yoke" would be shot, alongside rioters and looters. The Directors had by then deposed and arrested Khotyn's Mayor, Gachikevich (or Gocicherie), ordering the city population to pay them 1.5 million rubles within three days. Most of this burden fell on the local Jews, whom the rebels openly threatened with violence. Romanian writer Constantin Kirițescu further argues that the rebels committed war crimes against Romanian captives, including hanging or eviscerating regular soldiers and lynching a local chief of the Siguranța. Jews felt solidarity with the Romanian soldiers and border guards, some of whom were allowed to hide in Khotyn's synagogues. Activists were already disunited: right-wingers proposed to create a "Republic of Little Bukovina", centered on Khotyn and opened to annexation by the UNR; leftists urged instead for the formation of a "Bessarabian Democratic Republic", which, as historian Ion Gumenâi argues, would have implicitly functioned as an extension of Soviet Russia. The latter current was illustrated by Iosip Voloshenko-Mardariev, a schoolteacher-turned-activist. Șornikov summarizes this clash of visions within the movement as a "split of patriotic forces into Whites and Reds", with partisans of Ukrainian nationalism and "Little Bukovina" reportedly forming a majority of the Directorate. On January 25, this council, presided upon by Ivan F. Liskun and Tokan, claimed control over 100 localities in Hotin County, and all of what became the Khotyn Raion. The rebel force grew from 2,000 to 30,000 recruits. Styled "Bessarabian People's Army", it formed three regiments: cavalry (Rucșin), artillery (Anadol), and self-defense units (Dăncăuți). A man by the name of Filipchuk was general commander of this force, with Konstantin Shynkarenko serving under him, as leader of Dăncăuți's regiment. One of the first units to cross into Bessarabia was the garrison of a Ukrainian armored train, which had placed itself under the command of a Bessarabian sailor, Georgy Muller. I. Liskun had reached the area after having served as governor of Odessa the previous month. As reported in Ukrainian sources, he had deserted from the Ukrainian People's Army (UNA) when ordered not to lead his troops over the Dniester. His Haidamaka relied on civilian support, and on several occasions returned into Podolia to raid UNR garrisons for cannons and supplies. Some accounts suggest that members of the UNR's 7th Infantry Regiment had crossed into Bessarabia by the hundreds from January 22. However, these troops had been demobilized after disagreements with the Directorate, and had embraced Bolshevik ideals, rallying