with the anti-Jewish pogroms in the Ukraine - particularly in Kiev and
in connection with the reaction of public opinion abroad, resolve as
follows:
The Ukrainian and Jewish peoples both of whom work at the reconstruction
of the Ukrainian Democratic Republic, find themselves in the face of the
common enemies who are trying to sow discord and anarchy in order to
destroy the Ukrainian Republic which they hate. For this purpose your
enemies organize pogroms, spin provocative news about pogroms in the
Ukraine so as to exploit them for their people - with the help of the
Polish ruling classes, or of the Denikin reactionaries. In deliberately
lying and provocative reports they are changing arbitrarily the places of
the pogroms which are arranged in the Ukraine by the Bolsheviks and by
the reactionary clique who are in close connection with Denikin's and
Polish reactionary circles' secret plans. In mendacious publications and
in public letters addressed to the leading representatives of European
countries, all these happenings are charged to the account of the
government of the Ukrainian Democratic Republic, although its aim is to
suppress vigorously all pogroms.
In view of the fact that such provocations and aims of the Polish and
Denikin reactionaries endanger the struggle for freedom of the Ukrainian
Republic as well as the peaceful coexistence of the peoples of the
Ukraine, the government of the Ukrainian Democratic Republic have set
themselves the most urgent task of doing away with all possibility of
provocations, pogroms or other excesses, and of calling to account all
persons hostile to the Ukrainian State, who are doing the treacherous
pogrom work in the Ukraine.
The Government has decided:
1. To make at once a proposal to the Commander-in-Chief, Petlura that he
issue an order by which all commanders of the respective bodies of
troops, from the lowest to the highest ones, would be called to account
for negligence and tolerating pogrom excesses, and that they would be
immediately arrested as traitors and handed over to a special
court-martial which would impose upon them the severest penalty,
including the death sentence.
2. To issue an order in the name of the Government and in the name of the
Commander-in-Chief to the Ukrainian partisans on the other side of the
battlefront that they also 1. should take a vigorous action against the
instigators of pogroms, 2. fight against particular treacherous pogrom
bands and annihilate them - always remembering that the army of the
Ukrainian Democratic Republic does not tolerate pogroms on its victorious
march and inflicts the severe punishment upon all the guilty ones.
3. To appoint immediately a special government commission with extensive
powers of investigating pogroms and of combating them; the said
commission to be composed of one representative from the following
offices: The Commander-in-Chief, the Inspector General, the Minister of
Justice, the Minister of Internal Affairs, and the Minister for Jewish
Affairs. The Commission should proceed at once to the frontline to the
area of liberated cities and other places of the Ukrainian Democratic
Republic. The Commander-in-Chief should be advised to order an