ГУЛаг Палестины - Лев Гунин

do not give up yet their hope of subjugating the Ukrainian masses. By

provocations for which they are spending enormous sums of money they want

to divide us from within, hiring criminal elements who are inciting our

soldiers to all sorts of outrages and pogroms against the innocent Jewish

population; in this way they want to stamp our soldiers as

pogrom-mongers, although these soldiers are bringing liberty to all

peoples of the Ukraine.

Our enemies intend thus to split the Ukrainian and Jewish laboring masses

whose ways, in fact, have been bound together by three hundred years of

Russian tsarist yoke.

Our national army must bring equality, brotherhood and freedom to the

Ukrainian as well as the Jewish citizens who are also supporting actively

the government of the Ukrainian Democratic Republic. All their parties,

i.e.: Bund, Obyednantsi, Poalej-Zion and People's Party are standing on

the principles of the independence of the Ukraine, and are participating

in the reconstruction of the republic.

I know myself how the representatives of the Jewish population have

helped our army and supported our legal republican government.

The enemies of our state, the Bolshevists, are shooting down not only the

Ukrainian but also the Jewish people, depriving the others of the barest

means of living.

I have the highest esteem for the sacrifices made during this war upon

the altar of the fatherland by the Jewish population.

From the reports by the commanders of our brave divisions and corps as

well from reports by State Inspectors I have already learned that the

Jewish population brought help to our wounded and sick soldiers, in the

hospitals which had been built hastily 3-5 kilometers behind the

battlefronts.

I have been touched deeply by tears of thankfulness in the eyes of our

soldiers for the loving care and human aid given them by Jews, and I have

noted with satisfaction how the soldiers of our army were standing guard

at the shops and stores of Jews in order to protect them against

plunderers.

The restoration of a bridge at Starokonstantyniv - which had been

destroyed by the Bolshevists - by the Jewish population in an exceedingly

short time, as well as their help with foodstuffs and underwear testify

also to the loyal conduct of Jews in relation to our army.

I am convinced and I ardently hope that in the future such help on the

part of Jews will occur ever more frequently and that they will continue

to further the cause of peace in our country.

The Minister for Jewish Affairs has by a series of measures already

exercised some influence upon the Bolshevist circles of Jews so that many

of them no longer support Bolshevism, since they consider it now to be

their ruin.

Together with you I call upon the Jewish citizens to go with us and to

support wholeheartedly our army and our government; then we shall be able

to affirm that the government of the Ukrainian Democratic Republic and

you, its army, will finish that great responsible work which you are now

doing - destroying the power of the Bolshevists and building up our

independent republic in which each nationality enjoys full rights and a

peaceful life.

Officers and soldiers of the Ukrainian Army! The Ukrainian-Jewish

laboring masses see in you their liberation, and future generations will

not forget your services rendered to them; history will with pride record

on its pages your achievements in this struggle. Beware of provocations,

and have no mercy on provocateurs or on those who execute pogroms, or

incite the weakest among you to this action.

Let the death sentence overtake the perpetrators of pogroms and

provocateurs. I demand the strictest discipline from you so that not

even a hair of an innocent's head be touched.

Bear in mind that you are the elite sons of your great nation which wants

to live its independent life and to be subjugated by no one, and

therefore keep an unflinching watch on its interests as well as on the

interests of all those who help you and are well-disposed to you and to

the liberation of your people.

Those who are guilty before the Ukrainian people and before the republic,

no matter what their nationality, shall suffer the severest punishment

according to law prevailing in the territory of the Ukrainian republic;

to the innocent, however, you must bring liberation from the hated

Bolshevist yoke.

The Republic's and my own cordial thanks to and high esteem for your

martial bravery, devotion, and self-sacrifice which your offer upon the

altar of the fatherland, while liberating our Ukraine and the

nationalities living there - including the Jews - from the Bolshevists.

May God help us in the great and sacred cause of liberating the nations

from the heavy yoke of the Bolshevists!

