Very instructive in this regard is the history of the pogrom which was instituted by the troops of Petlura in the city of Rovno on the 2ist of May, 1919 (Communication of A. Cherkassky). Petlura's armored train "Streletz" came into the city. About 12 o'clock midnight pillage began in some streets, especially in the "Volya," the Jewish part of the town. The soldiers who came in the armored train went from house to house and took money, valuables, clothing and other things.... Everywhere one heard heartrending cries..... A group of young Jews who were in a house waited for daylight, armed themselves and resolved to offer resistance to the pillagers. Being ten in number they ventured to enter into an armed fight with the bandits in the "Volya," where the pillaging was going on. In one hour they had cleared a few streets (Dubenskaya, Alexandrovskaya, Novakovskaya and a part of the Minskaya) of the bandits. At the same time they caught two soldiers and shot them. The success of this group encouraged the male inhabitants of the adjacent part of the town, who gradually grew into a Self-defense. They divided themselves into groups of 6 to 8 men and covered the whole suburb Volya. The Self-defense so created in the Volya forced the bandits to go back to their train. In a half hour stronger divisions of plunderers were sent from there to the Volya, who took up the fight against the Self-defense. To help the bandits drive away the Self-defense, they shot into the Volya with cannon from the armored train. It is clear that the Selfdefense could not withstand such force and had to withdraw, which they did in good order.... When the bandits had driven away the Self-defense, the pillaging of dwellings and shops began again. A few persons who had nothing that could be plundered were put to death.
We have treated the Self-defense in Rovno at such length because we find there both the stages of which we spoke above, namely the stage of resistance to groups of bandits who do not feel quite secure and are therefore cowardly, and the other stage of the military pogrom, which it requires an organized military power to oppose. It is true that the Self-defense succeeded in a number of small places, situated away from the pogrom wave, in driving away the small local bands (Bogopolie, Golta, Golovskov, Krivoie Ozero), but this does not change the general position of Jewry, given up to destruction.
The need felt for protecting themselves was very great. The masses of Ukrainian Jewry were filled with the desire to defend their lives with arms, or at least to sell them dear, and to avoid disgraceful death in j UKRAINE
some cellar or loft. In Zlatopol for example (Government of Kiev), the survivors of the pogroms were gathered at the station, as they feared another pogrom. They were defenseless and could not even save themselves by flight. They ran hither and thither but there was no help anywhere. Their leader, Mr. Rqmsen, sent telegrams in all directions, Kiev, Odessa, Yelisavetgrad. He asked for a division of defenders or at least for arms for self-defense, but there was no answer from anywhere. According to his communication, old men, women and children cried with one voice, "We want nothing. We are hungry and barefoot, but instead of bread give us protection, give us arms!" They asked for arms in the name of those 250 volunteers who entered the Red Army; they said, "Give their fathers and mothers the possibility of arming themselves, so as to die honorably at least." This was their only wish. If they must die, let it be at least with arms in their hands and not in a cellar. Yet arms, too, would scarcely help the unfortunates. But they were not to be had; there was not enough even for the army which protected the population against the attacks of the bands.
Equally unsuccessful were the attempts to organize purely Jewish military divisions. In Skvira, after the first pogrom, when the same band appeared again, the "Ispolkom" (executive committee of the Soviet) quickly organized a Jewish military division of 900 men. There were also a number of workmen among them and members of the Red Army. Thirty men fell in battle, and they had to withdraw together with the Soviet division. Thereupon the insurrectionists took possession of the town.