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IN-DEPTH FEATURES
Part II
About six months ago marked the hundredth anniversary of
the pogrom in Kishinev that touched off a series of hundreds
of pogroms that lasted for more than three years. The hatred
and the savagery and the complicity of the ruling authorities
charged with preserving law and order that was displayed in
Russia, after a period of calm and increasing rights for
Jews, is worth recalling and remembering well, now that we
see signs of its reappearance in many parts of the world.
The first part of this series discussed the historical
background of the pogroms, including the increasing liberties
enjoyed by the Jews and their unfortunate increasing
"liberation" from the truths of Judaism. The background to
the Kishinev pogrom was a blood libel that was propagated in
the face of all evidence to the contrary. Fifty were murdered
and hundreds injured. Many homes and businesses were
destroyed. The authorities did nothing to stop it and nothing
serious to punish those involved. No compensation was given
for losses, and all the thugs were either not arrested or
were released soon after.
The Aftermath
Violence on such a horrifying scale, coming as it did after
two decades of relative calm, shocked the entire Jewish world
-- and many gentiles too. Among the immediate responses were
a highly successful fundraising drive among American Jews to
provide relief for the victims, as well as public meetings
and a petition of protest to the Czar's government whose
sharp wording was approved by President Theodore
Roosevelt.
For irreligious Jews, Kishinev was of major and long-term
significance. It came to symbolize the most powerful argument
in criticism of perceived Jewish weakness and vulnerability,
and in favor of the new doctrine of "self help" that secular
figures were advocating. The religious renegade, the former
student of Volozhin yeshiva who left and later was called the
"national poet" of Israel, C. N. Bialik wrote one of his most
famous poems after visiting the sites of the violence in
Kishinev. Although informed of several instances of attempted
self-defense, he ignored these and made the forceful
denouncement of Jewish passivity in the face of gentile
assault his theme. Later research found that his work was not
a reaction to the facts, but a calculated attempt to
influence the future.
He wrote a very powerful poem. His stirring verses galvanized
thousands to adopt a path of defiance and vigorous resistance
in the face of gentile attack. From the ranks of the fast
growing Bund (the Yiddish-based anti- religious organization
of Jewish workers that had been founded a scant ten years
earlier), the Zionist and the Social Zionist movements, self-
defense groups were formed in Jewish centers across Russia.
They tried to ready themselves to repulse further attacks,
seeing themselves as the defenders of Jewish honor as much as
of Jewish life.
Sadly, they were called on hundreds of times in the ensuing
years. Even more sadly, their work during the pogroms was
frequently purposely hindered by the Russian army and police,
to ensure that the hooligans remained free to wreak havoc and
mayhem. Even then, opinion was divided among Russian Jews as
to the benefits gained as a result of the actions of the self-
defense groups. Many deplored their existence, later arguing
that much of the bloodshed could have been avoided had the
Jewish youth not shown such determined resistance.
However, the real tragedy was that it was not understood then
that with all the assertiveness in the world, Jews were not
and never would be masters of their own destiny. A full
hundred years later, after further unimaginable suffering,
the illusion of "self redemption" still has some way to go
before being revealed as just that -- a veil that masks the
true workings of Jewish destiny as directed by Hashgochoh
Elyonoh.
A Chronicle of Grief
For the next three years, the fortunes of the Russian Jews,
broadly speaking, flowed and ebbed with the changing fortunes
of the Czarist regime.
Eight Jews were murdered and one hundred injured in a pogrom
that took place that September 1903, in Gomel. The following
spring and summer, four more pogroms claimed twenty-five
Jewish lives and left one hundred and thirty-nine wounded. In
the fall of 1904, there were thirty-four pogroms, mostly in
towns in the Ukraine and Bessarabia, many of them carried out
by soldiers who were leaving to fight in the Russo- Japanese
war. There were relatively few fatalities but hundreds were
wounded and there were tremendous losses of Jewish
property.
