Petlura appeared on the political horizon, and gave free rein to the chauvinistic feelings of that crowd with its mad thirst for Jewish blood. Then came bands under the flag of the slogans of the bolsheviks, mainly from Chigirin; under the pretext of searches they systematically terrorized the Jewish population. The band of Yastrensky, and then that of Lopata established arbitrary regimes, always solely in regard to the Jewish inhabitants. The local League of Labor, composed of representatives of the trade unions of the town, declared itself an Executive Committee; but they were not able to accomplish anything owing to absence of connections with the central power. Only in February, when the Soviet regime was growing stronger, was a Soviet elected here, into which honorable and conscientious people entered. About April 2 there arrived 80 of Lopata's men, occupied the Soviet, tore down the portraits of Lenin and Trotzky,and tried to start a pogrom; but the Soviet entirely forestalled this outbreak, and called for 120 men from Yelisavetgrad, who after killing 40 of Lopata's men took the rest prisoners (40 men). Lopata got away, but promised to be avenged on the "Jew Soviet." But the Soviet at this time sent two delegates to Kiev to solicit the separation of Zlatopol into an independent unit, unconnected with Chigirin, which was a nest of bandits and counter-revolutionaries.
ZLATOPOL: LOPATA'
At this time, having misgivings as to the weakness of the government over the canton, the local and volost Executive Committees quarreled; and the local intellectuals decided to make use of this moment in unison with Lopata, Kotzyr and other bandits from Chigirin. They sent their agitators through the towns and villages calling people to an open uprising against the Jews. Upon a designated signal fifteen villages were to take up this crusade. There was needed only an external occasion, which was not slow in presenting itself. This was the day of the international holiday, May 1. When the procession under red flags began, there suddenly appeared the Ukrainian national flag, which was to figure in the first ranks. The authorities declared that it was an international holiday, and that consequently international flags had to be in the first position. The flag was removed. On the next day the sound of the warning bell rang out, rifle-shots were fired, and the bloody feast began. The first day yielded modest results, several innocent victims and complete destruction of their property. On the third of May they carried out the wares from the shops, accompanying it by incessant shooting.
But the systematic pogrom began only on Sunday the fourth. On that day both the year-old child, and the eighty-year-old man, both the workman and the factory-owner, were alike found guilty of bolshevism and mercilessly shot. Of course cases of violation of girls were not lacking. The result was 69 killed and 300 wounded.
By categories No. of persons Breadwinners 5
Cabmen 3
Undefined professions 21 Artisans 10
Liberal professions 5 Servants 5
Petty tradesmen 11
Unknown 9
Total 69
Of the wounded I did not succeed in getting statements by categories.
TABLE
By age No
. of persons
Unrecorded
Total
UKRAINE
The burning of the plundered homes and shops lasted about three weeks. They stole everything, beginning with pokers and wooden spoons and ending with pianos. Nails were taken out of the walls, doors and window-frames were removed, the window-glass was taken from the frames. They took the last blind nag from a pauper water-carrier. The result:
No. of houses in Zlatopol before pogrom 1100
No. of houses burned 15
No. of stores before pogrom 285
No. of stores burned 275
Homes wrecked 1065
Homes remaining undestroyed 20
Stores remaining undestroyed 10
The wares and property were carried away by thousands of carts. From the Artisans' Loan and Savings Association alone they took out 130 poods of butter, 9,000 poods of wheat, and 30,000 poods of sugar. It is curious that in some way or other a part of these goods came into the hands of the Russian cooperatives, and are to this day being sold, without a return being made to the owners. There have been cases of the seizure by a Russian co-operative of the Jewish co-operative's premises; for the latter is still active. The public hospital robbed drugstores and has not yet made any returns. The approximate results of calculations covering only one quarter of the population that remains show the following picture of losses of property:
Categories No. of families Extent of losses
Merchants and factory-owners 62 9,062,100
Small tradesmen 146 4,476,700
Liberal professions 47 2,688,800
Undefined occupations 84 2,540,400