White Movement (AFSR)

Units of the Volunteer Army (the "Whites") captured the town of Fastiv in Kyiv province on 25 August 1919 (7 September by the modern calendar) - and on the same day began robbing the inhabitants of the town's Jewish quarters. Pakhomov, the Whites' temporary commandant, having received 25,000 roubles from a Jewish delegation, promised to take measures but refused to stop the violence at once, explaining why: "since the troops are greatly embittered against the Jews." The Whites' garrison was commanded by Belogortsev. The Whites killed on a schedule: "Towards evening all the Cossacks, regulars and partisans separately, were usually assembled for roll-call. After roll-call and prayer they scattered in groups across the town 'to work.'" Those fleeing were caught on the railway: "Many were taken off trains along the way and led into the forest to be shot"^[1].

When a Russian delegation came to the commandant asking him to stop the pogrom, because the Russian population had begun to suffer from it too, he asked: "And who is doing the robbing?" - and, on hearing that the Russian population was also taking part, replied: "And later they will say it was the Cossacks who robbed"^[1]. On 23 September 1919 Kundo, the Whites' commandant in Fastiv, issued order No. 2 declaring everything settled: "I add that measures for the protection of order in the townlet were taken long ago, all apprehensions are entirely groundless. Of all cases of robbery, violence and requisitions I request immediate notification to the commandant's office"^[2].

Rabinovich, a commissioner of the Russian Red Cross, described the result of the three days thus: "The pogrom, like a tornado, destroyed, burned and scattered the greater half of the town... From the smouldering ruins of the fires bodies of those burned in the houses were still being recovered"^[3]. By 30 September 1919, 600 killed, 100 burned and 315 wounded had been counted in Fastiv - out of eight thousand Jewish inhabitants of the town, and the figure was incomplete: "there are far more killed, since to this day bodies are being found in the woods"^[1].

The refusal of the White commanders to recognize Ukrainian statehood. General Denikin, as commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of South Russia, signed the programmatic address "To the Population of Little Russia" (August 1919), which declared the struggle for a Ukrainian state to be treason. Symon Petliura (head of the Directory of the Ukrainian People's Republic and chief otaman of its army) and his associates, the address ran, "having begun the dismemberment of Russia, continue even now their evil work of creating an independent 'Ukrainian State' and of fighting against the rebirth of a United Russia"^[4]. Denikin wrote in the first person: "declaring Russian the state language throughout the whole expanse of Russia, I consider entirely inadmissible and prohibit the persecution of the Little Russian folk language"^[4]. The promised "prohibition of persecution" did not recognize the language but assigned it the place of a vernacular. What remained for Ukrainian under the address were everyday life, private schools, and the first years of primary school - Denikin explained: "to ease the pupils' assimilation of the first rudiments of knowledge"; the "treasonous movement" for statehood he required to be "completely distinguished" from the permitted "love for the native region… and its local folk language"^[4]. Denikin allowed the people's existence and denied it political subjecthood: the striving for an independent Ukrainian state was declared treason, the language was left a vernacular. On the night of September 1, 1919, after four hours of negotiations, the Galician general Kravs and Denikin's general Bredov (according to the diary of the Supreme Command of the Ukrainian Galician Army - the commander of the Guards corps) agreed: the Galician units would withdraw from the city that same day "at least beyond the line of the Kyiv railway stations", then to the line Ihnativka - Vasylkiv - Hermanivka, while the Galician army guarantees that it "will make no moves against the army of the volunteers [Denikin's Volunteer Army]"^[5]. In the fourth point the Galician command renounced political subjecthood: "The commander of the Kyiv group of the Galician army declares that the Galician army operates independently of Petliura's army under separate Galician command, without any political aims, and solely with the purpose of fighting the Bolsheviks"^[5]. A day earlier, on August 30, at negotiations with the command of Denikin's 2nd brigade, its representatives demanded that the territory southeast and east of the Koziatyn - Fastiv - Kyiv railway be treated as "the operational zone of Denikin's troops", and that the strip between the line Fastiv - Volodarka - Saskiv - Buky and the line Bila Tserkva - Tarashcha - Lysivka - Zvenyhorodka be declared neutral; the diary records: "We did not agree to this demand"^[5].

