The remainder of Grigoriev's bands developed their activity also in the month of June. They destroyed in the Government of Kiev, Stavische, June 15; Tarascha, 16; Volodarka, 20; Ryshanovka, 20; Skvira, 23; on the 27th they instituted a second pogrom in Alexandria (Government of Kherson).
The followers of Grigoriev destroyed a whole line of cities and towns root and branch, put to death or mutilated tens of thousands of Jews and violated thousands of Jewish women and girls, but the political aim of Grigoriev to become the ruler of the Ukraine was not realized. Grigoriev was able to gather the masses about him by the negative side of his program only, the hate against the "Jewish Soviet power," but he had nothing positive to offer. He could undermine the power of the Soviet government and open the gates to Denikin, with whom, as is reliably stated, he tried to get in touch, proposing to proceed in common with him against the Soviet government as well as the Directory. But he was beaten. His bands divided, one part going over to the side of the Soviet government and the other devoting itself to "positive pillage" under the leadership of several insignificant Batki.
Grigoriev himself fell by the hand of another Batko, superior to him, by the name of Makhno. Extremely interesting is the "resolution" passed by the followers of the "ideal Batko" in reference to the murder of Grigoriev.
COPY OF A COPY OF THE RESOLUTION FROM THE PROTOCOL NUMBER 4 OF THE GENERAL ASSEM- BLY OF THE COUNCIL OF THE REVOLUTIONARY
OF KHER- SON, F THE MILITARY CORPS ON THE 28TH OF JULY, 1919.
"The assassination of the Ataman Grigoriev on the 27th of July in the village of Septovo, circuit of Alexandria, Government of Kherson, by the ideal leader of the insurrectionists, the Batko Makhno, must be regarded as a necessary and required historical fact,
UKRAINE
for Grigoriev's policy, acts and aims were counterrevolutionary and had the main purpose of supporting Denikin and other counter-revolutionists, as is proved by the Jewish pogroms and the arming of the thugs. The union of his army with that of Batko Makhno is explained as being necessary in order to take away from him all the honest freebooters, who are fighting for revolutionary ideas and follow him only because of their ignorance.
"We cherish the hope that now no one will be found who will sanction Jewish pogroms, and that the working people will in their honesty rise against the counter-revolutionists like Denikin and others, as well as against the Bolsheviki and communists who are establishing a dictatorship by force with the help of mercenary Magyars, Chinese and Letts. The followers of Makhno regard it as their revolutionary duty to take upon themselves the historical consequences of this assassination. Down with Jewish pogroms! Long live the revolutionary uprising of the Ukraine! Long live the Ukrainian Socialist Soviet Republic! Long live socialism!"
The original is signed by the
President, VITKO MAKHNO,
Secretary, SHEVCHENKO,
Attested by Acting Chief of Staff, MIKHAILOV,
Attested by (signature illegible).
Reading this resolution one might think that the Batko Makhno himself, who had assassinated Grigoriev because he had instituted Jewish pogroms, had not a drop of Jewish blood clinging to his fingers. Far from it! The bands of Makhno were guilty of the maddest excesses, they devastated Jewish cities and towns. Makhno has thousands of murdered and tortured Jews on his conscience, and the complete destruction of almost all the Jewish colonies in the south of the Ukraine is his work. The "ideal Batko" himself was now for, now against pogroms, depending upon the political situation of the moment.
Makhno is an intellectual, a former village schoolmaster once imprisoned for a political offence, a clever and energetic man. During the first phase of the Russian Revolution he was a member of the Yelisavetgrad Executive Committee of the labor deputies. At the time of the German occupation he became a popular personality in the Government of Yekaterinoslav, where he prepared the uprising against the German rule. Makhno was regarded by the village population as one of those "holy fighters'' for the cause of the village who put an end to a regime which atempted to carry everything away from the Ukraine and to establish a terroristic rule upon the flat country. Like the bands of Grigoriev, the insurrectionist bands of Makhno also occupied a whole line of points in the south (on the i8th of March they occupied Berdiansk; on the 3ist, Melitopol, Ochakov, Sivash) which went over to the side of the Soviet government. Makhno had not definitely inscribed himself with the Soviet power, therefore they were not so painfully affected by his treason as by that of Grigoriev.