Yudenitch Name Held As Symbol of Murder

The name of General Yudenitch, who has died in Paris, will live long in the histories both of the Russian people and of the Jewish people. In that of the Russians, because he was one of their leading and most successful military commanders during the Great War. In that of the Jews because he was one of the “Pogrom Generals” who participated in the Civil War between the Reds and the Whites that broke out in Russia after the Bolshevist Revolution.

In Russian history Yudenitch’s name will always be connected with the most brilliant Russian victories during the Great War, especially on the Turkish front. After the Revolution, he formed the so-called “North Eastern Army”, one of the half-dozen “White” armies that defied the Bolsheviks until 1920. The “North Eastern Army” used the newly-formed Republic of Esthonia as its base, and for a considerable time it looked as if it would succeed in capturing Petrograd itself, which was at the time the seat of the Bolshevik Government. Yudenitch’s army actually got to within a few miles of the capital, and it was only the iron energy of Trotzky, then head of the military forces of the Soviet, that saved the town and ultimately defeated the Whites.

NAME A MURDER SYMBOL

It was during this campaign that the real character of Yudenitch and his army came out, and his name became a symbol of ravage and murder mong the numerous small Jewish communities of the area under his control. It is said, in his defense, that the number of murders of Jews were far fewer than in the case of the other “White” generals, i.e., Denikin, Wrangel, etc. As a bare statement of fact, this is true, but the reason for it is not to Yudenitch’s credit, for it was due not to Yudenitch’s greater decency or humanity, but merely to the fact that the Jewish population of the area under his control was much smaller than in those under the control of the other White generals. The whole Jewish population of the area in question in fact amounted to only 54,000. Taking this into consideration, Yudenitch has a very good claim to being considered one of the “great Pogrom Generals.”

Some years ago a Jewish member of the “North Eastern Army” published a pamphlet in which he declared that “as far as cruelty and ruthlessness was concerned, the bloody acts of violence committed by the Yudenitch army against the Jews were not surpassed even by the pogrom bands of either Wrangel, Denikin or Petlura, and as far as numbers were concerned they did their utmost not to be beaten by these others. Whatever Jews fell into their hands they tortured and murdered without mercy, without so much as asking whether they were ‘white’ or ‘red.’

PLANNED ST. BARTHOLOMEW’S EVE

“The mere fact that they were Jews decided their fate. The most violent anti-Jewish propaganda was carried on among the local population, and when the army approached Petrograd, detailed plans were prepared for a mass massacre of the Jews of the town, and the coming ‘St. Bartholomew’s Eve’ was discussed quite openly. The lives and the property of the Jews were to be left to the soldiers as a reward for their ‘heroism’. It was only the ultimate defeat of the army that saved the Jews of Petrograd from a ghastly fate.”

A delegation from the Jewish communities of the district appealed to Yudenitch and his advisers to put an end to the terrible atrocities against the Jews, but they refused to take any action, and declared that the pogroms were an inevitable result of the Jewish participation in the Bolshevist revolution.

The treatment of the Jews was so terrible that even the Esthonian press was moved to protest. The “Waba Maa” (The Free Land) wrote: “The unhappiest people in the world are the Jews of Pskow.