The Odessa pogroms were a series of violent anti-Jewish riots and attacks in the multi-ethnic port city of Odessa in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Odessa had become a successful and cosmopolitan city known for liberal attitudes, and a hotbed of revolutionary activity in the Russian Empire, with a growing and vital Jewish community that had grown more prosperous along with the city, even though the majority still lived in abject poverty. The pogroms became an international for the Jewish diaspora. Notable pogroms occurred in 1821, 1849, 1859, 1871, 1881, 1886, 1900, 1905, and 1918–1919, resulting in hundreds of Jewish deaths, thousands of injuries, and destruction of property, devastating the community and driving emigration.
The causes of the pogroms included religious and ethnic discrimination, economic competition and resultant economic antisemitism, and political changes. Odessa's population included Greek, Jewish, Russian, Ukrainian, and other communities, with the Jewish population growing to become the second-largest group behind Russians. The earlier pogroms, such as those in 1859 and 1871, were initiated by Greeks with Russians joining in. After 1871, the pogromists were mainly Russian joined by ethnic Ukrainians. Pogromists came from all different classes and occupations. Most modern-day historians argue that pre-1881 pogroms were "largely the product of frictions unleashed by modernization", rather than a resurgence of medieval antisemitism. The 1905 pogrom was markedly larger in scale, with over 500 casualties (80% Jewish), 300 injuries, and over 1600 homes and businesses damaged, and with heightened antisemitism spurred by economic and political turmoil.
Historians believe the police and hospital figures were likely an underestimate, with a range of estimates from likely over 800, to over 1000 killed, and approximately over 2000 or even up to 5000 wounded. Even the pre-20th century incidents were incited by perennial antisemitic tropes such as rumors of Jewish desecration of the church, conspiracy theories of Jewish complicity in assassinating the tsar or the patriarch, and blood libels.
While most modern-day historians do not believe there is credible evidence that the tsarist state actively sponsored or centrally planned the pogroms, the tsar and his advisors created an environment of sanctioned antisemitism, toleration and leniency toward pogromists, and blamed Jews themselves for the events. Local authorities often failed to intervene, or in some cases actively abetted or perpetrated further violence. According to Victoria Khiterer, while historians debate whether the pogroms were spontaneous or organized by authorities (per Weinberg, somewhere between both extremes), there is evidence that the pogroms were part of a Russian government policy aimed at suppressing the revolutionary movement, for which Jews were a scapegoat. Right-wing organizations such as the Union of Russian People and the Black Hundreds knew they had support from sympathetic authorities to incite the violence. After the 1917 revolution, the pogroms were also perpetrated by the Bolshevik Red Army. The pogroms became an international symbol, and inspired the growth of Jewish intellectual and national movements as enlightened Jewish thinkers were forced to contend with pervasive antisemitism that threatened their lives.
1821
The 1821 pogrom was a fairly serious riot, killing, wounding, and damaging the homes and businesses of Jews, but it was minimized and even dismissed by Jewish communal leaders and intellectuals. Much as in later pogroms, economic, religious, and national aspects motivated the out-of-control mob of pogromists, including Greek business owners who resented Jewish inroads into their territory. The Jewish population had grown from around 10% in 1795 to around 15% in the early 1820s.
During the Greek War of Independence, Jews had tended to support the Ottoman state and the Pax Ottomana as the best thing for them, as opposed to the Greek insurgency. On Easter Sunday night, 1821, Turkish officials, in an attempt to suppress Greek revolutionary activity, executed Patriarch Gregory V of Constantinople. He was hanged in front of his church, and his decapitated body was dragged through the streets and thrown into the sea. The body was found six days later by a Greek ship anchored under a Russian flag in the nearby gulf, which then sailed to Odessa.
Odessa, which had been a major anti-Ottoman revolutionary hotbed, a refuge for Greeks fleeing Ottoman authority, and home to organizations such as the Filiki Eteria, received Gregory's remains for burial. Due to personal intervention from Tsar Alexander I of Russia, the body was laid in state with three days of public worship and a public funeral. A large number of Greek immigrants, recently-arrived from Constantinople, joined the funeral, spreading rumors that Jews had participated in Gregory's death, or that they had mocked his body. Jews were further accused of using Christian blood for ritual purposes. Right after the ceremony, Greeks attacked Jewish homes and businesses, shattering windows, smashing doors, and beating Jews with sticks in three Jewish neighborhoods. Russian authorities warned Jews to stay at home, but not everyone listened. Heinrich Zschokke witnessed the pogrom and reported several casualties. Russian antisemites joined forces with the Greeks, and casualties numbered 17 and over 60 wounded.
1849
Riots reoccurred in August 1849 due to supposed Jewish disrespect during a procession from St. Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery. It was reported that Jews refused to doff their caps as ordered by the Odessa chief of police. 15,000 rubles of damage were done and shops were sacked and looted in the Jewish quarter. This was a local event and did not attract attention elsewhere.
