History of the Jews in Russia and Poland, Volume 2 [of 3]: From the Death of Alexander I until the Death of Alexander III (1825-1894)Dubnow, Simon
Religion
History of the Jews in Russia and Poland, Volume 2 [of 3]: From the Death of Alexander I until the Death of Alexander III (1825-1894)
Dubnow, Simon
Jews -- Poland -- History; Jews -- Russia -- History; Poland -- History; Russia -- History
The news of the "victory" so easily won over the Jews of Yelisavetgrad
aroused the dormant pogrom energy in the unenlightened Russian masses.
In the latter part of April riots took place in many villages of the
Yelisavetgrad district and in several towns and townlets in the
adjoining government of Kherson. In the villages, the work of
destruction was limited to the inns kept by Jews--many peasants
believing that they were acting in accordance with imperial orders. In
the towns and townlets, all Jewish houses and stores were demolished and
their goods looted. In the town of Ananyev, in the government of
Kherson, the people were incited by a resident named Lashchenko, who
assured his townsmen that the central Government had given orders to
massacre the Jews because they had murdered the Tzar, and that these
orders were purposely kept back by the local administration. The
instigator was seized by the police, but was wrested from it by the
crowd which thereupon threw itself upon the Jews. The riots resulted in
some two hundred ruined houses and stores in the outskirts of the town,
where the Jewish proletariat was cooped up. The central part of the
town, where the more well-to-do Jews had their residences, was guarded
by the police and by a military detachment, and therefore remained
intact.
3. THE POGROM AT KIEV
The movement gained constantly in momentum, and the instincts of the mob
became more and more unbridled. The "Mother of Russian cities," ancient
Kiev, where at the dawn of Russian history the Jews, together with the
Khazars, had been the banner-bearers of civilization, became the scene
of the lawless fury of savage hordes. Here the pogrom was carefully
prepared by a secret organization which spread the rumor that the new
Tzar had given orders to exterminate the Jews, who had murdered his
father, and that the civil and military authorities would render
assistance to the people, whilst those who would fail to comply with the
will of the Tzar would meet with punishment. The local authorities, with
Governor-General Drenteln at their head, who was a reactionary and a
fierce Jew-hater, were aware not only of the imminence of the pogrom,
but also of the day selected for it, Sunday, April 26.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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