91-793: The history of the Jews in Russia and areas historically connected with it goes back at least 1,500 years. Jews in Russia have historically constituted a large religious and ethnic diaspora; the Russian Empire at one time hosted the largest population of Jews in the world . Within these territories, the primarily Ashkenazi Jewish communities of many different areas flourished and developed many of modern Judaism 's most distinctive theological and cultural traditions, while also facing periods of antisemitic discriminatory policies and persecution , including violent pogroms . Many analysts have noted
182-576: A third estate , although restricted to commercial, middleman services in an agricultural society for the Polish king and nobility between 1330 and 1370, during the reign of Casimir the Great. After settling in Poland (later Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth ) and Hungary (later Austria-Hungary ), the population expanded into the lightly populated areas of Ukraine and Lithuania , which were to become part of
273-702: A "renaissance" in the Jewish community inside Russia since the beginning of the 21st century; however, the Russian Jewish population has experienced precipitous decline since the dissolution of the USSR which continues to this day, although it is still among the largest in Europe . The presence of Jewish people in the European part of Russia can be traced to the 7th–14th centuries CE. In the 11th and 12th centuries,
364-468: A Russian-speaking member of a Jewish community to be named to act as an intermediary between his community and the Imperial government to perform certain civil duties, such as registering births, marriages, and divorces. This position came to be known as the crown rabbi although they were not always rabbis and often were not respected by members of their own communities because their main job qualification
455-884: A Zionist congress in March 1919 complained about administrative harassment of their activities - not from government agencies, but from Jewish communists. At the Yevsektsiya's second conference in July 1919, it demanded that the Zionist organizations be dissolved. After an appeal from the Zionists, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee issued a decree in that the Zionist organisation was not counter-revolutionary and its activities should not be disrupted. The campaign continued, however. In 1920,
546-810: A convert to Christianity, the attorney Ossip Pergament ( Odessa ). The two Jewish members of the Third Duma were the Judge Leopold Nikolayevich (or Lazar) Nisselovich ( Courland province, Kadet) and Naftali Markovich Friedman ( Kaunas province, Kadet). Ossip Pergament was reelected and died before the end of his mandate. Friedman was the only one reelected to the Fourth Duma in 1912, joined by two new deputies, Meer Bomash , and Dr. Ezekiel Gurevich . Many Jews were prominent in Russian revolutionary parties. The idea of overthrowing
637-717: A large majority emigrated to the United States, some turned to Zionism. In 1882, members of Bilu and Hovevei Zion made what came to be known the First Aliyah to Palestine , then a part of the Ottoman Empire . The Tsarist government sporadically encouraged Jewish emigration. In 1890, it approved the establishment of "The Society for the Support of Jewish Farmers and Artisans in Syria and Palestine " (known as
728-618: A new state, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), which lasted until December 1991. Territories of the former Russian Empire that permanently or temporarily became independent : In 1919, northern Mhlyn, Novozybkiv, Starodub, and Surazh counties ( povit s ) of Ukraine's Chernihiv Governorate were transferred from the Ukrainian SSR to the new Gomel Governorate of the Russian republic. In February 1924, Tahanrih and Shakhtinsky counties ( okruhas ) were transferred from
819-618: A period of political instability between 1598 and 1613, which became known as the Time of Troubles , the Romanovs came to power in 1613 and the expansion-colonization process of the tsardom continued. While Western Europe colonized the New World , the Tsardom of Russia expanded overland – principally to the east, north and south. This continued for centuries; by the end of the 19th century,
910-649: A sizable portion of the Jewish populations there moved to the more tolerant countries of Central and Eastern Europe, as well as the Middle East. Expelled en masse from England, France, Spain and most other Western European countries at various times, and persecuted in Germany in the 14th century, many Western European Jews migrated to Poland upon the invitation of Polish ruler Casimir III the Great to settle in Polish-controlled areas of Eastern Europe as
