The peasants in the Ukraine were armed to the teeth. Even during the German occupation the villages were always provided with arms, not only revolvers and guns, but also machine guns and small cannon. The Soviet power, which always fought against the troops of the Directory, was not able to penetrate into the villages and disarm them. Besides, the army of the Soviet power was unable to exercise sufficient influand not sufficiently disciplined. Politically, too, the Soviet power was unable to exercise sufficient influence upon the middle peasants. The difference between city and country in the Ukraine was too great. The
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Ukrainian village is very rich; and the peasants refused to give up their products and their grain to the indigent city for "Kerensky money" or the Ukrainian "karbovantzy," which they possessed in plenty (there was scarcely a house which did not own bales of worthless paper money); for the peasant could not obtain what he needed for this money; he could get neither agricultural machines nor manufactured goods nor salt. The blockade made it impossible for the city to play the role of the middleman or to obtain its necessities. The Soviet power was therefore compelled to take the grain from the peasants by force of arms. To be sure, the Soviet government had made a decree regulating I the exchange of agricultural products for salt and I manufactured goods, a standard of exchange had in \ fact been established, one pound of salt to equal one pound of flour. This was changed later, and one pound of salt was made equal to 2 poods (i pood equals 40 Ibs.) of flour. In reality, however, there was no possibility of transporting manufactures or salt and bringing them to their destinations, after the internal front made railroad communication in the Ukraine almost impossible by reason of the continual blowing up and damaging of rolling stock and tracks. But the peasants were not willing to give anything away for products "prospective in principle/' For they mistrusted the "commune/' Not only the rich peasants but the middle peasants, too, regarded the "commune" as a hydra which strove to take everything out of the village without giving them anything in return. The rich Ukrainian village was anarchistic in temper. It recognized every government so long as it left the village undisturbed, and demanded no taxes, agricultural products, recruits, and so on. But the moment any government attempted to make demands for the flat land or to press claims, the village revolted, took out the buried weapons and used them, and finally brought about the fall of the government in question. The Ukrainian village was the sphinx whose riddle could not be solved and which destroyed every power that rose before it. This is the explanation of the cinematographic rapidity with which the various governments followed each other in the Ukraine.
A special peasant phraseology was formed: "We are Bolshevists," said the peasants in the Ukraine, "but no communists. The Bolsheviki gave us land, while the communists take away our grain without giving us anything for it. We will not allow the Red Army to hang the commune about our necks. Down with the commune! Long live the Bolsheviki!"
The attitude of the Ukrainian peasants toward the commune is shown in the following incident, which would be humorous if it were not that it really took place under the tragic circumstances of the pogrom temper. The authorized agent of the Relief Committee of the Red Cross had been commissioned to establish a kitchen in Iskorost for those who had suffered from the pogrom. Rumors of the creation of a common kettle, that terrible common kettle with which the agitators frightened the peasants, were circulated also in the neighboring district of Ushomir. The inhabitants of Ushomir said then that "the JewS had already established the commune," and affirmed that they had seen the Kettle with their own eyes. The peasants of Ushomir threatened the Jewish population with the words, "Why don't you go to Iskorost? There the Kettle is already made." Fearing an accusation of having established the "commune/* the Jews