On 3 August 1919 general Mai-Maevsky, head of the Whites' administration in Katerynoslav, Kharkiv, Kursk and Poltava provinces, issued in Kharkiv order No. 22, opening it thus: "I announce the basic provisions adopted by the Special Council on the question of 'Ukrainian schools.'" The first point was reversal: "All schools in which, before the appearance of the 'Ukrainian' authorities, instruction was conducted in Russian, and then, by order of the Ukrainian authority, the Little Russian language was made the language of instruction, must return again to instruction in Russian"^[6].

The history and geography of Ukraine the order struck from the curricula: "The teaching of 'Ukrainian studies' (the history and geography of Ukraine) is abolished"^[6].

Nine days later the commander-in-chief confirmed the same norm: in the address "To the Population of Little Russia" Denikin declared Russian the state language "over the whole expanse of Russia," leaving to Ukrainian the private schools and the first years of primary school - "to ease the pupils' assimilation of the first rudiments of knowledge"^[4]. In Kyiv order No. 22 was applied in the autumn as well: a summary of the Soviet side on the situation in the city records that "in all schools the Russian language is being introduced as the state language"^[7].

Denikin, commander-in-chief of the White army, vouched in his address "To the Population of Little Russia": "there will be no restrictions whatsoever in relation to the Little Russian language in print"^[4]. The ban came three weeks after the capture of Kyiv and was built as a system of permits: by order of general Mai-Maevsky, head of the Whites' administration, "all Kyiv newspapers and other periodicals appear only with the permission of the Kyiv governor," every publication is presented to the prosecutor and the governor straight from the printing house, "strict preliminary military censorship" is in force, and any deviation is punished with a fine of 20,000 roubles and six months in prison^[8][7].

To the Ukrainian press this system gave no permits. The Information Bureau of the UkrSSR Defence Council reported from captured Kyiv: the Whites' newspapers - Kievlyanin under the editorship of Shulgin, Ekho, Vechernyaya Gazeta "and a number of other sheets" - came out daily, but "not a single Ukrainian newspaper appears in Kyiv," and "in the streets of Kyiv Ukrainian speech is not heard at all"^[9]. Historians of the Institute of History of Ukraine confirm the outcome: under the Whites Ukrainian newspapers were closed down and Ukrainian books were removed from the shops^[10]. The promise not to touch the Ukrainian word lasted exactly until the Whites entered Kyiv.

On 10 September 1919 colonel Matveev, temporary head of the Whites' administration in the city of Mykolaiv, issued an ordinance: all unions and societies that had not submitted their charters or had not been confirmed by the circuit court were deemed closed^[11]. The Ukrainian enlightenment societies, grown up over the years of the revolution without confirmation under the pre-revolutionary procedure, fell under this condition wholesale: no separate order was needed to close them - it was precisely thus, by a formally neutral condition, that the Whites closed the Ukrainian societies. Historians of the Institute of History of Ukraine confirm the outcome: Ukrainian institutions under the Whites were liquidated, and Russian ones were set up in their place^[10].

Don Cossacks of the White army of General Denikin killed Ukrainian Galician riflemen taken prisoner - the command of the Galician Army lodged a formal protest with the Whites' command, and the Galician Army's own military court confirmed that the killings of prisoners were fact. On 25 October 1919 the Supreme Command - the staff of the Galician Army (UHA) - sent, as recorded in its war diary, a mission to the Whites' command - otaman Lysniak, sotnyks Levytsky and Kurytsia - "who were to lodge a formal protest against the killings of our prisoners by the Don Cossacks"^[5]. In the delegation's written commission the task was recorded thus: "first, to protest against the killing of our prisoners by Denikin's troops, as took place in Haisyn, and second, to discuss the matter of an exchange of prisoners." Otaman Lysniak testified in court: "In Vinnytsia I received the commission to go to the Staff of the Volunteer Army [Denikin's, the 'Whites'], hand over the said protest and negotiate an exchange of prisoners"; the delegation was received by general Slashchov, who promised "to telephone Denikin"^[5]. In November 1919, at the military trial of UHA commander general Tarnavsky, sotnyk Kurdiak asked "whether the killings by the Don Cossacks were fact or fiction"; Tarnavsky replied: "It is fact. Witness - otaman Bukshovany, and indeed the 5th Brigade"^[5].

