The Jewish pogroms in Ukraine. Authoritative statements on the question of responsibility for recent outbreaks against the Jews in Ukraine

The Jewish Pogroms
in Ukraine

Authoritative Statements on the Question of

Responsibility for Recent Outbreaks

Against the Jews in Ukraine

BY

JULIAN BATCHINSKY

DR. ARNOLD MARGOLIN

DR. MARK VISHNITZER

ISRAEL ZANGWILL

Documents, Official Orders, and other Data bearing upon
the facts as they exist today

COMPILED AND ISSUED BY THE FRIENDS OF UKRAINE

MUNSEY BUILDING, WASHINGTON, D. C.

1919

Stack
Annex

S
075

FOREWORD

The following data has been compiled and issued by the
Friends of Ukraine in the hope and belief that it will serve
to set right before the American people any misunderstanding
that may exist in this country concerning the true position of
the Jewish inhabitants of the territory of the Ukrainian Peo-
ple 's Republic ; and to convince them that the Government of
that Republic is earnestly working with every means in its
power to insure to its Jewish population the same civil and
political rights and the same full measure of protection to life,
liberty, and property that it guarantees to all law-abiding
citizens.

A dispassionate reading of the facts as herein presented,
including the testimony of several among the world's most
prominent Jewish leaders, is invited in the belief that it can
not fail to convince all fair-minded Americans that the
Ukrainian People 's Republic is founded upon these principles
of Justice and Equality that inevitably shall result in a
"Government of the People, by the People, for the People."

The Jewish Pogroms in Ukraine and
the Ukrainian People's Republic

By

JULIAN BATCHINSKY

the Ukrainian Diplomatic Representative to the United States

(A Letter to the Editors of American Newspapers, published in
October and November, 1919, by the New York Globe, the
Philadelphia Public Ledger, Brooklyn Eagle, St, Louis
Jewish Voice, New Orleans Jewish Ledger, N. Y. Hebrew
Standard, Jewish Monitor of Fort Worth, Texas, Jewish
Advocate of Boston, Mass. ,N. Y. Evening Post, and others.)

DEAR SIR: —

Will you grant me an opportunity to say what I know and
what I feel about the Jewish pogroms in Ukraine?

While all the distressing particulars of the tragedy and the
number of mournful casualties are still to be ascertained, let
us still hope that they have been smaller than reported in days
of peril and anguish. The facts can not and must not be
denied or justified or excused. However, they should be more
clearly understood by every Jew and by every Ukrainian, by
the American democracy, and by the world at large. In the
name of humanity and for the future of Ukraine we should
take a common stand, Jews and Ukrainians, that responsi-
bility be fixed and punishment be brought to the guilty ; that
the wrongs committed there be righted, and that Ukraine be
made a safe home for all its citizens, Jews and Gentiles alike.

A Republic "By and For People of All Creeds and

Races."

I would be derelict to the duty laid upon me by my govern-
ment and to the principles upon which it is acting and fight-

2116783

iiig if I should express any other opinion. Neither can I keep
silent. The Ukrainian People's Republic is intended by the
people and for the people of all creeds and races of Ukraine.
Though guiltless, We owe it to a due regard for our own rights
as a nation that we do not hide ourselves behind the excuse
that we are not our brother's keeper.

So sincerely do we believe in these things that I speak the
mind and the wish of my government when I say that it is
its earnest desire and purpose that full justice be done to the
Jewish people in Ukraine in their time of distress and dismay.
The government of the Ukrainian People 's Republic is anxious
that an international investigation, careful and detailed, with-
out any political consideration and without favor or disfavor
to any one, should look into every crime committed on the
bloodstained soil of Ukraine and establish the responsibility
of the criminals.

Ready to Accept any Inquiry ~by America and
American Jews.

It is ready to accept any inquiry that may be made by
America and by American Jews. It insists that the Ukrain-
ian People's Republic, its aims as well as its ways and means,
and the Ukrainian national movement in general be included
and submitted to a most scrupulous examination.

I beg only the privilege that the heading of the indictment,
' ' Pogroms in Ukraine, ' ' may not by itself and not in advance
imply a ready judgment upon the Ukrainian People's Re-
public and its government. They are protecting the land and
the people of Ukraine against things that they can not control
or alter, namely, the action of others.

