Assigning Guilt for the Anti-Jewish Riots

Once again, as in the history of all such riots, the most innocent of the innocent have been the victims.

Continuing A Russian Pogrom Against the Jews,
with a selection from article in Forum by Richard Gottheil published in . This selection is presented in 4.5 easy 5 minute installments. For works benefiting from the latest research see the “More information” section at the bottom of these pages.

Previously in A Russian Pogrom Against the Jews.

Time: April 20, 1903
Place: Kishineff (modern Chișinău), Moldovia

When the books were closed on the eve of April 20th they showed 45 killed, 86 wounded severely, 500 wounded slightly, 15 streets of houses sacked, 10,000 Jews homeless and destitute, and 10,000 more on the verge of ruin. The Bessarabetz itself admitted, on April 22d, that there had been 38 victims, and that 62 had been wounded. The Red Cross Society of Kishineff, which was at once on the scene doing its noble work, can witness to the truth of these figures. At the time of this writing 12,000 persons are receiving the dole of two pounds of bread a day. Once again, as in the history of all such riots, the most innocent of the innocent have been the victims — the artisans, the small merchants, the employees. Among the slain were found the bodies of two Christians, showing that at least some of their fellow inhabitants had sufficient humanity left in them to come to the aid of the Jews. But what no official statistics, or unofficial ones, can give is the full tale of the havoc that has been wrought, of the degradation fixed upon so many, of the anguish of spirit, of the torture of mind. These are buried with the victims, or hidden in hearts that silently and sorrowfully bear their shame. Fear and trembling have seized the Jews in the northwest and southwest of Russia. They naturally dread uprisings in their own districts, and they tremble for the safety of themselves and their families. Panic seized upon the Jews of Kieff when the news of the massacres arrived. They were right to have fear; for, when the Jewish notables applied to the authorities for protection, the Vice-Governor Stakelberg is reported to have said to them: “I will never allow the onslaught to go to the extent of that at Kishineff.” Not to that extent — but how far?

These are the bald facts of the pogrom on April 19th and 20th at Kishineff. It is a dreadful thing to imagine that anyone but an excited mob could be guilty of such excesses. Yet a mob never acts spontaneously. It must be prepared; it must be goaded on; it must be led. And upon those who have done this leader’s work must the final blame lie. Heavy as the accusation may seem, and much as we should exercise the virtue of charity, a threefold blame attaches to Russia — to the anti-Semitic leaders, to the local authorities of Kishineff, and to the central Government in St. Petersburg. Enough has been said to show how the riots were artfully prepared many months, nay, even years, in advance. The local anti-Semitic press has been powerfully aided by the anti-Semitic Znamya, Novoye Vremya, and Sviet of St. Petersburg. One could quote article after article from their columns, which in coldest blood exasperated the populace to just such dramas as have been enacted in Bessarabia. What better proof do we need than the words of the Znamya in commenting upon the Kishineff disaster, which it declared to have been a “well-earned lesson”? Once again the blessing of press publicity has been turned into a curse.

The guilt of the local authorities of Kishineff, as second accessory to the crimes, is only too evident. Not only had the machinations of the Bessarabetz been allowed free exercise, but their dilatoriness in calling out the military stamps them as participes criminis. Some of the houses were pillaged continuously for eight to twelve hours. The authorities did nothing to prevent the storm from coming; they remained passive when it did come; and though a thousand persons were taken into custody for participation in the riots, they were brought before the examining magistrate Davidovitch, a noted anti-Semite and one of the leading writers on the Bessarabetz. No wonder that many were allowed to go scot-free upon the flimsiest excuses, though caught either red-handed or with stolen goods on their persons. In preventing the use of the telegraph for the purpose of communicating with St. Petersburg, the authorities directly contributed to prolong the suffering.

Graver still is the silent complicity in the happenings at Kishineff with which one is obliged to charge the central Russian Government at St. Petersburg. For years the anti-Semitic press in the capital has been allowed a free hand to disseminate at will whatever they cared to say against the Jews. This is no small matter if one remembers the strict censorship of the press in Russia. The all-powerful censor’s bureau can, in the twinkling of an eye, stop the publication of anything of which it does not approve. The Jewish and pro-Jewish news papers have, on the other hand, been subjected to every manner of annoyance. The Pravo (Right), edited by Prof. Wladimir Gosson and Nicholas Lazarewski, has been severely censured for defending the Jews; and a like fate has befallen the Jewish journal Woschod for publishing details of the massacres. The St. Petersburg Jews were even prohibited from holding commemoration services in memory of the victims.

It has been asserted that a confidential dispatch had been sent by M. de Plehve, Minister of the Interior, on March 25th, to the Governor of Bessarabia, the closing words of which were: “Your Excellency will not fail to contribute to the immediate stopping of disorders which may arise, by means of admonition, without at all having recourse, however, to the use of arms.” If this were true, it would be the strongest indictment that could be brought against the Government. Happily, an official denial of the authenticity of this document has been published. Let us hope that the denial is true; although those who are acquainted with Russian procedure in such matters, and who remember the denial of that Power in the matter of the occupation of Manchuria, will not give it too much weight. When Ambassador McCormick asked permission to transmit relief funds collected for Kishineff in America, he received and transmitted to our State Department the official word of the Russian Government that “No distress exists in the district mentioned.”

Richard Gottheil begins here. Vladamir Korolenko begins here.

More information here and here, and below.

The Kishineff Pogrom of 1903 [IN HEBREW]

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