(Courtesy: Achievements News - Great Britain)

Up to now the problem of formation and development of interrelation between A.I.Denikin’s regime and the Jewish population of Ukraine was considered to be almost one of the most restricted themes for a researcher of Ukrainian history. Paying a considerable attention to disclosing fascism as an ideology, which resulted in a mass destruction of Jews, Soviet historical science got away from the fact that'... before Hitler's coming the most considerable massacre of Jews took place during Civil War in Ukraine' [1]

The history of mutual relations between A. I. Denikin’s regime and Jews was described, at a great deal, in the works of Soviet researchers of the first years of the Soviet power. The works by Y. Khaifets, P. Yeletsky, M. Mozin are dedicated to the problems of a pogrom ideology. In those works, published after the pogroms, the results of the pogroms were analyzed for the first time, and it was concluded that all of them had been organized. Those works were not voluminous, they did not present deep analytical conclusions, but they played their part in formulating the problem and introducing vast factual material into science. [2]

In 1922 a research by N.I. Shtiff, a member of one of Kiev commissions on assistance to the pogrommed was issued. It contained a large number of memoir documents. N. 1. Shtiff gave analysis of the causes of anti-Semitic feelings, did a great work on gathering data about the pogrommed, summarized all the data, and made a statistic table dealing with every town and borough of Ukraine. [3]

The work by A. F. Maleyev Tridtsat Dney Yevreyskogo Pogroma v Mestechke Krivoye Ozero ('Thirty Days of Pogrom in the Borough of Crooked Lake') is dedicated to the tragedy in the borough of Krivoye Ozero, which stopped existing after a 'White’pogrom. [4] The research work described such a phenomenon as taking hostages, characteristic of mutual relations between the Jewish population of Ukraine and A.I.Denikin’s troops. A. F. Maleyev also characterized social types of pogrom-makers. The thesis about Jews themselves being responsible for the pogroms was developed by D. S. Pasmannink. In his article, published on September 14, 1919, in the newspaper called Obshcheye Delo ('Common Deed') he wrote, 'Officers from A.I.Denikin’s Army forget that trotskys, kamenevs, zinoviyevs, and larins are borne Jews, but they have nothing in common with their nationality. But despite the fact that the Volunteer Army did not like Jews, on the territory, which had already been occupied by A.I.Denikin’s Army, there was not any pogrom.[5]

To prove inconsistency of such statements S. Gusev-Orenburgsky a well known in pre-Revolutionary Russia published a book called Kniga o yevreyskikh pogromakh na Ukraine v 1919 godu ('The book on the pogroms of Jews in Ukraine in 1919). Having paid a considerable attention to analyzing a normative basis of the regime of the Armed Forces in the South of Russia, he came to the conclusion that senior officers took part in the pogroms, and that the struggle of A. I. Denikin's command against that phenomenon was highly ineffective. [6]

In 1926 in Moscow a summarizing collection called Yevreyskiye pogromi: 1918-1921 ('Pogroms of Jews, 1918-1921') was published. It was created on the basis of analysis of regional committees of the Red Cross, and of the provincial sections attached to the provincial executive committees, rendering help to the pogrommed. [7] In that very year a French journalist called B. Lekash, who was investigating the results of the pogroms of the Jews, published Kogda Israil umirayet ('When Israel is dying') where he gave quite a number of data on the pogroms in the South of Ukraine, and in Kherson, in particular. Besides that, he analyzed the problem of personal responsibility of the leaders of the political parties of that time for not preventing the pogroms of the Jewish population of Ukraine. [8]

In 1930s, the theme of interrelation between A.I.Denikin’s regime in Ukraine and Jews became forbidden. Separate issues of the history of work of the Ukrainian governments on rendering assistance to the pogrommed were considered in S.I.Goldelman’s Natsionalnaya avtonomiya na Ukraine ('National autonomy in Ukraine') published in Munich in 1963. Paying a considerable attention to the activities of the leadership of the Ukrainian People’s Republic on developing Jewish national autonomy, the author only touched upon the tragedy of the Jews in 1919. [9]

In 1970s, the problem of the 'pogrom movement' in Ukraine was raised by P. Kenez in his book called Civil War in South Russia, In the section called 'A. I. Denikin and anti-Semitism' he emphasized the place and part of peasants in the conflict between the Cossacks and the Jewish population of Ukraine.

It is worth mentioning that P. Kenez was quite careful while touching on the theme of that very 'pogrom movement'. He limited himself to the research of the causes of anti-Semitism and review of the sources of historical science, dealing with the problem. In general, his work became the most comprehensive research of the history of mutual relations between A.I.Denikin’s regime and Jews. [10]

The problem of exact estimation of the number of victims of the pogroms was constantly giving rise to discussion throughout the history of development of the theme. In 1920s, a considerable work was done by B. Lekash. In his opinion, 226 pogroms made by the Volunteer Army in Ukraine resulted in 80,000 victims. [11]

S. Subtelny, a professor of York University (Toronto) gave another figure: 35,000 to 50,000 people perished during the pogroms conducted by A, 1. Denikin's Volunteer Army and Petlyura's army. [12] In some researches of the later period the figure was decreased even more; S. Martsenyuk and V. Simonenko, Ukrainian researchers, gave a much lower figure - 27,000. [13] In our opinion, 65,000-70,000 Jews perished, which was the result of 250 pogroms.

It is necessary to point out that the history of mutual relations between A.I.Denikin’s regime and the Jewish population of Ukraine needs a further and deeper research. Not only problems of the pogroms made by the White Army, but the history of constructive interaction between Jewish community and business circles with the White movement during the Civil War of 1917-1920 still give rise to discussion.

The change in the correlation of powers between the Red Army and the Armed Forces in the South of Russia resulted in the Whites' occupying the territories populated by Jews mostly. According to the common opinion of historians, in the spring of 1919 the Civil War entered its third phase. It lasted for a year. It was the most difficult and unpredictable phase of antagonism between the Bolsheviks and the Volunteers.

A. I. Denikin’s regime being a sort of continuation of the monarch pre-Revolutionary social establishment which lasted for more than 300 years on the territory in Ukraine, was not identical with it. It was a complex of problems difficult to research. Those were both relations of power and social and economic relations. The Civil War of 1917-1920 exposed deep processes going on in the pre-Revolutionary society of the Russian Empire and revealed the real attitude of political groupings and powers to the choice of methods and means of their desire to deeply penetrate into what, in practice, is called the 'Russian idea'. The year of 1917 laid the foundations of the most difficult trials which became the destiny of Jewish people in all the provinces of Ukraine. In 1918 the Central Rada governed that territory, then getman P. Skoropadsky did, then it was governed by the Special Council which was A.I.Denikin’s government attached to Commander in-Chief of the Armed Forces in South Russia (AFSR).

In the summer and autumn of 1919, three armies of the AFSR inflicted a combined blow from the South at the main forces of the Bolsheviks. In the summer of 1919 A.I.Denikin’s troops occupied Donbass, Kharkov, Tsaritsin and, according to the 'Moscow instruction', undertook an offensive in the Northern direction. In July 1919 V. Ulyanov's (Lenin's) letter Vse na borbu s Denikinim ( 'Everyone to Fight against Denikin' ) appeared in the Bolshevik press in Ukraine. It appealed to all the citizens supporting the Bolsheviks to join the fight against the White Army, which really threatened to occupy Moscow.

