On the first day the pogrom was carried on by the soldiers, sailors, and inhabitants of the place. On the second and third days the city was filled with peasants from the neighboring villages, who came to plunder and carry off Jewish property. The murders were committed principally by soldiers, sailors and criminals; the rest looted. They operated as if on definite plans. A group of soldiers armed with rifles would come up to a house or shop, break the doors or windows, enter the house, kill the Jews who did not succeed in hiding or hid ineffectively, and take away everything of value — money, gold, and silver. When the soldiers left the premises a wild mob would break in and plunder the whole property, not excluding furniture and the heaviest articles, which were then and there loaded on peasants' carts and taken away to the outskirts of the city and to the villages. What could not be taken or carted away was smashed and destroyed. Whirlwinds of feathers from feather-beds and pillows blew around the streets. The soldiers, who devoted themselves principally to killing and looting, hunted around in garrets and cellars, hauled out the Jews from wherever they could, demanded money, and then, having got money, shot them on the spot. If no money was produced they killed both men and women. Through all the streets ran gangs crying, "Kill the Jews, kill the communists." The Jewish population hid in garrets, cellars, barns, and in the houses of Christian acquaintances. Very many Christian householders concealed Jews and saved thousands of them; for the pogromists did not touch a single Christian house or shop. On the Christian houses were depicted
UKRAINE
crosses, and saints' images were set in the windows; or the people stood in the doors of their own houses, and the thugs ran past them.
The pogrom began May 15 in the morning. On the same day the trade union of metal-workers and the president of the Peasants' Assembly, which was being held at that time in Yelisavetgrad, went to the station and demanded of the commandant of the Grigoriev forces on the front, Pavlov, that he immediately stop the pogrom. But neither on the 15th nor on the following day, the 16th, were they listened to. They were even warned that in case of a revolt of the population against the Grigorievists the city would be shelled with cannon. On the second day towards evening a "revolutionary committee" which had been organized in the city, and which consisted of the trade union of metal-workers and a representative of the Peasants' Assembly, succeeded in organizing a small detachment of the most class-conscious workers to defend the town; several automobile loads of armed workmen were sent through the town, and the plunderers stopped their activities. The pogrom died down and the Jews began to show themselves on the streets. On the third day, May 17, it was quiet, but about 10 A.M. the thugs, thinking that the city-guard was weak, and also the soldiers and sailors, finding out that the order to stop the pogrom had not come from the commander of the forces, again began to plunder and kill. Since by this time almost the whole city was already plundered, the soldiers devoted themselves chiefly to killing Jews. Those who had come out of their hiding-places on the second day did not succeed in hiding as well on the third day as on the first, and, consequently, the quantity of victims on the third day was particularly large. Whole families were slaughtered; neither old men nor infants in arms were spared. The mob ran around the city in throngs and finished smashing up houses and shops.
The Metal-workers Union and the Peasants' Assembly again asked the commander on the front, Pavlov, to stop the horrors. This time, at last, on the evening of the third day, they succeeded. That evening a proclamation was pasted up, which began: "I have listened to the representatives of the workmen and peasants, and have decided immediately to stop the devastation of industrial life."
The pogrom ended. The Grigorievists returned to the station, the robbers disappeared, and it became quiet in the town. For three days anarchy reigned in the city, since the Grigorievist commanders took no measures, while the revolutionary com-
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mittee had no power to take measures without the Grigorievists. On the 21st or 22nd four Soviet regiments came to Yelisavetgrad from Odessa, and after a brief exchange of shots the Grigorievists withdrew to Znamenka. The city was occupied by the Soviet Voznesensky regiment; the other three regiments continued to pursue the enemy.