1001-511: A special treatment under the law. The 'decree of August 26, 1827' made Jews liable for military service, and allowed their conscription between the ages of twelve and twenty-five. Each year, the Jewish community had to supply four recruits per thousand of the population. However, in practice, Jewish children were often conscripted as young as eight or nine years old. At the age of twelve, they would be placed for their six-year military education in cantonist schools. They were then required to serve in
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#17327725377701092-474: A speech "On Anti-Jewish Pogroms" on a gramophone disc. Lenin sought to explain the phenomenon of antisemitism in Marxist terms. According to Lenin, antisemitism was an "attempt to divert the hatred of the workers and peasants from the exploiters toward the Jews". Linking antisemitism to class struggle, he argued that it was merely a political technique used by the tsar to exploit religious fanaticism, popularize
1183-654: Is still the third biggest in Europe, after France and United Kingdom. In November 2012, the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center , one of the world's biggest museums of Jewish history, opened in Moscow. Jews have been present in contemporary Armenia and Georgia since the Babylonian captivity . Records exist from the 4th century showing that there were Armenian cities possessing Jewish populations ranging from 10,000 to 30,000 along with substantial Jewish settlements in
1274-589: The Crimea . The presence of Jewish people in the territories corresponding to modern Belarus, Ukraine, and the European part of Russia can be traced back to the 7th–14th centuries CE. In the 11th and 12th centuries, the Jewish population may have been restricted to a separate quarter in Kiev, known as the Jewish Town (Old East Slav: Жидове, Zhidovye , i.e. "The Jews"), the gates probably leading to which were known as
1365-709: The Donetsk Governorate of Ukraine to Russia's North Caucasus krai . By the end of World War II the Soviet Union had annexed: Of these, Pechenga, Salla, Tuva, Kaliningrad Oblast, the Kurils, and Sakhalin were added to the territory of the RSFSR. In late 1945, Soviet Russia annexed the northern border strip of the Masurian District (current southern border strip of Kaliningrad Oblast) with
1456-1000: The Kaunas province. Among the other Jewish deputies were Maxim Vinaver , chairman of the League for the Attainment of Equal Rights for the Jewish People in Russia ( Folksgrupe ) and cofounder of the Constitutional Democratic Party ( Kadets ), Dr. Nissan Katzenelson ( Courland province, Zionist, Kadet ), Dr. Moisei Yakovlevich Ostrogorsky ( Grodno province), attorney Simon Yakovlevich Rosenbaum ( Minsk province, Zionist, Kadet ), Mikhail Isaakovich Sheftel ( Ekaterinoslav province, Kadet ), Dr. Grigory Bruk , Dr. Benyamin Yakubson , Zakhar Frenkel , Solomon Frenkel , Meilakh Chervonenkis . There
1547-914: The Russian Empire reached from the Baltic Sea , to the Black Sea , to the Pacific Ocean , and for some time included colonies in the Americas (1732–1867) and an unofficial colony in Africa (1889) in present-day Djibouti that lasted only a month. The first stage from 1582 to 1650 resulted in North-East expansion from the Urals to the Pacific. Geographical expeditions mapped much of Siberia . The second stage from 1785 to 1830 looked South to
1638-768: The Russian Federation . The Chechen Republic of Ichkeria was a secessionist government of the Chechen Republic during 1991–2000. After Russian defeat at the Battle of Grozny , the First Chechen War ended with Russia recognizing the new Ichkerian government of president Maskhadov in January 1997 and signing a peace treaty in May. But Russia invaded again in 1999, restoring a Chechen Republic and
1729-665: The Russian SFSR , 1917–1991, was established on much of its territory. Its area of effective direct control varied greatly during the Russian Civil War of 1917 to 1922. Eventually the revolutionary Bolshevik government regained control of most of the former Eurasian lands of the Russian Empire, and in 1922 joined the Russian SFSR to Belarus, Transcaucasia, and Ukraine as the four constituent republics of
1820-529: The Soviet Jewish masses. The Yevsektsiya published a Yiddish periodical, der Emes . According to Walter Kolarz , the Yevsektsiya inside the League of Militant Godless , "had a total of 40,000 Jewish members in 1929, the year when the anti-religious campaign was at its peak. These 'Jewish sections' were much despised by the bulk of Russia's Jewry. Their members were regarded with as much contempt as
1911-688: The Treaty of Portsmouth , though Russia kept the northern portion of the Chinese Eastern Railway . Changes in territory to the Tsardom of Russia and Russian Empire , from 1547 to 1905, listed chronologically: (During the Great Turkish War ) After the October Revolution of November 1917, Poland and Finland became independent from Russia and remained so thereafter. The Russian Empire ceased to exist , and