Since the very revival of Ukrainian national aspirations 150
years ago, Ukraine's struggle for freedom has remained un-
infected by any jingoistic greed, nationalistic ambitions or
racial prejudices. Until the late decade there was no such
thing as a reactionary party in Ukrainian politics, because any
form of allegiance to our nationality and even the very name
of Ukraine were considered as evidence of disloyalty and trea-
son against czarist Russia. When the growing strength of

the Ukrainian national movement had begun to convert some
of the reactionary elements, its main aims and objects were
already safeguarded under revolutionary control.

No Quarrel with the Jews for Several Generations.

I want you to realize that for several generations past we
have had no quarrel with the Jewish people. Of course, a
handful of Jewish bourgeoisie lent themselves to support the
Russian domination in Ukraine and the Polish rule in Ukrain-
ian Galicia against the people and the democracy of their
countries. For generations no evidence can be traced out,
either on Ukrainian nor on Jewish side, of any antagonism
between Ukrainian national aspirations and the Jewish peo-
ple, Jewish nationality and Jewish life in our country. There
has been no reason for any antagonistic tendencies.

And yet, a sinister spirit of pogroms rules throughout
Ukraine. It was the spirit of czarist Russia. The adminis-
tration, the bureaucracy, and the police of the empire, school,
church, and yellow press were instrumental in setting the
population of Ukraine against the Jews. It is a matter of
common knowledge that Jews were persecuted and outraged
and slain to avert growing dissatisfaction of the workingman,
and the pauperized peasant, and to justify further repression
of liberal elements. Many a Ukrainian pauper and many a
Ukrainian scamp received their murderous weapons and their
ignominious orders from the criminals much higher up.
Ukrainian democracy, muzzled and strangled, was so deprived
of any influence on what was happening, under the czar's rule,
as the unfortunate victims themselves.

Bonds of Common Interest Between Races in
Galicia.

In Eastern Galicia, where, in spite of oppression and perse-
cution, the Ukrainian democracy has succeeded in controlling
the feelings of the people, no outburst of racial hatred has
ever been recorded, the proximitj' of Russia, Poland and Rou-
mania and the anti-Semitic efforts of the Polish administration
notwithstanding. Moreover, during the last years the Ukrain-

G

ians and the Jews in Galicia have been drawn closely together
by bonds of common interest and of mutual understanding.

After the breakdown of the Russian empire, the Ukrainian
People's Republic has been established on the territory of
Ukraine, and at the very inception of this republic the first
Ukrainian Parliament (Central Rada) has abolished all racial
restrictions enforced by the Russian government, and has pro-
claimed the principle of self-determination and of full liberty
of self -development for all racial groups, carrying out these
principles in practice.

Being one of the principal racial minority, the Jews in
Ukraine have had granted by law a full autonomy and have
had secured by the Ukrainian government all moral and ma-
terial means that are necessary for the development of their
nationality and for the advancement of their national culture.
Jewish representatives have been invited and admitted to a
real participation in government and to leadership in deter-
mining the destinies of the country. Our friendship was ac-
cepted without reservation, and I can say with a good deal
of confidence that there was no Jewish faction in our country
which did not admit that the Ukrainian People's Republic
meant the realization of the best hopes and rights of the
Jewish people in Ukraine.

Looking Forward in Hope to Days of Recon-
struction.

I have no disposition to boast of what my government has
accomplished — in 1917. It has merely done its duty. We
have always believed — and we still hope — that in days of re-
construction the Jewish population of Ukraine will be of in-
finite service to the country. As a matter of course, they
will become conscious of their moral partnership only when
they experience the fullest freedom of their independent
growth.

We have waited many months for these days of readjust-
ment and recuperation to come, and they have not come. It
is very hard to say in quiet phrases what has happened in
Ukraine since the revolution. War and disorder, devastation

and confusion, became the lot of the distracted country. The
Ukrainian People 's Eepublic has had to defend its very ex-
istence against German invasion, against Eussian Bolshevist
conquest, against Poland's noble legions, against Denikin's
Cossack raids, and the dark forces behind them, against in-
ternal strife, against marauding bandit gangs, against an eco-
nomic ruin, against a complete breakdown and disaster.
For the Jew, this disaster resulted in pogroms.

