The October 1905 pogroms and the Russian authorities

Abstract

This article analyzes the October 1905 pogroms in the Russian Empire. It explores the reasons for the pogroms, the perpetrators, the victims, and the consequences for the Jewish population. The article shows the differences and peculiarities of the pogroms, which occurred in the cities and shtetls, rural areas, on the railroads, and in the ports. The article also explores the attitude and involvement of the higher and local authorities, police, and troops in the pogroms. Historians continue to debate whether these pogroms occurred spontaneously or were organized by the Tsarist authorities. This article provides considerable evidence that the October 1905 pogroms were not a spontaneous reaction of conservatives to the revolutionary events, but rather was the policy of the Russian government directed toward the suppression of the revolutionary movement.

Keywords:

• pogroms
• First Russian Revolution
• anti-Semitism
• Russian Empire

Notes

1. The Central State Historical Archive of Ukraine in Kyiv (TsDIAK U), f. 316, op.1, d. 382-B, ll. 6–8.

2. See note 1.

3. See note 1.

4. TsDIAK U, f. 317, op. 1, d. 3443, ll. 20–21.

5. TsDIAK U, f. 317, op. 1, d. 3443, ll.17–21.

6. For example, according to the 1897 census, 2341 Jews lived in Baku, one of the largest cities of the Caucasus. Evreiskaia entsiklopedia, (Moscow: Terra, 1991), 3: 702.

7. TsDIAK U, f. 442, op. 855, d. 391, part I, l. 258.

8. TsDIAK U, f. 442, op. 855, d. 391, part III, ll. 36; 269–270.

9. See note 8.

10. TsDIAK U, f. 317, op. 1, d. 5125, ll. 2–13.

11. TsDIAK U, f. 442, op. 855, d. 391, part II, l. 38.

12. TsDIAK U, f. 275, op. 1, d. 64, l. 9; Kievskaia gazeta, October 26, 1905.

13. 138,935 Jews lived in Odesa in 1897, which constituted 34.4% of the population. Pogroms: Anti-Jewish Violence, 231; “Odessa.” Kratkaia Evreiskaia entsiklopedia, (Jerusalem, 1992), Vol. 6, 118.

14. According to the 1897 census, 8095 Jews lived in Moscow out of a total population of 1,038,600; in 1902 the Jewish population of the city had increased to 9339. Leonid Praisman. “Moscow” The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe. http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Moscow; “Moscow.” Kratkaia Evreiskaia entsiklopedia, (Jerusalem, 1990), Vol. 5, 474.

15. TsDIAK U, f. 317, op. 1, d. 3443, part III, l. 9.

16. TsDIAK U, f. 442, op. 855, d.391, part III, l. 275.

17. TsDIAK U, f. 442, op. 855, d.391, part III, l. 33.

18. TsDIAK U, f. 442, op. 855, d.391, part III, l. 275.

19. TsDIAK U, f. 335, op. 1, d. 74, ll. 21–32.

20. See note 19.

21. “Bogdanovich Evgenii Vasil'evich” Chernaia Sotnia. Istoricheskaia entsiklopedia 1900–1917. Compilers A.D. Stepanov, A.A. Ivanov. Ed. O.A. Platonov. (Moscow: Institut russkoi tsivilizatsii, 2008), http://interpretive.ru/dictionary/961/word/bogdanovich-evgenii-vasilevich

22. See note 21.

23. Evreiskaia entsiklopedia (Moscow: Terra, 1991), 12: 621–622.