in the city and sixteen in the surrounding district, twenty-two persons in all, of whom several were Jews. The rumor of the 1,700 men shot was circulated among others by officials, who apparently regarded this fable as actually true or at least pretended to think so. On Friday it was already clear that the pogrom was unavoidable.

The Jewish masses left the city. The entire Jewish youth fled from the city for fear of a pogrom. On their return they were designated as fugitive Bolsheviki. It was only thanks to the energetic efforts of the city administration and a few prominent and influential Christian citizens that they succeeded in saving the young people who returned, and who had nothing to do with Bolshevism, from being shot.

Early on Saturday, the delegation, consisting of three prominent Christians and the president of the Jewish community, went out to meet the troops. The Jew was obliged to go back while still on his way, because he was in danger of losing his life, as he was told by an officer whom the deputation met on the way.

On his way back, the president of the community saw the first bodies of Jews who had been put to death by the arriving soldiers. The first man killed was an old man of seventy on the road leading from Vrangelevka to the city. The old man was on his way to the synagogue carrying the "talis" (prayer shawl) in his hand. According to the testimony of eye witnesses, he was placed against a tree and shot at without being killed immediately. The wounded old man had strength enough left to drag himself several yards farther on the road. As a result of the great loss of blood he began to reel, fell down and died by the wayside.

The delegation led the conversation with the staff to the subject of the 1,700 Christians alleged to have been put to death by the Jews, and when they gave their word of honor that the story was absolutely untrue, they were told by the staff that intelligent people naturally could be convinced, but that the soldiers were very much aroused against the Jews, and the staff could do nothing.

The pogrom began on the 22nd of March and lasted five days. The first three were the bloodiest.

The number of victims in Zhitomir alone, not counting those buried in the surrounding villages, was 317. The greater part of those murdered were old men, women and children. The losses among the younger men were comparatively slight, for these had either left the city at the same time as the Bolsheviki or had concealed themselves. When dwelling houses were attacked, the inmates succeeded in some cases in redeeming their lives by payment of money, but there were a number of cases in which the bandits took the money and then slaughtered those who expected to save themselves in that way. In general, Petlura's men, unlike the loafers of the first pogrom who confined themselves principally to robbery and plunder, endeavored to kill as many Jews as they could.

That this second pogrom of Zhitomir exacted only 317 victims is due to two reasons, first, that many Christians took Jews into their houses, thus saving a great many from death; but principally that on the evening of the 24th of March the Bolsheviki renewed their advance against Zhitomir, and thus prevented a further extension of the pogrom, since all the soldiers had to go to the front. On the 23rd of March, when the pogrom was in full swing, Petlura came to Zhitomir. He was accurately informed of all that had taken and was taking place. He said that he had done everything necessary to check the pogrom. In reality, however, no measures of any kind were taken until the 25th of March.

In addition to the killed, the number of wounded and injured was also very great. It cannot be determined even approximately because the greater part of the injured remained at home and could not get any medical help. The victims of the pogrom belonged in the great majority to the poor classes and those just above them.

The pogrom of Zhitomir completely discloses the cards of the pogrom politics of the Directory. A delegation of the Jewish socialistic parties once came before Vinnichenko, the former head of the Ukrainian People's Republic, and complained of the terrible Jewish persecutions which the regular Ukrainian troops instituted according to a definite plan and by order of the responsible military leaders. His reply was: "Tell your Jews and your young men that they should not support the Bolshevists. The Jewish workmen organized uprisings in the towns of Ukraine to hand over the power to the Bolshevists. We shall soon be powerless against the anger of our troops against the Jews." Hereupon a member of the delegation justly remarked that a similar reply was made to a Jewish delegation after the Kishinev pogrom by the all-powerful satrap of the tsar, Plehve.

During the Zhitomir pogrom, just as the deeds of horror had reached their highest point, Petlura, the head of the Directory, came to Zhitomir. The highest Ataman of the Ukrainian troops did not prevent the pogrom which a few days later the chief of the Galicians easily suppressed.

