Workers Strikes And Pogroms

In this major reassessment of Russian labor history, Charters Wynn shows that in Imperial Russia's primary steel and mining region the same class that posed a powerful challenge to the tsarist government also undermined the revolutionary movement with its pogromist violence. From the last decades of the nineteenth century through Russia's First Revolution in 1905, the revolutionary parties succeeded in inciting the predominantly young, male "peasant-workers" of the Donbass-Dnepr Bend region to take part in general strikes, rallies, and armed confrontation with troops. However, the parties were never able to control the unrest their agitation helped unleash: Wynn provides evidence that the workers also committed devastating pogromist attacks on Jews, radical students, and artisans. Until now the prevailing image of the Russian working class has been largely based on the skilled and educated workers of St. Petersburg and Moscow. By focusing on the unskilled and semi-skilled laborers of the ethnically diverse Donbass-Dnepr Bend region, Wynn reveals the "low consciousness" that coexisted with radicalism within the Russian working class and traces its origins in the bleak and violent frontier culture of the pit villages and steel towns. Originally published in 1992. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

From the 1880s to the 1940s, an upsurge of explosive pogroms caused much pain and suffering across the eastern borderlands of Europe. Rioters attacked Jewish property and caused physical harm to women and children. During World War I and the Russian Civil War, pogrom violence turned into full-blown military actions. In some cases, pogroms wiped out of existence entire Jewish communities. More generally, they were part of a larger story of destruction, ethnic purification, and coexistence that played out in the region over a span of some six decades. Pogroms: A Documentary History surveys the complex history of anti-Jewish violence by bringing together archival and published sources--many appearing for the first time in English translation. The documents assembled here include eyewitness testimony, oral histories, diary excerpts, literary works, trial records, and press coverage. They also include memos and field reports authored by army officials, investigative commissions, humanitarian organizations, and government officials. This landmark volume and its distinguished roster of scholars provides an unprecedented view of the history of pogroms.

Distinguished scholars of Russian Jewish history reflect on the pogroms in Tsarist and revolutionary Russia.

This book, based on extensive original research, examines the widespread and violent pogroms against Jews which took place in the Russian Empire in 1905. It briefly surveys the earlier history of Jews in the Russian Empire and the discriminatory policies against them. The work outlines the extent of the killings and lootings in 1905, explores the role of the authorities who were often neutral or complicit in the violence, and highlights Jewish self-defense measures. It relates the pogroms to the place of the Jews in Russian urban and rural life, to social change and modernisation, and to the revolutionary events of 1905, in which Jews played a prominent role, and during which calls for ethnic self-determination arose among many nationalities of the Russian Empire, most broadly and consequentially among Jews. Overall, the book views the pogroms as a consequence not only of Russian antisemitism, but of the broader, revolutionary breakdown of Russian state and society in 1905.

Riots and Pogroms presents comparative studies of riots and pogroms in the twentieth century in Russia, Germany, Israel, India, and the United States, with a comparative, historical, and analytical introduction by the editor. The focus of the book is on the interpretive process which follows after the occurrence of riots and pogroms, rather than on the search for their causes. The concern of the editor and contributors is with the struggle for control over the meaning of riotous events, for the right to represent them properly.

The first book-length analysis of how the Bolsheviks responded to antisemitism during the Russian Revolution.

This book examines the emotional aspects of revolutionary experience during a critical turning point in both Russian and Jewish history - the 1905 revolution. Shtakser argues that radicalization involved an emotional transformation, which enabled many young revolutionaries to develop an activist attitude towards reality.