The regiment departed from Uman for Poltava on July 5. It was replaced by the 4th Soviet international regiment, consisting of Hungarians, Chinese, Germans, Jews, and Great Russians. In the person of this regiment the population of Uman for the first time beheld a disciplined Soviet military force, which neither robbed nor murdered anyone for national or class reasons. The whole population of the city seemed to come to life after two months of incessant horrors. The stores immediately opened, people began to appear on the streets, maltreatment because of Jewish extraction was ended, drunken riding over the sidewalks and shooting in the air and at people was seen no more. The life of the city, which had been paralyzed for two months, began to right itself, finding expression in efforts gradually to start some sprouts of commercial, manufactural, and other activities, such as were permitted by the conditions of the times. In any case it is proper to make clear that with the arrival of the 4th Soviet international regiment, the general position of the Jewish population markedly improved, especially in the sense that it was possible to go out into the streets without fear and attend to one's work, when there was any. Now the Jewish and laboring population of Uman is freed from the constant attacks on life, honor, and property, which lasted two months; but it needs much effort and aid on a wide scale to heal the grievous wounds inflicted upon it in economic respects by the pogrom, through the killings of hundreds of breadwinners and through incessant pillaging for two months.
After listening to the report, the assembly unanimously indorsed what Comrade Proskurovsky had set forth, but after an exchange of opinions found it necessary to add the following appendices:
APPENDICES
1. The first wave of anti-Semitism began to be felt afresh during the time of the formation and existence of the First Central Rada. Attacks on the Jews were then a constant element in the procedure of the Ukrainian intellectuals, the leaders of the whole Ukrainian national movement. This was the condition also in Uman. Afterwards the local priest Nikolsky played a role in arousing and increasing hatred and malice against the Jewish population. He had a great influence upon the orthodox population, the bourgeoisie of the surroundings, and the officialdom of the city. During Kerensky's regime he conducted a violent monarchical and anti-Semitic campaign, for which he was banished from Uman to Kiev. This circumstance very nearly caused a pogrom in the city, since the bourgeoisie conceived the design of preventing the priest Nikolsky from leaving town by force; and in a short time he was brought back to Uman at the request of the representatives of the Jewish population. An undercurrent of resentment and hatred against the Jews continued to exist in the Christian population.
2. The garrison commandant in Uman, under the Directory, was a former Austrian prisoner of war and Galician emigre, Col. Dobriansky, a bitter Ukrainian nationalist, who never ceased to persecute the Jews in every way he could. He appointed a separate mobilization for Jews, Poles, and Russians, and the Jews were exposed to particularly and unendurably humiliating conditions. Later he organized man-hunts of the male population, principally Jewish. When the Council protested against such actions, Dobriansky replied with abuse and threats that he would settle with the protesters and the Jews both together. Approximately similar was the attitude towards the Jews of the military commissar, the local Ukrainian Col. Dereschuk, who imposed on the city a contribution of three millions, for the needs of the Ukrainian army. The collection of this was accompanied by a series of anti-Semitic manifestations on the part of Dereschuk and the Ukrainian garrison, inflamed by him, with whose anger and punishment he constantly threatened the Jewish population.
3. Two days after the departure of the Soviet forces, on March 20, about a hundred Gaidamaks entered the city under command of Captain Diachenko, who had distinguished himself by leading a massacre of Jews in the" town of Teplik, where about three hundred Jews were massacred. When he entered Uman, Diachenko declared that he would show no mercy to the
UKRAINE
Jewish population and cynically bragged of his participation in the massacre of Teplik. The city escaped from a pogrom and possible atrocities by the payment of a contribution in kindshoes, garments, etc., and also money.