1881
In contrast to the non-violent nature of anti-Semitism in western and central
Europe was the outbreak of pogroms in the Russian Empire, beginning in the
spring of 1881 – a turning point in modern Jewish history. In March 1881,
Tsar Alexander II was assassinated by anarchists, bringing his son Alexander
III to the imperial throne. The new tsar was among those who blamed
his father’s liberalizing policies for unleashing the forces that led to his
premature death, leading the young tsar in a reactionary direction. His chief
influence was Constantin Pobedonostsev, the principal spokesman of politi -
cal conservatism, who regarded democracy as “the falsehood of our time.”
Pobedenostsev also believed that the peasantry should be suppressed and
denied education, and that freedom of the press should be severely limited.
As a solution to the Jewish problem, he believed that one-third of the Jews
should be baptized, one-third should be forced to emigrate, and one-third
should perish.
By April (Easter)1881, generally a time when religious fervor and anti-
Jewish sentiment were on the rise, pogroms broke out all over the Pale of
Settlement. Two hundred Jewish communities were attacked. Until recently,
historians debated whether these outbursts were spontaneous or organized by
the government and, if the latter, whether they were organized by the central
government or locally. Those who claimed that the violence was organized by
the tsar claim that he authorized the pogroms to deflect attention from more
pressing issues. However, recent scholarship has shown that, as a rule, the tsar
would never have encouraged the lawlessness associated with pogroms, lest it
escalate into attacks on other elements of Russian society (some historians
refer to this attitude as “Pugachevaphobia” in reference to an overriding
tsarist fear of a general peasant uprising like the one led by Pugachev in
1773). The upshot is that the pogroms were supported by local police, who
erroneously believed that the tsar had authorized them to support and partic-
ipate in the violence.
For Jews in this part of the world, this was the most traumatic experience
for Jews since 1648. It was especially traumatic for maskilim and other Jews
who had begun during the reign of Alexander II to believe that Russia was
becoming a western country, and had started to participate in Russian life and
culture. For traditional Jews, the pogroms were just another episode that
characterized the ephemeral nature of Jewish life in exile. For maskilim, the
pogroms caused major disillusionment.
The physical devastation of the pogroms was aggravated by subsequent
anti-Jewish legislation. In May 1881, the new Minister of the Interior, Count
Ignatiev, blamed the pogroms on the Jews’ economic exploitation of the peas-
antry. Jews, he claimed, had sold the peasants the very liquor that made them
drunk and violent. The count set up sixteen commissions to investigate the
Anti-Semitism and Jewish responses, 1870–1914 185