Apropos the 'bol'noi vopros'

'Although the number of slaughtered does not appear to be great at this time, this does not make it any easier for the surviving victims, and they, it appears, number in the thousands.

These pogroms take place not only in areas controlled by roving criminal gangs; despite all the efforts of General Dennikin, areas controlled by the Volunteer army are not free of them.'

Incessant tendentious arguments in the British Parliament . . .demonstrate a desire to place responsibility on the excesses of the occasional reactionary general. That of course is grossly unjust. There is sufficient evidence that both military and civilian authorities under the command of General Dennikin are making every effort to prevent the pogroms.'

'The anti-Jewish excesses perpetrated by some of the White forces had also antagonised the British and French governments. As many as 100,000 Jews were murdered during 1918 and 1919 in southern Russia and the Ukraine. Denikin's army was particularly notorious in this respect.'

Martin Gilbert, A History of the Twentieth Century, vol.1 p.562

p.s. in citing Pushkin's 'Prorok' in translation, perhaps one should not forget Maurice Baring's version. At least it rhymes.