On 18 November 1919 the Whites' city administration in Mykolaiv ordered preliminary censorship of printed publications^[12]. So it was in Kyiv as well: an order of general Mai-Maevsky, head of the Whites' administration, subjected all publications to military censorship - publishing only with the governor's permission, with every issue presented to the prosecutor^[8].

General Mai-Maevsky, head of the Whites' administration in Katerynoslav, Kharkiv, Kursk and Poltava provinces, by order No. 22 of 3 August 1919 returned the schools of Ukraine to compulsory instruction in Russian, leaving the native language the place of an elective: "The teaching of the Little Russian language and literature is permitted as non-compulsory subjects on general grounds" - Russian became the compulsory language of instruction, Ukrainian was studied only at will^[6].

General Mai-Maevsky, head of the Whites' administration in Katerynoslav, Kharkiv, Kursk and Poltava provinces, by order No. 22 of 3 August 1919 cut the Ukrainian school off from state money: "The release of credits from the treasury for the maintenance of educational institutions with instruction in the Little Russian language is not permitted"; the zemstvos - the organs of local self-government - and the towns he forbade to open or support such schools, and those already open he allowed to exist only "on condition of their being taken over for maintenance by private persons and societies." To the teachers the order closed off state standing as well: "the right of state service" was granted only to the teachers of schools recognized as "strengthening the idea of a single Russian statehood"^[6]. In Kyiv that same autumn, by a summary of the Soviet side, "the release of credit to schools for the teaching of the Ukrainian language is discontinued"^[7].

At the end of February 1919 four regiments of the Volunteer Army - the division of General Shatilov - attacked the village of Goity with artillery, for its refusal to hand over the Red Army men sheltering there; detachments from the surrounding villages came to its aid, and the Denikinites retreated toward Grozny^[13]. On 23 March the army struck from Grozny at Gudermes^[13]. From 27 to 30 March battles raged for Alkhan-Yurt: "The shelling of the village was conducted by 24 guns and an armored train that had taken position near the Ermolovskaya stanitsa... the village was captured"; more than 400 of its defenders died^[13]. For failure to fulfill the demand to return captured Cossacks the army stormed Tsatsan-Yurt - historians Ya. Z. Akhmadov and E. Kh. Khasmagomadov write: "On 9 April 1919 the White troops attacked and by nightfall captured the village of Tsatsan-Yurt. In the course of the fierce battle more than 500 people died on the Chechen side, including over 400 Tsatsan-Yurt villagers proper"^[13]. In October the command threw against Chechnya a force of 15 thousand soldiers and officers taken off the advance on Moscow: "On 5 October stubborn three-day battles began for Chechen-Aul, after which the villages situated near the railway were subjected to a new devastation"^[13].

In its March offensive along the railway the Volunteer Army destroyed villages to the ground: "for several days stubborn battles went on, in the course of which the villages of Berdykel and Ustar-Gordoy ended up completely destroyed, and a number of other villages were captured"^[13]. The year's count is kept by the Soviet survey cited by historian E. F. Zhupikova: 21 destroyed auls (27 in another publication of the same source) with 15 thousand dead^[14]. The Chechen historian A. G. Avtorkhanov, who wrote of these events in emigration, gives both the motive and a list by name: the highlanders' desire "to arrange their state life at their own discretion" Denikin construed as "national Bolshevism", "hence the policy of burning auls and the extermination of the unsubmissive highlanders", and "to break the resistance of the Chechens and the Ingush, Denikin burned to the ground dozens of the largest centers of Chechnya-Ingushetia - Ekazhevo, Dolakovo, Alkhan-Yurt, Chechen-Aul, Ustar-Gardoy, Gudermes, Gerzel-Aul, Stary-Yurt and others" (Ekazhevo and Dolakovo are Ingush villages)^[15].

