We have waited many months for these days of readjustment and recuperation to come, and they have not come. It is very hard to say in quiet phrases what has happened in Ukraine since the revolution. War and disorder, devastation and confusion, became the lot of the distracted country. The Ukrainian People 's Eepublic has had to defend its very existence against German invasion, against Eussian Bolshevist conquest, against Poland's noble legions, against Denikin's Cossack raids, and the dark forces behind them, against internal strife, against marauding bandit gangs, against an economic ruin, against a complete breakdown and disaster. For the Jew, this disaster resulted in pogroms.
Fairness in Judgment as to Who are the Guilty
Who are the guilty ones? Who has to bear the ghastly responsibility ?
The errand I am bound on to America, comprises no obligation to lie either for my country or for my countrymen. Before we condemn anybody we have to sit in judgment upon ourselves. I must admit that information now in my possession fully establishes the fact that in one case — a very severe one (Proskurow) — soldiers from the Ukrainian People's Army were the perpetrators. It was not upon the impulse of the government, nor upon a military command that they slew helpless people. It was not with knowledge of Simon Petlura, but against his strictest orders and against the purpose of the Ukrainian People's Republic.
There is some evidence of old-fashioned provocation or of criminal mistake or wilful disobedience on the part of the local commander in several other, fortunately less disastrous, cases. Just these cases, wherever the name of Ukrainian People's Republic or of Simon Petlura is involved, we want to be investigated first of all.
But, allow me to say, these are rather exceptional cases.
Spirit of Czarist Russia Kept Alive 'by Dark Forces.
The spirit of czarist Russia is being kept very much alive, not only through the efforts of Denikin, his backers, but by the dark forces hidden throughout all the territory of the former Russian Empire, by the rank and file of the old Black
Hundreds, by many others. It is the Russia of infamous memory against which the Ukrainian People's Republic is fighting for deliverance.
It is also known that pogroms have been carried out in Ukrainian territory occupied by Russian Bolshevist armies. Jews have been robbed and driven from their homes and slain by Bolshevist marauders and by Soviet troops themselves, which are characterized by a great variety of discipline and of purpose.
In Western Ukraine — Galicia and a part of Volhynia — Jews, as well as Ukrainians themselves, have been persecuted and outraged and starved out by invading Polish legions.
Finally, large parts of Ukrainian territory seem to be a No Man 's Land, where various bandit gangs are preying upon the people. They comprise adventurers and brigands mostly, of —I am sorry to admit — Ukrainian language and descent, the same as lynching mobs in America consist of Americans.
Little of Disturbed Area Controlled by Ukrainian Government
The bloody tide swept within its wave almost all the territory of Ukraine. Only a small part of this territory was controlled by the Ukrainian People 's Republic. The pogroms in Ukraine took place during the winter and spring months. Even in December the Ukrainian government lost the control of Eastern Ukraine, and the Ukrainian army fought its retreat battles against advancing Bolshevist armies. Since February the territory controlled by the Ukrainian government has grown still smaller, including only parts of Podolia and Volhynia, and by the end of winter the main body of the Ukrainian army had been forced to pass over the Galician border. Speaking of pogroms, may I not insert that marauding soldier bands who tried to continue their work in Ukrainian Galicia have been put down and executed by the Ukrainian peasants themselves.