A.I.Denikin’s regime followed special normative grounds -Zhurnal osobogo soveshchaniya ('Bulletin of Emergency Government') -considering problems of state government, the Statute of Legal Procedure of 1905 dealing with the problems of trial and investigation, orders and resolutions of commanding generals and governors of provinces.

In the autumn of 1919, the personnel of A.I.Denikin’s police -State Guards - amounted to 80,000 officers and men. It was a little fewer in number than the Army in the Field. By the end of 1919, the staff of the Emergency Government had numbered 8 former senators, 50 real councilors of State, 22 councilors of State, 29 marshals of nobility. That kind of qualitative structure of the machinery of A.I.Denikin’s regime influenced mutual relations between the White regime and peaceful Jewish population. The latter was sent to ghetto and forced to live in the Jewish pale. Jews were restricted in their choice of residence and occupation. However, nobody could suppose the period of A.I.Denikin’s regime to become that of dramatic bloody excesses, characterized as one permanent pogrom connected with robbery and violence.

Having occupied Voronezh, Kursk, Orel A.I.Denikin’s Army found itself on a vast territory of 16 provinces populated by about 40 million people. The spring of 1919 signified the beginning of an economic crisis. Inflation of banknotes in possession of the population started. Market prices were increased by 50 per cent. Then the authorities introduced special compensations for the state functionaries. They were given to the latter irrespective of their positions. The real value of one rouble was a little more than that of I kopeck, which had circulated in Ukraine before the Revolution.

None of the powers could put an end to the crisis and impoverishment of the population. The Bolsheviks had forced out the Whites from Poltava province by the end of 1919 - the beginning of 1920. They left such a document: 'Order No. 18. It has been noticed that many individuals misuse banknotes such as kerenkas and nikolayevskys by reselling and buying them at prices higher than their nominal value. The revolutionary committee warns that the persons noticed in the speculations of this kind shall be punished according to the laws of wartime, including execution ... Head of the revolutionary committee Pokhil. Secretary Z.Ginzburg. Borough of Khorol.'[14]

A.I.Denikin supporters elaborated a document called Vremennoye polozheniye ob upravlenii oblastyami, zanimayemymi Dobrovolcheskoi Armiyei ('Temporary resolution on governing the regions occupied by the Volunteer Army) one of the paragraphs of which ran as follows, 'All absolute power in the regions occupied by the Volunteer Army belongs to the Supreme Leader of the Volunteer Army, ... in the regions occupied by the Volunteer Army effective are only those laws which were in force on the territory of Russia prior to October 2 5, 1917, with amendments ensuing from this very Resolution, as well as from those to be promulgated on the grounds of its laws...'[15]

It is necessary to point out that A.I.Denikin’s regime on the territory of Ukraine was a complex state and law system which , on the one hand, was self-sufficient, and, on the other hand, had a number of weak points such as absence of a stable national basis, poor discipline among the Cossacks, who quite reluctantly went across the Don and wished to compensate for their participation in military actions at the expense of peculiar 'reparations.'

N.Lvov wrote in his Beloye Dvizheniye ('The White Movement'), 'The movement of the Whites did not win because the dictatorship of the Whites did not take shape, because against the dictatorship of the Reds there had to be "the concentration of power of the Whites".' And here is what A. von Lampe, one of the leaders of the White movement in emigration wrote, • We were in a hurry, we did not demonstrate any state maturity and ruined a pure idea. (А фон Лампе “Дневники. Одесса. 27-28 декабря 1919 г. ”)[17]

One of the causes of the failure of the Volunteer Army to create its own state power is thought to have been complex relations between the military and Jews. Peaceful Ukrainian population rejected bloody pogroms and the power that initiated them.

In normative documents and in the press A.I.Denikin’s regime never stated its negative attitude towards Jewish population in an open way. And it should be mentioned that the Jewish communities of Ukrainian towns set great hopes on the coming of the Volunteer Army as a great military and political power capable of stabilizing the situation in the region. Anyway, that power did not state as its doctrine commandeering of property of the rich and making the citizens do hard compulsory work.

However, pogroms started as soon as the Volunteer Army vanguard troops came into the former 'Jewish pale, i. e into the boroughs populated by Jews mostly. As self-confidence and hopes for final victory over the Volunteers were increasing, the wave of pogroms growing and enveloping more and more territories.

There are three periods of pogroms singled out according to their character: 1. The period of the so-called 'quiet' pogroms ( June - July 1919) - Kharkov, Yekaterinoslav provinces. It is characterized by endless raids and assaults in the streets with the purpose of robbing, making violence, and raping women. 2. The period of mass pogroms ( July - August 1919) - the western part of Poltava, the southern part of Chernigov, and the eastern part of Kiev provinces. In those places robberies, as well as partial arsons and chaotic murders took place. 3. The period of slaughter and bloody pogroms ( September - October 1919) - Kiev, Chernigov provinces.

Beginning from July 1919, police reports abounded in messages informing the authorities about thefts, robberies, and extortions made by the White Guards and aimed at prosperous Jewish citizens. In Svedeniya o proishestviyakh yuridicheskogo otdela Kharkovskogo gubernatora ('Information about Incidents of Legal Department of Governor of Kharkov Province') we come across the following document: 'Daily report ... on July 1 some armed bandits, wearing military uniforms, came to Aaron Nemchik’s flat at 10, Khanaichenkovsky Lane. They took things and money, all amounting to a total sum of 50,000 roubles, and disappeared ... [18] And again - 'robbers in military uniforms': '...on the night of July 13, four unknown persons in military uniforms came to a certain Klikman’s flat in Nikolayevskaya Street in Kharkov. They took 11,000 roubles'. [19] There is quite a number of reports of this kind in police reviews. Such a detail as a military uniform is unlikely to be connected with a particular 'fashion' for military uniforms. Here one can think only of A.I.Denikin’s personnel making those robberies.

Deprived of a normal system of administrative support, the Volunteer Army units turned into a power controlled by no one. That power was a money-grabber like any other of the armed groupings operating in Ukraine at that time. For instance: '... on July 15, various kinds of perfumery 5,000 roubles worth were stolen from Iosif Mezherichin's store-house at 23, Podolsky Lane' [20]; '... on July 21, Shmuil Raskin was robbed of 400,000 roubles. It happened in his flat at 51, Grekovskaya Street in Kharkov. Part of the things taken was found at Stanislav Novak's place at 23, Klochkovskaya Street.'[21]

It is necessary to single out three types of causes making A.I.Denikin’s men commit crimes of that kind. The first type i s striving for profit. The second type is this or that way connected with an open militant anti-Semitism. The third type i s connected with a desire to take revenge on Jews for 'their collaboration with the Bolsheviks'.

