The leading Batki often go over from one government to the other. This is true of Grigoriev, for example, who watered a great part of the Ukraine with Jewish blood. Under the Hetman he held a responsible position in the economic department of the administration and came in close contact with the village (he is a native Ukrainian from the city of Alexandria in the Government of Kherson). Going from village to village, he organized groups of insurrectionists, at the head of which he raised the banner of Petlura. The ambition to make a career, the desire to be more conspicuous, the comprehension of the tendencies of the peasants at that time who were attempting a reaction against German rule and wishing for a radical power of the extreme left, induced him to put himself on the side of the Soviet government. Grigoriev placed himself at the head of strong associations of freebooters and in a whirlwind campaign conquered the whole south, including Odessa. But he was not satisfied with being a leader of a Soviet army. He was casting eyes on the position of an independent ruler of South Russia and dreamed of a dictatorship of his own. He systematically encouraged unbridled conduct among his troops, did everything to please their instincts and desires and gave them to understand that they could do anything they liked as long as they were masters of Odessa. It is significant that as long as he had not broken with the Soviet government and had not refused to obey the military commands given to him to go to the Rumanian front, Grigoriev abstained from all national baiting. In Odessa his bands robbed the population under the pretext of fighting the bourgeoisie, but there were no serious excesses or pogroms. After the Soviet government declared Grigoriev an outlaw, he adopted a means that had been long proved in Ukraine to weld together his united bands. He identified the Soviet government with Judaism and preached its destruction.
Grigoriev issued his manifesto of sad memory, "Universal" (addressed to all the people), which has had a very unfortunate significance for the Ukrainian
UKRAINE