Pogroms by Makhno's troops
JOHN DEWEY HOLMES
that Makhno's troops carried out pogroms against Jews. Well, here
it is.
My computer and front-end system are not talented at cross-posting,
and this posting will only go to alt.politics.socialism.trotsky.
I think it would be appropriate if this material is cross-posted to
talk.politics.soviet, where the challenge originated from, as
well as anarchist newsgroups, which one would think would want to
see it.
The origin of this material is as follows:
Five years ago, during the Gulf War, I participated in anti-war
demonstrations together with Perry Matlock, an anarchist and
Makhno supporter in the Bay Area. I challenged him on Makhno's
pogroms. He took a very serious attitude to the issue, and had
a friend who had knowledge of Russian and Yiddish. He traveled
to New York, xeroxed the file on Makhno in the Tcherikover Archive
at YIVO, (Voline's book on Makhno quotes from an interview Voline
had with Tcherikover, in which Tcherikover, compiler of a famous
archive on the Ukrainian pogroms, asserts that Makhno's record
is clean), and mailed it to me, together with some translations.
I translated the remaining Yiddish and French materials. There
are also some Russian and Hebrew materials which remain untrans-
lated. The complete file, together with a series of lengthy
letters between Matlock and myself, was xeroxed for the
Prometheus Research Library in New York, which is open to
qualified scholars upon appointment. According to the PRL
brochure, "researchers are required to send written requests about
specific projects and for appointments," to:
Prometheus Research Library
Box 185, Canal Street Station
New York, NY 10013
(212) 966-1866
So anyone in who wants to read the complete file, and doesn't
read Yiddish, doesn't have to go to YIVO. PRL has it all, in
English.
Here are two documents I translated from the "Makhno file" for
Perry Matlock, interspersed with occasional comments by me,
usually identified with JH, my initials:
Elias Tcherikower Archives, YIVO, File #29, folios 2623-2681
...
2652, 2653, 2654, 2655, 2656, 2657, 2658, 2659
(The below translation is preliminary. The original copy here is
particularly tough to translate, because
Jewish alphabet typewriters, unfortunately, produce many
consonants that are only distinguished from each other by
little squiggles that almost disappear if the copy is blurry.
And also, there's always typos ... actual printed material is
much easier.-JH-)
The Pogrom Activity of the Makhnovites
/A report pulled together on the basis of documents which
(find themselves?) at the disposal of the "editorial collec-
tive to publish materials about the pogroms in the Ukraine and
White Russia./
The objective of this report is to give a specific
overview of the pogrom activity of the Makhnovites. Thereby it
must already initially be considered that on the basis of the
incomplete materials which exist about the question and find
themselves at the disposal of the editorial collective, it
isn't always possible to be certain if the different bands
which in one or another spot committed pogroms against Jews
thereby (verb) or by the population become called "Makh-
novites", really are Makhnovites, are under his oversight or
were a (noun) with Makhno. Even less often is it possible to
be certain if Makhno himself really was part of these pogrom
stories or even took part in the robberies.
According to the chronological dates the documents of the
editorial collective paint the following picture of the
pogroms of the Makhnovites, committed in the following towns:
Yekaterinoslav
At the end of December and the beginning of January 1919
the insurgent detachments of Makhno fought around and in
Yekaterinoslav with the Petliuraites. The fighting in the city
itself and the neighboring suburbs went on for seven days. The
city was badly shot up by artillery. The Makhnovites looted
and burned the "Azyorne" marketplace. Also the entire commer-
cial region was looted. The result when the battle was ended
was that 83 Jewish victims were brought to the cemetery for
burial, from which only a lesser number were caused by
accidental bullets and shells. The remainder were savagely
slain by the Makhnovites. The excesses took a purely anti-
Semitic character (footnote in original: [1. Materials from
`Yekapo', report by M. Aspiz, written 24 August 1922.]).
Roseve (Kiev gub.)
