CHAPTER XXVII

RUSSIAN REACTION AND JEWISH EMIGRATION

1.  AFTERMATH OF THE POGROM POLICY

In this wise, beginning with the May laws of 1882, the Government gradually succeeded in monopolizing all anti-Jewish activities by letting bureaucratic persecutions take the place of street pogroms.  However, in 1883 and 1884, the “street” made again occasional attempts to compete with the Government.  On May 10, 1883, on the eve of Alexander III.’s coronation, a pogrom took place in the large southern city of Rostov-on-the-Don.  About a hundred Jewish residences and business places were demolished and plundered.  All portable property of the Jews was looted by the mob, and the rest was destroyed.  As was to be expected, “the efforts of the police and troops were unable to stop the disorders,” and only after completing their day’s work the rioters fled, pursued by lashes and shots from the Cossaks.  The Russian censorship strictly barred all references to the pogroms in the newspapers, for fear of spoiling the solemnity of the coronation days.  The press was only allowed to hint at “alarming rumors,” the effect of which extended even to the stock exchange of Berlin.  Not before a year had passed was permission given to make public mention of the Rostov events.

There was reason to fear that the pogrom at Rostov was only a prelude to a new series of riots in the South.  But more than two months had passed, and all seemed to be quiet.  Suddenly, however, on July 20, on the Greek-Orthodox festival dedicated to the memory of the prophet Elijah, the Russian mob made an attack upon the descendants of the ancient prophet at Yekaterinoslav.  The memory of the great biblical Nazirite who abhorred strong drink was appropriately celebrated by his Russian votaries in Yekaterinoslav who filled themselves with an immense quantity of alcohol and became sufficiently intoxicated to embark upon their daring exploits as robbers.

The ringleaders of the pogrom movement were not local residents but itinerant laborers from the Great-Russian governments, who were employed in building a railroad in the neighborhood of the South-Russian city.  These laborers, to quote the expression of a contemporary, attended to the “military part of the undertaking,” whereas the “civil functions” were discharged by the local Russian inhabitants: 

While the laborers and the stronger half of the residents were demolishing the houses and stores and throwing all articles and merchandise upon the street, the women and children grabbed everything that came into their hands and carried them off, by hand or in wagons, to their homes.

The looting and plundering continued on the second day, July 21, until a detachment of soldiers arrived.  The mob, intoxicated with their success, attempted to beat off the soldiers, but naturally suffered defeat.  The sight of a score of killed and wounded had a sobering