Fairness in Judgment as to Who are the Guilty

Who are the guilty ones? Who has to bear the ghastly re-
sponsibility ?

The errand I am bound on to America, comprises no obli-
gation to lie either for my country or for my countrymen.
Before we condemn anybody we have to sit in judgment upon
ourselves. I must admit that information now in my pos-
session fully establishes the fact that in one case — a very se-
vere one (Proskurow) — soldiers from the Ukrainian People's
Army were the perpetrators. It was not upon the impulse of
the government, nor upon a military command that they slew
helpless people. It was not with knowledge of Simon Pet-
lura, but against his strictest orders and against the purpose
of the Ukrainian People's Republic.

There is some evidence of old-fashioned provocation or of
criminal mistake or wilful disobedience on the part of the
local commander in several other, fortunately less disastrous,
cases. Just these cases, wherever the name of Ukrainian
People's Republic or of Simon Petlura is involved, we want
to be investigated first of all.

But, allow me to say, these are rather exceptional cases.

Spirit of Czarist Russia Kept Alive 'by Dark
Forces.

The spirit of czarist Russia is being kept very much alive,
not only through the efforts of Denikin, his backers, but by
the dark forces hidden throughout all the territory of the
former Russian Empire, by the rank and file of the old Black

8

Hundreds, by many others. It is the Russia of infamous
memory against which the Ukrainian People's Republic is
fighting for deliverance.

It is also known that pogroms have been carried out in
Ukrainian territory occupied by Russian Bolshevist armies.
Jews have been robbed and driven from their homes and slain
by Bolshevist marauders and by Soviet troops themselves,
which are characterized by a great variety of discipline and
of purpose.

In Western Ukraine — Galicia and a part of Volhynia —
Jews, as well as Ukrainians themselves, have been persecuted
and outraged and starved out by invading Polish legions.

Finally, large parts of Ukrainian territory seem to be a No
Man 's Land, where various bandit gangs are preying upon the
people. They comprise adventurers and brigands mostly, of
—I am sorry to admit — Ukrainian language and descent, the
same as lynching mobs in America consist of Americans.

Little of Disturbed Area Controlled by Ukrainian
Government

The bloody tide swept within its wave almost all the ter-
ritory of Ukraine. Only a small part of this territory was
controlled by the Ukrainian People 's Republic. The pogroms
in Ukraine took place during the winter and spring months.
Even in December the Ukrainian government lost the con-
trol of Eastern Ukraine, and the Ukrainian army fought its
retreat battles against advancing Bolshevist armies. Since
February the territory controlled by the Ukrainian govern-
ment has grown still smaller, including only parts of Podolia
and Volhynia, and by the end of winter the main body of the
Ukrainian army had been forced to pass over the Galician
border. Speaking of pogroms, may I not insert that maraud-
ing soldier bands who tried to continue their work in Ukrain-
ian Galicia have been put down and executed by the Ukrainian
peasants themselves.

The reconquest of Ukraine was begun in the summer, but
still the Ukrainian People's Republic is in power only in
Podolia, Volhynia, and in the government of Kiev, as far as the

city of Kiev and the district of Uman. In this territory, I
think I can say with confidence, the dangers are now passed
and overcome.

The government of the Ukrainian People's Republic is
willing to redress all wrongs committed against the Jews
in Ukraine, even when these wrongs have been committed by
its worst enemies, but it must decline any moral responsibility
for innocent blood, to prevent the shedding of which it has
done its utmost.

The Ukrainian Government not Criminally Negli-
gent.

But the question arises: Has not the Ukrainian govern-
ment been criminally negligent? It has not. The director-
ate— the present Republican government which has overthrown
the Hetman regime — immediately after having assumed the
power, re-enacted the national autonomy law, and called upon
the population of Ukraine to regard the Jews as friends and
as allies of Ukrainian democracy. Proclamation after proc-
lamation aga^^st pogroms and order after order against
evildoers have been issued. Millions of rubles in damages
have been paid and hundreds of murderers and provocators
have been executed. There has been no Ukrainian government
without Jewish secretaries being in it. Many of them are well
known Jewish labor leaders ; all of them are true Jews in whose
word the Jewish world can have the utmost confidence.