(gub. is abbreviation for gubernia i.e. province-JH-)
In February 1919 the Petliuraite detachments from
Mirgorod were continually plundering and looting Roseve. On
February 16, a group of soldiers that called themselves
"Makhnovites" showed up in Roseve, and began dragging bags of
sugar, meal and other products from Jewish houses, later also
different household goods[2. Materials from `Kope' report from
authorized (word) testimony by Moshe Zarachansky]. During
these attacks a Jew, Riabchinsky, was raped and murdered. The
soldiers said "we have to put fear into Jewish hearts." The
victims maintain that the soldiers had (held toasts to? not
sure) "batko Makhno".
Novo-Poltava colony (Kherson gub.)
In August 1919 a detachment of 30 Makhnovites attacked
the colony and began to plunder. The Jewish self-defense,
however, drove them out. The second day, a Makhnovite train
and two (somethings) went through looting and murdering
nonstop. The self-defense was destroyed, the "ik"o" farm was
ruined. All told, there were 84 murdered Jews. 800 houses were
plundered.[3. Report by D. Traibman, who in the name of the
"gubaufravak" gubernia evacuation administration investigated
the Jewish colony of (Kherson-something?).] Other sources
mention another number of Jewish murder victims, namely
122.[4. "Jewish Thought", #19, September 11, 1919, Odessa.]
According to the latter information, the pogrom was done by
the Makhnovites and (something, something) by the colony.
Novy-Bug. colony/Khers. gub.
At the same time, the Makhnovites made a pogrom in Novy-
Bug. There the (plural noun) had a permanent character over
the period of two months, there were 22 killed.[5. Report of
D. Breitman, see above remarks.]
Romanovka/Khers.gub.
The Makhnovites showed up at this time in several
locations in the Kherson gubernia. A band arrived in Romanovka
and demanded of the Jews that they should round up 20,000
rubles in contributions in 20 minutes. All the Jewish women
would be taken as guarantees. The contribution is already
almost gathered, but seeing that the (illegible) are ap-
proaching, the Makhnovites left everything behind and fled.[6.
"Jewish Thought" #23, 11 October 1919, Odessa.]
Bratskeye/Khers. Gub.
At the end of August a band of Makhnovites showed up in
Bratskeye, near Elisavetgrad. It was Friday morning. In a
period of about 4 hours, all the Jewish families, about 120,
were looted out by the band. Also, murdered was a (75-year old
man? not sure), a (glazer?), who stood against the cut-throats
who wanted to rape his daughter-in-law. (something, something)
3 girls.[7. Information from Wilf-Aaron Dubkin, submitted to
Odessa kehilah (Jewish community organization) 9/27/1919.]
Melitopol
The date of the Melitopol pogrom is not established, but
it was around about the same time. The (something) information
indicates that in the first days that the Makhnovites arrived
in the city, they committed a pogrom, and only afterwards,
when the Jews had paid them 15 million in contributions, did
they stop the pogrom. At the train terminal Jewish victims lay
about.[9. "Our Word" #10, 21 October 1919, Odessa.] The same
(illegible) in general another source also.[10. "Jewish
Thought" #29, Odessa.]
Chudnov
The Chudnov pogrom (illegible) 1919 by a regular Makhnov-
ite military unit -- "L". In the city a 1,000 men (showed up?)
with the slogan "beat the Jews, save Russia." They (something)
on the Jewish houses and in one night slaughtered all of 22
Jews. The also raped a number of Jewish women and, in ad-
dition, looted the entire shtetl ... For 12 days on end
Chudnov lay in the hands of the wild band. The Chudnow
population did (out of something) survive the horrible affair
and put up with the horrible tribute of gold, other products,
gold (something) things.[11. Materials from "Kope", report by
H. Frolkim.]
Yekaterinoslav
The Makhnovite pogroms in October 1919 were mostly
committed by their military units. Yekaterinoslav was in the
month of October (several?) weeks a battleground between the
Makhnovites and the Denikinites. Both sides had (illegible).
