Images of Jews in the minds of the Russian Administration and Society of the Front-line Zone during the First World War

Abstract

The article analyzes generalized visions of the Jewish population that existed during 1914–1917 in the surrounding of Russian administration and among the general population of the temporarily occupied territories of Russian empire and of its western provinces. The source base of the study is presented by documents of the gendarme agency from the collections of the Central State Historical Archive of Ukraine (Kyiv). They reveal the political mood of the population, rumors and statements that potentially can destabilize the situation in the region. The sources give the following generalized characteristics of the Jewish population: 1. Jews avoid military service and public works; 2. Jews massively sympathize to the enemy and gladly perceive his victories and defeats of the Russian army; 3. Jews spy in favor of Austria-Hungary; 4. During the war, the Jewish population significantly increased its wealth by raising prices for essential goods; 5. Jews gain excessive wealth in the game of exchange rates; 6. Jews in Galicia directly agitate for the return of the Austrian authorities; 7. Jews represent a community that is unsafe to provide civil rights, because it will automatically strike in the interests of the rest of the population; 8. Jews are often robbed during the war, but they deserve it; 9. The Jewish community is characterized by a special rejection of Nicholas II’s personal and royal family; 10. Jews massively spread anti-Russian rumors. The author concludes that most of the characteristics of the Jewish population reflect the attitude towards it as a “domestic enemy”. The Russian authorities, both in the front-line provinces and territories temporarily occupied during the war, actively contributed to the formation of such a negative image. This fully fitted into the policy of the tsarist government, which can be characterized as state anti-Semitism. Later, such actions were partly due to the pogromous activity of the local population against the Jews in the revolutionary purges of 1917-1921.