One of the most wide-spread ways of robbing Jewish population was extortion. This is illustrated by the following document: 'Report. To his Excellency the Governor of Kharkov province. Giria Mizerov Kropman claimed that on July I he had been visited by an unknown man in a soldier uniform. That person passed on him a letter from the First Tersk Cossack Division. In the letter it was demanded that Kropman should pay 25,000 roubles. As a result Kropman's flat and the canteen 'Prostokvasha', where the money was to be delivered to were put under observation. Kropman's telephone was also put under control at the telephone station... After determining the place from which the call had been made an ensign from Kornilov Strike Regiment Gordey Neronov was detained. The latter admitted that it was he who had written the letter.' [22]

It is known that after the Jews of Kharkov, Poltava, Kursk, and Yekaterinoslav provinces had petitioned for protection, the commanding general of those provinces issued an order to escort the train 'so that the incidents of viol ence against Jews could be prevented.' In spite of general May-Mayevsky's special order robberies and attacks on the railways, those specific forms of pogroms, did not cease. In Svedeniya o proishestviyakh yuridicheskogo otdela Poltavskogo gubernatora ( 'information on Incidents of Legal Department of Governor of Poltava Province') we come across the following document about the events that took place in August: 'In the afternoon of August 9, at the span of Sagaidak-Reshitilovka, some unknown soldiers beat and threw off the train several Jews: Michel Posvolsky, Moisey Iliyevich and Isaak Brain. [23]. The investigation of the incidents of that kind could hardly be characterized as a real court investigation. As a rule, officers and men, who were the culprits of those tipsy tricks were never found. The matter came to a plain statement of facts. Vladimir Zenonovich May-Mayevsky (1867-1920) was head of Denikin's administration from June 1919 (when Kharkov was occupied by the Whites ) to November 27, 1919. According to many of his contemporaries he introduced connivance in politics for lawless acts that took place in the Left -Bank provinces. By November 1919 '... it had been found out that the name of general May-Mayevsky was connected with endless carouses, drunkenness, orgies and so on.' [24]

P.N.Vrangel who took May-Mayevsky's position of the commanding general of Kharkov, Poltava, Kursk and Yekaterinoslav provinces wrote afterwards, 'Moving continuously forward the Volunteer Army stretched itself, disordered its units, extended the rear excessively. The measure of 'samosnabzheniye voisk' (self-supplies) in-creased the degree of the Army disintegration. The army corrupted itself and turned into a band of hucksters and black-marketeers. Those who somehow dealt with self-supplies - and those were almost all the senior and junior officers and even platoon distributors -took hold of huge sums of money. That resulted in corruption, gambling, and drunkenness. Unfortunately, the junior officers and men followed their seniors in Homeric carouses and wastes of money. I found the Army Headquarters outside Kharkov, and the Army retreating in confusion. [25]

While May-Mayevsky was the commanding general in the Left-Bank provinces undisguised robberies took place on a wide scale. At that, military robbers often used organic weapons. We find enough proofs to that: 'REPORT. TO THE COMMANDER OF POLTAVA STATE GUARDS. July 1919.

I inform you about the events that took place for the last 24 hours in Poltava ... on the night of July 22, five unknown persons knocked on the door of Elizaveta Abeleva's flat at 9, Yekaterino-slavskaya Street. Two of them wore officer uniforms, one of them wore a Cossack uniform, and two had civilian clothes on. They stated they were from counter-intelligence and asked Abeleva's household servants if 'kikes lived there'. At that moment Abeleva's daughter darted out into the yard and started crying for help. One of those five persons took 4 shots from a revolver and wounded Zinoviy Abrarnov in the abdomen with two bullets.'[26]

Here one can see either a manifestation of direct anti-Semitism or extortion of things and money. But that was not reflected in the document. Still another example: ' On September 15, 1919, in Poltava two unknown malefactors came to Ivan Yeliseyevich Lents’s flat at 13, Mikhailovsky Lane. The strangers wore soldier uniforms. They demanded that some horses should be given to them.'[27] 'INFORMATION. 1. On the night of September 8, 1919, some unknown persons burst into doctor Gerlakh's flat in Afanasiyevskaya Street. An exchange of fire took place.'[28]

In July 1919 the incidents of thefts and attacks on prosperous Jews' shops and stalls were so frequent that the whole process could be characterized as the beginning of the pogrom movement in Ukraine. It is obvious that in a number of incidents the attacks on Jews' households could not be directly connected with the anti- Semitism of the attacking persons. There could be some other causes of crimes as well. Abundance of applications of that kind in governor-general provinces is very impressive: 'REPORT 1. On the night of August 6, in Poltava, a petty bourgeois S. M. Liberman was robbed of his domestic things, ... '; [29] 'clothes 2,000 roubles worth were stolen from Leonovich's flat in Poltava.'[30]

The population was panic-stricken. Lots of people abandoned their houses. In the consulates and offices of governor-generals' provinces queues for permission to depart for other countries appeared. The applications of the following kind became a characteristic feature of that time: 'To the Governor of Poltava from Basha Leibovna Afer, a doctor's widow. I have the honour to petition about giving me a foreign passport. July 1919' [31]

One of the most characteristic methods of the pogrom movement of the Volunteer Army was taking hostages from peaceful Jewish population. In the last decade of July 1919, in the borough of Vaiki of Kharkov province, in return for the Bolsheviks having taken hostages, the Whites took II hostages as well (Shiezberg, the owner of a shop of watches and gold things; Glikin, a tailor; Kats, a student; and some others.) One of the hostages - Glikin was executed at the beginning of July; another one, Shiezberg went mad, the rest of them were liberated on July 13, 1919. [32]

On July 26 (August 8 ) 1919, at 2 o'clock in the afternoon in Rostov-upon-the Don Jewish deputies introduced themselves to general A.I.Denikin. The deputation comprised heads of Jewish communities: from Yekaterinoslav - M. S. Bruk, Rostov-upon-the Don - doctor Z. Goldenberger, Kharkov - doctor L. B. Vilensky, and from Taganrog - doctor A. Ya. Yevinzon. The deputation wanted to introduce Commander-in-Chief of the AFSR into the situation in which the Jewish population found itself in numerous boroughs of Ukraine and Russia as a result of actions of the Volunteers who had made Jews homeless and impoverished. The deputation drew A.I.Denikin’s special attention to the lawlessness made by the Volunteers in Kharkov and Yekaterinoslav provinces. General A.I.Denikin answered to that, ' Yes, it’s difficult to expect anything good from the people, who have become utter scoundrels. Those are not the Volunteers who joined the Army, inspired by a great idea. ...Those are a mob.'

