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
In accordance with the well-known pogrom routine, the authorities
remembered only on the third day that it was time to suppress the riots,
the "lesson" being over. On December 15, the governor-general of Warsaw,
Albedinski, issued an order dividing the town into four districts and
placing every district under the command of a regimental chief. Troops
were stationed in the streets and ordered to check all crowds, with the
result that on the same day the disorders were stopped.
This, however, came too late. For in the meantime some fifteen hundred
Jewish residences, business places, and houses of prayer had been
demolished and pillaged, and twenty-four Jews had been wounded, while
the monetary loss amounted to several million rubles. Over three
thousand rioters were arrested--among them a large number of under-aged
youths. On the whole, the rioters were recruited from the dregs of the
Polish population, but there were also found among them a number of
unknown persons that spoke Russian. The _Novoye Vremya_, in commenting
upon the pogrom, made special reference to the friendly attitude of the
Polish hooligans to the Russians in general and to the officers and
soldiers in particular--a rather suspicious attitude, considering the
inveterate hatred of the Poles towards the Russians, especially towards
the military and official class. Here and there the soldiers themselves
got drunk in the demolished saloons, and took part in looting Jewish
property.
The Polish patriots from among the higher classes were shocked by this
attempt to engineer a barbarous Russian pogrom in Warsaw. In an appeal
which the representatives of the Polish intellectuals addressed to the
people not later than on the second day of the pogrom they protested
emphatically against the hideous scenes which had been disgracing the
capital of Poland. The archbishop of Warsaw acted similarly, and the
Catholic priests frequently marched through the streets with crosses in
their hands, admonishing the crowds to disperse. It is interesting to
note that, while the pogrom was going on, the governor-general of Warsaw
refused to comply with the request of a number of Poles, who applied for
permission to organize a civil guard, pledging themselves to restore
order in the city in one day. It would seem as if the official pogrom
ritual did not allow of the slightest modification. The disorders had to
proceed in accordance with the established routine, so as not to violate
the humane commandment: "Two days shalt thou plunder, and on the third
day shalt thou rest." Evidently some one had an interest in having the
capital of Poland repeat the experiment of Kiev and Odessa, and in
seeing to it that the "cultured Poles" should not fall behind the
Russian barbarians in order to convince Europe that the pogrom was not
exclusively a Russian manufacture.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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