There wasn't one day when (illegible). All told, there were
(during?) this period 180 Jews killed, out of whom 66 were
(verb). (From accidental slaughter?) 37 people fell, and the
others were murdered by Denikin's and Makhno's soldiers.[12.
Materials from "Yekapo" report by M. Aspiz 8/24 1920.] The
Makhnovites alone were in Yekaterinoslav from 28 October to 6
November. Officially there was even an order from the revolu-
tionary insurgents' committee against looting, for free trade
and for (receiving?) "rat'n-gelt" (Soviet money? a revolution-
ary tax?-not sure). The poor got the "rat'n-gelt", the Jews
unwillingly. The Jewish shops were closed, and (something) the
6th of November they were forced to reopen. The Makhnovites
themselves looted very little, but they released the criminals
from the jails, who committed assaults, but not specifically
against Jews. This is when the organ of the (something) was
published, the "Nabat". The insurgents issued an order, which
came out for organized expropriations, but against looting.
This time, Makhno indubitably was present. He led negotiations
with the city council and the professional organizations about
organizing government, but they fell through.[13. Materials
from the editorial collective, testimony by student, Yehuda
Barishansky.] There are also witnesses, who saw Makhno himself
in the city, (assisting? standing in the way? not sure) while
a (comrade?) from the insurgents looted a Jewish shop.[14.
"Forward" (Forverts) #8133, 17 January 1920, New York.
Testimony of Frida Greenfeld, written down by H. Nagel. (Note:
unlike most of the references here, this is checkable. Com-
plete microfilm records of the Forverts are held in many
places, among others UCLA and the N.Y. Public Library.-JH-)
Kazatin
In October 1919 a Petliuraite unit took Kazatin. A
(something) train, which looted and murdered the local Jews.
Together with the Petliuaites were added "Makhnovites" who had
arrived from Chudnov, around 300 men. They committed atroci-
ties in Kazatin. They murdered the Jews Kodel and Belilovsky.
40 women were raped. The Makhnovites were there for 12 days.
The claims on the Jews reached a level of 5 million rubles.
The attacks on non-Jews took an episodic character. The
Makhnovites made an accord with the Petliuraites on the issue
of struggle against the Denikinites. On their path, the
Makhnovites committed pogroms in Chudnov-Wolinski, Wa(??)ovka,
Skvire, Ruzshin, Gelopolye and other points. If these were,
sincerely, Makhnovites is not known a section from them had
certainly belonged to the 4th soviet people's (something) and
the 6th people's and other bolshevik units. They (something)
said that they had split from the bolsheviks and begun an
uprising against soviet power under the slogan "Down with the
Jews and the (Whites?-not sure).[15. Materials from "Poale-
Zion". Testimony by the secretary of the Kazatin Poale-Zion
organization, Goldfein.]
...
In the possession of the editorial collective is an
official document (here Makhno's May 1919 proclamation against
pogroms is summarized-JH).
assembled by I. Klinov
(something in Yiddish script) 1922
(Here I'm inserting an excerpt from a lengthy letter from me
to Perry Matlock, commenting on the above document.-JH-)
"The document entitled The Pogrom Activity of the
Makhnovites, folios 2652 through 2659, by I. Klinov for the
"editorial committee to publish materials about the pogroms in
the Ukraine and White Russia," has dates and locations many of
which are checkable. In chronological order:
Yekaterinoslav: Arthur Adams' *Bolsheviks in the Ukraine*
(p. 94) precisely confirms the time period in which Klinov
alleges that the Makhnovites, led in this case personally by
Makhno, fought over the city with the Petliuraites...
Novo-Poltava, Novy-Bug, Romanovka, Bratskeye, Melitopol:
These pogroms all took place in the month of August, im-
mediately after the famous "congress of the partisans of the
Tauride region, Kherson and Yekaterinoslav" at which Makhno
shot Grigoriev and merged Grigoriev's former forces into his.