August 27, 1919

Commander-in-Chief: Petlura.

(Ukraina, September 2, 1919.)

F. Pigido (ed.), Material Concerning Ukrainian-Jewish Relations during

the Years of the Revolution (1917-1921): Collection of Documents and

Testimonies by Prominent Jewish Political Workers, The Ukrainian

Information Bureau, Munich, 1956, pp. 70-72.

HOME DISINFORMATION PETLIURA 836 hits since 23Mar99

Arnold Margolin The Ukraine and the Policy of Entente 1921 Russian and Ukrainian pogroms compared

If the beginning of the demoralization of the Ukrainian army was at its tail,

by Denikin's army the poison of demoralization came from the head.

EXTRACTS

from the book by Arnold Margolin

"The Ukraine and the policy of the Entente"

(Memorandum by a Jew and a citizen).

Publisher C. Efron. Berlin, 1921. Chapter XXIV. Pages 310-315.

Pogroms of the period of the Directorate, and of Denikin's Army. Parallels.

- Nations and Governments.

I have before me the report on pogroms, prepared by the Relief Committee

for the Victims of Pogroms, at the Russian Red Cross in Kiev. It is

stated in the report that there were no pogroms during the rule of the

Central Council, or of Skoropadsky, or during the first two months of the

Directorate's rule. Pogroms began after defeats that had been inflicted

upon the troops of the Directorate by the Bolsheviks. The heavier the

defeats and the farther Petlura's army was compelled to retreat, the more

cruel was their vengeance upon the innocent Jewish population whom they

identified with Communists. The slogan: "down with Jews and Communists,"

or "all Jews are Communists" were raised throughout the Ukraine and

provoked pogroms everywhere.

This explanation of the origin of pogroms is quite identical with the

statement made in Temnytsky's and Vasylko's telegram of August 1, 1919.

In the course of centuries the entire population of Russia had been

listening to accusations by the government of Jews being responsible for

all the evils in the world. The ignorant masses believed even the

legends about the ritual murder of Christian children by Jews, while even

the "specialists" in this subject were declaring that Jews kill only

boys. Karab-Tchevsky tells us in the first part of his memoirs ("What My

Eyes Saw") that his mother had already in his childhood read to him the

New Testament, and when it came to the torturing of Jesus Christ, his

nurse or housemaid would exclaim: "the hideous Jews, they surely killed

Christ by torture!" (p. 23).

The pogroms of the years 1880 in Kishinev and Homel, came as the result

of false rumors and of promises of exemption from punishment for

plundering during three days. This time, however, the participation of

Jews in the Bolshevist movement was no more a rumor, but a fact which it

was very easy to exaggerate. On the other side, the impunity for

plundering lasted this time not only three days, but indefinitely on

account of the absence of any authority that could stop the plundering.

For, what authority could exist during the panic of retreat before

Trotsky's army? ... Under such conditions a favorable atmosphere was

created for the rapacious instincts of the demoralized segments of the

army, as well as for the development of the ideological barbarity of

Semesenko and for the provocateurs from the Russian Black-Hundred camp,

who were pogrommongers by conviction and wished at the same time to

discredit the Ukrainian movement by branding it as being guilty of

pogroms.

All this, of course, is not justification, but only one of many

explanations of the origin of pogroms during the period of the

Directorate.

Quite a different picture is displayed by the comparison of this period

of pogroms with the pogroms by Denikin's army. Here is no question of

retreat and of chaos that is connected with retreat. On the contrary,

the more successful the advance, the more organized and stronger is the

propaganda from above and the more according to plan the pogroms are

developed. If the beginning of the demoralization of the Ukrainian army

was at its tail, by Denikin's army the poison of demoralization came from

the head. As we have seen already, the Denikin officers openly declared

that they were fighting not against the Bolsheviks, but against the Jews.