The attitude of Petlura is clear from the frank conversation which Colonel Petrov, chief of the garrison, had with a deputation of the Extraordinary Investigation Commission. Petrov, a former officer of the general staff, said of himself to some persons in public life that he had been a faithful servant of the tsar until the first of March. After the 1st of March he found that he had been mistaken and became a socialist. The conversation was so significant that the Extraordinary Investigation Commission resolved to send the Directory an extract from the Protocol which had reference to the conversation with Petrov. The extract is as follows:

April 10, 1919.

REPORT OF THE DELEGATION CHOSEN AT THE SESSION OF THE 3RD OF APRIL.

The delegation consisted of the following members of the Commission: M. A. Kitz, Second Attorney General, Judge G. W. Rublevski, and P. T. Redko, Representative of the Government District.

The delegation reported that they first called on the Government commissar Sumkevich, who was very favorable to the work of the Commission. He said it was necessary to hand over the matter of the second pogrom to the Extraordinary Investigation Commission that was already in existence, and promised personally to appeal to the Directory for this purpose. He requested us to let him present a memoir of his own on this matter, advised us to approach the military authorities, promised to secure the necessary means and allowed the Commission an advance of 15,000 rubles.

he Chief of the Field Police, Bogatzky, was also favorable to the work done by the Commission and promised them his full support in their house searchings and arrests.

Quite different was the attitude of Colonel Petrov, chief of the garrison. When the delegation greeted him on the steps of the Hotel Frankreich, he said, "Ah, this is the Jewish Commission, I have nothing to say to you." When it was explained to him that the delegation consisted of members of the Commission confirmed by the Directory, Colonel Petrov invited the members of the delegation to his room. During the conversation Colonel Petrov said among other things, "We march under the banner, 'Cut down the Jews, and cut down the Bolsheviki!' Can you hold two thousand minor children responsible if, meeting the Jews who were advancing against them together with the Bolsheviki, they killed a few of the former?" He said further that the pogrom broke out with such elemental force that even the students in the military schools were unable to resist it, so much so that in the few days of the pogrom he had to send the members of the Yunatsk School to the front. If some soldier took a shirt away from a Jew, he must not, according to Petrov, be held responsible for it. If the soldiers are to be held responsible, he can justify their acts fourfold. When a member of the Commission again pointed out that the Commission was confirmed by the Directory, Colonel Petrov said that the Directory was a puppet in the hands of the diplomats, most of whom were Jews. If the Directory appointed a commission to investigate the matter of pogroms, it was merely to make a show before public opinion that such things as pogroms do not remain unpunished. The delegation received the impression that Colonel Petrov was favorable to the existence of the Commission but not to their activity. The sense of his reply was that the soldiers should remain undisturbed, but private plunderers should be made responsible, for these would be shot by the Government. At the end of the conversation, when the delegates again pointed out emphatically that they were acting according to instructions confirmed by the Directory, the chief of the garrison promised to see to it that the Commandant Vosny and the Hetman Bogatzky should lend their support to the Commission.

On a second visit to Sumkevich, the delegation informed him of their conversation with Colonel Petrov, which displeased the commissar very much. He asked them not to do anything until his return from Rovno, where he wanted to talk the matter over with the members of the Directory. At his request the delegation handed over to him a memoir concerning the delivery of the documents of the second pogrom to the Commission, which memoir he took along with him.

The Commission resolved as follows: "That part of the Protocol of the meeting which concerns the conversations with Colonel Petrov shall be laid before the Directory after the return of the Government commissar from Rovno," and they requested at the same time that the delegation chosen on the 3rd of April be sent to hold a conversation with him.

The original of the protocol is signed by all of the members of the Commission.

The reply of the Directory to the communication sent to them about Petrov's talents as a pogrom maker was his appointment as minister of war of the Directory.

