Easter in Kishinev: Anatomy of a Pogrom.

Abstract

On February of 1903, in a town in the southwestern part of the Russian empire, a peasant stumbled upon the corpse of 14-year old Mikhail Rybachenko, bruised and covered with stab wounds, in a garden. The murder immediately fuelled wild rumours that he had been killed by local Jews in need of his Christian blood to prepare their matzah bread. Panic rumours, grounded in sinister superstitions of Jewish sorcery and ritual murder, quickly spread to nearby towns. By April, they had hit - a growing metropolis of 100,000 inhabitants rife with the unrest of rapid expansion, ethnic rivalry, revolutionary agitation, and anti-Semiticism - with full force. The resulting massacre left dozens dead, and hundreds wounded, maimed, orphaned, or homeless. This is the study of Kishinev. In this extensively researched book, Edward Judge examines these anti-Jewish riots, detailing their background, cause, and aftermath. He traces the evolution of the riots, analysing the broader impact of imperial policies, urbanisation, nationalism, population growth, and revolutionary activism upon the Jewish situation in Russia. Recounting the activities and attitudes of anti-Semitic agitators and officials, the book examines the spiral of violence, the inaction of the authorities in the wake of the pogrom, the storm of indignation that followed the pogrom, and the efforts of Tsarist officials to counter subsequent negative publicity. Easter in Kishinev also portrays the investigation of the disorders and the subsequent trials and considers the question of government responsibility for the outbreak of the pogrom.