In August 1919 Commander-in-Chief issued a special order No. 136. It ran: 'I have got informed that while marching across the populated provinces of Malorossia some undisciplined units make unrepaid requisitions of property, and some officers take away belongings from peaceful population. These actions are incompatible with a high rank of an officer. Such incidents are left uninvestigated; those guilty are not punished; and the losses of population are left unrecovered. In this view I order that the subordinates should write special acts about all the incidents of robberies and violence , unrepaid requisitions and cruel actions made by military units against peaceful residents. These acts should be prepared both on the basis of the petitions of the victims, and on the initiative of the local authorities. The above mentioned acts should be submitted to a governor for consideration and special receipts should be given to the victims of the incidents.'[33]

Indeed, those directions were executed with zeal. It was that zeal that made it possible to preserve the documents in the forms used throughout August 1919; '...in the borough of Losovaya-Pavlovka Lazar Ilyich Ivanovich was robbed of various things of value equal to 20,000 roubles.' The things were found at Yanina Stychinskaya’s place at 17, Kaplunovskaya Street. [34]'; 'Ponomarev, a book-keeper of Kharkov Treasury, under the pretext of exchange received from Israil Abramovich Vilenchuk 96,000 roubles in credit notes of the Provisional Government ... and misappropriated them. [35]'

Some of the Jews were given back their belongings, houses, and flats which had been requisitioned by the Bolsheviks. That was done after the coming of the Volunteer Army, in accordance with a special resolution, and with the purpose of propaganda. Thus, a certain Iosif Yelenski asked the authorities to consider the matter of returning him the flat in Sumskaya Street in Kharkov 'from which he had been evicted in accordance with an order of the Soviet authorities.'[36] Yelena Rosenberg was lodged into her own flat, which she had been bereaved of under the Soviets, and which had been transferred to some Grabilina and Simonlatser. [37] In Kharkov, Kiev, Odessa, and other towns public life under the Whites became more active. New newspapers appeared, free prices for the goods including bread, butter, sugar, and others were introduced; private business was encouraged. Thus, for instance, in Kharkov the authorities registered a private out-patients ' nursing home, which had been established by doctors R.V.Freedland and E.Ya.Patsenker-Dovbnya. People were allowed to establish mutual insurance funds. Insurance companies initiated their activities. [38]

On the eve of the Jewish New Year, at the end of August 1919, the Governor of Kharkov received piles of applications with requests to allow to open praying houses for the period of the religious holidays in September. Here is an example of such a request:

'To His Excellency the Governor of Kharkov from Abram Neysakhovich Stolovich residing at 30, Moskalevskaya Street. In view of the forthcoming Jewish holidays: September 12 and 13 (Rosh Hashanah), September 21 (Yom Kippur), and the holiday of Kushche (Sukkoth) I have the honor to obediently ask Your Excellency to allow 25 persons to gather in my house for praying, on my own responsibility. Stamp-duty is enclosed. August 21, 1919. [39]' The following application was sent in too:' ...we, elderly Jews, residing down Klochkovskaya Street in Kharkov, ask You to allow us, 30-40 in number, to gather for praying. Gurevich B., Shapiro P., Shneiderman M., Vishnyakova M., and others.' [40]

Hereditary citizens of honour of Kharkov Juli Fayenberg, G. Kaufman, Yevel Midler, Nisei Zislin, and Fishel Vermel were allowed to organise temporary praying houses on Saturdays and holidays. [41]

The Jewish holidays of 1919 went off with a great inspiration, but were darkened by a mass pogrom initiated by the Volunteer Army.

The pogroms that took place all over Ukraine in September enveloped nearly all the boroughs and villages of the former Jewish pale, and they were accompanied by open actions of full military units and neutral attitude on the part of commanders at all levels. One of the first of September pogroms was that committed by the Whites in Fastov - a small borough in Kiev province. The pogrom was started on the 9th of September at about 10 o'clock in the evening. 'The first day of the pogrom did not result in any victims,' reported one of the eyewitnesses of the events, 'but by midnight bacchanalia had begun. Pogrom-makers suggested lest the peasants should hide Jews, and that they should put on the lights in their flats ... The usual place of execution of Jews was a wall of the synagogue and the synagogue itself.'[42] As a result more than 600 people were killed, and much more were wounded or mutilated. More than 100 houses and about 60 shops were burnt down. The pogrom in Fastov lasted for 6 days. The pogrom-makers carried out everything from the houses of Jews.' 'By the end of the pogrom the pogrom-makers had had so much money that they did not know what to do with it,'[43] was written in the report sent in from the Jewish community of Fastov about the actions of the pogrom-makers. By the end of the 6th day of the pogrom in Fastov the military authorities had arrived and begun to restore order.

The pogrom in Fastov rose the indignation of not only the world public, but threw into confusion the Black-Hundred circles of Russia. On September 18, 1919, the Assembly of the United bureaux of the Union of Renaissance, the National Centre, and the Union of the National Centre in Kiev resolved to send a delegation to A.I.Denikin and Bredov to elucidate the matter about the measures of fight against pogroms. [44]

Did the authorities fight against the pogrom movement seriously? Undoubtedly, it is difficult to answer this question negatively. However, in a number of cases we observe profanation of the matter of investigations and absence of adjudicatory processes on the matters of the pogrommed.

This, apparently, is connected not only with a relatively short period of presence of the Volunteer Army on the territory of Ukraine and the Russian tradition to prepare a case for trial for a long time. Thus, the town of Cherkassy was occupied by the Volunteer Army on the (4) 17 of August and on that very day, after a complete occupation of the town, the units that marched into the town committed there a cruel pogrom which lasted for 3 days and resulted in 150 people killed, a lot of people wounded, raped, and so on. On August 19, 1919, according to the new style, the town commandant, sotnik Golovko (lieutenant of Cossacks) issued an order in which, among other things, there was a point about the pogrom. The order read as follows: 'I have received a lot of complaints saying that the Cossacks supposedly rob, but it is the local population that does it. I warn that those caught red-handed at the place of robbing shall be mercilessly shot.'[45] The above mentioned, in fact, relieved the military of any responsibility for the pogroms they made in the town only two days before. Naturally, the pogroms did not cease and in Order No. I of August 21, a new commandant of the town, lieutenant Vasilyev, wrote the following: '

1. Illegal searches are strictly forbidden. Violators of this paragraph shall be treated as robbers.

2. I suggest that the chief of the town guards should contribute to the fight against robbers and other bandits, who should be detained and escorted to me.'[46] That order, which had not been backed by any actions , did not give any results, and on August 22, the chief of the garrison captain Yakoviev threatened not the pogrom-makers, but the pogrommed, ' I have already ordered that people should hand in weapons, uniforms , and other public-owned property, instead of doing that at once ... they hide weapons and property, and, thus involuntary cause searches in the flats.'[47]

It should be noted that the pogroms made by Volunteers were those in which exclusively the military took part. That was the main peculiarity, which made it possible to distinguish between the pogroms conducted by Volunteers and the numerous, no less bloody pogroms conducted by the followers of Petlyura, Grigoriyev and others. N.I.Shtiff wrote, 'The Volunteer Army monopolises the matter of pogroms, the local Ukrainian population is standing aside from the pogrom matter, regarding it coolly and even negatively.'[48]

Soldiers' striving to destroy material wealth and make arsons rather than rob was a relatively constant recurrence at that time. It can be considered a peculiarity of the pogroms made then by Volunteers. Another distinctive feature of the pogroms made by the latter was raping almost everywhere. Whereas in Zhitomir and in Yelisavetgrad the incidents of rapings during the pogroms organized by Grigoryev were very rare, in the boroughs pogrommed by Volunteers the number of those incidents amounted to 50-100 per cent of the total female population of the boroughs. Mass rapings took place everywhere, even during the 'quiet pogroms' in July - August 1919. In Yekaterinoslav there were up to 1,000 Jewish women raped. Up to half of the total female population were raped in the boroughs of Smela, Gostomel (Kiev province), the borough of Yablokovo (Poltava province). Kiev newspaper Zarya informed its readers that ' during the pogrom in Borzna on the night of September 10, 22 Jews were killed, their houses destroyed, their belongings taken. The women were raped - young and old. Those Jews who managed to survive are hiding themselves in the woods and marshes.'[49] In the borough of Borzna a group of women and girls were flogged and after that, stark naked and raped in the street . [50]

