Kishinev pogrom
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This article is part of the History of the Jews in Bessarabia.
The Kishinev pogrom was an pogrom (anti-Jewish riot) that took place in Kishinev, which was part of the Bessarabia province of Imperial Russia (currently Chişinău is the capital of independent Moldova) on April 6-7, 1903.
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First Pogrom
The riot started after an incident on February 6 (Russian Easter) when a Christian Russian boy, Michael Ribalenko, was found murdered in the town of Dubossary (now Dubăsari), about 25 miles north of Kishinev. Although it was clear that the boy had been killed by a relative (who was later found), the government chose to call it a ritual murder plot by the Jews.
The mobs were incited by Pavolachi Krushevan, the editor of the Anti-Semitic Newspaper "Bessarabetz", and the vice-governor Ustrugov. They used the ages-old blood libel against the Jews (that the boy had been killed to use his blood in preparation of matzo).
Vyacheslav von Plehve, the Minister of Interior, supposedly gave orders not to stop the rioters. The Kishinev Pogrom spanned three days of rioting against the Jews. Forty-seven (some put the figure as high as 49) Jews were killed, 92 severely wounded, 500 slightly wounded and over 700 houses looted and destroyed.
The New York Times described the First Kishinev pogrom: "The anti-Jewish riots in Kishinev, Bessarabia, are worse than the censor will permit to publish. There was a well laid-out plain for the general massacre of Jews on the day following the Russian Easter. The mob was led by priests, and the general cry, "Kill the Jews," was taken- up all over the city. The Jews were taken wholly unaware and were slaughtered like sheep. The dead number 120 and the injured about 500. The scenes of horror attending this massacre are beyond description. Babes were literally torn to pieces by the frenzied and bloodthirsty mob. The local police made no attempt to check the reign of terror. At sunset the streets were piled with corpses and wounded. Those who could make their escape fled in terror, and the city is now practically deserted of Jews." ("Jewish Massacre Denounced," New York Times, April 28, 1903, p 6). Actual casualty figures ended up being lower than this initial description.
Second Pogrom
A second pogrom took place on October 19-20, 1905. This time the riots began as political protests against the Czar, but turned into an attack on Jews wherever they could be found. By the time the riots were over, 19 Jews were killed and 56 were injured. Jewish self-defense leagues organized after the first pogrom stopped some of the violence, but they were not wholly successful.
Results of the Pogroms
The Kishinev pogrom is considered the first state-inspired action against Jews of the 20th century, though the earlier pogroms in the 1880s were probably state-sponsored as well (see pogroms in Russia). Despite a world outcry, only two men were sentenced to seven and five years and twenty-two were sentenced for one or two years. This pogrom was instrumental in convincing tens of thousands of Russian Jews to leave to the West and to Israel.
The first pogrom became a symbol of the suffering of the Jews as well as a powerful example to the Jews of the time of the inability of Jews to defend themselves in a hostile world. As such, it became a rallying point for early Zionists, especially what would become Revisionist Zionism, inspiring early self-defense leagues under leaders like Vladimir Jabotinsky.
A large number of artists and writers addressed the Kishinev pogrom. Russian authors such as Vladimir Korolenko wrote about the Pogrom in House 13 (http://www.shsu.edu/~his_ncp/Kishinev.html), while Tolstoy, and Gorky wrote condemnations blamming the Russian government -- a change from the earlier pogroms of the 1880s, when most members of the Russian intelligencia were silent. It also had a major impact on Jewish art and literature. Playwright Max Sparber took the Kishinev pogrom as the subject for one of his earliest plays. Poet Chaim Bialik wrote “In the City of Slaughter," about the perceived passivity of the Jews in the face of the mobs:
- ...the heirs
- Of Hasmoneans lay, with trembling knees,
- Concealed and cowering—the sons of the Maccabees!
- The seed of saints, the scions of the lions!
- Who, crammed by scores in all the sanctuaries of their shame,
- So sanctified My name!
- It was the flight of mice they fled,
- The scurrying of roaches was their flight;
- They died like dogs, and they were dead!
References
- Kishinev Pogrom site (http://www.kishinevpogrom.org/index.html)
- Rosenthal, Herman and Rosenthal, Max, "Kishinef (Kishinev)" (http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=247&letter=K), in the Jewish Encyclopedia (1901-1906)