I report that I arrived in Trostianetz, government of Podolia, on June 10, and found organized a Jewish Committee of aid to victims of the pogrom, a branch of the Central Committee located in Kiev, a private organization. They have received from the Kiev Committee during the entire period a subsidy of 10,000 rubles for the pogrom victims. When I learned of this I informed the Committee that as a private organization this Kiev Committee had just been terminated, and that everything had now been handed over to the management of the People's Commissariat of Social Welfare. I therefore proposed that the Committee wait for our instructions and that it should no longer be guided by the instructions which it received from the Kiev private organization. At the suggestion of the representative of the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs, two of his associates, Comrades Dmitry Serebriakov and Dudkin, and the representative of the V. U. Executive Committee, Peter Krushevsky, decreed that 20,000 rubles, which had been destined for the1 relief of the victims of the pogrom, should be mutually requisitioned from me for the commandant of the town of Trostianetz to pay the salaries of Red soldiers and to pay for their rationing. The commandant of the town promised on the requisition-document to pay the amount over to the Committee for Relief to the Pogrom Victims, either in produce or in cash. On the insistence of Comrade Serebriakov, who threatened me with arrest and execution, I surrendered 20,000 rubles, for which I have in my possession a document absolving me from all responsibility, with the signature and seal of the commandant of the town of Trostianetz, certifying to all this. The requisition-document I gave to the committee for furnishing relief to the victims. I herewith attach the document absolving me from blame for surrendering this money, amounting to 20,000 rubles, appropriated for the town of Trostianetz. I surrendered the money on June 17, 1919. I arrived in Kiev on June 20.
I beg that attention be paid to the question as to who led and instigated the pogrom and massacre in the town of Trostianetz, canton of Bratzlav, government of Podolia. This was done by certain medical personages. Notwithstanding the fact that all the world recognizes the neutrality of medical personages, nevertheless they made use of their cloak of neutrality to perform miracles and start a "holy war." The first of them was a provincial doctor, the Pole Scherbinsky; the second a pharmacist, owner of a drugstore, the Pole Klinke, and his wife, also a Polish woman. Also a surgeon, whose name I do not remember. The military leaders were Polish officers, Korshenitzky and Paketinov. I hold photographs of these murderers. The initiators of all these pogroms and massacres were Polish catholic priests and orthodox clergy. Their watchword was "Kill the Jews, save the church." It was these who inspired the detachments of Zeleny and the rebel peasants.
I beg that attention be paid to the city of Bratzlav, government of Podolia, which does very little to look after its canton. Elements that are not friendly to us are located there, and they simply upset the work. The organization is bad. Instructors and organizers are necessary, and also a large amount of literature on the land question; medicines are also necessary, on account of the epidemic of typhus and other diseases, and money.
To the preceding statement I may add that the money, amounting to 20,000 rubles, taken from me by mutual requisition by the commandant of Trostianetz, was only partly returned by the
UKRAINE