Academy officers were convinced that Jews undermined the power of the tsar, blamed them for not recognizing God in Jesus of Nazareth and stigmatized them as foreigners.

[8] During the war, much of the Russian population blamed Jews for causing food shortages and price inflation, or for spreading rumors about the lack of weapons, despite it being one of the most widely known public secrets.

[10] During the withdrawal of Russian troops in 1915 from Congress Poland, under pressure from the Central Powers, the military command deported 250,000 Jews deep into Russia.

[12] The dispersion of the population across the territories of several countries and the division of forces during World War I meant that Jews found themselves on different sides of the front.

[15] After the Tsar was overthrown on 2 April 1917, Alexander Kerensky's Provisional Government abolished the Pale of Settlement and repealed the restrictions on national and religious minorities.

[20] Disagreeing, historians Richard Pipes and Orlando Figes have argued that White movement antisemitic activity was above all motivated by nationalist sentiment and greed.

[21] Historian Oleg Budnitskii has stated that civil war antisemitic activities were inflamed by years of antisemitism in the army during the First World War; acting on the view of Jews as disloyal outsiders, imperial Russian authorities deported hundreds of thousands of Jews from areas near the front line, prompting frequent pogroms against those being deported.

On 20 January in Kiev, during the fights between Ukrainian nationalist and Soviet forces, over a hundred Jews were killed and Jewish shops were plundered.

Retreating Soviet forces are believed to have been responsible for a brutal 7-8 March pogrom in Chernihiv and Hlukhiv, where about 400 Jewish residents, including many children, were murdered within two days.

[27] During the civil war period, Bolsheviks are estimated to have been responsible for 9% of pogroms, White movement forces for 17%, Ukrainian nationalists for 50%, and unaffiliated groups for the remainder.

At that time, the authorities issued proclamations that collectively blamed Jews for spreading anti-German sentiment and participating in the black market.

[29] In March 1918 in Kiev, during the takeover of the city by the Ukrainian-German forces, haidamaks of the 3rd Haydamatsky Infantry Regiment [uk] captured and shot Jews.

The report states that in Lviv "disreputable elements [from the Polish Army] plundered to the extent of many millions of crowns the dwellings and stores in the Jewish quarter, and did not hesitate to murder when they met with resistance.

"[30] Some other events in Poland were later found to have been exaggerated, especially by contemporary newspapers such as the New York Times, although serious abuses against the Jews, including pogroms, continued elsewhere, especially in Ukraine.

[36] At that time, in Zhytomyr, soldiers, joined by peasants from nearby villages, started a pogrom, killing 80 people and plundering property.

[38] The February massacres in Proskurov and the adjacent Felsztyn [uk] in Podolia province were among the bloodiest acts of antisemitic violence during the war in Ukraine.

Despite the opposition of the Jewish socialist parties and the warnings of the city guard, and without consulting the inhabitants, the Bolsheviks went ahead with their coup attempt.

The head of the stationed brigade, Ivan Semesenko, then issued a speech to the soldiers in which he blamed the Jews for the incidents, considering them to be dangerous enemies and ordering their extermination.

[43] In turn, during the pogrom in Chernobyl, which lasted between 7 April and 2 May, 150 Jewish residents were killed by the forces of Ilko Struk [uk] and most of their property was destroyed.

Initially, they recognized the command of the Red Army and, together with its troops, in March and April 1919 carried out operation to capture Kherson, Nikolayev and Odessa from the Allies.

Two days after, the International 4th Regiment, which was made not only of Ukrainians, Russians, and Jews, but also foreign volunteers from China, Hungary, and Germany, came in control of the city.

At the height of the riots, the newspapers of the Black Hundreds published an article accusing Jews of shooting at soldiers during the takeover of the city, listing their personal details.

[70][71] The Armed Forces of South Russia displayed entrenched antisemitic prejudices[72] and they had already stood against the equal rights of minorities established in 1917.

[73] In their view, the Jews were responsible for the fall of Tsarism and supported Bolshevism as a whole, and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion were widely distributed among the White forces.

[74] The South Russian propaganda agency, under the command of Konstantin Nikolaevich Sokolov [ru], spread rumors about Jews shooting from the windows of buildings at retreating soldiers and about alleged Jewish regiments.

[75] The antisemitism of the Whites was supported by a significant part of the clergy of the Russian Orthodox Church, who saw Jews as a godless people who wanted to take power over the "Holy Rus".

[109] Based on the partial reports of the Red Cross, Eli Heifetz estimated that more than one million people suffered material losses.

[110][111] According to Z. Gitelman, in the years 1918–1921, 70–80% of the Jewish population was without regular income, although the Soviet ban on private trade was a partial cause of unemployment.

According to recent analyses carried out after the opening of the Russian archives, the percentage of homicides at the hands of the White Volunteer Army may even reach 50%.

[2] The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe said that remaining pogroms (25%) were committed by independent groups, followed by the White Army at 17%, and the Soviets at 9%.