At the present time only a single family remained living in Matusovo, that of Borko Borodiansky, which adopted the orthodox religion after the pogrom. For this the peasants allowed them to remain in Matusovo, returned a pair of horses stolen from them during the pogrom, some of their other stolen property, their parcel of land, etc.
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• Pogrom of May 13-14, 1919
From the Materials of the Authorized Investigator I. G. Tsifrinovich
In the chain of Jewish pogroms which took place in Ukraine, the pogrom in Rotmistrovka is one of the most conspicuous links.
Rotmistrovka is on the road from Shpola to Cherkassy, 18 versts from Smela, 7 versts from the railroad station of Vladimirovka, on the line Fastov-Znamenka. The town counts a population of 350 Jewish families, the majority of whom lived in good circumstances, being materially provided for, thanks to the position which the town occupies in the commerce between Smela and Cherkassy, on the one hand, and the towns lying beyond it on the other hand.
The population was always on good terms with the local peasant population, dwelling near the town. The local peasantry was always considered pacific. No disorders of any kind had ever occurred in Rotmistrovka — neither specifically Jewish nor any other. It is a characteristic fact that after the October revolution, when the peasants in the neighboring villages plundered estates, our peasants remained passive on account of the fear that they might suffer for it afterwards. Owing to this the greater part of the Jewish population became permeated with the conviction that they would have no pogrom. This conviction was not shaken even when rumors began to arrive from the neighboring towns and villages about the Jewish pogroms which were going on there. And this was the principal reason why the town was so utterly destroyed — not a single chair or piece of pottery being left
The start of the pogrom may be considered the attack on the owner of a mill, which occurred on Saturday, May 10, and during which two Jewish members of the night watch were killed. It became clear that the bandits now felt that there was no government and that killing Jews was no great sin. This incident produced great alarm among the Jewish population, and fear began to spring up among them, which increased on the next day, when the pogrom in Smela became known, and the overthrow of the existing regime by Grigoriev, and his manifesto ("Universal"), which was being read before the peasants. In the evening a committee of the poorer classes began to make searches preparatory to requisitions, which no longer had the character of earlier searches, but became more malicious. The searches continued on the next day, too, and in general it was felt that the atmosphere was getting more tense all the time. Nevertheless the confidence of the Jewish population was still great enough so that life continued to flow along almost normally.
On Monday, May 12, at night a band of 50 men arrived, among them not a few locals. On Tuesday morning the pogrom began. The local peasants took part in it. Later peasants from the nearby villages also collected, and the pogrom was in full swing. Murders, however, did not take place by day. Only towards night, perceiving their complete impunity, the bandits committed their first murder — of a father and son, after they had bought their freedom. In the early part of the night they began to set on fire houses and shops, and the whole population broke and ran to hide, everyone wherever he could. Many Jews, as is the custom, rushed to the cemetery, which is outside the city, and digging themselves in between the graves, expected death any minute, as it threatened them with every shot and tongue of flame. So it went on for about eight hours, when the bandits really did arrive. After hysterical, heart-rending cries the Jews succeeded in ransoming themselves with money and everything they had with them. We were ordered not to go away before several hours should have passed, and only later were we driven forth to put out the conflagration. There we saw before us a terrible spectacle of plundered, burning, empty houses. There and then began to peer out, as if out of a mousehole, faces that were beaten unmercifully, full of mortal terror, and we began to hear of frightful, barbarous things. Everyone hurried to his own house, and those who found the four walls bare, the windows and frames broken, feathers strewn about, etc., were lucky, for many, very many found only mountains
UKRAINE
of ashes and the bodies of their dear ones in rivers of blood. Two were burnt after having first been shot and then hung.