In some sources we also come across interesting facts about mutual relations between the civil power and the Jewish population in a number of Ukrainian towns. Here is one of the reports of the chief of the main town of Konstantinograd district (Poltava province), who fought for chastity of Russian gentry; ' To the Governor of Poltava. This year on August 21, I got information about large scale gambling that took place in the local clubs. In one of the rooms I caught red-handed 8 people. They were playing a game called 'zheiezka' at a round table specially designed for gambling ... The Council of the Elder of the Public Assembly consists almost totally of prosperous Jews. I have the honor to ask You to impose a penalty on the following persons: Khaim Notkin, Abrakham Aisenshtat, Isaak Klain, and Aaron Sklyar each of whom is to pay 300 roubles, Pavel Borodkin is to pay 500 roubles. The inquiry records are presented.'[51] This case testifying to the place of rich Jews in A. I. Denikin’s establishment had a detective end. The Governor of Poltava Staritsky was offered a bribe, as the latter immediately sent an order to Konstantinograd in which he demanded that Jews should be left alone. Afterwards somebody tried to clear Staritsky's signature off the document. [52]

In a number of cases the politics of A. I. Denikin's functionaries were aimed at supporting Jewish communities and sometimes were really charitable. The following document testifies to that, 'PETITION. To His Excellency the Governor of Poltava from invalids Zeiman Mendeleyevich Nolman and llya Markovich Liberman residing at 18, Kurakinskaya Street. We, invalids of the war, having found ourselves without means to earn our living, managed to start a diary and grocery business assisted by the Union of War Invalids. Now that the lease has been increased, and merchant Ravinsky demanded 50 roubles a month .. - we have no hope to live a normal life. Besides that, Ravinsky demands that the premises should be left.' [53]The Governor of Poltava passed a resolution banning eviction of invalids.

Alongside with that people could see soldiers robbing Jews in sight of other residents of towns and boroughs. It is here that the discrepancy of mutual relations between A.I.Denikin's regime and the Jewish population in Ukraine becomes apparent. Thus, in Cherkassy a A.I.Denikin's Army officer stayed at Izrail Galperin's place. He made friends with the whole family and spent a lot of time in their company, having his tea and talking with them. When the Volunteers were retreating from Cherkassy the officer, his revolver in his hand, cleaned the hospitable family out. [54]

In the borough of Zolotonosha that is near Cherkassy, Jews paid 15,000 to 20,000 roubles per night to the officers from the commandant's company for the 'protection' of their houses. Thanks to that, a lot of Jewish houses and petty shops were saved. The same thing took place in the borough of Shpola, where officer squads under the command of Usov took 50,000 roubles per night for the 'protection.' The same situation was observed in Kiev, Fastov, and other towns. Here we can speak only about the officer corps' direct extorting money from peaceful population. They threatened Jews with soldiers and they themselves were empowered to order their soldiers to search or rob any house, that ' did not pay for the protection.' In a number of cases Jewish population was officially laid under contribution in favour of the Volunteer Army, whereas other national groups of the towns and boroughs were not. Illegality of that contribution is quite evident.

In December 1919 'in order to prevent a further pogrom the Jewish community of the town of Priluky in Poltava region was laid under contribution for a sum of 200,000 roubles. The borough of Tainoye was to pay 500,000 roubles in order to stop the pogroms. [55] Sometimes extortion was in the form of orders of the district authorities, the commandants of the towns for whom genocide of the Jews had become a moral norm. In Novy Mglyn, after the pogrom had been finished, the commandant of the town demanded that 200,000 roubles should be paid and threatened that otherwise all the Jewish population would be drowned in the river.

In Priluky the chief of counter-intelligence Palekha demanded for himself 250,000 roubles, besides a sum of 200,000 roubles which had already been given to the commandant, and threatened with a pogrom. In the borough of Stepantsy systematic extortions were made by Pampushka-Burlak, head of the State Guards (local police), and his deputy Borbatenko. The former had been put at his position by the Volunteer Army. [56]

In Priluky the commander of the Semenovsky Regiment openly asked his subordinate, who needed new high boots,' Can't you go to any kike and take off his boots?' In Belaya Tserkov colonel Shchepetilnikov from the 2nd Terskaya Plastunskaya Brigade recommended that officer Yakoviev should get fabric for his uniform by robbing,' steal it from a kike, it is not punished.' In his memoirs N.I.Shtiff wrote, Information about the robberies made by officers comes from Bogodukhov, Borzna, Borispol, Ignatovka , Korsun, Kremenchug, Nezhin, Priluky, Fastov, Rossava, Krivoye Ozero, Tomashpol, Yampol, Kurilovtsy, Tetiyev, and other places. In some cases officers guide the pogroms as in: 'Boyarka, Rossava, Krivoye Ozero (officer Miashevsky) ... In Kremenchug a colonel even took away the furniture of his hosts '[57]

There were cases when units of the Volunteer Army illegally occupied the houses of Jews; and those actions were officially investigated and justice was restored. For example, in August 1919, the Governor of Poltava was given the following application: 'PETITION. From merchant Beluga Moisha Davidovich residing in Dvoryanskaya Street in Poltava. Till October 1918 I had lived in the town of Malaya Pereshchepina of Konstantinogradsky district ( now Krasnodarsky district of Kharkov region) where I was born. There I was engaged in manufacture production. In October 1919, after I had been robbed, I moved to Poltava. My family and I visited Malaya Pereshchepina and found out that all our houses and manufacture had been robbed by the Bolsheviks... After the Volunteer Army had come, my house was occupied illegally and sacked completely by the units under officer Nunkevich. I request that you should do everything that lies in your power with respect to the order telling the police-officer to see to my house and my personal property being returned to me.'[58] A special investigation was conducted, the witnesses were questioned, including Zlata Nernkovskaya, the house-keeper of Beluga. Vice-Governor addressed the chief of the legal department, ' To be immediately investigated and reported prior to September 3, 1919.'[59] As a result, the actions of the chief of the town guards Nunkevich were classified as illegal and the house was returned to its owner.

Especially severely A. I. Denikin’s authorities treated the cases relating to the execution of decisions about order and curfew in cities and towns, and so forth. When studying the documents of that time, we come across a lot of facts about the members of Jewish community being fined for 'not cleaning yards and systematically violating the order of cleaning the assigned parts of the streets.' Or, for example, such a report: 'On October 10, 1919 in Poltava provincial prison I, chief assistant of the commander of the State Guards, second lieutenant Grets, interrogated a petty bourgeois Israil Shmul Yosifovich Sokolovsky from the village of Belotserkovskoye of Khorol district. It was revealed that Israil Sokolovsky was residing at 25, Yekaterinburgskaya Street without registration...'[60] That report had the following resolution attached: '...to fine Sokolovsky for a sum of 2,000 roubles. Commander of the Guards.'[61] For comparison, a teacher at the Teachers' Training Institute at that time earned 1,200 roubles a year, whereas a loaf of bread cost 40 roubles.

