Russians, Jews, and the Pogroms of 1881–1882

510 Pages·2011·61.807 MB·English

by  John Doyle Klier

Russians, Jews, and the Pogroms of 1881- 1882
Anti-Jewish pogroms rocked the Russian Empire m 1881 2, plunging
both the Jewish community and the imperial authorities into crisis.
Focusing on a wide range of responses to the pogroms, this book offers
the most comprehensive, balanced, and complex study of the crisis to
date. It presents a nuanced account of the diversity of Jewish political
reactions and introduces a wealth of new sources covering Russian and
other non-Jewish reactions to these events. Seeking to answer the ques
tion of what caused the pogroms' outbreak and spread, the book provides
a fuller picture of how officials at every level responded to the national
emergency and irrevocably lays to rest the myth that the authorities
instigated or tolerated the pogroms. This is essential reading not only
for Russian and Jewish historians but also for those interested in the
study of ethnic violence more generally.
JOHN DOYLE KLIER (1944-2007) was the Sidney and Elizabeth Corob
Professor of Modern Jewish History in the Hebrew and Jewish Studies
Department at University College London. His earlier books, Russia
Gathers Her Jews (1985) and lmpen·at Russia's Jewish Question
(Cambridge, 1995), are standard works in modern Russian-Jewish his
tory, along with Pogroms: Ami-Jewish Violence in Modem Russian History
(coeditor, Cambridge, 1992).
---,
Frontispiece "Chase a fly out of the door, and it returns through the
window. Save us, Lord, from hunger, plagues, floods, fire, and the
invasion of foreign tribes" (Evreiskii vopros v kartinakh, I 884).
"IVAN: What trouble these Jews are! You haven't finished building a hut
and a fence, setting up a garden and a patch, you look around, and
these Jews sneak in and grow heavy like bugs, and neither yourself nor
your kids have anywhere to stay. Now, will you leave the hut!
GERSHKO (from behind): Hello, Ivan, how do you do?
IVAN: What do you want here? Get away! I have enough work without
you!
GERSHKO: But we do so well in your house; and we won't interfere with
your work, we just set up our small shops, bring in our family, we will
lend you money - whereas you will have a walk and a drink, as the
working man needs strengthening; with us, you don't even need
money ... you just bring a small measure of oats and a quarter of
wheat, we will accept all."
Russians., Jews., and the
Pogroms of 1881- 1882
John Doyle Klier
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First publishc.:d 2011
Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge
A catalogue record for this publication is available from zhe British Library
Libra,y of Co11gress Cataloguing in Publication data
Klier, John.
Russians, Jews, and the Pogroms of 1881-1882 / John Doyle Klier.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-0-521-89548-4 (hardback)
I. Jews - Persecutions - Russia. 2. Pogroms - Russia.
3. Jews - Russia - Social conditions - 19th century. 4. Russia - Ethnic
relations. I. Title.
DS134.84K55 2011
305. 892' 404 709034-dc22 2010031215
ISBN 978-0-521-89548-4 Hardback
Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or
accuracy of URLs for external or third-parry internet websites referred to
in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such
websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.
Contents
Edicors' preface
p,l.!!c! Vii
Lisi off igures
X
Lise of maps xii
Foreword xiii
Acknowledge111c11t.1
X\,,I
Noce on daces and tra11slzteratw11 xviii
Lisi ofa cronyms xix
Introduction: the Russian Empire and its Jews
Part I
The pogroms of 1881- 1882 17
2 What was a pogrom? 58
Part Il
3 Confronting the pogroms 91
4 Russian society views the pogroms 128
5 The crystallization of prejudice 178
6 Prejudice into policy 207
7 The pogroms as foreign policy crisis 234
Part III
8 Jewish responses to the pogroms 255
9 The Jewish press and the emigration crisis 296
10 Politics without prophecy 324
11 The pogroms as humanitarian crisis 365
V
vi Contents
Epilogue: legends of the pogroms 384
Appendix 415
Glossary 460
Bibliography 463
Index 478
•
Editors' preface
John Doyle Klier died on 23 s~pt..:mt-c 201 - '-\• the age ot ,.mly sixty-two,
he was at the height of his pow.:r, a a ~ch,)lar. This book was the last
major project that John completed. Oi..r task has been far from onerous.
At the time of his death, John had completed the manuscript for this
book and responded to the readers' reports. \X'e undertook the re,·isions
he proposed, especially those regarding the reorganizauon of the mat
erial. While the first parr sets the stage, the second focuses predominantly
on non-Jewish and the third predominantly on Je,\ish responses to the
pogroms. The manuscript has obviously been copy-edited, but we have
barely changed the actual text. We are grateful to the colleagues who helped
us with queries that arose along the way.
The selection of the illustrations has ultimately been ours. In some
cases it was quite clear from the manuscript which illustrations John had
in mind; in others we have chosen from John's files the images that seemed
most suitable. Presumably he would have wanted to comment on the nature