I deeply regret to say the government did not succeed even
in exterminating all outlaw gangs. Some day it will be shown
how they made their narrow escapes. Many a cutthroat found
refuge by hissing the flag of Bolshevism or the image of
Saint Russia. I instance only the most notorious cases of
Machno and Grigoriev. Machno's bands were surrounded
by the punitive forces of the Ukrainian government early in
winter, after they made their first appearance in and around
Katerinoslav, but they were rescued by the rapidly pro-
gressing Bolshevist advance. After having supported the
Bolshevists, Machno joined Denikin and left Denikin to es-

10

tablish himself again independently. While changing his
allegiance, he never stopped harassing Jews.

The unspeakable Grigoriev revolted against the Ukrain-
ian government which tried to check his pogrom activities
and went over to the Bolshevists and was appointed Bolshevist
commander in south Ukraine. Then he betrayed the Bolshe-
vists and is now traitorously gathering the reactionary forces
around him, the very same forces that had driven the Ukrain-
ian people to revolution.

Strongest Possible Government Under the Cir-
cumstances.

The government of the Ukrainian People's Republic is not
powerful enough. But there is no government anywhere and
there has never been a government which would prove
stronger in these circumstances.

The Ukrainian People's Republic was set up thirty months
ago. The Directorate — the present government of the Ukrain-
ian People's Republic — assumed the control eleven months
ago.

They are expected to organize and to reconstruct a country
which has been disorganized and exhausted and corrupted
by more than a century of czarist misrule. They are ex-
pected to assert the principles of right and humanity and to
safeguard peace and security in spite of continuous war, and
revolution within and without. They are expected to do this
while assaulted by three powers, each of them superior in
arms, money, diplomacy, and propaganda. They are ex-
pected to do it while they have to bar the invading Bolshe-
vist Russia. They are expected to do it while they are facing
the eastward march of Polish imperialism to the west and the
counter-revolutionary Russia to the east, both of them being
supported and supplied with all the resources of western
Europe. They are expected to do it without any support from
anywhere, with a peasant army in rags, with only a strong
will to protect their country for their weapon.

11

Reliance in Final Victory for the People of
Ukraine.

It will be done. We rely on the people of Ukraine and on
the final victory of justice and democracy, no matter how
many times and by whom they were betrayed. But it could
not be done right away.

After you read the charges contained in documents which
are being issued in Warsaw or in Rostov or in Moscow — use
your own judgment. Ukraine is practically isolated from
the rest of the world. The governments fighting the Ukrain-
ian People's Republic disseminate the most foul charges
against those they are trying to destroy. Recently in cor-
respondence emanating from Rostov, and from Paris, the
war between Denikin's Russian army and the Ukrainian
People's army has been represented as ''a struggle for and
against Israel." Denikin is protecting the Jews and this is
why Petlura, who is relentlessly against them, has declared
war against Denikin. I ask you to supply your hard business
sense : can you think that these are differences between the
Czarist generals and the Ukrainian People's Republic, of
which government four Jews are a trusted part and a Jew
is assistant secretary of war? Is this the issue?

I know that on this side of the water, we have to face a very
great deal of misjudgment with regard to our national aims
and principles.

Jewish Inquiry Invited in Name of Government.

In the name of the Ukrainian government, Simon Pet-
lura, president of the Ukrainian People's Republic, issued a
special message inviting the representatives of the Jews out-
side of Ukraine to investigate the pogroms and the attitude
which the Ukrainian government has been taking and is
taking toward the Jews. This message has been delivered to
the Jewish committee in London.

Acting upon instruction from my government, I extend
this invitation to the American Jews. Their representative
organizations are requested — through their representative
men, men of their choice and confidence — to look into the

THE NEW MAP
OF EUROPE

APPROXIMATE BOUNDARIES OF PEOPLES

BY

HERBERT ADOLPHUS MILLER
1918

SLAVS IN STRAIGHT UHC3 —

fORMM £W//l£ OF AUSTRIA-HUHOARY

UKRAINE

AREA: 330,000 square
miles.

POPULATION:
45.000,000.

FORM OF GOVERN-
MENT: Republic.

ESTABLISHED: 1917.
CAPITAL CITY; Kiev.

A FRI CA

14

sufferings of their brethren and sisters, to ascertain the
causes and the consequences, to establish the responsibility
and to take any steps it might be necesary to take to prevent
future violence.

