These troops, who call themselves Soviet troops, were guilty of excesses. The pogrom in Rossovo was also according to all probability the work of such a band. The sentiment of the troops who enacted these pogroms can be seen from their watchwords.
The acts of violence in Zolotonosha (see above No.
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9) were perpetrated under the cry, "Ah! you are a communist, we will teach you!" In Vasilkov (No. 6), the soldiers of the "Red Hundred" cried, "Down with the Jewish commissars!"
It is clear that when such troops as these proceed against Jews, they are under the influence of another party hostile to the Soviet power, with which they are sometimes even united in the same organization.
The bands of freebooters consisting of deserters were the cause of the instability and insecurity of the Soviet power at Kiev. They prepared its fall while ostensibly acting in its name and under its flag.
The great majority of the freebooting troops finally fell away from the Soviet power and went over to the side of their enemies amid the enactment of horrible blood baths (Grigoriev and his people). It must be openly and honestly admitted that the effect of the Soviet government upon the troops must have been extraordinarily great, for as long as they were actually subject to the Soviet government at Kiev, they were scarcely guilty of any excesses. We see here at any rate that two opposite political systems (the Kiev Soviet government fighting against pogroms, and the opposite party making use of them) working on the same basis, namely the anti-Jewish feeling throughout the Ukraine, and on the same human material, led to entirely opposite results.
The freebooters were not the only troops on which the Soviet government supported itself. In their fight against the unreliable troops and the excesses committed by them, the Soviet government supported itself on not large but loyally devoted associations of communists, the so-called "International Division." To the communistic troops belonged members of the mobilized Ukrainian communistic party as well as workmen of other socialist parties, who were called to the service of the army, as a result of a resolution of the Soviets, by the union and trade councils. To prevent a dissolution of the insurrectionist troops and to maintain their firmness, communists were assigned to the several military associations. In this way a disciplined Red Army was formed.
The international divisions (whose appearance, as mentioned before, was greeted so gladly by the Jewish representatives in Uman) were small and very reliable units made up of groups of Hungarian, Austrian and German prisoners, who were under the leadership of their Soviets. They were sent by the government to relieve politically unreliable troops and to fight against the excesses committed by the latter. At the time of the fight against the volunteer army of Denikin, troops appeared also from Great Russia in consequence of a resolution of the Central Executive Committee of the Ukraine that the military leadership of the two republics should be uniform.
In connection with the excesses mentioned above it should be stated that the constantly vacillating and unreliable freebooters were under the influence of certain agents whom they trusted and thus betrayed the Soviet government. We have already referred to Grigoriev and Mazurenko. Beside these prominent men there are a number of less important ones, whom we shall name.
In Cherniakov, Davidenko, the president of the revolutionary committee, who was at the same time commissar for military affairs, was in connection with the bands of Sokolovsky. The result was a Jewish pogrom. In Matusovo, Government of Kiev, the following
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thing happened. A few days before the beginning of the excesses, the Executive committee (the highest Soviet organ in the place) received from Shpola a provocatory letter, purposely signed with a Jewish name (Goldstein if we are not mistaken), reading as follows: "The churches should be sealed and the church furniture and fixtures brought to Shpola." On the tenth" of May some riders brought to Matusovo a manifesto of Grigoriev, which was read on the same day to an assembly of the inhabitants called for the purpose, by Kesser, the Secretary of the Executive Committee. Whether that which Kesser read was actually contained in the copy of the manifesto handed to him, or whether he read something of his own making (which is more likely), we shall have to leave undecided. At any rate Kesser told the assembled peasants that an order had come to destroy the Jews. A terrible blood bath followed, due to a treacherous government official, who stood under the protection of the government and inspired confidence by his official position and the assurance that he was acting in the name and interest of the Soviet power.