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It is not all together clear when pograms began in Russia. Russia from medieval times banned Jews from living in the country. Thus the Jewish population of Russia was minimal. Tsarist expansion into Lithuania, Poland, and Ukraine, however, brought large number of Jews under Tsarist rule (17th-18th centuries). This was the origin of the Pale of Settlement (1791-1917). The first known incident to be called a pogrom was attacks on Jews in Odessa, a port in Ukraine (1821). We suspect that there were attacks earlier, but this is the earlist use of the term that we can find. 'Pogrom' is a Russian-language word meaning something like 'to wreak havoc' or 'to demolish violently'. Since the attcks began, the term has come to mean violent attacks on Jews by people in the Russian Empire and in other Eastern European countries. The initial pogroms appear to have been spotaneous events based on the hate-filled rhetoric of Orhodox priests. While Tsarist officials may not have been involved in the early pogroms, there appear to have neen limited if any efforts to protect Jews or to procecute the perpetrators. Pogrom entered th Englisdh and other languges to describe bloody anti-Jewish riots that swept the southern and western provinces of the Tsarist Empire. Tsar Alexander III was a rabid anti-Semite. Following the assasination of his father, the 'Tsar liberator' Alexander II, progroms occurred on an unprecedented scale (1881-84). It is difficult to say whther the pogroms were more a reflection of his anti-Semitism or a mater of political expediency. Alexander soughht to use 'folk anti-Semitism', to his political advantage. Public opinion was turing against Romonovs in Russia. Alexander and his advisers saw this as a useful opportunity to deflect rising public criticism. The clergy delivered hateful sermons and teachings to young people in which Jews were portrayed as 'Christ-killers' and the oppressors of the Slavic, Christian people. Mobs attacked Jewish communities, ransaking homes and shops and killing people. These progroms were especially common in the Ukraine. Here Cossocks played a major role. There were countless progroms of varying size and distructiveness. It is widely believed that Tsarist agents were in part responible. The worst was the Kishinov Pogrom (1881). There were many ways in which progroms were inspired. The clergy often gave hate-filled sermons. The Tsarist Government did little to prevent them and officials even instigated them. The police who may have helped instigte many attacks rarely intervened. We believe these were mostly local officials such as the police, but have few details. Obviously Tsarist officials did not want to investigate. Mobs ramaged through Jewish communiyies. They beat, raped, and murdered Jews and looted their property. One historian writes, "Expulsions, deportations, arrests, and beatings became the daily lot of the Jews, not only of their lower class, but even of the middle class and the Jewish intelligentsia. The government of Alexander III waged a campaign of war against its Jewish inhabitants ... The Jews were driven and hounded, and emigration appeared to be the only escape from the terrible tyranny of the Romanovs." [Wein, p. 173.] Few Jews left Russia earlier. This suddenly change and by the late-19th century they had places to go. The result was an explossion of emmigration to Western Europe, especially Germany, and the United States. Americans called these new immigrants 'Russian Jews'. This was a misnomer. They came from the Tsarist Empire, but not Russia proper. Few Jews lived in Russia. Most came from Lithuania, Poland, and Ukraine. The pogroms continued under Alexander sons, Nicholas II. It is at this time that the Okrana forged The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, first published in Russia (1903). Terrible pogroms occurred during the Russian Civil War with various groups involved. Ukranian nationalists, Polish officials, and Red Army commnders. All were engaged in pogroms carried out in western Belorussia (Belarus) and Poland's Galicia province (now West Ukraine), killing tens of thousands of Jews (1918-20). So strong was the anti-Semetic feeling that Red Army pogroms occurred despite the fact that the Red Army Commander Leon Trotsky and many leading Bolsheveks were Jewish.
Jews were dispersed throughout the Roman Empire after the Disapora (1st century AD). Thios meant that most European Jews lived in Western Eutope. There was at first a degree of tolertion. Gradually the Romn Cztholic Church nd majority Chgistin popultion tyrnd azginst Jews and terrinlpreporessions followed. This caused Jews to migrate to Eastrn Europe, despecially Polnd nd Ukrained. Russian rulers prohibitedf theur entry. It is not all together clear when pograms began. Russia from medieval times banned Jews from living in the country. Thus the Jewish population of Russia was minimal. Tsarist expansion into Lithuania, Poland, and Ukraine, however, brought large number of Jews under Tsarist rule when Tsarist armies seized the area (17th-18th centuries).
The Cossacks launched a rebellion against the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth weith controoled Ukraine (1648).