American Jews Particularly are Asked to
Investigate.

In particular, the responsible organizations of American
Jews are requested to investigate: whether the Ukrainian
People's Republic is organized to brigandage and revolt
against everybody and everything, or whether it has been
founded to obtain independence of a long oppressed country,
and whether the Ukrainian People's Republic is spreading
racial hatred and intolerance, or whether it stands for equal-
ity, freedom and free development of nationalities and un-
dictated autonomous self -development of any race or nation-
ality in Ukraine; whether the Ukrainian People's Republic
is warring upon the Jews, or whether the Jewish representa-
tives are a responsible part of its government and Jewish
men are fighting side by side with their Ukrainian fellow-
citizens for Ukraine and for the common cause of all her
people; whether the Ukrainian People's Republic is guilty
of crimes committed against the Jewish population, or whether
it has spent every energy to keep the Jews in Ukraine out of
danger, to punish the criminals, and to heal the wounds of the
sufferers.

Widespread Unprejudiced Consideration is
Sought.

It is earnestly hoped that the results of this inquiry may
receive wide-spread unprejudiced consideration.

I am speaking for the Ukrainian Government when I say
that the investigation will meet with its support and approval,
and I think that I can say with as much confidence that the
investigators will find that all measures have been taken by
the government to safeguard Jewish lives and interests and to
secure to Jewish citizens of Ukraine the full enjoyment of
their acknowledged rights. The Ukrainian People's Republic
will live up to the hopes of so many of the best and truest
Jews in Ukraine who put their trust in her.

15

Soldiers of the Ukrainian People's

Republic Ordered to Respect

and Protect the Jews

Daily order by the Supreme Commander to the
troops of the Ukrainian People's Republic

No. 131.

August 26, 1919.

This order will be read in the divisions, the brigades, the
regiments, the battalions and the companies of the armies of
the Dnieper and of the Dniester and in the detachments of
the insurgents :

* * * The sinister men of the " Black Hundred"
and the "Red Hundred" are but one band. They are
assiduously weaving the spider's web, provoking pogroms
of the Jewish population, and on many occasions they
have incited certain backward elements of our army to
commit abominable acts. They thus succeeded in defiling
our struggle for liberty in the eyes of the world and
compromise our national cause.

Officers and Cossacks! It is time to know that the
Jews have, like the greater part of our Ukrainian popu-
lation suffered from the horrors of the Bolshevist-com-
munist invasion and follow the way to the truth. The
best Jewish groups such as the "Bund", the " Unified ",.
the "Poaley-Zion" and the "Folks Party" have will-
ingly placed themselves at the disposal of the sovereign
and independent Ukraine and cooperate with us.

It is time to learn that the peaceful Jewish population,
its women and children have been oppressed in the same
way as ours and deprived of national liberty. This
population has lived with us for centuries and divides
our pleasures and our sorrows.

The chivalrous troops who bring fraternity, equality,
and liberty, to all the nationalities of Ukraine, must not
listen to the invaders and provocators who hunger for
human blood. Neither can they remain indifferent in the

16

face of the tragic fate of the Jews. He who becomes an
accomplice to such crimes is a traitor and an enemy of
our country, and he must be placed beyond the pale of
human society.

Officers and Cossacks ! The entire world is amazed at
your heroism. Do not tarnish it, even accidentally by
an infamous adventure and do not dishonor our Republic
in the eyes of the world. Our enemies have exploited the
pogroms against us. They affirm that we are not worthy
of an independent and sovereign existence and that we
must be enslaved once again.

Officers and Cossacks ! Ensure the victory by directing
your arms against the real enemy, and remember that our
pure cause, necessitates clean hands. I expressly order
you to drive away with your arms all who incite you to
pogroms and bring them before the courts as enemies of
the State. And the tribunal will judge them for their
acts and the most severe penalties of the law will be in-
flicted on all those found guilty.

The Government of the Ukrainian People's Republic
has addressed an appeal to all inhabitants of the country
to resist the activities of our enemies who provoke the
pogroms of the Jewish population.

I order all troops to listen well and to retain this appeal
and to spread it as much as possible among their com-
rades and among the people.

PETLURA.
Commander in Chief.

