Coverage of the Jewish pogroms of 1905 in the Russian Empire in the columns of «Kievlyanyn

Abstract

It is known that the events of the First Russian Revolution of 1905–1907 were a tragedy for the numerous Jewish population, locked in the medieval shackles of the strip of permanent Jewish settlement. Almost all the «Jewish» cities and towns of the southwestern provinces of the Russian Empire found themselves in a whirlpool of anti-Jewish violence in 1905. The Jewish pogroms began in the spring and reached their apogee in October 1905. The pogroms in Odessa, Rostov-on-Don, Kyiv and Zhytomyr were especially bloody. As a result of the anti-Jewish riots of 1905, several thousand Jews were killed and significant material damage was caused. Not the least role in inflaming Judeophobe in imperial society was played by the Russian periodical press, including «Kievlyanin», whose importance in covering the course of the Jewish pogroms deserves attention. Almost all publications of the publication on the causes and nature of the Jewish pogroms in the Russian Empire in 1905 are analyzed, the features of the assessments of anti-Jewish riots by the editor of the famous newspaper D. I. Pikhno are identified, and the dynamics of the publication’s publishing activity in covering the nature of the Jewish pogroms are analyzed. As a result, it is noted that the position of the publication’s editorial staff was ambiguous and fluctuated depending on the degree of radicalization of public sentiment in the areas, but, in general, responsibility for the pogroms rested with Jewish revolutionaries, who provoked a mass anti-Jewish movement with their destructive activities. On the other hand, D. I. Pikhno accused government officials of indecision regarding the suppression of revolutionary speeches, which, in his opinion, ultimately led to the storm of the Jewish pogroms. Thus, «Kievlyanin» was almost the only newspaper in the Russian Empire that informed its numerous readers about the course of the Jewish pogroms of 1905 almost daily.