One of the peculiarities of the State policy of A.I.Denikin was the opening of all the organs of the press closed by the Bolsheviks, as well as freedom in the press matter in spite of the censorship which was ever increasing as the Whites were retreating from the territory of Ukraine. Thus, in Priluki the newspaper Prilukskaya Rech appeared, and in Kremenchug of Poltava province doctor Epshtein was allowed to publish an independent newspaper called the Pridneprovsky Golos, and so on.'[62]

Very often the authorities took the initiative in solving internal problems in a number of Jewish communities. Thus, that was the case with the resumption (in October 1919) of the tzedakah money collection in the town of Kremenchug. The town mayor addressed the district chief with the following petition: '... October 12, 1919. Incoming No. 16137. A special money collection known as tzedakah money collection, which has existed in the Jewish community for a long time, is intended to satisfy the social needs of Jews... The way of establishing the collection and the rules of collecting are determined by the Regulation on tzedakah money collection (Appendix to article 816 of volume IX of the Law on Takings, issued in 1899). I request that You should put into force the above mentioned Law due to impoverishment of Jews and lack of the objects of rating among the members of Jewish community.

In this view, the Town Council calculated tariffs for cattle slaughtering for kosher and made up an estimate of distribution of money, expected to come from tzedakah collection within a year. Estimate: 360,000 roubles to 10 shoichets; 50,000 roubles to 5 mashgihins; 108,000 roubles to 3 rabbis; 24,000 roubles to Talmud Torah; 24,000 roubles to the State Jewish School; 36,000 roubles the Invalid House for the Jews; and 24,000 roubles to the Jewish Women People's School.'[63]

Thus, in view of heavy impoverishment of Jews, resulted from the pogroms conducted by the regular forces of the Volunteer Army, the authorities themselves had to worry about the establishments which earlier were supported by the numerous Jewish community in the town of Kremenchug without any effort.

The population which had suffered from the pogroms was in need of everything and , in the first place, of medicine, food, and warm clothes. Many Jewish families had been left without roofs over their heads for a long time. Frequently, nothing was left of boroughs literally. Here is what the eyewitnesses of the tragedy in Tomashpol said' '...The first units of the Volunteer Army came into the borough in September 1919. They started to demand that Jews should get oats, hay and fat for them, which the Jews could not fulfil ... When the Second Mounted Kubansky Labinsky Regiment came in, a complete havoc began... furniture was broken, mirrors were smashed to smithereens, floors were blown up (3-4 times per night) in search of secrets. The commanding officer was very much drunk and incapable of receiving the deputation, so he sent it off to the commandant of the borough of Tomashpol. The latter did not receive the deputation either, pleading illness' [64]

One of the reasons, which Volunteers used to justify their pogroms, was 'a close co-operation of the Jewish communities with the Bolsheviks', presence of 'communists-Bolsheviks' and 'partisans' within the communities of Ukrainian towns and villages. N.I Shtiff wrote,' Jews - victims of the Volunteer Army died in thousands and they were grey-bearded 'communists who had been caught in the synagogue at the volumes of Talmud, ' communists - infants in their pradles, with their mothers and grandmothers.'[65]

As a result of mass arsons conducted by the Volunteer Army thousands of people in Ukraine were left without roofs over their heads. Mainly, those were the residents of Boguslav, Belaya Tserkov, Gorodishche, Korsun, Rossana, Borispol, and Shpola in Kiev province; Krivoye Ozero, Tomashpol, Myaskovka and Savran of Podolskaya province, and some of the boroughs such as the blooming Fastov with its Jewish population amounting to 10,000 people, were burnt down almost completely.

Not only noticeable Jewish communities in boroughs, but also small groups of Jews, consisting of 5-10 families who lived in deserted villages among Ukrainian peasants became victims of the pogroms conducted by the Volunteers. Thus, for instance, 5 Jewish families in the village of Gogolenko of Chernigov province, who had been given land for the first time after the revolution, alongside with the peasants, were pogrommed. Three Jewish colonies of farmers found shelter near Fastov: Koldubitskaya-Obraztsovaya, Trilecy and Chevienskaya. In September Volunteers came there and began robbing, doing violence and extorting. While retreating (in September 1919) the Cossacks killed one colonist digging out potatoes. In Koldubitskaya colony they killed a few old men (burnt some), took away grain, drew the cattle out.

There still exists a petition addressed to the commanding general A. Dragomirov. In it Jewish ploughmen - colonists of Rikun of Dymerskaya volost in Kiev district requested that 10 horses, a few cows and 60 heads of cattle, which had been taken away by the soldiers, should be returned to the colony. 'If the horses and the cattle are not returned, the colony will cease to exist', wrote the colonists.

'Robberies pass from the Jews on the Russians, ' complained the chief of the garrison in Belaya Tserkov, colonel Sakharov (Order No. 10 of October, 14). That gave him reason for undertaking measures to prevent a pogrom.

One should say that the ideology of pogroms of the Jewish had been developed long before 1919. It had already been ready and developed in the womb of the old tsar regime and, especially, in the practice of solving the Jewish problem during World War I (Slogans-'Jews are enemies of Russia', 'Jews betrayed the Russian Army', etc.). Already on the stage of development the ideology of the Volunteers did have its own peculiarities. At the end of 1918, in Rostov-upon-the Don the appeal Golos k Russkomu narody ot Yuzhnoi Armii ('The Voice to the Russian people from the Southern Army') was published. The latter, signed 'Yuzhnaya Armiya' ('Southern Army'), was issued on December 7, 1918, and became the basis for developing a new ideology of the Whites. The appeal started with the issue naming the enemy of the Volunteer Army. 'Russia betrayed the Allies, everything has been destroyed, robbed, etc. Who is to blame for all this?' 'To which quite a concrete answer was given, ' They, these kikes; Bronshtein (Trotsky), Nakharnkes (Steklov), Tsederbaum (Martov), Goidman (Gorev), Kibris ( Kerensky), and Liberman (Chernov) do not care for Russia and welfare of the Russian people: they dream of destroying Russia and weakening the Russians in mutual hostility and robberies', and further, ' And in order to fool their people they even have changed their names: Leiba Bronshtein took the name of Trotsky, Liberman named himself Chernov, and Kibris became Kerensky', etc. In addition to physical destruction they -bronshteins, nakharnkeses, etc., depraved people's soul'. The provocation of the ideologists of the White movement aimed at causing genocide of the whole Jewish nation is evident. The purpose of the struggle in this appeal is formulated as follows: ' They (the kikes) do not say that to rob and ruin landowners means to ruin themselves : first, a landowner is a Russian too, he is a man of the Russian people...'[66] The logic of such proclamations is thought to be quite clear.

A.I.Denikin’s government also conducted discriminative personnel measures aimed at excluding Jews from all the administrative structures and from the Army.