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#17327725377702002-549: The adjoining border . Russia also had disputes with Ukraine over the status of the federal city of Sevastopol , but agreed it belonged to Ukraine in the 1997 Russian–Ukrainian Friendship Treaty , and over the uninhabited Tuzla Island , but gave up this claim in the 2003 Treaty on the Sea of Azov and the Kerch Strait . The Russian Federation has also used its armed forces, armed formations, and material support to help establish
2093-650: The disputed breakaway states of Transnistria in Moldova after the Transnistria War , and South Ossetia and Abkhazia , after the 2008 war in Georgia . In 2008, shortly after announcing the recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia , Russian president Dmitry Medvedev laid out a foreign policy challenging the US-dominated "single-pole" world order and claiming a privileged sphere of influence in
2184-594: The near abroad around the Russian Federation and farther abroad. Following these conflicts, both Transnistria and South Ossetia have made proposals for joining Russia. In 2014, when after months of protests in Ukraine, pro-Russian Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych was deposed in the Revolution of Dignity , Russian troops occupied Ukraine's Crimean peninsula , and after a hasty referendum
2275-553: The war against Japan and Commander at the front in the Winter War ). During World War Two, an estimated 500,000 soldiers in the Red Army were Jewish; about 200,000 were killed in battle. About 160,000 were decorated, and more than a hundred achieved the rank of Red Army general. Over 150 were designated Heroes of the Soviet Union , the highest award in the country. More than two million Soviet Jews are believed to have died during
2366-670: The " Odessa Committee " headed by Leon Pinsker) dedicated to practical aspects in establishing agricultural Jewish settlements in Palestine. In total, there were at least twelve Jewish deputies in the First Duma (1906–1907), falling to three or four in the Second Duma (February 1907 to June 1907), two in the Third Duma (1907–1912) and again three in the fourth, elected in 1912. Converts to Christianity like Mikhail Herzenstein and Ossip Pergament were still considered as Jews by
2457-757: The 16th century. The formal end to Tatar rule over Russia was the defeat of the Tatars at the Great Stand on the Ugra River in 1480. Ivan III ( r. 1462–1505 ) and Vasili III ( r. 1505–1533 ) had consolidated the centralized Russian state following the annexations of the Novgorod Republic in 1478, Tver in 1485, the Pskov Republic in 1510, Volokolamsk in 1513, Ryazan in 1521, and Novgorod-Seversk in 1522. After
2548-434: The 1861 abolition of serfdom in Russia . Under his rule Jewish people could not hire Christian servants, could not own land, and were restricted in travel. Alexander III was a staunch reactionary and an antisemite (influenced by Pobedonostsev ) who strictly adhered to the old doctrine of Orthodoxy, Autocracy, and Nationality . His escalation of anti-Jewish policies sought to ignite "popular antisemitism", which portrayed
2639-707: The Bolsheviks ( See proletarian internationalism , bourgeois nationalism ) was incompatible with Jewish traditionalism. Bolsheviks such as Trotsky echoed sentiments dismissing Jewish heritage in place of "internationalism". Soon after seizing power, the Bolsheviks established the Yevsektsiya , the Jewish section of the Communist party in order to destroy the rival Bund and Zionist parties, suppress Judaism and replace traditional Jewish culture with "proletarian culture". In March 1919, Vladimir Lenin delivered
2730-445: The Communist Party labeled the use of the Hebrew language "reactionary" and "elitist" and the teaching of Hebrew was banned. Zionists were persecuted harshly, with Jewish communists leading the attacks. Following the civil war, however, the new Bolshevik government's policies produced a flourishing of secular Jewish culture in Belarus and western Ukraine in the 1920s. The Soviet government outlawed all expressions of antisemitism, with
2821-547: The Constitutional Democratic Party, were assassinated by the Black Hundreds antisemite terrorist group. "The Russkoye Znamya declares openly that 'Real Russians' assassinated Herzenstein and Iollos with knowledge of officials, and expresses regret that only two Jews perished in crusade against revolutionaries. The Second Duma included seven Jewish deputies: Shakho Abramson , Iosif Gessen , Vladimir Matveevich Gessen , Lazar Rabinovich , Yakov Shapiro (all of them Kadets) and Avigdor Mandelberg ( Siberia Social Democrat), plus
History of the Jews in Russia - Misplaced Pages Continue
2912-479: The Councils of Elders ( Qahal , Kehilla ), constituted in every town or hamlet possessing a Jewish population. These councils had jurisdiction over Jews in matters of internal litigation, as well as fiscal transactions relating to the collection and payment of taxes ( poll tax , land tax , etc.). Later, this right of collecting taxes was much abused, and the councils lost civil authority in 1844. Under Alexander I and Nicholas I , decrees were put forth requiring
