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 ..... ,.:.. . CAMBRIDGE - ::: - UNIVERSITY PRESS l~i\~\IIHlllllll IJNIVHHSITY l'HHSS C11111hl'id1,tl'. New Yurk, Mclh11111·11e, M11drld, Cupe Town, s,,u Sin1,111pnrc, l'11ulo, Dclhl, 'l'okyn, Mexico Ci1y ( '.11111\wld1,1c UnlvcrHily t>reHH 'l'hl' l11tl11hur1,1h llulldi111,1 C11111hrld1,1e Cll2 ARU, UK 1 P11hlishl'd i11 Ille U11iled S1111eH ul' /\111crlrn by Cuinhrldge UnlverHily Press, New Ynrk www.c11111\wldgc,11r1,1 lnli1m1111i11n 1111 1h is I ii II:: www.cu111brld1,1c.:.org/<J780521H 'J518'J. This pub\il:utinn is in copyright. Subjc.:cl LO Hlululory c.:xcc.:pLion nnd to the provisions ul' rel<.:vunt cullective licensing agrccincnts, no n:prnduction of uny purt may take pince without the wriuc.:n pl.'nnission of Cambridge.: University Press. 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