Pogroms in the Russian Empire (Russian: Еврейские погромы в Российской империи, romanized: Evreyskie pogromy v Rossiyskoy imperii) were large-scale, targeted, and repeated anti-Jewish riots that began in the 19th century. Pogroms began to occur after Imperial Russia, which previously had very few Jews, acquired territories with large Jewish populations from the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Ottoman Empire from 1772 to 1815. These territories were designated "the Pale of Settlement" by the Imperial Russian government, within which Jews were reluctantly permitted to live. The Pale of Settlement primarily included the territories of Poland, Ukraine, Belarus, Bessarabia (modern Moldova), Lithuania and Crimea. Jews were forbidden from moving to other parts of European Russia (including Finland), unless they converted from Judaism or obtained a university diploma or first guild merchant status. Migration to the Caucasus, Siberia, the Far East or Central Asia was not restricted.
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- ⭐ Core Definition: Pogroms in the Russian Empire
- Pogroms in the Russian Empire in the context of Persecution of Jews
- Pogroms in the Russian Empire in the context of Assassination of Alexander II of Russia
- Pogroms in the Russian Empire in the context of Antisemitism in the Russian Empire
- Pogroms in the Russian Empire in the context of History of the Jews in China
Pogroms in the Russian Empire in the context of Persecution of Jews
The persecution of Jews is a major component of Jewish history, and has prompted shifting waves of refugees and the formation of diaspora communities around the world. The earliest major event was in 597 BCE, when the Neo-Babylonian Empire conquered the Kingdom of Judah and then persecuted and exiled its Jewish subjects. Antisemitism has been widespread across many regions of the world and practiced by many different empires, governments, and adherents of other religions.
Jews have been commonly used as scapegoats for tragedies and disasters such as in the Black Death persecutions, the 1066 Granada massacre, the Massacre of 1391 in Spain, the many pogroms in the Russian Empire, and the ideology of Nazism, which led to the Holocaust, the systematic murder of six million Jews during World War II.
Pogroms in the Russian Empire in the context of Assassination of Alexander II of Russia
On 13 March [O.S. 1 March] 1881, Alexander II, the Emperor of Russia, was assassinated in Saint Petersburg, Russia while returning to the Winter Palace from Mikhailovsky Manège in a closed carriage. The assassination was planned by the Executive Committee of Narodnaya Volya ("People's Will"), chiefly by Andrei Zhelyabov. Of the four assassins coordinated by Sophia Perovskaya, two actually committed the deed. One assassin, Nikolai Rysakov, threw a bomb which damaged the carriage, prompting the Tsar to disembark. At this point a second assassin, Ignacy Hryniewiecki, threw a bomb that fatally wounded Alexander II.
Alexander II had previously survived several attempts on his life, including the attempts by Dmitry Karakozov and Alexander Soloviev, the attempt to dynamite the imperial train in Aleksandrovsk (Zaporizhzhia), and the bombing of the Winter Palace in February 1880. The assassination is popularly considered to be the most successful action by the Russian nihilist movement of the 19th century. Because one of the perpetrators was Jewish, the assassination set off a wave of Antisemitism and anti-jewish riots throughout the Empire.
Pogroms in the Russian Empire in the context of Antisemitism in the Russian Empire
Antisemitism in the Russian Empire included numerous pogroms and the designation of the Pale of Settlement from which Jews were forbidden to migrate into the interior of Russia, unless they converted to the Russian Orthodox state religion.
Russia remained unaffected by the liberalising tendencies of this era with respect to the status of Jews. Before the 18th century, Russia maintained an exclusionary policy towards Jews, in accordance with the anti-Jewish precepts of the Russian Orthodox Church. When asked about admitting Jews into the Empire, Peter the Great stated "I prefer to see in our midst nations professing Mohammedanism and paganism rather than Jews. They are rogues and cheats. It is my endeavor to eradicate evil, not to multiply it."
Pogroms in the Russian Empire in the context of History of the Jews in China
The history of the Jews in China goes back to antiquity. Modern day Jews in China are predominantly composed of Sephardic Jews and their descendants. Other Jewish ethnic divisions are also represented, including Ashkenazi Jews, Mizrahi Jews and a number of converts to Judaism.
The Jewish Chinese community manifests a wide range of Jewish cultural traditions and it also encompasses the full spectrum of Jewish religious observance. Though a small minority, Chinese Jews have had an open presence in the country since the arrival of the first Jewish immigrants during the 8th century CE. Relatively isolated communities of Jews developed through the Han and Song dynasties (7th to 13th centuries CE) all the way through the Qing dynasty (19th century), most notably the Kaifeng Jews (the term "Chinese Jews" is often used in a restricted sense in order to refer to these communities). In the 19th and early 20th centuries, Jewish merchants from around the world began to trade in Chinese ports, particularly in the commercial centres of Hong Kong, which was for a time a British colony; Shanghai (the International Settlement and French Concession); and Harbin (the Trans-Siberian Railway). In the first half of the 20th century, thousands of Jewish refugees escaping from pogroms in the Russian Empire arrived in China. By the time of the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949, only a few Jews were known to have maintained the practice of their religion and culture. Since 2015, descendants of the Kaifeng Jews have come under government pressure and suspicion.