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JewishHistoryעברית

Pogroms in Ukraine, 1918–1921

Date
1918 – 1921
Location
Ukraine, mainly west of the DnieperUkraine
Then part of
Ukrainian People's Republic, Armed Forces of South Russia, Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic
Perpetrators
  • Forces nominally under the Ukrainian Directory (Symon Petliura) (Military)
  • White Volunteer Army of Anton Denikin (Military)
  • Independent armed bands and local peasant groups (Militia / auxiliaries)
  • Red Army units (a smaller share of recorded pogroms) (Military)
Killed (estimate)
50,000 – 60,000[1]YIVO gives 50,000 as the minimum credible estimate of Jewish dead; Encyclopaedia Judaica, citing Dubnow, records 60,000 dead in 530 communities. Higher figures of 100,000 or more appear in some later accounts and in Heifetz's 1921 relief-committee report.
Country

3.3% – 3.9% of the Jewish population of Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (c. 1939)[11]

Worldwide

0.36% – 0.43% of the worldwide Jewish population (c. 1917)[19]

Category
Pogrom, Massacre
Confidence
DisputedYIVO calls 50,000 the minimum credible estimate. Encyclopaedia Judaica, citing S. Dubnow, gives 60,000 dead and several times that number wounded in 530 communities. Elias Heifetz's 1921 Red Cross-linked report, summarized on the Felshtin Society page, calculated about 120,000 deaths directly due to pogroms. The Center for Jewish History's 2025 account of the Tcherikower archive uses "more than one hundred thousand."

Summary

During the Russian Civil War, armies and irregular bands competing for Ukraine carried out pogroms against Jews on a scale far beyond the waves of 1881–1882 and 1903–1906. Violence peaked in 1919 west of the Dnieper and reached nearly every Jewish settlement, some more than once. YIVO attributes about 40 percent of recorded pogroms to Ukrainian forces nominally under Symon Petliura (who did not order the attacks and later called on troops to stop them), about 25 percent to independents, 17 percent to the White Army, and 9 percent to the Red Army. Directory irregulars known as otamans were especially associated with murder, torture and rape. Emblematic massacres included Proskuriv in February 1919, Fastiv in September 1919 and Tetiiv in 1920. Petliura's alleged responsibility was the stated pretext for his assassination in Paris in 1926.

Sub-events

  1. Zhytomyr pogroms of 1919–1920

    1919 – June 1920 · Zhytomyr

  2. Proskuriv pogrom

    15 February 1919 · Proskuriv (Khmelnytskyi)

  3. Fastiv pogrom

    10 September 1919 – 13 September 1919 · Fastiv (Fastov)

  4. Tetiiv pogrom

    March 1920 · Tetiiv

Sources

  1. John Klier, Pogroms. YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe
  2. Henry Abramson, Russian Civil War. YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe
  3. Modern Jewish History; Pogroms. Jewish Virtual Library (Encyclopaedia Judaica)
  4. Bloody Bacchanalia; The Pogroms of Proskurov and Felshtin (quoting Elias Heifetz, 1921). The Felshtin Society
  5. Alexander Maro, A Holocaust Before The Holocaust; Elias Tsherikover and the Pogroms in Civil War Ukraine. Center for Jewish History (2025)

Jewish population (estimates)

  • Worldwide: 13,980,715[19]c. 1917American Jewish Year Book 1917–18 revised world total of 13,980,715 (Europe 9,986,447; America 3,094,309; Asia 499,679; Africa 380,865; Australia 19,415).
  • Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic: 1,532,776[11]c. 1939Jewish nationality in the Ukrainian SSR in the 17 January 1939 All-Union census (5.0% of the republic).

