Russians, Jews, and the Pogroms of 1881–1882

Anti-Jewish pogroms rocked the Russian Empire in 18812, plunging both the Jewish community and the imperial authorities into crisis. Focusing on a wide range of responses to the pogroms, this book offers the most comprehensive, balanced, and complex study of the crisis to date. It presents a nuanced account of the diversity of Jewish political reactions and introduces a wealth of new sources covering Russian and other non-Jewish reactions to these events. Seeking to answer the question of what caused the pogroms' outbreak and spread, the book provides a fuller picture of how officials at every level responded to the national emergency and irrevocably lays to rest the myth that the authorities instigated or tolerated the pogroms. This is essential reading not only for Russian and Jewish historians but also for those interested in the study of ethnic violence more generally.

"John Klier's magisterial study, largely biased on archival research, sheds new light on the events of 1881 and their consequences. This is a gripping and remarkable work that finds persuasive answer to some fundamental questions raised by generations of historians of Russian Jewry". Ezra Mendelsohn, professor Emeritus at the Institute of Contemporary Jewry and in Russian and East European Studies Hebrew University, Jerusalem