"Покарання для людей, які пройшли своє чесне життя без жодної плями": євреї-заручники під час Першої світової війни в Російській імперії

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Introduction. With the outbreak of World War I, the Jewish population of the Russian Empire demonstrated its loyalty to the state in various ways, which drew approval even from representatives of those political circles among whom anti-Semitic views were widespread. However, after the first defeats at the front, the High Command began to look for those responsible for the wartime defeats and troubles. Jews in particular were identified as such internal enemies. Due to the potential danger from their possible actions, it became common to take hostages from among representatives of Jewish communities. The purpose of the article is to study the practice of taking hostages among the Jewish population of the Russian Empire and the territories occupied by tsarist troops during World War I. The results of the study of this issue will contribute to a better understanding of the social and political processes that took place in the Russian Empire during World War I and will be important for studying the causes of the outbreak of anti-Jewish violence in Ukraine in 1918-1921. Methods. The study is based on the principles of historicism and objectivity. A set of general scientific and special historical methods was used: methods of synthesis, induction, and analysis, as well as historical-genetic and historical-typological methods. Results. Hostage-taking among representatives of Jewish communities began in 1914, but only in 1915 it became an officially approved practice. Wealthy and respected community members were chosen as hostages and held in prisons or private quarters under strict supervision. They were to be responsible for the behavior of the Jews of their community and were to be executed if they were found to be spying or otherwise working for the enemy of one of their fellow Jews. Conclusions. Three main areas have been identified where hostage-taking was used to ensure the loyalty of Jews to Russian troops: Galicia, some governorates of the Kingdom of Poland, and some of the Baltic governorates of the empire. Jewish hostages from Galicia were sent to the "internal" governorates of the Russian Empire, as were most hostages from the Kingdom of Poland. In the Baltic states, however, this practice was not widespread because deportations were preferred to hostage-taking. Accordingly, there were almost no deportations of Jews with this status to the "internal" governorates. From August 1915, hostage-taking became a decentralized measure, remaining, however, until the February Revolution of 1917. The practice of hostage-taking caused considerable resistance and discontent among Jews, and contributed to the deepening of anti-Semitic sentiment among the Christian population of the Russian Empire.