Pogroms in the Russian Empire, particularly during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, represent a harrowing chapter in the complex history of relations between Russians and the world's largest Jewish community, which deteriorated significantly between 1881 and 1905.

Outbreaks of violence and reprisal, reflecting long-standing problems between the Russian and Jewish communities that frequently ignited passions.

Historical Context and Key Periods

The first major wave of modern pogroms occurred in 1881-1882, following the assassination by Jewish revolutionaries of Emperor Alexander II.

Jews were prominent in the anti-tsarist, revolutionary spirit Socialist movements.

This naturally fostered a disillusionment within the Tsarist government with what it perceived as the negative outcomes of its integrationist policies towards the Jews, particularly during the reign of Alexander II.

Which was a slap in the face for Emperor Alexander II, who initiated a profound shift towards the integration of Jews into Russian society, guided by a clear intention to resolve the Jewish Question in what was perceived as the most favourable manner.

There was a swift removal of state constraints and restrictions on Jewish life, with the expectation that the Jewish population would seamlessly integrate with the indigenous inhabitants.

Measures included the abolition of the cantonist system and the equalisation of military service for Jews, aligning them with the general population. Broader liberal reforms, such as the repeal of the capitation tax, also extended benefits to the Jewish community

But the integration of Jews into the system only deepened the Jewish revolutionaries reach into the Russian state, who would soon see the execution of the Tzars, the end of the Orthodox Monarchy, and the start of Communism.

The Harmful Effects

The people of Russia felt the harmful effect Jews had on the rest of society.

General Perceptions and Economic Impact:

• Jews are seen as a "sinister force directed against the Russian people and the existing order of things".
• They "fill everything up, they undermine everything, and they embody the spirit of the century".
• Jews are engaged in incorrect economic relations with the rest of population, leading to "a general dislike".
• Their economic activity, tribal exclusivity, and religious fanaticism are considered harmful to the Christian population".
• The Jewish exploitation is a principal cause of the pogroms and deep hatred of the local population.
• They are accused of ruthless and deceptive business practices, victimising a trusting people, seeking easy gain, and evading taxes and public duties.
• Jews have taken over not only trade and production but, through rent or purchase, significant amounts of landed property.
• Due to "their clannishness and solidarity", they direct efforts "primarily toward the exploitation of the poorest classes of the surrounding population".
• Their "apparent prosperity" provided an "easy explanation for those who could not understand why the abolition of serfdom had not been followed by an improvement in the peasants’ lot".
• There is a "fear of the strengthening of the capitalist elements, which could aggravate the exploitation of peasants and of all the workers".
• "The presence of Jews in the villages acts with harm upon the economic and moral condition of the rural population, because the Jews encourage drunkenness among the local population".
• Jews are an "irreplaceable, active and very inventive link in the chain of exploitation of these illiterate emaciated peasants". If Jewish links were removed, the "wide-spread system of exploitation would not have functioned".
• Rural trade is concentrated in their hands, and they lease "the sale of vodka in taverns", fostering "the expansion of drunkenness".
• They are seen as "pawnbrokers who suck the blood of the unfortunate Russian".
• Some believe the "Jewish economic dominance over the Russian population" is a key factor in unrest.
• "The Jews ‘are defeating the Russian power by gradually withdrawing all its capacity to intervene… The government behaves as if it were a Jew’".
• They are accused of trying "to artificially raise the price of essential commodities and withdraw from circulation common currency", aiming "to make the population lose confidence in the Russian currency" and spread the rumour that "the Russian government is bankrupt".
• There are "exaggerated notions about the role of Jews in the middle and top ranks of government".
• "The Jewish people… has taken out of their ranks the holders of a new influence, that of capital… they precipitated… the dissolution of economic forms of another age".
• "The fight of Soviet authorities against private enterprise and entrepreneurs is in large part a fight against Jewish populace".
• "if the selection process is in the hands of Jews, you can bet that the entire staff of responsible positions will go to Jews, even if it means removing the existing staff".
• Their "preference for their own is displayed in a sharp, discourteous manner which is offensive to others".

Revolutionary and Political Involvement:

• Jews are "at the root of the revolutionary-social movement and regicide".
• The "large-scale participation of Jews in the revolutionary movement" is noted.
• "Some dark forces drive Jewish youth into the craziness of political agitation".
• There are "political trials" where Jews are "among the most prominent defendants".
• "The action which was easiest of all to direct against the Jews now, could, in its further development, come down on the nobles and officials".
• "Jewish revolutionary elements are recruited among the Jewish youth who have moved away from religion".
• "Jewish public men, even of patriotic sensibility, were part of the Union for Liberation" and were "defeatists" during the Japanese war, applauding "executions" of ministers.
• "The Jews had taken an active part in the Russian revolutionary movement".
• "Jewish youth, in the midst of the fray, was shouting: ‘Down with the autocracy!’".
• They "returned to Russia—often to engage in revolutionary activities—henceforth as merchants who were not subject to any professional or geographical limitation".
• "The radical and revolutionary movements within the Russian Jewish community have always been based on the idea that the problem of equal rights… would be solved only when one would cut once for all the head of the Medusa and all the serpents that spring from it".
• There is a "lack of sense of responsibility in the face of the confusion that reigned in the minds of the Jews".
• The "propagation of a ‘revolutionary spirit’ as vague as it was superficial".
• Jews are seen to "take an important part in the work of transplanting this foreign fruit [Marxism] on Russian soil".
• They are "ready, in varying degrees, to organise the world on new principles", attributing to the Jewish people "the role of leader of the popular movements for freedom, equality and justice—a leader who, of course, does not hesitate to break down the existing political and social regime".
• "The Soviets without the Jews!" is a slogan.
• There is "zealous participation of the Jews in the martyrdom imposed on an exsanguinate Russia by the Bolsheviks".
• "The Russians had never seen any Jews in command before", but now see them "at every step. Invested with a ferocious and unlimited power".
• The "new terror" of the Cheka was "generally regarded as ‘Jewish terror’", with a widespread perception that "Chekists and Jews were all but the same" due to their "ardent service on the highest posts in Cheka".
• There is "incredibly enormous power on an unimaginable scale" in the hands of Jewish Chekists.
• A "certain enthusiasm among Jews as they carried out the business of the barbaric young government".
• The "brazenness and ardor with which all Bolshevik policies were carried out… gave Bolshevik power in the 20’s a certain Jewish stamp".
• "It is obvious that Jews pervaded the Soviet power structure in those years".
• Jewish Bolsheviks are criticised for "cruelty, sadism, unbridled violence".
• "The Jewish population in its mass showed a suspicious, even hostile attitude towards the Bolsheviks. But when… it had acquired complete freedom… it did nothing to prevent the Bolshevik Jews from occupying the key positions, and these made an exceedingly cruel use of this new power".
• "Bolshevism is now blending with Judaism".
• "Soviet power in the first place answers the wishes and interests of Jews and they are its ardent supporters and in the second place, power resides in Jewish hands".
• They "accuse Jews of political stranglehold, of seizing parties and soviets, and even of ruining the army… of looting and hoarding goods".
• "Many Jews through their own actions provoke acute anti-Semitism… all the impudent Jews filling the communist ranks – these pharmacists, shopkeepers, peddlers, dropouts and pseudo intellectuals are indeed causing much evil to Russia and Jewry".

Social and Cultural Perceptions:

• They "control the peri-odical press".
• "Jews… are a bunch of people, who completely reject Christian teachings, the Christian ideal and code of morality (and, therefore, the entire foundation of Russian society), and practice a hostile and antagonistic faith".
• The "Jewish law permits them ‘to profit from any weakness and gullibility of gentile’".
• "Talmudic morals do not place any obstacles before the Jews if it is a question of making money at the expense of someone outside of the tribe".
• Jews are perceived as a "stubbornly fanatical tribe".
• There are "attitudes of seclusion and nearly the outright hostility toward Christians which thrive in Jewish communities".
• "Jewish separation" is seen as "harmful for the country".
• They are believed to "defy integration with the civil society in which they live, most kept their old way of life, taking advantage of the work of others".
• "The Jewish people are convinced that the government is hostile to the Jewish faith".
• "The Jews crucified our Lord and shed his precious blood".
• There are accusations that "Jews have plotted" the "profanation of relics", connecting it to "those who crucified Christ".
• Some assert that "the Jewish people were not a people but a parasitic class".
• There is "animosity of the local population towards the Jews", and "rumours circulated… announcing that there would be… aggressions against the Jews".
• Accusations of ritual murder of Christian children.
• They are seen as "incapable of blending into the local population".
• Jews "form within the State, a separate State, and enjoy more extensive rights than Christians themselves".
• "The Jewish youth boldy discussed, quoting Marx in support, the question of the form in which the Russian moujik should possess the land".
• There is an "avid desire of the Jews to seize everything".
• Jews are depicted as "a veritable taboo that forbids the most trivial criticism".
• "Jewish doctors not be admitted to work in the army health services".
• There is a belief that the "Constitution promised to replace the Tatar yoke by that, injurious, of the international Kahal".
• They are accused of "cowardice and desertion" during wartime.
• The "Jewish Question" is linked to "barbarity" and "bloody outbursts" in Russia.
• "The psychic structure of the Jew is culturally higher, more beautiful than that of the Russian" (stated by M. Gorky).
• There is a "pathological features of the Russian character," including their "internal instability," attributed to Russians by a Jewish author (Pomerants).
• Jews are accused of judging Russians "precisely in generalised terms, and almost always to condemn".
• Some believed that "the Jewish people are convinced that the government is hostile to the Jewish faith".
• The "Jewish intelligentsia and semi-intelligentsia simply had almost no other source of livelihood under Soviet conditions except the government service".
• There is an "obvious anti-Semitic nature" in "anti-Zionist" campaigns, where Zionism is presented as a "caricature composed of the characteristic and eternal Jewish images".
• Jews are forced to prove their "loyalty" and that they have "no connection to their own Jewishness, especially to Zionism".
• They are seen by some as being "incredibly short memory" and having "nothing but Jewish suffering" under communism.
• "The Jewish presence was also apparent in all branches of the printed propaganda" during the Soviet era, including producing "extremely filthy images of Western leaders".
• "Jews often set the tone without noticing that their banquet was happening against the backdrop of the demise of the main nationality in the country".
• There is a perception that "the Jews, by ‘betting on Bolshevism’ influenced the overall course of events in Europe".
• "The Jewish people… is not a sect, not an order, but a whole people, dispersed over the world but united in itself".
• They are seen as displaying "contempt toward Russia, her rudeness and savagery, contrasting all this with [the worthiness of] the ancient Jewish nation".
• The belief that "a Jew in Russia has always been a victim of unilateral persecution".
• A "belief in the infallibility of our nation and our claim to a monopoly on suffering".
• "The Jews are a nation corrupted by their stateless and a-historic existence".
• "The Jews did not pass the test. They still do not want to return to their homeland. They prefer to stay in Galut and complain about anti-Semitism every time they are criticised".