They all took place in Kherson gubernia, which was Grigoriev's
base area, and were presumably committed by Grigorievites now
accepted by Makhno as Makhnovites. So much for the notion,
which even Trotsky shared to a certain extent, that Makhno's
shooting of Grigoriev was some sort of service to the revolu-
tion in general and Jews in particular! Obviously, shooting
Grigoriev was merely a grandstand ploy which doubled Makhno's
fighting forces (see Adams' comments). Voline says that
"Grigoriev's young peasants, of whom the overwhelming majority
were, in spite of everything, imbued with a revolutionary
spirit that had been abused by their chief, could enter the
Makhnovist Insurrectionary Army if they wished. But nearly all
of these recruits had to be dismissed later on ... the
Makhnovist combatants ... thought that in time they could have
educated them, but in the existing conditions they could not
concern themselves with such matters, and so, in order not to
prejudice the good name of the Insurrectionary Army, they
discharged them." In the inflamed conditions of the Ukrainian
civil war, it was hardly possible to treat every insurrecting
band of peasant partisans whose hands were not spotless as
pogromist counter-revolutionaries. That's why the Bolsheviks
were willing to enlist Makhno, and even Grigoriev (although,
as Adams documents, there were serious questions about this
particular decision of Ukrainian Red Army commander Antonov-
Ovseenko among the Ukrainian Bolsheviks). But to simply enlist
Grigoriev's fighters after killing their commander, fresh from
the mass murder of Jews in Yelizavetgrad, and then to just
discharge them from the ranks without punishment as they
continued their murderous ways, means effectively that Makhno
did have a lot of Jewish blood on his hands...
Yekaterinoslav: The Makhnovites behavior in Yekaterinos-
lav does seem to have been better the second time around,
although it is hard to tell for sure, as this was the least
legible and hardest to translate section of the manuscript.
Yekaterinoslav (now Dnepropetrovsk) was a large industrial
city and an important Bolshevik base (the so-called "right
wing" of the Ukrainian CP, who advocated concentrating on
organizing the mostly Russian-speaking proletariat of the
Kharkov-Donbas heavy industry region and mostly ignoring the
Ukrainian peasantry, were nicknamed, according to Adams, the
"Yekaterinoslavs"). Probably Makhno seized the city from
Denikin in tacit cooperation with Bolshevik trade unionists.
As Trotsky's military writings show, Bolshevik policy towards
Makhno had become more favorable after the Grigoriev affair.
Kazatin: Makhno's main force retreated into the no man's
land between Denikin and Petliura in September. The text seems
to indicate that Kazatin (and Chudnov) were towns in this
area. The pogromists here seem to be Red Army soldiers that
had gone over to Makhno but had not participated in Makhno's
move behind Denikin's lines into the Yekaterinoslav area. So
apparently according to Tcherikover's bookkeeping this goes
down as a "Red Army pogrom"! Klinov's claim that the Makhnov-
ites "made an accord with the Petliuraites on the issue of the
struggle against the Denikinites" ... is confirmed by General
Denikin himself, who on this particular issue obviously has no
reason to lie. So if dubious semi-followers of Makhno's
imitate the pogrom habits of Makhno's temporary ally, Makhno
can hardly be excused from blame, especially given that Makhno
had the alternative option of an alliance with the much more
powerful Red Army, whose commander, Trotsky, had a semi-
favorable attitude towards him at this moment.
2660
(There is a date in Yiddish script at the head of this
document. It is unfortunate that the newspaper this article
was copied out of cannot be determined from the copy, since
the author of this article is identical to the previous one.
The translation below is hasty, and probably overly idiomatic,
but I think captures the spirit pretty well-JH):
I. Klinov
What would happen, if we had a Jewish trial for Makhno?
