Polish, German and Jewish residents of Ukraine meanwhile began plotting to leave. “The Germans in Russia are outcasts; we need to go to America,” members of that minority told one another: “It is better to be a good farmer in America than a bad one in Russia and be called a kulak.” Ethnic Poles were reportedly excited by news that the Polish army was conducting military exercises across the border, and taking “malicious pleasure at the prospect of an impending change of government.”76
