This force which played so momentous a role in the history of Ukrainian Jewry, a force which for the first time in our revolutionary epoch made use of Jewish massacres as a political weapon, against the Soviet enemy, is represented by the later leaders and political heads of the Ukrainian People's Republic. They took the same bloody course that was followed later by the Russian reaction of the Denikin regime and the volunteer army. Not all at once but gradually, step by step and at critical moments, did they begin to take up the method of pogroms. First they addressed threats to the Jewish leaders, warning them of the people's wrath in case they did not exert the proper influence on the Jewish masses. Then followed the actual application of the method in question, first in the form of organized excesses and demonstrations, and then at the most critical moment in the form of a systematic and uninterrupted series of organized blood baths and horrible devastations. Forced back by the Soviet government to the frontier of the Ukraine, the leaders of the Ukrainian Republic, as represented by the Directory and its responsible agents, never again let go of this bloody weapon by which they expected to secure victory.
The history of the Jewish pogroms in the Ukraine is closely connected with the political history of the country, and cannot be separated from it. It seems necessary, therefore, to keep in mind the main factors of the revolutionary movement in the Ukraine, and to determine the dividing line between the popular movement of the Ukrainians and the Jewish socialistic parties. This division, accompanied by military defeats, already carried in itself the germ of the approaching massacres.
The March revolution exposed in sharp outline all the problems of Russian life, including the problem of nationality. The autocratic tsar held all the nationalities inhabiting the several parts of the empire in slavery. Their endeavors to develop their national culture were exposed to persecution. Every attempt to attain even the most modest share of autonomy was regarded as a revolt against the highest authority and was rigorously suppressed.
With the outbreak of the revolution strong nationalistic movements began in certain parts of the former empire. The opposing forces made themselves felt. The nationalistic element came to the fore everywhere, especially in the large border states, Finland and the Ukraine. The Provisional Government tried to evade the problem as well as it could. In its dependence upon the Russian bourgeoisie, especially upon the party of the Constitutional Democrats (Cadets) which represented them in their efforts to create a "united, strong and great Russia," it saw in the nationalistic movement the danger of secession of the border states. The Provisional Government was resolved not to weaken the economic power of the great Russian bourgeoisie by showing a pliable temper, nor
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to weaken Russia while the imperialistic world war was raging. It, therefore, postponed the.solution of the problem "until the calling of the Constitutional Assembly," which was again and again postponed to a later date. The nationalistic movement burst forth with the fury of a storm. Its waves rose higher and higher. The Provisional Government was compelled to recognize it and meet it step by step. In the Ukraine a representative body was formed, the Central Rada composed of all socialist parties, which controlled the political life of the country and created out of itself the national secretariat as an executive organ.
To bring about peaceful relations between the Provisional Government and the Central Rada, the two ministers Zeretelli and Tereschenko came from Petrograd to Kiev, and actually succeeded for a time in reconciling the nationalistic aspirations of the Ukraine with the wavering and restraining tendencies of the Provisional Government. They recognized the right of the Ukraine to a considerable degree of autonomy. But they would not accept a federative structure of the Russian State.
The Central Rada based its hopes and claims upon the enormous majority of the Ukrainian village, upon the nationalistically minded intelligentzia of the cities as well as upon parts of the urban lower middle class. The Rada became, therefore, an important political power, maintaining its independence of the Russian Provisional Government, which had not the slightest influence in the Ukraine.