After the month of March the pogroms instituted by the military associations of the Directory cross the path of those organized by the insurrectionary bands of the inner anti-Bolshevist front, of which more is said below in the chapter entitled, "The Batko."

On the 10th of April a group of Petlura's followers, who retired from Olevsk to Novograd-Volynsk, destroyed the town of Emilchino.

In May Petlura's troops instituted the following pogroms on their front in the governments of Volhynia and Podolia; in Voronovitsy , on the 9th of May; in Rovno, on the 14th and 20th of May; in Kremenetz, on the 22nd of May; in Litin, on the 14th and the 28th; in Kodyma and other places (precise dates not yet established).

In June, as a result of the varying fortunes on the outer front, there were 'pogroms and murders in Derashna, during the time between the 7th and 17th of June, in Khmelnik, Strishanya, Starye Siniavka, and other places.

In the enormous number of pogroms instituted in July, which broke the record in the annals of terror and death, portions of Petlura's troops were active in the governments of Volhynia and Podolia in addition to the insurrectionary troops of freebooters. At this time it is extremely difficult to distinguish between the former and the insurgent bands. The extreme measures, namely the Jewish pogroms, which the military leaders took for the purpose of welding together the different portions of their troops, brought about their final dissolution and changed them into robber bands.

In August the number of pogroms perpetrated by the freebooters and the armies of the Directory was very small. Instead of this wave there arose a new one, the all-Russian reaction of General Denikin. In August the political situation changed completely. As a result of the happenings on the "internal front," the freebooters, the uprising of Grigoriev and the pressure of the volunteer army, the Soviet power was expelled from the Ukraine. Ukrainian cities passed one after another into the possession of the volunteer army, which in the beginning of August occupied Kharkov, Yekaterinoslav, Poltava. In the middle of August the Soviet Government had only Kiev in its possession, and this was occupied by Denikin on the 2nd of September. The Directory saw itself faced by another enemy, who also used the method of the pogrom against the Soviet power. Henceforth this method had no further purpose in the hands of the Directory. Besides, this, weapon, which signified the last anchor for the Directory, to which it clung as a drowning man to a straw, appeared infamous in the eyes of West European public opinion.

Simultaneously with the gradual occupation of the Ukraine by Denikin, the Directory, almost entirely driven out of the Ukraine, removed its activity abroad, where it developed a lively diplomatic and agitational propaganda. But rumors and reports of the pogroms had already been circulated in Western Europe. The Directory attempted to deny everything, and the best method of defense was to impute the guilt to others.

The representative of the Petlura government at the Peace Conference, Dr. Margoline, gave to the correspondent of the "Jewish Chronicle" the following explanation of the Ukrainian pogroms:

"There is this difference between the pogroms which have unhappily taken place in the Ukraine and those which occurred under the tsarist regime. Whereas the latter were instigated and connived at by the authorities, the Ukraine government has steadily set its face against the pogroms, and it has had no part in, or responsibility for, them. At the time of Petlura's coup d'etat at the end of November, 1918, I myself read, in numerous towns and villages in the Ukraine, proclamations issued by the government strongly condemning pogroms, explaining to the people that the Jews were fellow-citizens and brothers who were helping in the evolution of the Ukrainian state, and to whom the fullest rights were due. The proclamations declared that pogroms must tend to discredit the Ukraine in the eyes of the civilized world, and those who took part in them were no friends of the country. Unfortunately, after the Bolshevists took Kiev, and disintegration set in among the ranks of the Ukrainian forces, the worst elements of the army started pogroms. Once more the government disavowed them, sentenced the perpetrators to death, expressed their deepest sympathy with the Jews, and promised the fullest compensation to the sufferers. I must unhappily admit that the last pogroms as to which I have information those of February and March last were very bad, thousands of Jews being killed. They were instigated by criminals, Black Hundreds, and Bolshevists, who wished to discredit the Ukrainian government." (Jewish Chronicle, May 16, 1919.)

