at their mothers' breasts. They were not content with killing, but thrust their victims through with their bayonets. They made use of their guns only when some persons succeeded in running out into the streets. Then they sent a bullet after them. The Jews were dragged out of the cellars and lofts and murdered. Hand grenades were thrown into the cellars, and entire families were put to death in the most brutal manner. The massacre lasted from two o'clock in the afternoon to five-thirty. It might have lasted till late into the night but the commander Taranovich, who had not been initiated into all the plans of Semosenko and Kiverchuk, was frightened when he saw these bloody orgies. When he had succeeded in obtaining an order from the commander Konovalov to put an end to the blood bath, he brought it to Semosenko, who said, "Good, it is enough for to-day." A trumpet signal was then given to the Gaidamaks to stop "work." Thereupon they assembled at a place determined beforehand and marched singing to their quarters behind the railway station. The pogrom was to be continued the next day (the Gaidamaks related that the massacre was to last three days). Thanks to the interference of the city administration, especially the city commissar Verkhola, the mass slaughter was stopped. In a proclamation, in which Semosenko declares the city and the canton under martial law, he writes, "I warn the population to stop anarchistic revolts, since I have the power to suppress them. I call the attention of the Jews in particular to this. You are a people hated by all nations. And yet you bring such confusion among the baptized. Do you really not want to live? Are you not sorry for your own people? As long as no one bothers you be quiet. Such a miserable nation, and yet they cause so much disturbance among a poor people!"
After the pogrom in Proskurov the bandits made it their purpose to annihilate this "miserable nation," which brings confusion among the baptized.
The pogrom in Felshtin was really an episode of the Proskurov massacre. It lasted several hours and cost the lives of about six hundred persons, that is, almost a third of the Jewish population numbering 1,900 souls. Many more women were violated here than in Proskurov. Most of those killed were first dishonored, and survivors underwent the same horror. Here too the pogrom stopped at a given signal. When the trumpet sounded, the Gaidamaks poured petroleum and benzine upon five of the best houses in the town and set them on fire. Thus these warriors crowned their work for the welfare of the Ukrainian Fatherland.
The month of March is marked by the successes in arms of Petlura's troops. In the beginning of March Petlura succeeded, by Sarin's march to Iskorost, in threatening Kiev. He occupied Iskorost, Malin, the station Irsha and on the 2ist of March, Zhitomir. He was only 150 versts from Kiev. At the end of March the fortunes of war turned against him. Owing to quick reinforcements of the Bolsheviki, the breach through their front was made ineffective on April ist. Zhitomir, Malin, Iskorost and other places were reconquered by the Bolsheviki. The greatest pogroms, as for example the second in Zhitomir, took place at the end of March. In this month Petlura' s army instituted the following pogroms: in Belashits (between the 7th and I2th of March), in Samgorodok (i3th of March), in Iskorost and Ushomir (3ist of March),
UKRAINE
and in Zhitomir (second pogrom, 22nd of March). Especially characteristic and significant for the conception of the entire political situation are the circumstances under which the second pogrom in Zhitomir took place. For this reason we quote a report of this pogrom made by the authorized agent, Lifschiitz.
F MR. LIFSCHUETZ OF THE SECOND POGROM IN ZHITOMIR.