II. Note of Report, and Certain Materials Regarding the Horrors of the Atrocious Massacre in the Town of Trostianetz, Government of Podolia, Canton of Bratzlav, Perpetrated upon the Associates of the Trostianetz Revolutionary Committee, on May 9 and 10, 1919. By the Secretary, D. Monastyrsky; the Director of the Department of Labor, I. Safro; and the Secretary of the Department of Manufactures, G. Monastyrsky.
The Period of the Soviet Rule in the Town of Trostianetz; the Make-up of the Revolutionary Committee and Its Activities
(a) Towards the end of March of this year, when the region of Trostianetz had been cleared of Petlurists, there arrived two instructors in the method of organization of local governments, comrades Izarov and Mogilevsky. Finding no party organization, the instructors upon their arrival called a meeting and named five men to constitute the Military and Revolutionary Committee of the district (volost} of Trostianetz:—
(b) Yegorov, President (assistant to a distiller), and Saulov (instructor of the co-operative union), Russians; Domalchinsky (assistant mechanician in a mill) and Ditkovsky (commercial agent of the co-operative union, afterwards arrested for speculation), Poles; and D. Monastyrsky, Secretary (a Jew who had recently returned from America). The same instructors also named as commandant Kolesnikov, who had by chance just come from the military commissariat after grain; after some time the military committee of the canton named him cantonal military commissar and commandant of the district (volost); finally he was arrested in Vinnitza by the military commission of the government of Podolia, charged with being drunk and disorderly. They also named as adjutant Orlov (a former Petlurist officer, afterwards political commissar of the district), and as assistant to the commissar of the district V. Marinevich (a drunkard without any political past).
(c) The activity of the Revolutionary Committee of Trostianetz throughout the entire period of its existence, from April 3 to May 9, was limited to the organization of a commandant's company (of soldiers), and of Committees of the Poor, and to the collection of contributions and requisitions of products from the Jewish population exclusively; even to this day they have not received a penny in return. Both the contributions and requisitions of produce, and purchases at arbitrarily fixed prices, were practised only on the Jewish population. In spite of the existence of a Department of Labor under the Revolutionary Committee, there were taken into public posts without the knowledge of the Department of Labor people of counter-revolutionary tendencies, who afterwards took part in the uprising and the massacre.
Relations to the Soviet Rule of the Workmen of the Local Sugar Factory of Trostianetz and Their Workmen's Committees The workmen of the sugar factory were mostly counter-revolutionaries. They were guided by members of the old administration of the factory, who got into the factory committee. All the time they kept apart and expressed complete indifference and even antagonism to the Soviet regime. Many of them took direct or indirect part in the uprising and the pogroms. When a protest meeting was held once, not a single one of these workmen participated.
The Rebel Movement in Our Region, May 1-17, and the Fall of the Soviet Regime in Our District (Volost), May 9 When the authorities of the canton of Bratzlav went with their military forces to put down the rebel uprising in the neighboring canton of Gaisin, the rebels of the canton of Bratzlav took Bratzlav and perpetrated a massacre. After Bratzlav Tulchin also fell. Being cut off from every center and not having any forces that could be relied upon, since the Red-army
UKRAINE
cavalry detachment was formed of former Petlurist and Hetmanist militia, and learning that a rebellion was already being prepared throughout the district, the military commissar Kolesnikov, together with the members of the Revolutionary Committee, decided on the night of May 8 to evacuate the town, and left in the direction of Ladyzhin to join the forces of the canton of Bratzlav which were reported to be near Gaisin. When they departed, the Red-army cavalry detachment refused to go along, and broke up. When they had gone several versts in the direction named, the Trostianetz military forces for some reason or other decided to turn back (Marinevich especially insisted on this), and, in spite of the protests of some of their associates, this was done. When they got back and found that the rebels were already at hand, Commissar Kolesnikov summoned by extraordinary summons from the station of Voprianka a locomotive with six cars, to leave the place.