been called forth exclusively by the Jews, who, being ond and all bolsheviks, had plotted to murder the Gaidamaks and other Cossacks. He would continue to act in the same way in the future, since he considered it his sacred duty. Kiverchuk expressed himself in the same spirit.
Then Verkhola spoke. I consider it necessary to say a few words about the personality of Verkhola. Verkhola sprang from the people and was self-educated. He graduated from a School of Art, taught in folk-schools, and attended lectures at the university. In his politics he is a Social Democrat and Ukrainian nationalist. Under the first Rada he was elected to the municipal council, and also to the Zemstvo board. Twice he fulfilled the duties of commissar of the city of Proskurov. When the revolution in favor of the Hetman took place, he considered the Hetman's regime reactionary and believed it impossible personally to continue his social and administrative work. He resigned from all his offices and retired to private life. When the peasant uprisings against the Hetman began, the Austrian authorities arrested Verkhola and accused him of organizing these uprisings. He was taken to Tarnopol, where he remained two months in prison. But then, while he was being taken into court, he succeeded in escaping; and all the rest of the time he was in hiding. He returned to Proskurov only on February 13, two days before the massacre. It was immediately proposed to him that he withdraw his resignation as member of the council,, and he consented. When the massacre began, Verkhola devoted himself to incessant efforts to put a stop to the occurrences taking place.
Speaking after Semosenko and Kiverchuk, he delivered a long speech to the Council, in which he declared that the events in Proskurov were a disgrace to Ukraine. Speaking of the past services of the Cossacks he declared that in the present case Semosenko had clothed thugs in the garb of Cossacks and become their Ataman. Turning to Semosenko he said: "You are fighting bolsheviks; but were those old men and children bolsheviks, whom your Gaidamaks cut down? You assert that only Jews produce bolsheviks; but do you not know that there are bolsheviks among other nations, too, including the Ukrainians?" He urged Semosenko, for the sake of Ukraine's honor, to put an immediate stop to the horrors taking place.
After Verkhola Raigorodsky expressed himself in a few words, in the name of the Jews entirely agreeing with Verkhola's speech.
Semosenko replied to Verkhola in the same words he had
PROSKUROV:
used in his previous speech. He said he was not fighting old men, women and children, but only bolsheviks. Looking straight at Verkhola, he said that he did not doubt it was true, unfortunately, that there were bolsheviks even among the Ukrainians, but that he would not spare them either. He would consent to issue an order to stop what was going on, on condition that the bodies of the dead should immediately be committed to the earth. He also considered it necessary to observe to the municipal council that, knowing of the impending bolshevist uprising, it had not warned him of it. Dr. Stavinsky and the members of the council denied this charge.
Verkhola again spoke, thanking Semosenko for his readiness to issue orders stopping these horrors, but insisted that he order back the Cossacks who had been sent to Felshtin and other places to perpetrate Jewish massacres there. To this Semosenko replied that in Felshtin also a similar bolshevist revolt had taken place, just as in Proskurov, and that it must have the same consequences as here. However, after long insistence, Semosenko consented to recall the Cossacks who had been sent out.