HARVARD UKRAINIAN STUDIES - See also - Harvard University

204 м. MiSHKiNSKYbetween copyholders {chynshovyky) and landlords on use of land,payments, and so on. One leaflet, dated 30 January 1881 and addressedto the tenants, is of particular interest here. 43 It concludes withseveral proposals for action, of which the second reads: "Villagesshould organize secret councils through faithful people — in order toknow from one another what is going where, things the pans [landlords]and the Jews are plotting together, and the tricks they are totake part in." The fifth reads: "Everywhere it is possible secretly tosettle matters with an obstinate pan, or a Jew, a policeman-grafter, ora bribed witness — to do it even without any assistance from theSecret Fraternity." 44The clearly anti-Jewish bias of the leaflet was acknowledged byKoval'skaia. 45Twice it mentions Jews in a general way, grouping themalongside the pans and other adversaries of the peasants who deservepunishment. No distinction is made between rich and poor Jewishinhabitants of the villages, nor are Jews classified as innkeepers,leaseholders, or shopkeepers. The fifth point, cited above, points outthe wrongdoings of certain types of people in order to justify takingsevere measures against them. But this was not so in respect to theJews. Although in Ukrainian zhyd means simply "Jew," in the contextof the leaflet I believe it had the stereotyped derogatory meaning of itsRussian counterpart, that is, zhid, or the Jew exploiter. The connotationwas not the invention of the revolutionary narodniki, but rather oftheir adversaries. Nevertheless, many narodniki accepted and used it.Who wrote the leaflet? The author must have been the actual leaderof the union at the time, Pavlo Ivaniv, ardent and impulsive championof revolutionary agitation and terrorist tactics among the peasants.The "Secret Fraternity Land and Freedom" was, of course, a fake 46invented by Ivaniv who, sincere as he was, naively liked gesturescalculated for effect, especially among the villagers. 47His attitude43Koval'skaia, 1924, pp. 280-81.44All the Ukrainian leaflets were signed the "Southern-Russian Free Press" andwere sealed "Stamp of the Land and Freedom Secret Fraternity (Zemlia і voliabratstvo)." See below, fns. 46, 47.45Koval'skaia, 1926, pp. 71-72; and below, fn. 47.46See his letter to M. R. Popov (referred to in fn. 41 above), and his characterizationby N. Hecker (fn. 16, above). This is not to say that Ivaniv had no plans forsuch a "fraternity." The police seized two copies of an outline for a periodical to becalled Bratstvo ("fraternity"), which may have been linked to such a plan. Maksakovand Nevskii, Iuzhnorusskie rabochie soiuzy, p. 308.47Koval'skaia (1926, pp. 71-72), noting the anti-Jewish tone of the document.