New-York tribune., 1919-06-22

saw the alternative Berlin Odessa
Batoum-Baku- Teheran could be had
almost for the asking, with the i'm
mense oil fields Of Transcaucasia
thrown in for good measure.
The plan was grandiose, but
trouble arose right at the start. Ger
man detachments were sent to fetch
the wheat from the "full granaries"
of the Ukraine. Imagine their sur
prise when they found the "full
granaries" empty. There was no
wheat in the Ukraine! The glorious
German dream of white Ukrainian
bread was about to end in night
mare.
The explanation was simple
enough. The Ukrainian peasants
concealed their stores from the Ger
mans, and in many cases the VII
layers resisted search with machine
guns and hand grenades and every
thing. Patriotism, the hatred Of the
invader, had something to do with
this unexpected attitude, so had the
Russian paper money with which the
Germans wanted to pay for the
wheat. But the Ukrainian peasant
had enough Russian paper money to
paper his rooms with rubles, if wall
papers were the fashion in Ukrai-
nian villages. What he needed and
could not get for. money was cloth
ing, shoes, agricultural implements,
medicines. These the Germans did
not bring along. AS result, the
Ukraine as an expedient in eluding
the British blockade Of Germany
proved total failure. .
In the mean time the great landed
proprietors, who had suffered con-
siderable losses because of the land
reform, mobilized their German
junker connections. Dissatisfaction
with the Rada was growing among
the Ukrainiah peasantry. In May,
1918, the situation came to a dra-
matte head. One day German troops
entered the meeting of the Rada, ar
rested the President, Hrushevsky.
and other leaders and dissolved the
assembly. The next day the Rus
sian ex-general, Skoropadsky, him
self one of the big proprietors, was
acclaimed Hetman by a mob of
armed peasants, who he, under
German protection, had marched to
the capital.
The story Of the Skoropadsky re-
gime can be told briefly. In the
economic field it meant cancellation
of the land reform and restoration
OF landlordism. In the political field
1t meant rapid retrogression to pre-
revolutionary standards and meth
DDS. In the national field it meant
the end of separatism and prepara-
ton for reunion with Great Russia.
IN word, Skoropadsky was mon
archist, a feudal reactionary and a
pan-Russian. He soon became the
most hated figure in the country.
But the German bayonets were still
there.
Then came November IL, 1918.
Germany collapsed, and PRESENTLY
Skoropadsky saw himself besieeed
IN Klev by peasant army Of sew
erai hundred thousand, headed by
General Petlura, the Nationalist
leader. Skoropadsky had a body
guard Of Russians, mostly former
officers, and a few thousand German
troops, marooned in the Ukrainian
capital. The latter declared neu-
trality. Skoropadsky applied for
help to General Denikine, head Of
the anti-Aplshevist Cossack govern
ment Of Yekaterinodar. Denikine
answered with an ultimatum enfoin-
ing Skoropadsky to declare for all
Russian unity and to appoint a Rus
sian ministry, Skoropadsky made
a faint attempt to comply. Within
a few days the army Of Petlura
entered Kiev, routed Skoropadsky
and restored the Nationalist govern
ment, now called Directory.
Free for All \
And now followed what will
probably go down into future rec
nrCia aa the urnafoak f,an R... III