The Jews went with complaints to the commandant Meschanchuk. He quieted them by declaring that. the regular army would soon appear and that then the plunderings would stop. In fact, there did appear on the twenty-fifth of December in Ovruch a detachment of guerrilla-soldiers with the ataman Kozyr-Zyrka at their head. To those who met him Kozyr-Zyrka declared that he had come to introduce order in the city. Some say that Meschanchuk, in presenting a report on the condition of the town, had declared that bolshevism was raging there and that the Jews were to blame for it.
The Ataman Kozyr-Zyrka
Legends have sprung up in Ovruch about the personality of Kozyr-Zyrka. Some assert that he was a certain count from Bielaia Tserkov, and that Kozyr-Zyrka was not his real name, but only a pseudonym.
Others declare that he was a runaway Galician convict, in support of which they point among other things to the tattooing on his arms.
But all descriptions agree in this, that he was a handsome young fellow, a fiery brunet of gypsy type, with good manners, a fine orator, speaking exclusively in the Galician-Ukrainian dialect. He did not speak Russian, though he understood the language very well.
Kozyr-Zyrka considered it his first duty to become acquainted with the attitudes of the various social groups. Therefore he
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invited to meet him the mayor of the town, a Pole named Moshinsky, and the representatives of various social organizations, mostly Poles and former tsarist officials. What these invited guests told Kozyr-Zyrka remained unknown, but it is not difficult to make a guess.
Arrest of the Clerical Rabbi
Having heard the representatives of the Christian community, the Ataman decided to make the acquaintance of a representative of the Jewish community. Therefore he ordered the Jewish clerical Rabbi arrested and brought to him.
The Rabbi was arrested December 26 about 2 P.M., and was brought to the commandant's headquarters. There he was detained until 10 P.M., steadily exposed to all manner of taunts on the part of the Cossacks. At last at 10 P.M. he stood before the eyes of the ataman Kozyr-Zyrka. The latter received' him extremely rudely, and, after questioning him in a prejudiced way, announced to him: "I know that you are a bolshevik, that all your relatives and all Jews are bolsheviks. Know that I am going to destroy all the Jews in the city. Get them together in the synagogue and inform them of what I have told you."
First Murders
With these words he dismissed the Rabbi, late at night. In the same night Cossacks surrounded a peasant's cart, in which Jewish boys and girls, gymnasium students from Mozyr, were riding. The Cossacks demanded that the peasants give up to them the "Jewish brats," but the peasants saved them. However, they arrested a young Jew from Kalinkovichi, who was passing through Ovruch, and took him to the Ataman. And on the ground that he was from Kalinkovichi, which was in the hands of the bolsheviki, Kozyr-Zyrka declared him also a bolshevik and ordered him shot.
Persecutions
There were also arrested two Jews passing through from the hamlet Narodichi; they were peddlers of cheap tobacco and matches. They were declared profiteers and brought to the Ataman. There they were stripped naked, scourged with whips, and made to dance. At the same time a bundle of tobacco was thrust into the mouth of one and a box of matches into the
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other's. Kozyr-Zyrka himself stood with raised revolver and threatened to shoot them, if they stopped dancing. Afterwards they made them beat each other and kiss the spot beaten. They also compelled them to cross themselves, etc. After amusing themselves with them as much as they liked they drove them out naked on the street, and then threw out their clothes after them. (Testimony of Rabbi Kipnis 10-11, Weilerman 13-16, et a/.)
Departure of Kozyr-Zyrka and Second Seizure by the Pokalevites
The twenty-seventh of December passed in petty robberies in Jewish homes. At this time the following incident occurred. A detachment of Cossacks went to the hamlet Narodichi for the requisition of leather. Returning, the detachment halted in a certain village. There the Cossacks drank too much. When they went on, the peasants ambushed them and fired upon them. Four Cossacks were killed; the rest rode into Ovruch. This incident produced a profound impression upon Kozyr-Zyrka and his partisans, and in the same night they left Ovruch and returned to Korosten.