Sources for population estimates

  1. Sergio DellaPergola, World Jewish Population, 2024. American Jewish Year Book 2024, via Berman Jewish DataBank (2025)
  2. Sergio DellaPergola, Notes toward a Demographic History of the Jews. Genealogy 8(1) (2024)
  3. Jewish Population of Europe in 1933. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  4. Jewish Population of the World. American Jewish Year Book 1948–1949, via Berman Jewish Policy Archive (1949)
  5. Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein, Voluntary Conversions and Diaspora: A Human Capital Interpretation of Jewish History. American Economic Association annual meeting paper (2007)
  6. Jews in the USSR (1926–1959). Demographic Changes. JewishGen Belarus SIG (table compiled from the 1939 All-Union census)
  7. Mandate for Palestine. Report of the Mandatory to the League of Nations (Palestine Administration, 1922). United Nations UNISPAL (British mandatory report) (1922)
  8. José Hinojosa Montalvo, La sociedad y la economía de los judíos en Castilla y la Corona de Aragón durante la Baja Edad Media. Espacio, Tiempo y Forma, Serie III, Historia Medieval (1993)
  9. The Contagion of Violence. 1391 and the Jews of the Spanish Kingdoms. Palgrave / Springer chapter (preview) (2021)
  10. Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein, Religious Norms, Human Capital, and Money Lending in Jewish European History. Handbook chapter PDF via zvi-eckstein.com
  11. Sergio DellaPergola, Some Fundamentals of Jewish Demographic History. Berman Jewish Policy Archive (PDF) (2001)
  12. Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein, THE CHOSEN FEW: HOW EDUCATION SHAPED JEWISH HISTORY, 70–1492 (book summary). Bar-Ilan University Economics seminar PDF (Princeton University Press forthcoming summary)
  13. Joseph Jacobs, Statistics. Jewish Encyclopedia (1906)
  14. Statistics of Jews. American Jewish Year Book 1917–1918, via Berman Jewish DataBank (1918)
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  16. Israel Bartal and Kenneth B. Moss, The Jews of the Russian Empire in the Late 19th Century. The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization
  17. Russia (Census Statistics). Jewish Encyclopedia (1901–1906)
  18. Yannay Spitzer, A New Map of Jewish Communities in the Russian Empire (2012)
  19. Игорь Виленский, Оценка сокращения численности еврейского населения Российской Империи и СССР (1897–1926). Еврейская Старина (2024)
  20. Sergio DellaPergola, World Jewish Population, 2024. American Jewish Year Book 2024, via Berman Jewish DataBank / Israel CBS host (2025)
  21. Sergio DellaPergola, Demographic Trends in Israel and Palestine: Prospects and Policy Implications. American Jewish Year Book 2003, via Berman Jewish DataBank (2003)
  22. Population of Israel/Palestine by Religion (1553–Present). Jewish Virtual Library (citing CBS, British Mandate publications, Bachi and others)
  23. US Jewish Population Pocket Demographics 2.0. Berman Jewish DataBank / Jewish Federations of North America (2018)
  24. H. S. Linfield, The Jews of the United States: Preliminary Figures for 1937 (Linfield) / Statistics of Jews. American Jewish Year Book 1939–40, via Berman Jewish DataBank (1939)
  25. Changes in the Jewish Population of the United States, 1949–1950. American Jewish Year Book 1951, via Berman Jewish DataBank (1951)
  26. American Jewry, 1970 (NJPS 1971 article). American Jewish Year Book, via Berman Jewish DataBank
  27. Germany: Jewish Population in 1933. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  28. German Jewish Refugees, 1933–1939. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  29. Robin R. Mundill, The Jews under Edward I (PhD thesis). University of St Andrews
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  31. Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein, Appendix A: Sources and Methodology for Section 2 (Jewish and total population in Germany-Austria and Poland-Lithuania). Authors' appendix PDF (citing Weinryb, Stampfer, Kupovetsky, Guggenheim, Toch, Battenberg, Israel) (2018)
  32. Kirsten E. Schulze, The Jews of Lebanon between Coexistence and Conflict. Internet Archive full text
  33. Jews in Arab Countries. American Jewish Year Book excerpt, Berman Jewish Policy Archive (1978)
  34. Esther Meir-Glitzenstein, The Farhud. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  35. Joseph Rothschild (tabulated), Interwar East European Census Data. Lawrence University course materials
  36. Mark Tolts, Population since World War I. YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe
  37. Davis Trietsch, Die Juden der Türkei. Länder und Völker der Türkei, Heft 8 (Leipzig) (1915)
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  39. Jewish Losses during the Holocaust: By Country. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  40. Andrzej Żbikowski, Extermination of Polish Jews. The genesis and course of Operation Reinhard. Żydowski Instytut Historyczny (Jewish Historical Institute)
  41. Yitzhak Arad, “Operation Reinhard” | Death Camps of Belzec, Sobibor & Treblinka. Yad Vashem
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  43. Bulgaria. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
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  46. France. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  47. Belgium. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  48. Norway. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  49. Denmark. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  50. Greece. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  51. Lithuania. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  52. German Jews during the Holocaust, 1939–1945. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  53. Statistics of Jews (World and US Jewish Population). American Jewish Year Book 1946–1947, via Berman Jewish DataBank (1947)
  54. Jacqueline Shields, Jewish Refugees from Arab Countries. Jewish Virtual Library
  55. Lebanon Virtual Jewish History Tour. Jewish Virtual Library
  56. Jewish Populations in the Arab World. Jewish Virtual Library (citing Sergio DellaPergola, World Jewish Population, 2021 / AJYB 2023)
  57. Algeria (Vital Statistics). Jewish Encyclopedia (1906)
  58. Archives juives n°45/2 — Les Juifs d'Algérie. Archives Juives / Les Belles Lettres (2012)
  59. EHRI Country Report — Tunisia. European Holocaust Research Infrastructure
  60. Leon Shapiro, World Jewish Population. American Jewish Year Book 1981 (estimates for 1979), via Berman Jewish DataBank (1981)
  61. Sergio DellaPergola, World Jewish Population, 2020. American Jewish Year Book 2020, via Berman Jewish DataBank (2022)
  62. Sara Koplik, The Demise of the Jewish Community in Afghanistan, 1933–1952. SOAS University of London (PhD thesis abstract / deposit page) (2001)
  63. Argentina Virtual Jewish History Tour. Jewish Virtual Library
  64. All-Union 1959 census — ethnic composition of the USSR. Demoscope Weekly (РГАЭ РФ fond 1562)
  65. All-Union 1959 census — ethnic composition of the Uzbek SSR. Demoscope Weekly (РГАЭ РФ fond 1562)