Jewish pogroms during the revolution and the Civil War in Ukraine

January 1919

The first mass pogroms began on the eve of 1919, their arena was the city of Ovruch , the Volyn province and the surrounding villages. For more than two weeks, the Jewish population suffered from the pogroms of the Petliura ataman Kozyr-Zirka. The killings lasted until January 16 and ended with the shooting of 32 people at the station. In the same period, the first Zhytomyr pogrom took place. January 7-10, Chernyakhov , Berdichev and many neighboring small towns were affected.

January pogroms were still local in character ^[4]

February 1919

February pogroms were already widespread. By this time Kiev was occupied by the Bolsheviks. Petliurists left the Kherson, Poltava and Kiev provinces, Pogroms occurred in Yelisavetgrad on the 4th-5th in Novomirgorod , Piryatin and other settlements of the Poltava region.

At many railway stations, for example Romodan and Bobritskoye, Jews were thrown out of cars and shot. In Lubny, the pogrom was prevented by the Petliurists themselves - there were hundreds of people who opposed armed people. In the battle with them, they lost 4 people dead, but saved the city from the pogrom. In Kremenchug, Jews paid off in the amount of one and a half million rubles. Then the pogroms took place in the Kiev province: in Vasilkov on the 7-8th; in Rosava 11-12, where the greatest number of victims died at the hands of the Bolsheviks; in Stepantsy 14 numbers; in Radomisl - on the 18th; in Squire - at the beginning and end of the month, as well as on the approaches to Kiev, in Vichna and Brovary, Chernihiv province. However, the worst pogrom this month occurred in the deep Petliura rear in Proskurov , on the 15th, and in Felshtin. They were caused by an attempt by the Bolsheviks to raise an uprising in Proskurov.

March 1919

The March pogroms are all connected with the breakthrough of the Petliurites from Sarn in the Korosten direction , in which they approached Kiev from the north-west for almost fifty versts. At that time, pogroms were in Korosten , Ushemir - on the 31st, in Bloshitsa between 7 and 12; in Samogorodka on the 13th, in Chernyakhov on the 18th, in Zhitomir - on the 22nd, in Yanushpol - on the 25-29th, and in Radomysl - on the 12th, 13th and from 23rd to 31st. Since that time, the pogroms in Radomyshl have become chronic, because Sokolovsky’s detachment has already begun to operate there, and on Korosten on the 13th there was a new pogrom in the city, which was arrived by the Red Guards. Moreover, there were Petliura pogroms in the Podolsk province: in Kalenovka, Kublichi, Zyatkovtsi and other places.

April 1919

April pogroms were relatively few in number and not of a general nature. This month, mainly Struk’s activity took place in the Chernobyl district. On 7–22 the number of his troops was operating in Chernobyl itself, and in addition, throughout the month they killed and robbed in a number of neighboring villages, especially along the banks of the Dnieper, where the ships were stopped and Jews were drowned. Moreover, during this month Sokolovsky continued to rob in his area. On the 22nd, Korolev, Malin, Rakitino and Kornik were injured. A group of Petliurists who retreated from Olevsk to Novgorod-Volynsky defeated the town of Emelchino. Terpila’s gang was operating near Kiev: on the 7-15th, in Vasilkov, Rzhishchev, the village of Plisetskoe, the village of Olshanka and in other places. As for Vasilkov, it should be noted that he was finally robbed by the 6th Soviet Regiment. Partisans appeared in the Tarashchensky district, who from 4 to 25 operated in Boguslav. In the Podolsk province, many settlements were defeated, among them Balta and Bratslav. ^[five]

May 1919

At the beginning of the month Struck continued to operate: he organized pogroms in Gornostaypol and Ivankov. But almost all May pogroms take place under the sign of "Grigoryevschina", and they are extremely plentiful in numbers. Most of the pogroms were perpetrated by the ataman and his assistants Uvarov , Tyutyunik, Nechay and others. Three quarters of them hit the south-eastern ledge of the Kiev province, Cherkasy and Chigirinsky districts, and the rest broke into the neighboring parts of the Kherson and Poltava provinces.

In 1926, the anarchist Samuel Schwarzbourd killed Simon Petliura in Paris. At the trial, Schwarzbard explained his murder of Petliura by revenge for the Jewish pogroms committed by Petliura during the civil war. Companions Petlyura tried to connect the killer with the Soviet intelligence services, pointing out the alleged connection between Schwarzbard and the resident of the Soviet intelligence in Paris M. Volodin. However, a French court acquitted Schwarzbourg.

Nikolai Ostrovsky - “ How Steel Was Tempered ”

• Isaac Trotsky . Jewish pogroms in Ukraine and Belarus 1918-1920 2002
• Gusev-Orenburg Sergey Ivanovich . Crimson book. Pogroms 1919-20 in Ukraine . New York: Ladoga, 1983 .-- 270 p.

• [2] T. P. Makarenko . ЄVreyski pogrom in extras of the Ukrainian Revolution // Science and History of the Faculty of History of the Zaporizhzhya National University, 2013, VIP. Xxxv
• [3] Igor Losєv . Wishing hands: as bilshoviks zrobili from the Ukrainian most pogromnik никvreїv // Ukrainian edition . April 15, 2012
• [4] Dotsenko V. O. Єvreisky pogrom ruh in Ukraine in 1917-1920 rr. // Science and History Department of the Zaporizhzhya National University, 2014, VIP. Xxxviii
• Dotsenko V. O. The Hebrew anti-pogrom rukh in Ukraine in 1917-1920 r. Newsletter of agricultural history. Збірник наукових праць, 6-7 2013