and provenance of these illustrations, something we are in no position to do
in his place. 1
Clearly, John did not have the chance to step back and take one last
careful look at the revised version as it now stands. He would doubtless
have wanted to make further changes at this stage to round off the book in
its final form.
As an appendix to this book, the reader will find a chronological list of
anti-Jewish violence and related developments in Imperial Russia in the
years I 881-2 that John was able to document on the basis of his archival
research. By no means all of the cited material has been used for this book.
Based on John's notebooks we have been able to link each entry in the list
directly to an archival reference, which makes this a valuable resource
for further research in the field of Russian Jewish history. The map on
1 Cf. John D. Klier, "Iskuss1Vo i pogromy. Khudozhes1Vennoe otobrazhenie antievreiskogo
nasiliia v imperskoi Rossii (1871-1903 gody)," in 0. V. Budnitskii, tt al., eds., Russko
evreiskaia k11/tura (Moscow, 2006), 437-52.
vii
--.
viii Editors' preface
pp. xxii-x:xiv records all those sites of anti-Jewish violence mentioned in
this list for the period between 15 April and IO May I 881 whose location
could be clearly identified. We are grateful to Cath D'Alton (UCL) for
the realization of Map 2 and thank Tim Aspden who produced Map I
on P- x:xi for John's previous book, Imperial Russia's _7cwi,h Question,
1855-1881 (Cambridge, 1996). Finally our thanks go to all the colleagues
at Cambridge University Press who have helped brmg thi~ project to
fruition.
John wanted to dedicate this book to "three scholars who have done
much to direct and inspire me as a scholar of Russia and Russian Jewish
history," Ralph T. Fisher, Hans Rogger, and Jonathan Frankel. Under the
circumstances it would have seemed strange to simply dedicate the book
to these three colleagues in the usual way, and we have instead decided to
use this opponunity to do so on John's behalf.
From 1960 to 1987, Ralph T. Fisher was the director of the Russian
and East European Center at the University of Illinois at Urbana
Champaign where John took his doctorate in 1975. John felt deeply
indebted to Fisher for accepting him on the program and for nurruring
his achievements. Fisher's personal generosity of spirit and energy made
the center a home and a springboard for John and many other graduates
of the program.
John regarded Hans Rogger as an inspirational pioneer in Russian
Jewish history. He frequently acknowledged the role that Rogger had
played in inspiring scholarly debate beyond the conspiracy theory
approach to Russian Jewish history in general and the pogroms in partic
ular. John concluded his obituary for Rogger on a personal note, explai
ning that,
To embark upon research on the history of Russian Jewry in the 1970s, as I did,
meant, inevitably, becoming a "revisionist" ... Any young scholar, therefore, was
"working without a net," making hypotheses that seemed to go against a century
old scholarly consensus. The appearance of Rogger's anicles and his demand for
a re-examination of assumptions and beliefs were of enormous psychological
encouragement and support.2
For scholars of Jewish history in Eastern Europe, the academic year
2007-8 was unusually bleak: having begun with John's death it ended with
the death of Jonathan Frankel on 7 May 2008. Their longstanding pro
fessional relationship was characterized by warm collegiality, mutual
appreciation, and friendship. John greatly admired and respected
Frankel's work and, in response to the readers' reports for this book,
2 John D. Klier, "Hans Rogger, 1923-2002," East European Jewish Affairs, 32, I (2002), 152.
Editors' preface i.x
John wrote that he considered "Frankel's to be the definitive description
of the rise of the so-called New Jewish Politics."
LARS FISCHER
FRANCOIS GUESNET
HELEN KLIER
Figures
Frontispiece "Chase a fly out of the door, and it returns
through the window. Save us, Lord, from hunger,
plagues, floods, fire, and the invasion of foreign tribes"
(Evreiskii vopros v kartinakh, 1884). page ii
Well-to-do bystanders observing the pogrom of 1871
in Odessa. Drawing by Vasilii V. Vakhrenov. Source:
Robert Weinberg, "Visualizing Pogroms in Russian
History," Jewish History, 12, 1 (1998), 71-92. 67
2 "Before the Justice of the Peace" (Maiak, 1882). 69
3 A woman and her children displaying Christian religious
artefacts during the pogrom of 1871 in Odessa. Drawing
by Vasilii V. Vakhrenov. Source: Robert Weinberg,
"Visualizing Pogroms in Russian History," Jewish
History, 12, 1 (1998), 71-92. 85
4 and 5 Onlookers observing the pogrom of 1871 in Odessa.
Drawings by Vasilii V. Vakhrenov. Source: Robert
Weinberg, "Visualizing Pogroms in Russian History,"
Jewish History, 12, 1 (1998), 71-92. 87-8
6 "Productive work of Russian Jews at its best"
(Evreiskii vopros v kartinakh, 1884). 137
7 "First and second meeting" (Evreiskii vopros v kartinakh,
1884). 138
8 "Hamlet. To beat or not to beat? That is the question!"
(Bundy'lnik, 1881). 140
9 "Fiat lux! ! Episode from the history of the Pressb urg
defenders ofliberty" (Maiak, 1882). 142
10 "The new Muscovite invasion" (Boland istok, 14N/1882). 249
11 "Outward bound" (Bundy'lnik, 1881). 266
X