put an end to the "domination of one nationality over others" through the introduction of free soviets. Although it proclaimed "the right of the Ukrainian people (and every other nation) to self-determination", it also considered nationalism to be "profoundly bourgeois and negative" and called instead for the "union of nationalities" under socialism, which it believed would "lead to development of the culture peculiar to each nationality." The Makhnovists specifically railed against antisemitism, which they considered to be a "bequest" of the Tsarist autocracy, and the Military Revolutionary Council even went so far as to declare a "war on anti-Semitism". Instances of antisemitic violence were notably much less common in the territory of the Makhnovshchina than they were in right-bank Ukraine, with any cases of antisemitism being punished severely by the Makhnovists. After one documented instance of an antisemitic pogrom taking place in Makhnovist territory, the insurgents responsible were executed by firing squad and weapons were redistributed to the local Jewish communities for their own protection. Many of the Makhnovshchina's most influential figures also came from a Jewish background, including a number of Nabat's leading members: Aron Baron, Mark Mratchny and Volin. In contrast to the Makhnovist hostility to antisemitism, anti-German sentiment was allowed to proliferate throughout the ranks of the Makhnovshchina, as the result of long and deeply-held resentments between the native Ukrainian peasantry and German Mennonite colonists. Following the battle of Dibrivka and the destruction of Velykomykhailivka by the Austro-Hungarian Army and local German collaborators, the Insurgent Army carried out a campaign of reprisals against Mennonite colonists in southern Ukraine. Anti-Mennonite repression intensified when the Selbstschutz formed an alliance with the White movement, leading to a number of insurgent raids against Mennonite settlements. Violence against the Mennonites reached its apex following the battle of Peregonovka, when the insurgents rapidly occupied most of southern and eastern Ukraine, bringing numerous Mennonite colonies under their occupation. Throughout late-1919, hundreds of Mennonites were murdered in a series of massacres committed by the insurgent forces, the most infamous of which was the Eichenfeld massacre. Language The different language policies of the various regimes that occupied Ukraine during the war of independence led to a number of shifts in the use of language throughout Zaporizhzhia. The Ukrainian State had prioritized the use of the Ukrainian language, enforcing its use in education, and following the region's occupation by the Volunteer Army in June 1919, Vladimir May-Mayevsky