"Black Repartition", "People's Will" and the Jewish question: the reaction of Russian Populism to the Jewish pogromsof 1881

Narodovolchestvo responseof the press to anti-Jewish pogroms that began after the assassination by the People of Alexander II, was very timely and in the summerof 1881 appears a series of publications, unambiguous interpretation of the pogroms as a manifestation of social protest. Jews in thearticles appear not only as oppressors of the Ukrainian peasantry, but also as active facilitators of autocracy. Anti-Jewish statementswere seen as harbingers of the future of popular uprisings. Even then Narodovoltsy saw that during the riots hatred regularly broke outtowards all the exploiters and the state protecting them. Therefore, the authors insisted on the active participation of socialists in allevents, including such forms of protest. But it was not about the predominance among the Peoples Will leaders of anti-Semitism, butabout a rather conscious disregard of the national orientation of pogroms and the emphasis on its purely social nature. The redistributioncoverage of events in the Ukraine does not fundamentally differ from its narodovolchestvo interpretation, but the emphasis in thearticles was not aimed at direct apology for the pogrom, but rather at identification and explanation the causes of this movement, givingit a certain character. A surge of anti-Jewish attitude was linked with the spiritual shock of the common people due to the assassinationof Alexander II. At the same time chernoperedeltsy did not consider the Pogrom movement as revolutionary, though not denying thepresence of elements of social protest in it. A particularly difficult question of the attitude to the pogrom movement in Russia was forthe Jews - members of the redistribution. P.B. Axelrods evaluation of the pogroms differed significantly from the dominant point ofview. He did not see them as a social struggle, but only as a movement of a coarse-nationalist character and contrasted it to the Europeanrevolutionary movement. The national aspect acquired significant influence in the program of P.B. Axelrod. The socialist came to aconclusion of a significant difference of Jewish workers situation and pointed at the need to take it into account during the revolutionaryactivities. Thus, the wave of anti-Semitism that shook the south of Russia and influenced the mood of the revolutionary organizationsmade the Jewish Question a topical discussion. The range of views was very considerable. Clearly, strong were desires to use anystatements for loosening power. But there existed convictions about the dangers of ethnic strife and about the need to condemn anti-Jewish moods. A special position was of populists-Jews, who were much more acute and sensitive about the events of 1881. Theirmoods and views expressed the Jewish apologetics (always stipulated as that of the workers), a popular among the populists idea ofJews as people-moneylenders, people exploiters was denied, a better understanding of the importance of the fight against ethnic discriminationwas demonstrated.

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