The fictitious “conspiracy” also grew denser, more complex, and more closely linked to the rebellions of the past. Many of those arrested, especially in November and December, were the chairmen or leaders of collective farms; others were accountants or clerks. The names of the arrested were often listed with their real or imagined links and credentials too: “former Petliurite commander”; “son of a trader, whose mother has been sent to the North”; “former landowner”; “former active participant in Petliurite and Makhno bands.” Their “crimes” always involved the supposed theft of bread, criticism
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