Makhno, the well-known hero Makhno, has unconditionally
"ferglussed" (not in my dictionary) himself to argue things
out with the Jewish people. Nobody suggested it, nobody
demanded it, but in the days of general interest in Schwartz-
bard's fate and the role of the "Petliuraites", Makhno has
gotten a bit uncomfortable, in that everyone's completely
forgot about him. And he's sent out an open letter to the
press with a special demand "to the Jewish people" to prove
that he was a pogromchik.
I don't know if some sort of institution of ours would
have an urge to get mixed up with Makhno's little paper. From
the side of Makhno and his comrades this is, in any case, not
the first try at rehabilitating him. One should have the
apprehension that in different periods and circumstances,
Makhno's name has been attached to ideological movements. Not
considering that his military units also became reknowned as
pogrom-(makers?), over no such pogrom hero has such a sharp
(something) been carried out over the columns of the world
press about the basic nature of their action, as has been seen
over the "makhnovshchina". Articles "for" and "against",
various testimony, statements of condemnation and hymns of
praise -- have all already been heard numberless times about
the rebellious Russian phenomenon who has appeared to struggle
against the Hetman and Petliura and Denikin and the Bolsheviks
-- against everything and everyone...
People have already forgot a bit about Makhno, but a
couple years back, on the eve of his treason trial in Poland,
a world, whose headquarters at that time was in a certain
sense Berlin, turned around Makhno, which had begun to lead a
counter-attack, a defense struggle for the good name of "batko
Makhno", before the trial was even begun. And the most
remarkable thing in the whole affair was then that Makhno's
friends and advocates brought out a few Jews, firstly the
famous anarchist intellectual Voline, whose Jewish name is
Eichenbaum. What this Eichenbaum and other of his comrades
maintained is very interesting. Because, if someone sincerely
should be found, who should handle the clarification of
Makhno's guilt or innocence. It would be the same charges and
the lawyers would surely be the same young Jewish anarchist
types ... Voline was the one who was (connected?) with the
"makhnovschchina" during the battles on Russian territory. The
attempt to bind up the elemental forces with anarchism was
already begun in the year 1918, mainly through a group of
returned American anarchists. Cultural work in Makhno's army
was carried out at that time by a Jewish-American woman,
Yelena Keller, and Jews were sincerely found continually
around Makhno.
But who was Makhno himself? In Berlin, in the Russian-
language "Anarkhistichesky Vyestnik", was printed Makhno's
memoirs. And from them, if you accept them as honest, is to be
seen that the whole legend that Makhno was a popular educator,
is lies; the "batko" himself maintains everywhere that his
lineage is completely kosher, he is a poor man's son, was a
shepherd, a worker. From sixteen years old a revolutionary,
later condemned to hard labor and first in the year 1918 a
mass leader.
Also at that time appeared in Berlin M. Arshinov's book,
"The History of the `Makhnovshchina'". The fellow who wrote
this book is a man with a serious past. From time to time, he
has committed terrorist deeds, in 1906 blew up a police(sta-
tion?) in Amid near Yekaterinoslav, was condemned to death,
escaped, participated in the "makhnovshchina", and if Makhno
must resort to depending on means of defense, he will doubt-
less get assistance from Arshinov's book, whose obvious goal
is to immortalize Makhno. If the "makhnovshchina" did not
appear, according to Arshinov, the hetman would be sitting
upon the Ukraine to this day and the Dekinites would be
(something) and the Bolsheviks wouldn't be able to do any-
thing.
And Arshinov gives much space (from national considera-
tions?) in the "makhnovshchina" (public school?) to make up a
list of Jews, who were vice chairman in Makhno's revolutionary
council in Gulyai-Polye, commandants in Makhno's cavalry
regiments, leaders of the agitational activity. Then he
relates how the Jewish colonies in Mariupol, Meriusker(?) and
Aleksandrovsk districts unanimously supported Makhno, ad-
ditionally participating with all working people in Makhno's
conventions, and saw in him their protection against reaction.
