The Pogroms in Ukraine:The Period of the Volunteer Army

Frontispiece of the original Yiddish edition of Nokhem Shtif, Pogromen in Ukrayne: di tsayt fun der frayviliger armey (Berlin: Wostok, 1923) Preface I wrote this book in Kiev in March 1920, right after the Denikin atrocities that left a searing wound in our hearts and souls, even among those individuals and organizations who had been sympathetic to the Volunteer Army and who had hoped that it would be the “Angel of Deliverance” from Russia. They were all deceived, except for that small group ..

II. Before the Pogroms and During the Pogroms

The Pogrom Road We can now say with certainty that the strategic path of the Volunteer Army was the pogrom road, from its victory march of June–October 1919 to the terrified retreat before the Bolsheviks in November 1919–January/ February 1920. “Such-and-such unit of the Volunteer Army arrived and committed a pogrom and left with a pogrom,” is the same formula that summarizes the reports of news from the vast majority of communities: Bobrovytsia (Chernihiv province); Bohuslav, Horodyshche, Ko..

List of Jewish Communities That Were Destroyed

1. Avdeyevka, Yekaterinoslav province 2. Ignatovka, Kiev province 3. Ovukhov, Kiev province 4. Olshanitsa, Kiev province 5. Okhrimova, Kiev province 6. Ostior, Chernihiv province 7. Orlovets, Kiev province 8. Badievka, Podolia province 9. Baturin, Chernihiv province 10. Bobrovytsia, Chernihiv province 11. Bogodukhov, Kharkiv province 12. Bohuslav, Kiev province 13. Borzna, Chernihiv province 14. Boryspil, Poltava province 15. Boyarka, Kiev province 16. Beybusy (a village), Kiev province 17. B..

IV. The Causes of the Pogroms. Pogroms as Part of the Military and Political Program. The Connection to the High Command

We have seen that pogroms were the rule, not the exception, for the Volunteer Army. They were a constant during their entire quest, from its first speedy victories to its shameful defeat. It was an essential element of their style of warfare. Where, then, did that come from? What were the deep motives that drove a large army to plunder and slaughter, indeed an army that was going to “save Russia” and establish “law and order,” and which, furthermore, was led by veteran, experienced generals, ..

I. The Situation of the Jews in Ukraine Before the Arrival of Denikin’s Volunteer Army

Anarchy and Pogroms Since the Ukrainian nationalist movement began to campaign openly for an independent state (samostinost) at the end of 1917, but mainly since December 1918, when the Directorate — Vynnychenko, Petliura, Shvets, Andriievskyi, and Makarenko — organized the revolt against Hetman Skoropadskyi, the land has not ceased to be a field for military operations. The bloody battle for power has not abated. The land seethes and sinks into anarchy and decay. Before that time, before the..

III. The Volunteer Army’s Own Style of Pogrom

Before the period of the Volunteer Army, Ukraine had already experienced many pogroms of various types, by Petliura’s military units, Atamans, and ordinary bandits. Nevertheless the Volunteer Army managed to be innovative, adding something new of its own that made it stand out from the earlier pogroms. The most prominent features of its style were: 1) its military character 2) the mass rape of women 3) special humiliations and tortures 4) the extermination of entire Jewish communities. In tha..

The Pogroms in Ukraine, 1918-19

Between 1918 and 1921 an estimated 100,000 Jewish people were killed, maimed or tortured in pogroms in Ukraine. Hundreds of Jewish communities were burned to the ground and hundreds of thousands of people were left homeless and destitute, including orphaned children. A number of groups were responsible for these brutal attacks, including the Volunteer Army, a faction of the Russian White Army. The Pogroms in Ukraine, 1918-19 is a vivid and horrifying account of the atrocities committed by the Volunteer Army, written by Nokhem Shtif, an eminent Yiddish linguist and social activist who joined the relief efforts on behalf of the pogrom survivors in Kiev. Shtif’s testimony, published in 1923, was born from his encounters there and from the weighty archive of documentation amassed by the relief workers. This was one of the earliest efforts to systematically record human rights atrocities on a mass scale. Originally written in Yiddish and here skillfully translated and introduced by Maurice Wolfthal, The Pogroms in Ukraine, 1918-19 brings to light a terrible and historically neglected series of persecutions that foreshadowed the Holocaust by twenty years. It is essential reading for academics and students in the fields of human rights, Jewish studies, Russian and Soviet studies, and Ukraine studies