17

The Jews in the Ukraine

Interview appearing in the "Jewish Chronicle,"
of London, England, granted by,

DR. ARNOLD MARGOLIN,
Representative of the Ukraine at the Paris Peace Conference.

Dr. Arnold Margolin in explaining the position taken by
the Jews towards the formation of the new state, said:

"At the time of the proclamation of Ukrainian inde-
pendence, the Jews were divided into two camps. On
the one side were the Jewish assimilators, who had been
brought up in an All-Russian political atmosphere, and
who adopted a negative attitude towards the formation
of the Ukrainian State. This party, which numerically
was not important, was supported by a number of Jewish
refugees from old Russia. On the other side were ranged
the National Jews, the Zionists, Itoists, and Jewish So-
cialist parties, who took up a favourable attitude. Those
Jews who had national aspirations of their own could not
but view with favour similar strivings on the part of a
people which had hitherto lived in a position of tutelage.
The principles laid down by President Wilson as to the
rights of small nations were bound to be applied to the
Ukrainian people. So far as the social programme of the
State was concerned, the Jews were also divided into two
camps. One group, which was not very numerous, went
hand in hand with the advanced parties of the Left, which
aimed at the exclusion of the bourgeoisie from State af-
fairs. To this group belonged the left wing of the Bund
and the Poalei-Zion. The other group took up the stand-
point of those Ukrainian parties who supported the prin-
ciples of a general franchise and who sought to apply to
the Ukraine the political system which obtains in West-
ern Europe. They eschewed Utopian experiments and
Maximalist aspirations. Although there were these dif-
ferences in regard to the social and economic conditions
involved in the creation of the Ukrainian State, nearly all
Jewish parties and organizations were united on the ques-
tion of the right of the Ukrainian people to determine
their ultimate political destiny on popular lines."

18

Jewish Autonomy

What was the attitude of the Ukrainian authorities towards
the Jews? our representative asked.

' ' In the Ukraine, including Galicia, there are three and
one-half million Jews, as compared with nearly forty mil-
lions of the general population. The Jews thus form
nearly eight per cent of the total inhabitants. On the
initiation of the new regime, a Central Representative
Parliament was formed, composed of all parties in the
country, including the Jews. About seventy per cent of
the seats on this body were held by Ukrainians proper,
the remainder being allocated to representatives of the
Jews, the Poles, and Russians. This Parliamentary body
showed its willingness to grant more concessions to Jews
than had any other constituent assembly in history. It
conceded autonomy to all minorities in the State, and
three Ministers were appointed for the affairs of these
minorities, including the Jews. A noteworthy act of the
parliament was to appoint a Court of Cassation, those
judges being selected who had had the courage to oppose
the Russian Government in the Beilis trial. In April,
1918, I was almost unanimously selected as a member of
this Court."

Dr. Margolin further describes the changes which took
place when the original Ukrainian Government was over-
thrown, and superseded by the Government of Hetman Sko-
ropadsky :

"At the end of April the Hetman Government came
into power, and the Central Parliament was abolished.
The autonomy of minorities was also withdrawn, but no
serious inroads were made on the political rights of the
Jews. The Court of Cassation was not disturbed, and
the members were given the title of Senator. A Jew,
M. Gutnik, of Odessa, was appointed Minister of Com-
merce. The Hetman regime lasted eight months, and
when it was overthrown by Petlura, the new Government
restored the autonomy of minorities and again appointed
Jewish Ministers. M. Goldelmann, a member of the
Poalei-Zion, received an Under-Secretaryship, and I was
appointed Under-Secretary of Foreign Affairs. I re-
tained my seat on the Court of Cassation, though I did
not act in my judicial capacity while I held a portfolio.
Jews were also included in the various diplomatic mis-

19

sions dispatched by the Ukraine Government to foreign
countries. Thus, Dr. Vishnitzer, the well known his-
torian, and one of the editors of the Jewish encyclopedia
published in Russia, is one of the secretaries of the En-
glish mission. Jews are included in the press and secre-
tarial sections of the French mission, and a Jew is one of
the secretaries of the Dutch mission."

The Pogroms

How do you reconcile the outbreak of pogroms with this
favourable attitude towards the Jews?

