Jewish Pogroms in the Historical Context of the First Russian Revolution

Abstract

The article studies the place and role of Jewish pogroms in the Russian Empire in thehistorical context of the First Russian Revolution of 1905 – 1907. It was proved that Jewish pogroms were a trigger mechanism used by opposition and revolutionary groups in the Russian Empire and beyond, in order to provoke a political confrontation with the Russian government, which was postfactum declared to be the fault of the «mass murder of peaceful Jews». The corresponding propaganda of the «pogrom policy of autocracy» was supported by the opposition and revolutionary periodical press. According to the logic of the Russian opposition it should, firstly, destabilize the internal situation in the country, and, secondly, discredit the autocracy in the eyes of the world community. The confrontation was critical when both sides of the conflict began to resort to the method of pogroms provocation. If anti-government groups used this method at the beginning of the revolutionary events, the Russian authorities turned to the corresponding «services» of the monarchists and the Russian citizens loyal to the regime at the final stage of the revolution when the government demanded more determination in its suppression. The author believes that the First Russian Revolution failed to solve the Jewish question. Accordingly, Russian Jewry again turned into a hostage in the confrontation of the autocracy with the opposition political groups, and the territory of the Jewish Pale of Settlement remained a human capacity and source of energy in the development of the Russian revolutionary movement in subsequent years as well, because if the autocracy succeeded in breaking out the victory of the hands of Jewish revolutionaries in 1905 – 1907, it was only at the cost of victims of their own citizens.

Keywords: Jewish pogroms 1905 ‒ 1907, First Russian Revolution, Bund, Jewish self-defence, Russianempire