To be sure, there were also in Denikin's army many persons of a purely

rapacious type. But the most horrible thing was the deeply rooted

anti-Semitism of the chiefs that surrounded Denikin, and their sadistic

hate of Jews. I, personally, am not inclined to assume that Denikin

himself wanted pogroms. Even to Denikin, in spite of his anti-Semitism,

it was impossible not to see the fatal results of pogroms for his army.

But he, too, was powerless on the question of pogroms, nor had he any

inclination to come forward in defense of the Jews.

The second characteristic feature which distinguishes the very course of

the pogroms in one area from the other consists in the fact that in

Petlura's army, we surely find cases when some individual persons or

groups succeeded in preventing or stopping pogroms. Two such cases are

cited by Temkin in his report, the other two cases are given in the

report of the Relief Committee for the Victims of Pogroms. Red Army

soldiers arranged an anti-Jewish pogrom in the city of Korosten in March

13, 1919. When the soldiers of Petlura's army which was at that time

advancing, reached the city, they stopped the pogroms. In Bila Tserkva

the Ukrainian army - having expelled in August the Denikin troops of Gen.

Shkuro and then the Red troops, who one after another plundered and

massacred the population - behaved in full dignity until in turn they

were substituted by Zeleny's bands that immediately arranged a pogrom.

Later the unfortunate town was attacked by Sokolov's bands, after which

the Ukrainian troops again succeeded in restoring order for a short time.

Lubny escaped a pogrom thanks to the fact that a hundred men were found

in the Ukrainian ranks, who with their arms stood in the way of the

pogrommakers. Fourteen of the defenders fell in the fight but the town

was saved. While reading the story about Lubny in this part of the

report, I recalled the year 1905 when a City Committee of Defense was

organized in Lubny, which also saved the city from a pogrom.

Such facts were unknown in Denikin's army. Here the "guilty" of such

patronage and defense of Jews were punished with dismissal from their

posts.

The third feature, a very disadvantageous one for Denikin's army and

government, appears as a result of the comparison of the declarations by

the Ukrainian government on the Jewish question, of laws concerning

personal-national autonomy and Jewish Communities on the one hand, with

the clauses restricting the number of Jews in educational institutions as

well as in civil and military services in Denikin's empire - on the other

hand. Here, on the part of the Ukrainian government, an effort to draw

on representatives of Jews in all levels of government posts, and over

there - in Denikin's camp - removal of Jewish officers from the army, and

of Jewish officials from district and city offices. And this - in spite

of the fact that so many Jews joined voluntarily at the very beginning

Koltchak's and Denikin's armies. And how many Jews having been brought

up with a Russian culture died for Russia that had been always a

stepmother to them? On the other hand, how small a group of us, Jews,

joined the Ukrainian movement at the beginning of the second revolution!

Of course, there was nothing strange in it. Wilson's points had been

declared but recently, and the realization of the right of

self-determination by the Ukrainian people wa such a new and fresh event

that not only the average Jewish citizen, but also the intellectuals,

with few exceptions, did not digest or understand all that had happened.

But the fact remains, Jews were represented by a very considerable number

in the ranks both of the Bolsheviks and, at the beginning, of Denikin's

army. The Ukrainian movement was joined only by a few Jews.

The representatives of Russian and Jewish capital and heavy industry were

marching hand-in-hand with the Volunteer Armies of Denikin, Yudenitch,

and Koltchak. And even after all those pogroms committed by Denikin's

army, the Jewish capitalists and industrialists followed the call of his

successor Wrangel, and joined him

Finally, one more feature out of many others that distinguish the

Ukrainian Movement from that of Denikin: An anti-Jewish pogrom was openly

carried on in Kiev in the presence of Denikin's generals, Drahomirov and

Bredov. Never did happen anything like that, wherever the Directorate

set up headquarters, neither in Kiev, nor in Vynnytsia, nor in

Kamanets-Pololsk. The Kiev population knows from bitter experience the

difference between those two regimes.