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 1 6th 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 2Oth 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 Ukrainia."
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
UKRAINE
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 Ukrainia have already done/'
On the nth 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, i. 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.
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