The explanations of Dr. Margoline do not tally with the facts. At the time of his interview (May, 1919), the pogromists raged through the land with elemental fury. A bitter fight ensued between the Directory and the Soviet power, and thousands of Jews were done to death at the hands of the insurrectionary bands and the armies of Petlura. The Directory had no thought of expressing its sympathy with the Jews. It did not fight against the excesses and issued no proclamations against pogroms. We have quoted above the declarations of different heads of the army. They all bear unequivocally the character of incitements to pogroms. That the excesses were organized, we have already shown. During the second terrible pogrom in Zhitomir, which began and ended by order of the highest military authorities, Petlura, the head of the Directory, came to Zhitomir, and the unfortunate Jewish population turned to him. Nevertheless the pogroms kept on. It is true that the pogrom tactics had so demoralized the army that it contained many criminal elements and followers of the Black Hundred. But the responsible parties were the leaders of the Directory.

"The Directory fights against the pogroms . . ." Read the little book published in Berlin by the Ukrainian mission under the title, "Die Lage der Juden in der Ukraine?' (The position of the Jews in the Ukraine), and you will come across a resolution of the Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian People's Republic, in which special attention is called to the fact that "the government of the Ukrainian People's Republic has made it its task to remove the possibilities of incitements, pogroms and other excesses."

This resolution was passed on the 18th of August, i.e., at the time, as explained before, when the pogroms had lost their value as methods of political warfare. The entire statement of the question in this resolution is also characteristic: "The Council of Ministers having heard the report of P. Krasny, Minister for Jewish affairs, concerning the situation that has developed in connection with the Jewish pogroms in the Ukraine, and especially in Kiev, and also abroad, makes the following order. . . . Advices full of lies, falsehoods and incitements deliberately confuse the places where the pogroms were perpetrated by the Bolshevists with those instituted by a reactionary clique in the Ukraine, who are in union with the underhanded reaction of Denikin and the Poles. ... In lying publications and in open letters addressed to the most important representatives in Europe all of this is imputed to the Ukrainian People's Republic, which has made it its aim energetically to suppress all pogrom excesses. . . ."

The passages italicized by me show clearly the motives which led to the publication of this document. . . . They follow from the situation created in Kiev (i.e., the public central place where there were no pogroms, but where public opinion at this terrible time cursed the Directory), as well as the situation abroad, which pressed so hard upon the Directory in its fight against Denikin's principle of a "united and undivided Russia."

This resolution is not concerned with the colossal evils, political and economic; it is not concerned with the destruction and extirpation of a nation, which was "helping in the evolution of the Ukrainian state"; it is not concerned with the horrors, which put in the shade those of the middle ages; it is not concerned with national relief to those who were injured through the guilt of the Directory and their agents (the offer to contribute 11,460,000 griven, i.e., 5,730,000 rubles, seems ridiculous enough, besides the offer was not made until the 15th of August, 1919) it is concerned only with the political uselessness of the Jewish pogroms, which brought the Ukrainian Government into an unfavorable position. The resolution is only a confirmation of what I have already said.

To sum up, the Directory used pogrom politics as long as they promised, in a given instant under the military and political circumstances, success in their struggle against the Soviet power. This method was a double-edged sword for the Directory. On the one hand the anti-Jewish parts of the army were welded together, but on the other hand military discipline was undermined. The anti-Bolshevist agitation under the motto, "Cut down the Jews, for they are bourgeois," produced in the masses a Bolshevistic radicalism; while the motto, "Cut down the Jews, for they are communists," strengthened the reaction, which did not bow to the political course of the Directory, but inclined to the All-Russian reaction of General Denikin, whom the Directory so much feared. The bitter fight against the Soviet power transformed this method into a continuous system. It was only after the Denikin reaction had triumphed, when the Directory rehabilitated itself in the eyes of West European public opinion and had to seek support from the Jewish socialistic parties of the right it was only then that the Rada of the People's Ministers spoke a decisive word, and the chief Ataman, Petlura, issued his order of the day to the troops, on the 26th of August, 1919.