"There is this difference between the pogroms which
have unhappily taken place in the Ukraine and those
which occurred under the Tsarist regime. Whereas the
latter were instigated and connived at by the authorities,
the Ukraine Government has steadfastly set its face
against the pogroms, and it has had no part in, or respon-
sibility for them. At the time of Petlura's coup d'etat
at the end of November, 1918, I myself read, in numerous
towns and villages in the Ukraine, proclamations issued
by the Government strongly condemning pogroms, ex-
plaining to the people that the Jews were fellow-citizens
and brothers who were helping in the evolution of the
Ukrainian State, and to whom the fullest rights were due.
The proclamations declared that pogroms must tend to
discredit the Ukraine in the eyes of the civilized world,
and those who. took part in them were no friends of their
country.

"Unfortunately, after the Bolshevists took Kieff, and
disintegration set in among the ranks of the Ukrainian
forces, the worst element of the army started pogroms.
Once more the Government disavowed them, sentenced
the perpetrators to death, expressed their deepest sympa-
thy with the Jews and promised the fullest compensation
to the sufferers. I must unhappily admit that the last
pogroms as to which I have information — those of Feb-
ruary and March last — were very bad, thousands of Jews
being killed. They were instigated by criminals, Black
Hundreds, and Bolsheviks, who wished to discredit the
Ukrainian Government. These events made a deep im-
pression upon me, and at the end of March I tendered my
resignation. I stated that I was aware that the Govern-
ment were not to blame for the pogroms, but that, as a
Jew, I felt that I could not retain an official position in a
country where my brethren were being massacred. My

20

resignation was not accepted, and the Government begged
me to continue to give my services at least abroad, and
I was appointed as one of a mission of four to represent
the Ukraine at the Peace Conference, my colleagues be-
ing the former Ministers, M. M. Sidorenko, Paneiko, and
Shulgin. The prevalence of pogroms in the Ukraine
may be partly attributed to the fact that the Ukrainians,
although constituting a distinct political entity, were sub-
ject for 250 years to Russia, and have acquired, as an
evil inheritance, what I may call the pogrom habit. It is
at least a matter for satisfaction that there is no anti-
Semitic tendency in the Ukraine Government, which dif-
fers in this respect, very notably, from that prevailing in
Poland. It is to the progress of democratic ideals in the
Ukraine that we must look for the elimination of the evil
pogrom element."

21

Justice and Polity Demand Fair
Treatment of the Jews

by
DE. MARK VISHNITZER

Jewish Historian and Editor of the "Jewish Encyclopedia''
and the "History of the Jewish People."

After Ukraine had shaken off the centennial chains of for-
eign sovereignty and was proclaimed as a free State, it was
thought in leading Ukrainian circles that autonomic, national
rights should be given to the nationalities that have, since
ancient times, been domiciled in Ukraine. Thereby peace
would be secured among the different nationalities in the new
State, and the co-operation of all the different tribes of peo-
ple would be gained for the building up of the Ukrainian
republic.

The scope of this decision can be appreciated when we re-
member what the Ukrainian people have suffered in the course
of time from national suppression. But it was also wise,
farseeing and beneficial to the State to win over the minori-
ties to the cause of the new State, for those minorities — Rus-
sians, Jews and Poles — have always been, and are still, in
numbers, reputation, cultural development and economical
consideration, important factors in the country.

Guarantees of the Ukrainian Parliament

In order to safeguard the national interests of the afore-
said nationalities, special State-Secretary offices were estab-
lished. In the first so-called ' ' Universal, ' ' or proclamation to
the people, "Central Rada" (the Ukrainian Parliament)
promised to protect the national rights of the minority na-
tionalities. In the third "Universal" the "Rada" went still
further and granted national personal autonomy to the Rus-
sian, Jewish, Polish and other minority nationalities, and held
out prospects of a special law in this respect being made.
Thus the Jewish question, which has been worrying most
European countries, was solved in a clear and natural way.

22
Proved by Experience of Latter Years

The experiences of latter years have proved to us that it
does not pay to have a civil emancipation of the Jewish in-
habitants. We realize more and more that the civil emanci-
pation can not be the final solution of the Jewish question,
and that the recognition of all people as equally entitled mem-
bers of a State is the consequence of the recognition of all
nations as equally entitled factors in the progress of human-
ity. Thus this demand which the Jewish civil and socialistic
parties present with more and more force is for the first time
recognized as authorized and is fulfilled in Ukraine.