Arshinov even claims that in February 1919 Makhno allowed the
Jewish colonies to organize self-defense and supplied them
with weapons. And stories are told about Jewish fighters in
the ranks of the Makhnovites. Thus truly heroic feats were
performed by a tailor, who commanded an artillery battery.
Makhno himself has to thank his very survival to Jews. A
resident of Gulyai-Polye, a Jew, rescued him, when he fell in
the hands of the Germans in July with a suitcase full of
anarchist literature; the Jew bought him free, paid a ransom
for him.
Makhno's comrades in Berlin, naturally, understood in
their time, that they would hardly succeed with a system of
"something" (in quotes. Hebrew word probably). Claiming
vociferously that Makhno's army is innocent in the face of
God, has not a drop of Jewish blood on its hands, is laugh-
able, as in the different pogrom archives lie many a record of
Makhno's pogroms. What then? The intercessors come forward and
mostly condemn in the pogroms the Grigorievites and other
accidental bandits, which got into Makhno's military. The
headquarters however, the leading power, would have been clean
of anti-Semitism.
When Makhno once went through the "Verkhny Tokmak" train
station, he saw a poster with the slogan "Kill the Jews, save
the revolution, long live Makhno!"
He went and sought out which of his men had put up the
poster and shot the poor bastard on the spot.
In the Gorkaye shtetl, Aleksandrovsk district, Makhnov-
ites killed 20 Jewish families, and Makhno put 7 guilty
soldiers up against the wall.
But the special service of Makhno was that he shot down
the butcher Grigoriev with his own hands.
Arshinov describes this in detail. When Grigoriev began
his uprising against the Bolsheviks, he sent out his famous
"Universal", in which it is stated, that "with the Ukraine's
(honest men washed in the blood of the Lamb?)" Makhno answered
with a call, in which he wrote and warned:
"Don't you hear in Grigoriev's words a dark call for
Jewish pogroms?"
And as it happened July 27, 1919, in the village of
Sentovo, near Aleksandria, the conference with the participa-
tion of both Makhno and Grigoriev, Makhno made Grigoriev pay
the price for his Jewish pogrom in Yelisavetgrad and shot him
down on the spot, shouting, "such unworthy men as Grigoriev
are a shame for all (povstantses-Ukrainian word probably-JH)!"
What does all this prove? That Makhno is a tsaddik
(Hasidic saint), that he is entirely (zchai-Hebrew probably)
with respect to the Jews?
Yekaterinoslav Jews are in a position to put against this
episode ten times as many episodes, which testify to bloody
deeds of Makhno with his bands. The Jewish comrades of the
former ataman -- the ideological anarchists -- will fashion a
legend about the "makhnovshchina". In truth, the matter is
much simpler. There were many moments in which Makhno, led by
a group of intellectuals, also including Jews, behaved
decently, and one could even think that Makhno was a protector
of the poor Jewish population; these moments do not atone for
the excesses that the Jews suffered from the Makhnovites, as
from the other bands in the years of affliction.
And I think that just now the Jewish comrades of Makhno,
who can raise him so well in the divine reckoning, would have
done better to restrain their hero from this tactless publi-
city stunt, from (stirring up?) and chutzpah-ish reminders of
himself, from demanding a tribunal.
...
(end of material from "Makhno file")
The above material is not the only relevant material from
the file. The most grisly single document in the file is a
piece entitled "24 hours with the Makhnovites," which is
quite stomach-turning. Also there is a very interesting article
from a Jewish orthodox journal. And a whole slew of articles
from Yiddish, French and Russian anarchist journals defending
Makhno, none of which include any facts not found in Voline
or Arshinov's books. (One French anarchist article, with an
anti-Semitic tone, is unintentionally revealing). So, for
further information, I recommend contacting the PRL.
