Beyond Petliura: the Ukrainian national movement and the 1919 pogroms

On the basis of largely unused archival materials in Kyiv, this article re-examines the responsibility of the Ukrainian People's Republic (UNR) for the pogroms of 1919. It consciously puts aside the question of Symon Petliura's personal guilt, preferring to concentrate on the broader respo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inEast european Jewish affairs Vol. 47; no. 1; pp. 45 - 61
Main Author Gilley, Christopher
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Abingdon Routledge 02.01.2017
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Subjects
Antisemitism
Belief & doubt
Bolshevism
Declarations
Genocide
Guilt
Judeo-Bolshevism
Military personnel
National identity
Petliura
pogroms
Russian Civil War
Russian history
Soldiers
State-society relations
Stereotypes
Ukraine
Ukrainian People's Republic
Ukraine
Russia
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Summary:On the basis of largely unused archival materials in Kyiv, this article re-examines the responsibility of the Ukrainian People's Republic (UNR) for the pogroms of 1919. It consciously puts aside the question of Symon Petliura's personal guilt, preferring to concentrate on the broader responsibility of members of the Ukrainian national movement for propagating antisemitic stereotypes and engaging in anti-Jewish violence. This approach reveals a widely held belief among members of the UNR that they were fighting a Jewish Bolshevik enemy. This led to pogroms but also probably prevented the UNR from punishing its soldiers who had perpetrated them. Despite the declarations by UNR figures condemning pogroms and the creation of an organ to investigate them, there were apparently very few, if any, convictions, at least in 1919, the year of the worst pogroms.
ISSN:1350-1674
1743-971X
DOI:10.1080/13501674.2017.1306403