The law proposed by the government has been elaborated
by the Secretary of State for Jewish Affairs, and on January
9, 1918, it was unanimously passed by the Central Rada. In
this law it was solemnly declared that all people in Ukraine
have a right to national-personal autonomy, i. e., a right of
independent determination of their national life, especially by
means of national leagues composed of members of the re-
spective nationality. The right to national-personal autonomy
is an inviolable right. This right can not be denied any peo-
ple in the Ukrainian republic, and neither can* it be restricted
for those who enjoy it. The national league has a right to
impose taxes on its members and to take all steps that it finds
necessary to protect all cultural and other demands.

Jewish Life Able to Develop Freely

Owing to the political conditions the law has not yet taken
effect, but during the two years the independent Ukrainian
State has existed public Jewish life has been able to develop
freely. The Jews in Ukraine have the most extended national
rights. The Jewish language is officially recognized, a Jewish
ministry has been able to develop its activity. Jewish con-
gregations have been able to thrive in freedom, and new Jew-
ish schools have grown up. In the newly founded university
at Kamenetz Podolsk, the government has established a pro-
fessor's chair for Jewish history and literature, and hereby
the national rights of the Jewish people have been still more
emphasized.

23

Jewish Aspirations Peaceably Attained

The Government in East Galicia (the West Ukrainian Re
public) has, in every case, shown much understanding with
respect to the demands of the Jewish inhabitants for autono-
my. The Jews have here, as in Great Ukraine, without fight-
ing and without any special exertions, attained what they
have striven after and are still striving after in other coun-
tries, for instances in Poland and Roumania. It was, at least
lately, necessary at the peace conference to fight some of the
Poles. The arrangement with the Poles contains a whole
series of provisions with respect to political and national rights
for Jews, but all these together can not anywhere near equal
the regulations of the Jewish question which have been estab-
lished by the Central Rada in its grand law concerning na-
tional-personal autonomy. There is lacking a central Jewish
school system ; there is even lacking an organ for Jewish au-
tonomic organizations in the country, even the nucleus of
national autonomy is lacking.

The Roumanians even refuse to give the Jews the slight
admissions granted them by the Poles, but they will probably
submit to the pressure exercised by the Allied Powers. No
matter how this turns out, the Polish agreement does not con-
tain the provisions that the Jews are striving for. The Jews
in Ukraine will lose much if the imperialistic aspirations of
the Poles, Russians and Roumanians for Ukrainian land
should become a reality.

24

Israel Zangwill Commends New Re-
public's Attitude Toward the
Jews in Ukraine

(A letter from Israel Zangwill, noted writer and President
of the Jewish Territorial Organization, in reply to an invita-
tion by the Ukrainian Government to participate in the com-
mission for the investigation of Jewish pogroms in Ukraine.)

October 20, 1919.
THE PRESIDENT OF THE DELEGATION OF THE

UKRAINIAN REPUBLIC
DEAR SIR: —

I feel highly honored at the invitation of the Ukrainian
Government to take part in the proposed Commission for the
investigation of anti-Jewish pogroms, but I am away in Wales,
resting under medical advice, and do not feel the strength to
undertake the journey. Moreover, if Doctor Yochelman, a
member of the Council of the Jewish Territorial Organization,
forms one of the members my organization will be sufficiently
represented. I take the opportunity of saying, however, that
it needed not this step, nor even your honest admission of the
deplorable facts as regards the towns, to convince me that
your government is working hard, if not perhaps its hardest,
to stop massacres for which the unsettled state of Russia is
largely responsible.

The national rights you have given to the Jews are a mani-
festation of true statesmanship and in shining contrast with
the Jewish policy of Poland, and I can only hope that your
Republic will be preserved to give the rest of the world an
example of the strength and the exalted patriotism that comes
from the cordial co-operation and mutual respect of all the
varied racial and religious elements that make up a modern
State. That these massacres, if they continue, will destroy
your State no less surely than its innocent victims, adds to the
regret with which I, as a supporter of the principle of self-
determination, observe your present failure to suppress them
entirely.

Again thanking you for the honor of your invitation,

Sincerely yours,

ISRAEL ZANGWILL.

A 000 121 109 3