1859 The 1859 Easter pogrom was the first pogrom in Odessa to receive major journalistic attention. It was the next major pogrom after 1821, as pogroms were becoming endemic in Odessa. Jews were accused of killing a Christian child in a ritual murder with the pogromists reportedly chanting "You drink our blood, you rob us." Alexander Stroganov, the governor, ascribed the events to religious fanaticism; indeed, that was the cause of the pogrom. This was not a Russian-led but a Greek-led pogrom; the leaders and almost all of the participants were Greek sailors or locals. Rumors that Jews had desecrated the Greek Orthodox Church and cemetery were what drove to the participation of many Greek sailors and dockworkers; these same rumors incited antisemitism. The local press described it as an accidental fight. At the time, Greeks dominated the administration and commerce of Odessa. One person died and five were wounded in the pogrom.
1871 The 1871 pogrom started as a street fight during Greek Orthodox Holy Week before escalating into a serious riot, leading to the destruction of Jewish property and 600 arrests. In the four days following May 27, 1871, six were killed, 21 wounded, over 800 houses and 500 businesses damaged, and every street or square in the Jewish neighborhood felt some impact from the pogrom, leaving thousands homeless, and doing over 1.5 million rubles worth of damage. Pogromists started by breaking the windows to test boundaries, before intensifying the rampage. They attacked and looted Jewish as well as Christian businesses, beat policemen, and even threatened priests. They then smashed furniture and belongings inside homes and businesses. Cossack troops, called in to restore order after the declaration of martial law, delayed and took several days to take action, with their first action being to disperse the Jews who were protecting their property. They then reportedly let the pogromists proceed with non-lethal violence, despite orders to disperse them and send them home. Censorship limited the ability of Odessa newspapers to report on the events, but the press in Saint Petersburg published sympathetic accounts.
Governor-General Pavel Kotsebue waited several days before ordering the military to intervene, allowing pogromists to run wild in the meantime. Pogromists spread a rumor that an imperial edict would tolerate vandalism of Jewish homes so long as fatalities were limited. Kotsebue did not crack down or take on a harsher tone toward the pogromists until they had reached his personal home, where he addressed them from a balcony. Stones were said to have been thrown at him in his balcony from the crowd, and he decided the next day to intervene decisively.
Greek merchants were the masterminds of the pogrom. Economic competition between the Jews and Greeks can be seen as one of the causes of the violence. The poor, underemployed, and unskilled were the main participants of the mob. Rumors spread that Jews had damaged or stolen a holy cross. There were also "rumor-memories" regarding Gregory V, accompanied by lithographs distributed of him, that "people of a different faith" were going to steal his remains and stop them from being repatriated to Athens. Russian and Jews alike would display Christian icons in windows and doors of shops and stalls to deter pogromists as a bid to avoid damage to their property, a gambit that was sometimes successful. They would sometimes be granted mercy if they agreed to wear a cross. Rumors that Jews had desecrated the Greek Orthodox Church and cemetery led to the participation of many Greek sailors and dockworkers, while the perception of Jews as an economic threat fueled Russian participation. Some Russian people, among them Orthodox priests, acted to protect the Jews and stopped cross-brandishing mobs. Some ordinary Russians helped by hiding them in their homes or cellars, while a few cosmopolitan locals organized protection for the businesses of their Jewish acquaintances.
This pogrom is seen as a turning point in Russian Jewish history. After 1871, Odessa's intelligentsia, particularly the maskilim, took a less optimistic view of Russian society's progress toward toleration and enlightened liberalism, acknowledging that pervasive antisemitism was not an anachronism but a reality. Peretz Smolenskin is one prominent example of a Russian Jewish writer living in Odessa who began to question the possibility of Jewish integration, and called for greater awareness of Jewish national identity. Another thinker who became doubtful of Jewish-Russian relations was Leon Pinsker. Local Jewish journalist and lawyer wrote, "beneath the apparently accidental and singular Odessa pogrom we discovered something of enduring importance, namely, that Judeophobia was not a theoretical error of some kind ... [but] a psychic attitude in which centuries upon centuries of hatred was reflected."
To protect the city's reputation, authorities and the press downplayed the pogrom's severity, portraying the events as minor disturbances caused by the festivities, and long-standing traditional animosity between Greeks and Jews. They also blamed stolen liquor from taverns and warehouses as contributing to the unrest. Authorities and newspapers also blamed Jews themselves. The local administration concluded that, "antipathy of Christians, primarily from the lower classes, is reinforced by bitterness arising from the exploitation of their labor by the Jews, and the latter's ability to get rich and to dominate all [commerce]. From the crowds of Christians [one] often heard, 'The Jews mock Christ, they get rich, and they suck our blood.'" The abolition of serfdom in Russia changed economics for the peasantry, but also accompanied a rise in antisemitic ideas of Jewish criminality, domination, and exploitation. Peasants whose conditions didn't improve from the 1861 reforms scapegoated visible Jewish communities, whose status seemed to be rising. Amidst revolutionary threats and labor unrest, elites blamed Jews for problems of modernization and industrialization.