He also sent word to the municipal council that he had assumed the duties of commandant of the garrison, that he intended to prosecute every disturber of order, and at the same time informed them that at one of the stations he had had a Cossack officer shot who had attempted to loot. The vice-president of the Central Bureau of the ward-guard, Schenkmann, heard about this communication, and set off to Semosenko, to make his personal acquaintance. Semosenko received him cordially, promised to supply the guard with munitions, and to co-operate in every way to prevent pogroms. This conversation with Schenkmann, and also the fact that Semosenko had sent the above-mentioned proclamation to be set up in type, became known to certain agents of the municipal independent government, and they, according to the words of Dr. Stavinsky, president of the municipal council, went to the commandant Kiverchuk, to make inquiries as to how much authority Semosenko had and who had given it to him. Kiverchuk answered that he knew nothing about it, and took steps to see that the proclamation, already set up in the printer's office, should not be published.
It must be observed that with the appearance in the city of the 3rd Gaidamak regiment a perturbed tension arose among the Jews. This regiment conducted itself in a ' challenging manner, and it was definitely said of it that it had a past record for pogroms. No one in the city knew that a bolshevik uprising was being planned. Only two days before February 15 the commander of the militia, Kara-Zheliazkov, informed Joffe that he had heard that a revolution was being planned in Proskurov and that it was definitely alleged in the commandant's headquarters that a future bolshevist regime, with Joffe at its head, was already named.
Joffe, disquieted, summoned the representatives of the socialist parties, among them the bolsheviks. Two representatives of the communist party who appeared at this meeting stated that
PROSKUROV:
an uprising really was being planned and that the new government was being formed. The representatives of the other groups protested and pointed out that the uprising would end in failure and bring the Jews to complete destruction. They replied that the uprising would take place simultaneously in the whole government of Podolia and that a part of the garrison in Proskurov would be on the side of the rebels, and that sixteen villages were ready to come to their aid. They did not give information as to when the uprising would take place. (See testimony of Joffe, pp. 84-87 and 92-99.)
Beginning of the Bolshevik Uprising
On the evening of Friday, February 14, there appeared in the Central Bureau of the ward guards two young men of the bolshevist faction, who declared that a bolshevist uprising was scheduled for midnight, and asked the president, Rudnitsky, and his assistant Schenkmann, what position the ward guards would take in reference to it. The reply was that the ward guards, by their very nature, were a non-partisan organization, having for their purpose only the protection of the inhabitants, and that in the assumed circumstances they would be absolutely neutral. At the same time Schenkmann pointed out the inopportuneness of the uprising and the fact that it would certainly lead to a Jewish pogrom. But he also was answered that the rising would affect the entire government and that its favorable outcome was assured. Later another member of the communist organization appeared, who declared that by order of the revolutionary committee, which was being organized, he was appointed commissar of the bureau of the ward guards, and that Schenkmann was appointed by them to maintain relations with the bolshevist staff, which was already being organized. He gave Schenkmann the password by which the latter could get into the headquarters. According to Schenkmann's testimony he and Rudnitsky collected all the individual members of the guard and informed them that full freedom of action was allowed them, and called upon them to remove then and there all external evidences of membership in the ward guards. This was done. At the same time all who were questioned declared that they would take no part in the political uprising. With the password he had received Schenkmann went to the bolshevist revolutionary committee, and then to the general staff. Having become convinced that the bolsheviks' business was not going right and that the proposed uprising would turn out, in his words, a bluff, he approached the most responsible bolshevik and urged the
UKRAINE