These were not always spontaneous outbreaks, if indeed any of
them were. One hundred and twenty Jews were injured in a
pogrom that broke out in Mohilev on the twenty-fourth of
October 1904, during the mobilization of troops. The pogrom
had been "forecast" earlier in the month by the chief of the
local police, who had also mentioned at the time that no
protection would be granted to the Jews. When appealed to for
aid, he refused to provide it.
Czar Nicholas' refusal to grant his subjects a constitution,
and the heavy burdens of taxation that he imposed upon them,
were among the leading causes of the Russian people's
longstanding and widespread discontent with their ruler and
his government. The ongoing defeats that the Japanese forces
were inflicting on the Russian army in the East (the Russo-
Japanese War, 1904-5) finally brought these grievances into
the open.
The disorders that comprised the Russian Revolution of 1905
began on the twenty-second of January, after troops opened
fire on a peaceful procession of workers who were bearing a
petition to the Czar, begging him to ease his treatment of
his loyal subjects.
Strikes, riots and assassinations took place throughout the
spring and summer. In June, the famous Battleship Potemkin
Mutiny took place and other units of the armed forces
were affected. During this period, in the seven months from
February to August 1905, in addition to the revolutionary
disturbances directed against the government of the Czar,
there were no fewer than forty-six pogroms against Jews, over
a wider area than hitherto. From those cases where prior
planning and official complicity are documented, it can be
assumed that most, if not all of these disturbances were
carried out with the support and connivance of high-level
officials. This was in keeping with the government's policy
of arousing the population against the Jews, in an attempt to
deflect wrath from the government.
In a second pogrom in Gomel, on February the fifteenth, one
Jew was murdered and three hundred were wounded, many of them
mortally. The police were passive spectators. Forty- seven
Jews were killed and over fifty wounded when striking workers
rioted on the twenty-first of February in Theodosia, in the
Crimea. The police stood by for three days and did nothing to
stop a three-day pogrom in Minsk that started on the twelfth
of March. In April, Cossacks terrorized the Jewish quarter of
Bialystok, in the Grodno province, wounding many Jews and
looting many houses.
A major pogrom occurred in Zhitomir on the eleventh of May
and there was plenty of evidence of advance planning. The
pogrom was preceded by agitation against the Jews in the
antisemitic Krushevan's paper; reports of the impending riot
had been current since the end of April. Twenty-nine Jews
were murdered and a hundred and fifty wounded. Twenty-five
shops were looted and five houses were burned. However, all
wealthy Jews were immune and the governor prevented the
hooligans from murdering the son of wealthy parents.
The mayor participated in organizing the rioters and Cossacks
assisted the mob in looting. The governor was unmoved by the
Jews' suffering. Photographs of intended victims were found
with the rioters.
In May, many were murdered and wounded in a pogrom in
Kroshna, in the Zhitomir province. Two were killed and twenty-
six wounded in a pogrom in Brisk, in June. Three hundred and
forty-one Jews were killed and over five hundred injured in a
pogrom in Lodz that month. One hundred Jews were killed and
over four hundred wounded in a pogrom in Kiev in July and
there was a terrible massacre in Yekaterinoslav, in August.
In the same month, sixty were killed and two hundred wounded
in a pogrom in Bialystok. In Kishinev in September, a pogrom
started when a funeral procession was attacked by troops and
police. Four Jews were murdered and eighty wounded.
In such a situation, all the Jews live in fear of a pogrom
and there is no peace anywhere.
No Cause for Celebration
The atrocities reached a peak in the fall of 1905, with the
achievement of the revolution's aims. The loss of prestige
following the Russian defeat by the Japanese contributed to
the intensification of pressure upon the Czar that finally
induced him to grant his subjects a constitution, on the
thirtieth of October.
