In anticipation of the Jewish Book Week in London, we interviewed Oleg Kozerod, author of several books on Jewish history, D.Sc. in History, a member of the European Association for Jewish Studies in Oxford.
Corr.: You are one of the experts in the Russian Civil War history, author of the book “Denikin’s rule and Jewish population in Ukraine: 1919-1920”. What is your evaluation of the extent of the tragedy during mass pogroms in that period?
О.K.: The sweep of anti-Jew events conducted by the White movement was unparalleled in human history. Anti-Semitic military units made 887 major and 349 minor pogroms during the Civil War until 1921, as estimated by historian S. Dubnov. At the Genoa Conference (1922), Soviet diplomats revealed the scope of killings of the Jewish people during the Civil War. Half a million of Jews suffered from pogroms in only Podolia, Kiev, Volhynian and Chernigov Governorates. Among them 200 thousand were killed or injured and over 30 thousand women raped. That is how White movement soldiers interpreted the motto “For Faith, Tsar and Fatherland” (photo by Juhani Sierla).
Corr.: It is clear that Civil War events exposed the processes that were running within Russian elite of that time, which surely was a failure of the Russian idea and Russian intelligentsia. And ethnic mass slaughter was a constituent of that process. Could the scope of anti-Jew campaigns have been more extensive?
О.K.: Imagine the situation that the White movement won the Russian Civil War. The whole Russia would have been covered with communal graves of the Jewish people. The mass murders by Denikin’s army and other White movement units was the second largest death toll of the Jewish people in the world history apart from the Holocaust, according to American professor Kenez. Millions of Jews would have suffered if the counter-revolution in Russia had succeeded.
Corr.: Did White Guard soldiers persistently kill Jews for their national identity only?
О.K.: I’d like to recall the only evidence of history of those times – “Chapaev”, a novel by Furmanov that describes Chapaev’s army defeat and death of the famous Red commander. Let me quote from the book: “The resistance was not being maintained any more. Cossacks were chasing the running ones, caught and slashed them on the spot… – Kikes, commissars and Communists, step up! – And they stepped forward wishing to protect Red Army men from execution, but not always rescued them. People stepped out in front of their comrades, so proud and glorious in their silent courage, with exasperate lips and glowing rageful eyes, and died under shashka hits and rifle bullets, damning Cossack whips... Other victims were taken to fields to be shot with machine guns... There’re three huge brick pits outside the stanitsa filled with corpses of the executed to the brim…”.
Corr.: Could the monarchists – if they had won – implement the “final solution of the Jewish question” in a specific country?
О.K.: The 1920-1930 period in the world history was an extremely challenging, contradictory and cruel. The time of violence over the individual, mass killings of peaceful population and racial ideologies could have easily led to similar events in Russia. I would like to mention that if Holocaust events had not happened in Nazi Germany, they could have easily become a reality in Russia.
Corr.: Everything in the world has a spiral-like development. Do you think whether the time of troubles, civil war, etc. can reoccur in Russia? Some analysts note that the borders of Syria and Russia are separated by just a few untoppled totalitarian regimes.
О.K.: However further events in Russian and all over the world may develop, I really hope that ethnic cleansing and killing of millions of people on ethnic grounds are in history now. One of the certainly positive traits in the current Russian regime – whether liked or not by someone – is an active struggle of the government against belligerent anti-Semitism.
Corr.: Thanks for the interview.
О.K. Thank you.