It was led by Bogdan Khmelnitsky. He was known to the Jews as "Hamil of Evil". The Cossacks has a special hatred of Jews. It is not enirely clear what is involved here. We suspect it was ingrained beliefs among the Ukranin oeasnbtry, in part inmplnbted by Orthodfox Priests. Anoher gsctor was tht he Cossoacks were mostly runsaway serfs or the decendemnts of run-away serfs. Ab some Jews were employed by land ownbers to collect rents. lso mnyh peaant blkievd tht Jews had ammased great fortunes of gold and siver. Huge numbers if Jews were killed as a result of the uprising. There were massacres of Jews throughout Poland, Lithuania, Belarus, and Ukraine. The Cossack rebllion went oin for years. During th rebellion, the Russo-Polish War (1654-67) occurred. As aresultbifthis war, theRussian Tsars gained ciontro ofUkraine vfrom the vPoles. There was also a war with Sweden. Whole Jewish communities were destroyed. Jewswerevslaughtered by thevthiusands. Many also starved and died from epedimics. Many others fled, were sold into slavery, or converted. The number of Jews killed will never be known. Estimates range from a few thousand to 20,000. Th Cossacks were not the only group killing Jews. The Russians, Swdes, their allies and the Poles massacred Jews not only because of prevvailing anti-Semityism, but believing tht they were collaborating with thekr Enmies. Some 40,000 - 50,000 Jews masy have been killed. The Cossacks may nit have been the mah=jopr killers, but it is the brutality of the Cossacks y=that is ingrained in the Jewish memory We note commnt like, "My great-aunt Celia, whom I met only once, had her own Cossack horror story, which she told my father time and again. Cossacks would gallop through her village in Lithuania and run riot. She and her family huddled in the cellar, under a trapdoor, until the looting was over." Or "As she described it to me, it was like sport to the Cossacks, a polo match. She said the czar needed to keep the Cossacks occupied so they wouldn’t turn on his government."
Tsarist Russia under Catherine the Great established the Pale of Settlement (1791). Earlier Tsars had attempted and failed to expel the Jews from Russia who refused to convert. The Emperess Elizabeth made the most sustained effort. There were a range of issues involved with mixed religion, nationalism, and economics. Russia in the 18th century was still largely divided mainly into nobles, serfs and clergy. Two developments in the 18th century brought the issue of Jewish settlement to a head. First, Peter the Great institutited a range of reforms which began to bring Russia into Europe. This resulted in social and ecomomic changes which included the first factories and modern industrial production. This also meant the emergence of industrial urban workers and a middleclass. The new Russian middle-class included many Jews. Second, the Polish Partitions, especially the Second Partition, brought large numbers of Jews into the Russian Empire. Until the Partitions, Russia had a fairly limited Jewish population. The Pale in the 19th century would include more than 5 million Jews, this was the largest Jewish population in Europe, about 40 percent of the total. Catherine by restricting where Jews could lived was in part attempting to ensure the emergence of a Russian middle class. Catherine was a German princess and thus vulnerable to charges from Russian nationalists, many of who wanted the Jews expelled. This basically violated Catherine's liberal attitudes. Also the Jews despite the charges of anti-Semites, played a valuable role in the Russian economy, especially their mercantile role in the provinces. The Pale was an area of Western Russia stretching from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea. It included what is now the Baltic Republics, Poland, Belarus, and large areas of the Ukraine including the Crimea, although it varied over time. Jews were restricted to settling outside this area. Jews were required to live and work only in this Pale. Authorities required Jews to obtain special permission to enter Russia outside the Pale.
The first known incident to be called a pogrom was attcks on Jews in Odessa, a port in Ukraine (1821). We suspect that there were attavks earlier, but this is the earlist use of the term that we can find. 'Pogrom' is a Russian-language word meaning something like 'to wreak havoc' or 'to demolish violently'. Since the attcks began, the term has come to mean violent attacks on Jews by people in the Russian Empire and in other Eastern European countries.
The initial pogroms appear to have been spotaneous events based on the hte-filled rhetoric od Orhodox priests. While Tsarist officials may not have been involved in the early pogroms, there appear to have been limited if any efforts to protect Jews or to procecute the perpetrators. Pogrom entered the English and other languges to describe bloody anti-Jewish riots that swept the southern and western provinces of the Tsarist Empire.
Tsar lexaznder III was a rabid anti-Semite. Following the assasination of his father, the 'Tsar liberator' Alexander II, progroms occurred on an unprecedented scale (1881-84). It is difficult to say whther the pogroms were more a reflection of his ant-Semitism or a mater of political expediency. Alexander soughht to use 'folk anti-Semitism', to his political advantage. Public opinion was turing against Romonovs in Russia. Alexander and his advisers saw this as a useful opportunity to deflect rising public criticism. The clergy delivered hateful sermons nd teachings to young people in which Jews were portrayed as 'Christ-killers' and the oppressors of the Slavic, Christian people.