After capturing Alkhan-Yurt at the end of March 1919 the Volunteer Army for a month did not let the residents bury their dead - historians Ya. Z. Akhmadov and E. Kh. Khasmagomadov write: "As a punishment for the stubborn resistance, the White command for the course of a month did not permit the bodies of the village's fallen defenders to be committed to the earth"^[13].

The Volunteer Army answered the uprising in Grozny in December 1919 with mass executions: after the suppression of the rising on the night of 23 December the insurgent leader Gikalo reported: "Right now there are nightmarish reprisals in Grozny: 79 people have been hanged and a mass of people shot"^[13].

On 19 February 1919 General Lyakhov, at a congress of Chechnya's representatives in Aldy, announced the demands of the Volunteer Army, including mobilization: "These demands were put forward in the form of an ultimatum and were not subject to discussion," write historians Ya. Z. Akhmadov and E. Kh. Khasmagomadov, and the congress left the ultimatum without an answer^[13]. In April 1919 the command put forward a new ultimatum: "the complete submission of the Chechens to the appointed ruler of Chechnya, the handing over of all Red Army men, Bolsheviks and abreks, as well as of all the valuables carried off into Chechnya by the Red Army... the return of the pilfered materials from the railway and the organization of deliveries of provisions and fodder for the army"; for failure to fulfill a separate demand - to immediately return a group of Cossacks captured in the vicinity of the village - the army took Tsatsan-Yurt by storm^[13].

In February 1919 the Volunteer Army demanded, through the Mountain government, the handing over of all Red Army men sheltering in Chechnya: "About 700 people were indeed prepared for handover, but this action met the resolute resistance of the Goity Soviet and the open discontent of the people," write historians Ya. Z. Akhmadov and E. Kh. Khasmagomadov (the Goity Soviet - the soviet of the village of Goity); General Shatilov reported: "...unrest is taking place among the Chechens, as part of them do not want the Bolsheviks handed over"^[13]. The demand to hand over "all Red Army men, Bolsheviks and abreks" entered the April ultimatum as well^[13].

In February 1919 the Volunteer Army announced at the congress in Aldy a mobilization of the highlanders - at the villages' own expense: "the villages were obliged to equip and maintain the mobilized at their own cost"^[13]. General Aliev, the appointed ruler of Chechnya, carried out the mobilization: "The 200-300 horsemen assembled in this way (together with Kabardians and Ingush) took part in the suppression of peasant unrest in the Stavropol region"^[13]. Historian E. F. Zhupikova conveys the conclusion of the researcher P. Aptekar on the causes of the Chechens' uprising against Denikin: "the forcible mobilizations and requisitions of provisions for Denikin's army"^[14].

In 1919 General Denikin refused to recognize the Mountain government and dissolved it^[14]; General Lyakhov, appointed ruler of the Terek oblast, agreed to regard the republic's parliament as no more than "a consultative organ attached to his person"^[13]. As ruler of Chechnya the Volunteer Army appointed a general from among the Chechens - historians Ya. Z. Akhmadov and E. Kh. Khasmagomadov write: "As Ruler of Chechnya on behalf of the Volunteer Army was appointed a well-known military man - General Eriskhan (Iriskhan) Aliev, a Chechen by origin"^[13]. On 29 March 1919 Denikin convened a conference in Grozny - as the same historians write, one "called upon to put an end to the bloodshed and to confirm E. Aliev as ruler of Chechnya" - attended by representatives of 42 villages, mostly supporters of the Atagi Soviet (the Chechen National Council, which sat in Starye Atagi), entrepreneurs and part of the clergy^[13].