The reader must not suppose that the whole Ukraine was divided into two camps, a Jewish and a Christian, and that Ukrainian Jewry was opposed by a closed anti-Semitic front. If this had been the situation there would be no trace of Jews left in the Ukraine. In reality the feeling of the peasants toward the Jews was subject to variation. The transition from an anti-Semitic attitude to active participation in anti- Semitic pogroms was for a considerable portion of the peasantry neither simple nor easy. Many years of living together in peace had struck deep roots, which could not so easily be pulled out even by the hurricane of civil war. The vacillating attitude of the peasantry is also shown in the fact above mentioned that Makhno's division once themselves made pogroms and then approved of the murder of Grigoriev by their Batko because "Grigoriev was a counter-revolutionist and organized Jewish pogroms." They discuss the question, and sometimes at length, whether they should begin a pogrom or whether they should continue a pogrom that had already begun.... When the bands of Makhno took Yekaterinoslav the first time (in November, 1918), they called a meeting at the
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staff headquarters, of the responsible leaders of the several partisan divisions, where the question was discussed almost a whole day, whether they should make a Jewish pogrom or not. There was much weighing of arguments pro and con.
It is clear therefore that every circumstance which makes Jews appear in the specific role of an active, closed and organized body aggravates their position and makes the masses of the Jews who are not scattered among the Ukrainian peasantry, even more defenseless than before. The peasants often distinguish between "their" Jews, whom they have known a long time as honest people, artisans and traders, and the "strange" Jews who, in the inciting words of the provocators, introduce the terrible commune.
This can be clearly seen in the country town of Ushomir, in the district of Korosten. The peasants of the surrounding villages came there all armed. There was such a crowd of peasants that they filled town and village. They came from all sides.... The peasants went from street to street. The Jews in their anxiety concealed themselves, but the peasants quieted them, saying that they had nothing against them, that they had in mind the town of Iskorost where the "commune" had made its nest, and that they had made up their minds to get even with those (the Jews of Iskorost). But they called upon the Jews of Ushomir to join them, registered them and gave them certain "certificates" with seals at ten rubles apiece. They had in this way, so to speak, attached the Jews of Ushomir to their movement. The old peasants said to the Jews that they were forced to do this. The peasants not merely did not lay their hands on any one, they took nothing away from the Jews and paid for everything they took. The peasants also actively defended "their" Jews against the bandits.
There appeared in the town the vanguard of Sokolovsky's band, five armed riders, who went to the market place and began to beat the Jews whom they met. These riders attracted attention at once by their brutal appearance.... Hearing of the disorder on the market place, the local peasants appeared, protected the Jews and asked the Sokolovsky band why they had come. The riders replied that they wanted to get even with the Jews. The peasants then said to the riders that they should not dare lay their hands on a single Jew, for the Jews of Ushomir stood together with the peasants and that if a single Jew was harmed the riders would be called to account. The latter withdrew with the excuse that they "did not come to kill the Jews, but to take out the bombs which Petlura's men had thrown into the river." Soon the riders disappeared. This case is not the only one of its kind.
In other places the local population took part in the pogroms, especially in the cities, where the reactionary element of the poorer classes and the officials in the south always were distinguished by their anti-Semitism. In Cherkassy, Uman, Zlatopol and other places, the local population played the chief role, especially in Cherkassy, where, as we have seen, the Jewish fighters on the left flank were torn to pieces by the local population of the factory precincts. In Uman we have the same phenomenon. On the third day of the massacres a procession took place with church banners, at the head of which marched the orthodox clergy, and the devotees passed the fresh bodies of the Jews shot or stabbed to death. But even in Uman there was a part
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