The Odessa pogrom, which had resulted in the destruction of several city districts populated by poor Jews, did not satisfy the appetites of the savage crowd, whose imagination had been fired by stories of the “successes” attained at Kiev.  The mob threatened the Jews with a new riot and even with a massacre.  The panic resulting from this threat induced many Jews to flee to more peaceful places, or to leave Russia altogether.  The same lack of completeness marked the pogroms which took place simultaneously in several other cities within the jurisdiction of the governor-general of New Russia.  In the beginning of May the destructive energy characterizing the first pogrom period began to ebb.  A lull ensued in the “military operations” of the Russian barbarians which continued until the month of July of the same year.

CHAPTER XXII

THE ANTI-JEWISH POLICIES OF IGNATYEV

1.  THE VACILLATING ATTITUDE OF THE AUTHORITIES

In the beginning of May, 1881, the well-known diplomatist Nicholas Pavlovich Ignatyev was called by the Tzar to the post of Minister of the Interior.  At one time ambassador in Constantinople and at all times a militant Pan-Slavist, Ignatyev introduced the system of diplomatic intrigues into the inner politics of Russia, earning thereby the unenviable nickname of “Father of Lies.”

A programmatic circular, issued by him on May 6, declared that the principal task of the Government consisted in the “extirpation of sedition,” i.e., in carrying on a struggle not only against the revolutionary movement but also against the spirit of liberalism in general.  In this connection, Ignatyev took occasion to characterize the anti-Jewish excesses in the following typical sentences: 

The movement against the Jews which has come to light during the last few days in the South is a sad example, showing how men, otherwise devoted to Throne and Fatherland, yet yielding to the instigations of ill-minded agitators who fan the evil passions of the popular masses, give way to self-will and mob rule and, without being aware of it, act in accordance with the designs of the anarchists.  Such violation of the public order must not only be put down vigorously, but must also be carefully forestalled, for it is the first duty of the Government to safeguard the population against all violence and savage mob rule.

These lines reflect the theory concerning the origin of the pogroms, which was originally held in the highest Government spheres of St. Petersburg.  This theory assumed that the anti-Jewish campaign had been entirely engineered by revolutionary agitators and that the latter had made deliberate endeavors to focus the resentment of the popular masses upon the Jews, as a pre-eminently mercantile class, for the purpose of subsequently widening the anti-Jewish campaign into a movement directed against the Russian mercantile