According to a brief report of A. Wertheim, authorized agent of the Red Cross for the support of the victims of the pogroms, the Fourth Taraschan Soviet Regiment and the second cavalry brigade, having defeated a Petlura company of 120 peasants and 27 Jews, entered the town without the slightest offer of resistance by the population. Directly after the occupation of the place, the soldiers began to rob, plunder and set houses on fire. About 300 persons were killed, about 150 houses were burned, and a number of women and girls were violated. Further details are wanting.
All the pogroms and excesses were expressly military in character. Before we go on to show how the Soviet power fought politically and by means of agitation against the anti-Semitic spirit of the troops, how they fought against it from the first day of their appearance in the Ukraine — we will describe the constitution and character of the military bodies belonging to the Red Army.
The overwhelming majority of the Soviet troops consisted at the time in question of insurrectionist bands of freebooters. Some of these were formed independently, others went over during the fight from Petlura to the freebooters after the second occupation of Kiev by the Soviet troops. Finally there belonged to them also in part the bands of Makhno and Grigoriev who remained loyal to the Soviet government. These troops consisted of Ukrainian peasants. Like all Ukrainian freebooters they were radical in sentiment. One charteristic of theirs is antipathy to strangers, especially Jews. They are therefore easily accessible to anti-Semitic agitation, especially in moments of doubt when they are not ckar what attitude they should assume toward the Soviet power. They are always vacillating in their loyalty to the Bolshevist
UKRAINE
government. Again and again they go from the Soviet power to the side of Petlura or the Batki. After a defeat or an unsuccessful uprising they go back to the Soviet troops. Often it happens that certain portions of the troops declare themselves "independent," retaining the entire revolutionary phraseology and watchwords. They still call themselves Soviet troops but are in reality in the service of the enemies of the Kiev Soviet government. Such troops are in many cases under the influence of the so-called "Independent Ukrainian Social Democracy." This party has played a momentous role in the history of the Soviet power in the Ukraine. After they broke with the official social democratic party (Vinnichenko and, Petlura), they took into their program the principle of the Soviet power, instead of that of the social democracy, and joined the Soviet organ in the Ukraine. In consequence of their close relations to the freebooters, they began, after they had broken with the Soviet power also, to incite these people against the communistic- Jewish government. They are opponents of Denikin, but they are also opponents of a false commune. They are also against the power of the Jews, but are for a "Ukrainian Independent Socialistic Republic." This party was led by Mazurenko, the Batko of all Batki, mentioned in the last chapter. The proclamations of these people are so significant that it seems useful to quote one of them in full.
"Comrades, Red Cossacks! ask yourselves. Were you not the first to rise against the force of the Germans, have you not shed your blood for a better lot and life of the Ukrainian working people? Where are these rights that we fought for? We see, comrades, how we must fight our way through, while those who do not work hang on our necks and lead and enslave us.
"Comrades! can we not arrange our own life in our own house better, in the interest of the working people?
"What are we waiting for? Why don't we get these Jews out of the way? Why don't we take into our own hands this matter, which is so important for the working people?
"Comrades, we have fought against the Hetman, we have learned the injustice of the Directory, we fought and are still fighting against Denikin and the reactionary officers. But if we see injustice on the side of the communists, Jews and similar people, are we not in duty bound to say, Out of our house! You have done us harm! Liberate therefore, Comrades, our land from the Jews and other communists.
"Long live the Soviets of the working peasantry, and the laboring population!
"Long live the local and central power of the Batki!
"Long live the Ukrainian independent socialistic Soviet republic!
"Death to General Denikin!
"Down with the, false commune!
(Signed) The Council of the Insurrectionary Troops of Ukrainia on the Left Side. The Hetman of the Troops,- LOPATKIN. The Chief of Staff, ZAVGORODNY."