On August 8, 1919, a deputation that visited A.I.Denikin pointed out at such a fact, 'A detachment of volunteers assembled in Kharkov and half-composed of Jews was sent into a composite battalion. Near Zolochev the battalion carried out its mission successfully, but on that very day the Jews were sent out and dismissed until mobilization.' In the course of talking with the deputation general A.I.Denikin declared,' I reproved general May-Mayevsky, but deep in my soul I was aware that he could not act otherwise. After all, I myself issued an order about placing officers-Jews in reserve.'[67]

Order No. 1 issued on August 17 in the garrison of Cherkassy openly urged to discriminate Jews. Issued and signed by major-general Shifner-Markevich, it violated the rights of the Jews to elect and be elected into the institutions of local government and municipal dumas. It read:' 1.Today the town of Cherkassy has been occupied by Kuban Cossacks units and attached to the territory of the United Indivisible Russia. 2. I order that the Town Council should be immediately assembled, composed as it was prior to the Bolshevik coup d'etat, with the withdrawal of the Bolsheviks and Jews. '

Exactly the same discrimination took place in Kremenchug (Order No. I by general Ossovsky) with the only difference that the exclusion of Jews was spread to the members of the town duma and in the wording 'explanations' it was added that it had been done 'with the purpose of reassuring the population. ' Jews were excluded from the councils and dumas in Nezhin and Belaya Tserkov by order. In 1919 in Kiev a member of the town council Ladyzhensky was excluded by the commanding general A. Dragomirov.

Did the leaders of the White movement try to stop discrimination? In his memoirs N.I.Shtiff wrote,' There was no sincerity. In essence, there was no divergence in views on the Jewish population between pogrom-makers and those who were to stop them. Generals being bad diplomats, did not manage to conceal their real motivation in the fighting against pogroms. They were afraid of foreigners. We are being looked at by the Entente; and we all, and our supplying, financing, and regulating complex international relations with distant states, etc. depend on it. What will the reaction of the Entente be with respect to the pogroms?' [68]

While the pogroms conducted by Volunteers in Ukraine were in full swing, the newspaper Obshcheye Delo published the article "Yevreysky vopros v Rossii" ('The Jewish problem in Russia') written by doctor D. S. Pasmannik • The article was to introduce the West into the situation in Ukraine.

'What about this problem in Russia?'-, wrote doctor D. S.Pasmannik. 'Theoretically, the Bolsheviks are not thought to make the pogroms of Jews, they are supposed to guarantee the Jews all the rights. Moreover, .the majority of the Bolshevik commissars are Jews. Theoretically, A.I.Denikin’s Army is supposed to be hostile to Jews. That's why the Jewry expects nothing, but troubles from the victory of these armies, i.e. violent pogroms, pursuits ... These are the opinions of the population in some provinces in Russia and in foreign countries. All obvious and secret friends of the Bolsheviks disseminate such views. The one who is writing these lines was an eyewitness of Jews' life in Russia ... and he would like to tell the whole truth both to the Jews and people of other nationalities. Bolshevism is THE GREATEST DANGER FOR THE RUSSIAN JEWRY ... In terms of economics, only those Jews benefit from it who become its officials or suppliers. These privileged compose 5 to 10 per cent maximum of the whole Jewish community. The rest of the Jews have become impoverished and are dying of hunger and epidemics. Newspaper matter and teaching Hebrew have been annihilated... I was an eyewitness of the activities of A.I.Denikin’s Army and I have this to say: the army fighting Lenin's power so heroically, the army that has outlived terrible sufferings from executioners like trotskys, antonovs, muraviyovs and dibenkos does not like Jews because some of the commissars are borne Jews. These army officers forget that trotskys, kamenevs, zinoviyevs and larins are born Jews, but they have nothing in common with their nationality. Trotsky himself claimed that cynically. But despite the Volunteers' dislike of the Jews on a huge territory which had been occupied by A.I.Denikin’s Army THERE WAS NOT ANY POGROM '. [69]

Thus, the Western public was mislead by the 'White' press and the Command of the Volunteer Army. On August 8, while receiving a Jewish deputation, A.I.Denikin, in reply to the request to publish a declaration on the Jewish problem, answered, 'But it will be read by the Americans. I consider it unnecessary.'[70]

From 1918 to 1919 there was only one much-talked-of case of removing a general from his position because of the pogrom of Jews. It happened on August 24, 1919, when the commander of the Second Tersk Plastunskaya Brigade general Khazov was removed from the position according to Order No. 325 because of his brigade having destroyed petty shops in the borough of Smela. The initiator of that order was general V. Z. May-Mayevsky. Earlier that brigade ruined Cherkassy and committed mass murders and rapings in Smela. But May-Mayevsky's order did not stop that brigade while it was killing Jews in Korsun, Belaya Tserkov, and Fastov (under officer Belogortsev).

In September-October 1919, internal logic of things demanded that the pogrom ideology should be deepened. It was necessary to make the population of Ukraine get to understand that Jews should be exterminated as a nation in the course of a systematic state policy. To achieve that aim all the public needed to be shown the Jews ' incapability of being equal with other peoples in a new 'United and Indivisible Russia' being built by A.I.Denikin. In numerous articles by the ideologists of the White movement we come across the ideas which directly discriminate the rights of Jews. Here is, for example, what is written in the article Pytka strakhom ( 'Torture with Fear' ) by V. V. Shulgin, '...There exist good and bad Jews... by bad Jews we mean those engaged in politics where they could create nothing, but a devastating destruction. Good Jews are expected to convince their sons and brothers not to go into politics in Russia. [71]

In his subsequent articles V.V.Shulgin develops the problem of discrimination even further, '... Jews are to leave the places which they use in order to damage the Russian state returning to life. There must be no Jews-officers, Jews-officials, Jews-judges. One should do one's best to prevent Jews ' becoming members of Zemstvo, town-counsellors, and officials serving to the town and Zemstvo.'[72]

Quite naturally, it warmed up the striving of some army units to revenge themselves on peaceful residents of Ukrainian boroughs for the Army's military failures. Here is what K.Ye.Mironov, a member of the Bolshevik underground movement in A.I.Denikin’s Army rear in Kremenchug, wrote, '...A.I.Denikin’s followers occupied the town almost without fighting ...they sacked everything that fell into their hands. The residents fought by gathering together and shouting, while the Cossacks were breaking the gates. People felt terrified at nights. In very rare cases those shouts drew some officers' attention to the incidents, and then they sometimes dispersed the Cossacks. That lasted almost for 6 days... As if it were a mockery, the responsibility for protecting the residents was laid upon the very same Cossacks... Rich Jews, like Gurary, for example, did not object to some officers' staying at Jews' places. Thereby they guaranteed themselves protection from the Cossack attacks for considerable sums of money... The anti-Semitic escapades acquired a mass character.'[73]

A special appeal to the countries of the West was organized by representatives of Jewish communities. They asked to help those who had suffered as a result of the pogroms made by Volunteers in 1919. The text read:

'...ATTENTION! ATTENTION! ATTENTION! STOCKHOLM, COPENHAGEN, BRUSSELS, BERLIN, VIENNA, ROME, PARIS, BUENOS-AIRES... . It is for 4 years now and, especially, since 1918 that the Ukrainian Jewry has been suffering from a permanent pogrom... Jewish settlements have been committed fire and sword, peaceful Jewish population, i. e. children, women, and the old have been brutally exterminated; even machine-gun shooting was used... Each of the towns of Proskurov, Yelisavetgrad (Kirovograd now) lost up to 2,000 people at a time. Zhitomir, Balta, Fastov, Cherkassy, Felshtin, Trostinets, Zlatopol, Uman, Gaisin lost some hundreds people each. The assistance of the Red Cross and the state cannot be sufficient. We appeal to Jewish communities and request that they should send in groups of assistance, medicines, food, and clothes immediately.