I visited YIVO myself in 1992, and asked Marek Webb, the main
archivist, what was the explanation for the evident contradiction
between the material in Tcherikover's "Makhno file" and
Tcherikover's statement to Voline that Makhno was innocent
of pogromism. Webb expressed the opinion that Tcherikover,
who stayed in Kiev, a center of Jewish safety and even cultural
revival, during the worst of the pogroms, had relied too
much on second-hand information vis-a-vis Makhno. He told me
that the archives now available since the collapse of the Soviet
Union all confirm overwhelmingly that Makhno's troops committed
pogroms. However, in the new Ukrainian Republic, Makhno, like
Petliura, is considered a great Ukrainian national hero, and
discussion of pogroms by Ukrainian national heros is discouraged.
The material I am posting is all from I. Klinov, an individual
I have no familiarity with.
Perhaps Tcherikover considered Klinov, who apparently was trying
to create a Ukrainian pogrom archive that would be a rival to
his own, to be unreliable for some reason. In any case, as Marek
Webb pointed out, the weight of evidence is unequivocable at this
point.
-jho...@sfsu.edu-
Voline Eikhenbaum
Paul Avrich, a Jewish historian, examined this exact collection and came to the reverse conclusion.
Voline Eikhenbaum
>*M. Tcherikover is neither a revolutionary nor an Anarchist. He is simply a scrupulous, meticulous and objective historian. For years he has specialized in research on the persecutions of the Jews in Russia. He has published several basic and extraordinarily well-documented and precise works on this subject. He has received documents of every kind from all parts of the world. He has heard hundreds of depositions, both official and private, and he has checked all the facts rigorously before using them.*
>
>*Here, verbatim, is what he replied to my question whether he knew anything precise about the attitude of the Makhnovist Army and Makhno himself with regard to the Jewish population: "I have concerned myself repeatedly with this question," he told me. "Here are my conclusions, with the usual reservations in case more exact testimony should reach me in the future. An army is always an army, and armies inevitably commit culpable and reprehensible acts, for it is materially impossible to control and supervise every individual making up these masses of men who are taken away from their healthy and normal lives, who are thrown into an existence and into surroundings which release their evil impulses, and who are authorized to use violence, very often with impunity. You certainly know this as well as I do. The Makhnovist army was no exception to this rule. It also committed some reprehensible acts now and then. But I am glad to be able to say with certainty that, on the whole, the behaviour of Makhno's army cannot be compared with that of the other armies which were operating in Russia during the events 1917-21. Two facts I can certify absolutely explicitly.
>
>"1. It is undeniable that, of all these armies, including the Red Army, the Makhnovists behaved best with regard to the civil population in general and the Jewish population in particular. I have numerous testimonies to this. The proportion of justified complaints against the Makhnovist army, in comparison with the others, is negligible.
>
>"2. Do not let us speak of pogroms alleged to have been organized by Makhno himself. This is a slander or an error. Nothing of the sort occurred. As for the Makhnovist Army, I have had hints and precise denunciations on this subject. But, up to the present, every time I have tried to check the facts, I have been obliged to declare that on the day in question no Makhnovist unit could have been at the place indicated, the whole army being far away from there. Upon examining the evidence closely, I established this fact, every time, with absolute certainty, at the place and on the date of the pogrom, no Makhnovist unit was operating or even located in the vicinity. Not once have I been able to prove the presence of a Makhnovist unit at the place where a pogrom against the Jews took place. Consequently, the pogroms in question could not have been the work of the Makhnovists."
>
>This testimony, which is impartial and precise, is one of the first importance. It confirms, among other things, a fact we have already mentioned, the presence of bands, committing all kinds of misdeeds and not disdaining the profits to be gained from a pogrom against the Jews, who covered themselves with the name of "Makhnovist". Only a scrupulous examination can sort out the confusion that occurred. There is no doubt that, in certain cases, the population itself was mistaken.
This means that many of the pogroms ascribed to the Makhnovists must not have been their work.