The Policy of the Russian Occupation Administration Regarding the Jewish Population of Bukovyna in 1916–1917
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Abstract
After the successful “Brusilovsky Breakthrough” in the spring of 1916, a part of Galicia and almost all of Bukovyna were occupied by Russian troops for the third time. The newly created Chernivtsi Governorate, which was a part of the Governor General of Galicia and Bukovyna, was headed by V. V. Ligin. Adjutant General F. F. Trepov became the military Governor General of the regions of AustriaHungary occupied by the law of war. The number of the Jewish population of Bukovyna at that time, according to the author’s approximate estimates, was no more than 60,000 people. Many Jewish farms, especially in Kolomyia and Sniatyn, districts of Chernivtsi province, were abandoned, because most of their owners fled to Austria in 1916. Local peasants and Russian Cossacks dismantled Jewish huts for their own needs, and the grain harvest left on the lands leased by the Jews, was seized to meet the needs of the civilian population and the Russian army according to the order of the district administrations. The Jewish population kept its disloyalty to the Russian authorities. By F. F. Trepov’s order, in the summer of 1916, the practice of taking Jewish hostages was resumed. Spymania intensified, and both Jews and Ukrainians, Poles and Romanians were its victims. However, the share of Jews in the national list of potential spies was obviously bigger than others. For the Russian command, the Jewish origin of a person suspected of espionage became a key factor in the decision to deport him to the inner provinces of Russia. Throughout the entire occupation period, a policy of systematic requisition of goods and funds from Jewish entrepreneurs was carried out. The latter already had a bitter experience of the Russian occupation of the region, and therefore tried not to conflict with the Russian administration, but to cooperate with it, especially in the field of economic relations. It was difficult for the Chernivtsi Governor to deal with the problem of Jews evicted by the decision of the Russian command. Its resolution usually depended on the personal intervention of V. V. Ligin in the affairs of specific emigrants. In the conditions of the spymania of 1916, the problem of the forced removal of Jews from Bukovyna and the return of previously deported Jews to their homeland was solved only after the February Revolution of 1917. Attempts by the Chernivtsi Governor to restore education in local schools proved unsuccessful due to his ideological bias towards the German and Hebrew languages of instruction. The problem of opening Jewish educational institutions in Bukovyna was not considered at all. The author agrees with the remarks of some modern Ukrainian researchers regarding the fact that compared to the previous years of the Russian occupation of Galicia and Bukovyna, the occupation regime of the Governor General F. F. Trepov turned out to be relatively liberal, and the February Revolution of 1917 in Russia only strengthened such tendencies. At the beginning of 1917, thanks to the efforts of all-Russian public organizations, it was possible to organize help for the needy Jews of Galicia and Bukovyna. In the spring of 1917, the newly created regional commissariat headed by D. I. Doroshenko contributed to the release of the Jews of Bukovyna from civil captivity in Russia. However, the newly appointed Chernivtsi Governor O. G. Lototsky also resorted to the practice of requisitioning property from the local, in particular, Jewish population. Administrative responsibility for non-compliance with the decree of the Military Governor-General dated October 23, 1916, in particular, for the “dry law” violation, the ban on purchasing ammunition from the military, the rules of retail trade, etc., was strengthened. However, the crisis in the provision of food to the local population and almost empty budget of the administration forced the Russian authorities to stop the practice of requisitioning. This step revived Jewish trade. Although the majority of the Jewish population of Bukovyna suffered from financial hardship and was oppressed by local official, in general, according to the author, radical changes in the policy of the occupation administration towards the Jews of Bukovyna did not occur even during the time of the Provisional Government. Mutual mistrust persisted until the collapse of the activities of the Russian occupation authorities in Bukovyna in August 1917.
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