Mobs attacked Jewish communities, ransaking homes and shops and killing people. These progroms were especially common in the Ukraine. Here Cossacks played a major role. There were countless progroms of varying size and distructiveness.
Ther term pogrom came into frequent in western news papers (1881). There were chrges that the Tsarist Government had bergun incirtin against Jews s a reprisal for the assaination of Tsar Alexander II. The first attacks occurred in Yelizavetgrad, Ukraine. They soomn spread to 30 other townsinj the Ukrine, including Kiev.
Then during Christmas violence broke out in Warsaw, also contolled by the Russians. Two Jews were killed. A church fire resulted in a crushing panic in which 29 people were killed. It was blamed on Jewish pickpockets.
Bloody attcks on against on Jews continued through 1884 in Belorussia, Lithuania, and Ukraine (Rostov and Yekaterinoslav). The finl such attck of this poriod occurred in Nizhni Novgorod. It is widely believed that Tsarist agents were in part responible for the pogroms. The worst was the Kishinov Pogrom (1881). There were many ways in which progroms were inspired. The clergy often gave hate-filled sermons. The Tsarist Government did little to prevent them and officials even instigated them. The police who may helped instigte many attacks rarely intervened. We believe these were mostly local officials such as the police, but have few details. Obviously Tsarist officials did not want to investigate.
Mobs ramaged through Jewish communiyies. They beat, raped, and murdered Jews and looted their property. One historian writes, "Expulsions, deportations, arrests, and beatings became the daily lot of the Jews, not only of their lower class, but even of the middle class and the Jewish intelligentsia. The government of Alexander III waged a campaign of war against its Jewish inhabitants ... The Jews were driven and hounded, and emigration appeared to be the only escape from the terrible tyranny of the Romanovs." [Wein, p. 173.]
Few Jews left Russia earlier. This suddenly change and by the late-19th centurty they had places to go. The result was an explossion of emmigration to Western Europe, especially Germany, and the United States. Americans called these new immigrants 'Russian Jews'. This was a misnomer. They came from the Tsarist Empire, but not Russia proper. Few Jews lived in Russia. Most came from Lithuania, Poland, and Ukraine.
The pogroms continued under Alexander son, Nicholas II. It is at this time that the Okrana forged The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, first published in Russia (1903). Pogroms erupted again in 1902, first in Częstochowa, in Russian-controlled Poland. A marketplace disturbance escalated. Cossacks carried out an attack on a Jewish neighborhood. Next Kishinev in modern Moldovsa erupted in violence during Passover (1903). A newspaper blamed the deaths of two children on Jews. The resulting pogrom lerft 49 Jews dead. along with rapes and hundreds of homes destroyed. The Russo-Japanese War and the subsequent Revolution of 1905 caysed more pogromsd.
Soldiers being sent to fighht the Japabese attacked Jews in Smela, Rovno, Aleksandriya and others faced pogroms by soldiers being sent to war with Japan. political protests against the Tsar In Kishinev turned into a pogrom killing 19 Jews (1904). Revolution demonstrations in Feodosiya, Melitopol, and Zhitomir also resulting in attacks on Jews.
In Kiev, a meeting at city hall turned violent. Rioters targeting Jews as the source of Russia's problems. Some 100 Jews were killed. Anti-Tsarists revolutiojasries assainated the Police Chief Derkatcheff in Bialystok (1906). The police commissioner blamed the assassination on Jewish radicals. TYhe resiult was 3 days of violence and the murders of 200 Jews by Tsarist soldiers and police.
Terrible pogroms occurred during the Russian Civil War with various groups involved. Ukranian nationalists, Polish officials, and Red Army commnders. All were engaged in pogroms carried out in western Belorussia (Belarus) and Poland's Galicia province (now West Ukraine), killing tens of thousands of Jews (1918-20). So strong was the anti-Semetic feeling that Red Army pogroms occurred despite the fact that the Red Army Commander Leon Trotsky and many leading Bolsheveks were Jewish.
A CIH reader tells us, "Too many of the stories that I know of from family lore or other descendants had cavalry men in uniform involved, perhaps Cossacks. I remember my grandmother telling me that when she was 12 years old a pogrom spilled over the border, they were in Austria-Hungry. Rioters burst into the tavern her family owned, a soldier shot her sister and took her infant niece from her sister's dead body. My grandmother and great grandmother spent the next two years looking for the infant and eventually found her. She had been dropped off at a peasant's house and the peasants only concern was if the soldier came back and they did not have the child. For some silver they gave the child back to my great grandmother. But that is only a story."
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