All-Ukrainian Central Committee of Assistance to Victims of Military Actions. Chairman of the Committee L. Ye. Mandelberg; N. Yu. Gergel, P. G. Dubinsky, Kh. Kh. Fialkov, N. I. Shtif f, and others.'[74]

Refugees from various towns and boroughs of Ukraine flooded Kiev, Kharkov, Odessa, and other Ukrainian cities. It should be noted that one of the first establishments, which rendered systematic assistance to the victims of pogroms in Ukraine, was the Russian Red Cross (RRC). Representatives of the RRC started working at the organization of aid-posts of free-of-charge catering ('catering aid-posts'), temporary shelters for the victims' children ('shelters for children') at the beginning of the pogrom process in July - August . There still exists a document giving us an idea of the scope of that assistance:

THE RUSSIAN RED CROSS COMMITTEE OF ASSISTANCE. ACTING ESTABLISHMENTS AND ESTABLISHMENTS UNDER FORMATION ON AUGUST 1, 1919…

the borough of Malin - a catering aid-post for 400 people,

the borough of Fastov - a catering aid-post for 1,000 people,

the borough of Belaya Tserkov - a catering aid-post for 1,200 people.

'Shelters for children'

the borough of Belaya Tserkov - for 200 children, the borough of Fastov - for 100 children, the borough of Gorodishche - a catering aid-post for 200 people,

the borough of Boguslav - a catering aid-post for 500 people, an epidemiological infirmary for 20 people, a ’shelter' for 300 children,

the borough of Chernobyl - a children canteen for 550 children, a catering aid-post for 800 children,

the borough of Uman - a catering aid-post for 300 people, an epidemiological infirmary for 25 people,

the borough of Smela - a catering aid-post for 400 people,

the town of Cherkassy - a 'shelter' for 120 children, a catering aid-post for 300 people,

the town of Zhitomir - 6 ( grounds ) with a children canteen for 1,800 children, a canteen for adults - for 500 people,

the town of Novograd-Volynsky - a canteen for 500 people,

the town of Rovno - an orphanage for 30 children, a 'ground' for 100 children,

the town of Shepetovka - a 'shelter' for 60 children, the borough of lzyaslavl - a cheap canteen for 200 people, the borough of Yampol - a catering aid-post for 200 people,

the town of Vinnitsa - a catering aid-post for 600 people.'[75]

In August 1919 in Kiev a hostel was organised for arriving Jewish refugees. At the same time, the Russian Red Cross Assistance Committee prepared a map of the pogrommed places, a schematic representation data on pogroms, according to months and provinces, a schematic map of the Assistance Committee establishments, a scheme of distribution of various types of assistance, and so on. Copies of paper-cases containing documents on the pogroms made by the Volunteers in Ukraine in general, and in Kiev in particular, were sent to Russia via Rostov ( through the mediation of F. Ye. Lander and N.I.Iliyin) and abroad as well.

In September - October 1919 as the Bolsheviks were taking up the Right-Bank Ukraine they organized corresponding power structures of assistance to the victims of pogroms. Those structures were called 'province sections' and they were attached to province departments of social maintenance.

There still exists a report of head of Kiev province section about the work of that kind at the initial stage. 'In the first place, the province section,' the report read,' encountered the refugees living in the hostels supported by the Jewish committee... At 37, Konstantinovskaya Street, at 23, Pochayevskaya Street (where there were 800 people) we saw a shocking sight. The refugees were lying in unheated flats on the floor. They were covered with dirty tatters. There was no glass in the windows. The refugees had not had any food for 5 days by the day of our inspection of the refuges. The refugees placed in the synagogues in Andreyevskaya Street, Yaroslavskaya Street, Novy Val experienced the same sufferings...'[78]

On October 27, 1919 a free-of-charge catering aid-post was organized in a hostel in Khorev Street in Podol. The post was managed by I.G.Tsifrinovich. The province section directed this activity. [79] The very same Russian Red Cross dealt with the medical section of assistance to the victims of pogroms. From June I to November 1, 1919 the Russian Red Cross organized:

'1. An out-patients' department at 6, Troitsky Lane.

2. Free-of -charge provision with medicine through the mediation of nationalized stores at the expense of the Assistance Committee.

3. Medical and sanitary inspection of a hostel for the refugees from the pogrommed places at 9, Pirogovskaya Street.

4. An out-patients' department at 9, Frolovskaya Street and medical aid to sick people at their places...

9. Financing Kiev Jewish hospital for consulting infected patients.

10. Support of the wounded and sick people from Fastov ...

12. Transport for those who had fallen ill.

13. Provision of the sick people with underclothes, linen , instruments, and gowns.

14. Free-of-charge Russian baths and disinfection of clothes.'[80] At the same time, while the Bolsheviks organized assistance to the victims of pogroms, A. I. Denikin’s units acted with unbelievable ferocity in the Left-Bank Ukraine. The whole way of A.I.Denikin’s Army retreat could be characterized as a way of pogrom-makers. Denikin’s followers could be pacified neither by numerous peaceful deputations nor considerable sums of money given to their officials as bribes. In Kagarlik of Kiev province such a deputation was received quite 'favourably', but no sooner had the commander of the unit turned away than the soldiers stripped all the members of the deputation of everything. It happened on August 29, 1919. In the borough of Kobishche of Chernigov province, a Jewish deputation, which set off to the railway station, was robbed, stripped naked and beaten cruelly (September 14, 1919); and in the borough of Makarov in Kiev province a Jewish deputation consisting of the oldest men was chopped up to pieces. [81]

Kiev, Yekaterinoslav (Dnepropetrovsk now), and other cities shared the terrifying fate of the rest of the places. On October 17-20, 1919, Kiev suffered especially. 'At nights medieval horror begins in Kiev streets. In absolute silence and absence of human beings a heart-rending wailing starts ... These are the kikes howling...,' wrote the Kievlyanin in 1919,' They are crying with horror. It is terrifying to hear those voices ... it is a real horror, a real torture with horror. The total Jewish population is subjected to that.'[82]

At that time the Volunteer Army began collaborating with the formations acting on the territory of Ukraine during 1919 for the purpose of robbing and marauding exclusively. It was that kind of formation that 1. Т. Struk's band belonged to. Let us consider the personality of its leader in detail, llya Tirnofeyevich Struk was born in the village of Griny of Gornostaipoisk volost of Kiev province. He finished district school there and in 1917 started his war career by collaborating with the Central Rada. He organized a detachment of 'Vilne kozatstvo' ('Free Cossacks') which later on joined the ranks of the Ukrainian Peoples' Republic Army.