A national assembly, the Duma, was to be convened and a Prime
Minister was appointed. This news was met with celebrations
throughout Russia and many Jews, who hoped that their
emancipation would now not be far off, figured prominently in
the rejoicing. In response, reactionary elements who were
loyal to the Czar organized processions to demonstrate their
allegiance to their sovereign. In many places, these
developed into pogroms against the Jews.
The worst pogrom took place in Odessa, on October the thirty-
first. Over eight hundred Jews were murdered and five
thousand wounded, again amid scenes of unspeakable barbarity.
Losses to property amounted to one billion rubles. The Jewish
self defense was well organized. However, whenever the Jews
had the upper hand, the police surrounded them and shot them
down.
Janitors were ordered to point out Jewish-owned flats to the
rioters. Gentiles who came to the defense of the Jews also
fell victim to the bloodthirsty mob. Following the pogrom, an
imperial edict was issued thanking the troops for their
exemplary conduct. Nineteen officers who had prevented murder
and pillage were transferred to obscure posts. The police
prefect was promoted to a governor's post.
In October and November 1905, the JPS Yearbook records
a hundred and twenty-one pogroms, in the course of which an
estimated twenty-five thousand were murdered, a hundred
thousand were injured, two hundred thousand families were
ruined and losses caused to property of four hundred billion
rubles. According to another estimate, the number of pogroms
at this time was far greater.
The commissions of inquiry that were set up following the
outrages revealed the criminal inactivity of the police and
military authorities. However, in general, prosecutors and
coroners were ordered to conduct their investigations so as
to remove blame from soldiers and police. Governors were
allowed to resign and were then transferred to new, usually
better, posts. The violence continued throughout the winter.
There were at least another twenty-five pogroms between
December 1905 and February 1906.
An Acute Problem
Altogether, the proclamation of the October Manifesto of the
Czar was followed by a horrendous wave of pogroms that laid
some three hundred towns and villages waste, left tens of
thousands dead and countless more wounded and caused hundreds
of billions of rubles worth of damage.
The outrages evoked sympathy and protest in many quarters. In
New York, nearly one hundred thousand marchers filled the
city's principal streets in protest. A huge meeting was held
in London, that was addressed by a number of prominent
personages.
A number of protest meetings were held in Russia itself. One
such meeting, in St. Petersburg, drew a crowd of over four
thousand Russians. A general relief fund was established to
assist the victims, which amassed contributions from both
Jews and gentiles outside Russia, amounting to almost four
million dollars. December 4, 1905 (Tuesday, 7 Kislev 5666)
was observed in the US as a day of mourning and prayer for
victims.
Although it was generally understood that no foreign
government would formally protest the Russian government's
treatment of the Jews, attempts were nonetheless made in
several countries to induce such interference. The responses
to these appeals were courteous and sympathetic but conveyed
the impossibility of taking any definite steps within the
bounds of international law and etiquette. In plain words,
what the Russian government did with its Jews was its own
business.
Beyond these immediate reactions and responses, it remained
to be seen what could be done to ameliorate the long-term
predicament of Russian Jewry, given the change in
circumstances. The problem was acute. The enmity of the
ruling echelon in Russia towards the Jews was common
knowledge. The official program for the Jews of Russia had
been succinctly put by K. P. Pobedonostsev, one of the Czar's
henchmen and lay leader of the Russian Church, when he said
that he hoped that, "one third [of the Russian Jews] will
convert, one third will die and one third will flee the
country."
The government's ability to rouse the populace to violence
against the Jews had been, and continued to be, amply
demonstrated. There were at least another dozen pogroms in
the first two months of 1906.
For the moment, it was by no means clear that further change
could be effected through either revolutionary or
constitutional methods, though there was great hope for the
latter. Emigration seemed the only sure way of escape, but it
was not an option for the entire Jewish population.
In principle, the gates of the United States were open to all
in those days, but a massive influx of hundreds of thousands
of destitute Russian refugees prompted the Senate to change
the minimum requirements for entry, effectively limiting
immigration.
