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 governor of Nizhni-Novgorod reported that the disorders could not
possibly have been foreseen. Yet there can be no doubt that the people
were to a certain extent prepared for them. The investigations of the
police and the judicial inquiry both converged to prove that the
Nizhni-Novgorod excesses were prompted primarily, if not exclusively, by
the desire for plunder. In all demolished houses not a single article of
value that could be removed was destroyed, and not only money but
anything at all that was fit for use was looted. That the disorders
broke out on the seventh of June was, in the opinion of the governor,
entirely accidental, but that they were directed against the Jews was
due to the fact that the _people had been led to believe that even the
the gravest crimes were practically unpunishable, so long as they were
were committed against the Jews, and not against other nationalities_.
An additional reason for the pogrom was the reputed wealth of a goodly
number of the Jewish families of Nizhni-Novgorod. The judicial
investigation brought out the fact that before attacking the offices of
Daitzelman, a big Moscow merchant, the mob was directed by shouts: "Let
us go to Daitzelman; there is a lot to be gotten there." The murder of
Daitzelman, who was beloved by his Russian laborers, and that of other
Jews, was not prompted by revenge, but by mere purposeless savagery. It
is impossible to assume that the mob was moved to action by the rumor
which had been spread by the ringleaders of the rioting hordes
concerning the kidnapping of a Christian child by the Jews--the more so
since at the very beginning of the excesses the police produced the
supposedly kidnapped child whole and intact, and showed it to the crowd.
The pogrom was due primarily to the savagery of brutal and unenlightened
mobs, who found an opportunity to vent their beastly instincts,
fortified by the conviction of complete immunity, which is referred to
in the report of the governor.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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