Program for Collecting Materials About Pogroms
Committed by Bandits in Borshchagovka
(Russian translation courtesy of Amy Babcock)
The document below includes two pages written in Russian, along with a translation, containing responses to a questionnaire concerning the
Borshchagovka pogroms. While the exact date and purpose of the questionnaire are unknown, it was presumably completed a year or two
after the pogroms. Despite the absence of the original questionnaire itself, the responses alone shed significant light on the events.
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PROGRAM FOR COLLECTING MATERIALS ABOUT POGROMS COMMITTED BY BANDITS IN M. BORSHCHAGOVKA
Skvir district, Kyiv. Gubernia
A.
1. Heb. [Hebrew] population under 3000, Christian under 6000 /before pogroms/. Now Heb. population is none at all.
2. 350 houses, 55 shops, 5 factories, 5 religious and public institutions. After the pogroms - no shops were left; fewer than 150 houses;
all enterprises and religious and public institutions were destroyed.
3. Economic situation.:
a. before the war - tolerable.
b. during the war - worse.
c. at the beginning of the revolution - better.
d. before the first pogrom - good. Main source of income was crafts and trade.
4. Zionists: [translation note: possible erasure]
a. before the war - tolerant.
b. during the war - tense.
c. at the beginning of the revolution - tolerable.
d. at all other times - hostile.
B.
1. Indifferent.
2. active participation in pogroms.
3. Beat the Jewish Communists. [translation note: appears to be imperative verb of “beat,” as in beat up; possibly a quote or comment]
4. ANTOSHKA LIPINSKY - local resident, wheelman [Ukrainian word стельмах, stel’makh], Pole, led a gang, massacred a lot of residents
in Borshchagovka.
MEZHINSKY - assistant to the head of the post office under tsarism. During the time we are describing, one of the bandit leaders.
GRIGORY TARNOVSKY - local cabman, took an active part in organizing gangs and pogroms.
C.
1. First pogrom: June 1919. local bandits /Antoshka and others/, carry out frequent raids with human casualties.
2. Second pogrom: July 1919. Sokolov Gang destroyed shops and houses, 10 people killed, 15 people seriously wounded. Abuse of
residents, women in particular.
Detailed description of the pogrom:
On a Thursday, early in the morning, “they” broke in, robbed, killed, burned, and left for Dzyunkovo, stayed there until Saturday, then
returned to Borshchagovka, again staged a general pogrom, set fire to many houses /one out of every three/, all shops; killed, stabbed, and
raped. Fifteen people they wounded expired from their wounds.
3. Third pogrom: July 1919, two weeks after the 2nd. Two weeks later, Shcherbatyuk’s gang burst in on the day of the fair, selected 43
Jewish men, took them to a field and cut them into pieces with sabers; of the robbery they carried out at the same time there is no need to
speak. Another 17 people were killed in the town.
4. Fourth pogrom: August 1919. Sokolov's gang and Mezhinsky's detachment burst into the shtetl and started smashing it up [translation
note: the verb громить, gromit’, is related to the word pogrom]. The residents immediately hid in the synagogue and bathhouse. The
bandits pulled everyone out and slaughtered and shot them. From the bathhouse, where mostly women and children hid, they first
dragged them out and raped them, and the children were killed. A total of 300 people were killed and more than 500 seriously wounded.
Among those killed were Bril Tsalikes and Shimshon Rybak.
5. Fifth pogrom: September 1919. Sokolov was raging in the Borshchagovka area. At that time, the Odessa group that was evacuating Red
units, [continued on page 2]
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[...] upon learning that there was a gang in Borshchagovka, headed there. The gang hid out with local residents. Arriving in
Borshchagovka, the group [translation note: appears to refer to the Odessa group] took measures to clean up the streets where the corpses
were lying, and left a day later. All able-bodied residents joined it. In the shtetl remained old people, typhus patients, women with
breastfeeding infants. The gang burst in again and burned down the remaining street, the bandits assembled all the remaining residents,
threw them into the fire, threw in mothers along with their babies, admiring the spectacle and not leaving until the corpses of the
unfortunates were completely burned.
3. No.
4. The shtetl is completely destroyed.
5. After the pogroms, the population fled to Skvir, where most of them died of hunger and an epidemic of typhus and TETIEV, where all
perished during the bloody Tetiev pogrom.
6. Epidemic of typhus with 90% mortality.
7. The decline in religiosity and morality; the strongest hatred of everything Christian; the settled life as a distinctive feature of the shtetl Jew
has completely disappeared.
8. There is no way to describe the abuse to which the residents of Borshchagovka were subjected, both those who were killed and those who
survived.
D.
1. Active participation in pogroms.
2. Gloating attitude towards the victims.
E. No.
F. There wasn’t/weren’t.
G. Unknown.
H. Lists cannot be presented due to the complete destruction of the shtetl and the absence of Jews.
I. The situation of orphans is the most difficult. An accurate accounting was not possible because the remaining residents fled to all the
adjacent counties and cities. There is a complete absence of help.
/m.n./ Authorized Skvirsk. district signature
manager /signature/
Sworn/attested:
Signed by three residents of Borshchagovka:
Yakov Malsky, Chaim Levenberg, and Yosef Tsap.
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