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 WhiteJRussian Bolsheviki, Bolshevist sentiments made their appearance
*We publish as an appendix to this chapter the complete report of these pogroms by the well-known attorney, A. I. Hillerson. See pp. 185 ff.
UKRAINE
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.