Several schemes for settling large numbers of Jews in
sparsely populated regions of South America were being
implemented but these required considerable resources.
Although two million Jews did emigrate in the three decades
preceding the First World War, this hardly helped the
situation within Russia for natural growth maintained the
number of the Czar's Jewish subjects at almost five and a
half million souls.
It might be said then, that the ground was burning beneath
the feet of Russian Jewry. But all were aware that it was
burning beneath the Czar's feet too. The forces that
threatened to overthrow him and break his hold on the country
had not disappeared. They had merely been quieted
momentarily, while all waited to see whether there would be
any real change for the better.
Hope of Improvement
Now there were to be elections for a state assembly, the
Duma. Though the Czar had promised the Russian people genuine
freedom in his manifesto, he had made no specific mention of
the Jews, who apparently were to remain as restricted as
before.
Would the convening of a Duma offer any real hope of
improvement? The Bund, for example, opposed Jewish
participation in any elections, arguing that nothing could be
expected from a parliament where reactionaries would probably
hold power. In fact, the Jews expended great efforts before
the elections, with the result that twelve Jewish deputies
were voted into the Duma. There was a raw voting potential of
twice that number, but several provinces with a Jewish
population numbering two million between them returned no
Jewish members (apparently because of agitation by the Bund
and lack of organization of other parties).
At any rate, lengthy deliberations and consultations were
held in order to determine the best strategy for obtaining
equal rights for Jews. The Duma duly convened on the tenth of
May 1906. The majority party decided not to treat the Jewish
issue separately but to include the Jews in a clause of their
program advocating equal rights for all, irrespective of
religion, race or nationality. One of the Jewish deputies was
a leading member of this party. Things were looking
promising, when suddenly yet another savage pogrom broke
out.
Hopes Dashed Again
The Bialystok pogrom lasted for three days, from the
fourteenth to the sixteenth of June. It left two hundred Jews
dead and between six and seven hundred wounded. In the
following days there were three other pogroms in towns in the
region; fifty Jews were killed in the last one. The police
and military, as usual, openly aided and abetted the rioters.
This time however, a national assembly existed and, as
representative of the people, it took prompt action.
Several deputies called upon M. Stolypin, the Czar's Minister
for the Interior, for an explanation of what had happened.
The response was unsatisfactory, as expected, and a motion
demanding immediate action was introduced in the Duma and
unanimously adopted. A three-member commission set off for
Bialystok to investigate and submitted its report at a debate
in the Duma on the pogrom, on the fifth and sixth of July.
The report proved the complicity of the government in the
unrest. It provided a long and exhaustive account of the
prelude to and progress of the pogrom and of the subsequent
discussions in the Duma. Bialystok was the only pogrom for
which such thorough, or indeed any, official documentation
exists. However, the JPS Yearbook points out that the
names of any of the other towns where major disturbances took
place could be substituted for Bialystok to give a history of
the similar scenes of savagery that were enacted there.
Again, meetings of protest were held in foreign countries,
notably one in Berlin. The U.S. Congress adopted a resolution
of sympathy. The question was raised in the English House of
Commons but the Foreign Minister tried to assure the members
of parliament that it was impossible for the British
government to do anything and that adopting any resolutions
would only embarrass the Russian government, which in his
opinion was blameless anyway.
By Imperial decree, the Duma, in whose procedures and
resolutions the Czar's subjects had placed their hopes, was
then dissolved. At its last session, on the twentieth of
July, a resolution was adopted insisting that a judicial
investigation of the Bialystok pogrom be held, that the
officials responsible be punished and the Ministry
dismissed.
Although the Russian government had taken action to head off
several pogroms, there were further disturbances that summer
with violence in Odessa, Warsaw and Siedlce. In the last
case, thirty Jews were murdered and a hundred and eighty
wounded. With the eventual suppression of the first
revolution the pogroms ceased, until the old regime was
finally overthrown twelve years later.
End of Part II
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