3003-435: The Holocaust in warfare and in Nazi-occupied territories. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, many Soviet Jews took the opportunity of liberalized emigration policies, with more than half of the population leaving, most for Israel and the West: Germany, the United States, Canada and Australia. For many years during this period, Russia had a higher rate of immigration to Israel than any other country. Russia's Jewish population
3094-429: The Ichkeria government was exiled in 2000. The Russian Federation has been involved in territorial disputes with several its neighbours, including with Japan over the Kuril Islands , with Latvia over the Pytalovsky Raion (settled in 1997), with China over parts of Tarabarov Island and Bolshoy Ussuriysky Island ( settled in 2001 ), with its coastal neighbours over Caspian Sea boundaries , and with Estonia over
3185-414: The Imperial Russian army for 25 years after the completion of their studies, often never seeing their families again. Strict quotas were imposed on all communities and the qahals were given the unpleasant task of implementing conscription within the Jewish communities. Since the merchant- guild members, agricultural colonists, factory mechanics, clergy, and all Jews with secondary education were exempt, and
3276-547: The Jewish Gates (Old East Slavic: Жидовская ворота, Zhidovskaya vorota ). The Kievan community was oriented towards Byzantium (the Romaniotes ), Babylonia and Palestine in the 10th and 11th centuries, but appears to have been increasingly open to the Ashkenazim from the 12th century on. Few products of Kievan Jewish intellectual activity exist, however. Other communities, or groups of individuals, are known from Chernigov and, probably, Volodymyr-Volynskyi . At that time, Jews were probably found also in northeastern Russia, in
3367-505: The Jewish population in Kiev , in present-day Ukraine , was restricted to a separate quarter. Evidence of the presence of Jewish people in Muscovite Russia is first documented in the chronicles of 1471. During the reign of Catherine II in the 18th century, Jewish people were restricted to the Pale of Settlement (1791–1917) within Russia, the territory where they could live or to which they could immigrate. The three partitions of Poland brought much additional territory to Russia, along with
3458-416: The Jewish population was a majority or plurality in many communities. It was possible to evade these restrictions upon secondary education by combining private tuition with examination as an "outside student". Accordingly, within the Pale such outside pupils were almost entirely young Jews. The restrictions placed on education, traditionally highly valued in Jewish communities, resulted in ambition to excel over
3549-435: The Jewish renegades who turned persecutors of the own brethren in the Middle Ages." The Yevsektsiya sought to draw Jewish workers into the revolutionary organisations; chairman Semyon Dimanstein , at the first conference in October 1918, pointed out that, "when the October revolution came, the Jewish workers had remained totally passive ... and a large part of them were even against the revolution. The revolution did not reach
3640-570: The Jewish street. Everything remained as before". The Yevsektsiya remained fairly isolated from both the Jewish intelligentsia and working class. The sections were staffed mostly by Jewish ex-members of the Bund , which eventually joined the Soviet Communist Party as the Kombund in 1921, and the United Jewish Socialist Workers Party . Former elements of the Bund and Faraynigte were historically hostile to Zionism. As they later joined Yevsektsiya, they deemed Russian Zionist organisations to be counter-revolutionary, and critiqued them. Delegates to
3731-459: The Jews as " Christ-killers " and the oppressors of the Slavic, Christian victims. A large-scale wave of anti-Jewish pogroms swept Ukraine in 1881, after Jews were scapegoated for the assassination of Alexander II. In the 1881 outbreak, there were pogroms in 166 Ukrainian towns, thousands of Jewish homes were destroyed, many families reduced to extremes of poverty; large numbers of men, women, and children were injured and some killed. Disorders in
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3822-412: The Jews have crucified our Master and have shed his precious blood." In 1892, new measures banned Jewish participation in local elections despite their large numbers in many towns of the Pale. The Town Regulations prohibited Jews from the right to elect or be elected to town Dumas . Only a small number of Jews were allowed to be members of a town Duma, through appointment by special committees. During
3913-450: The Jews regarded the Red Army as the only force which was able and willing to defend them. The Russian Civil War pogroms shocked world Jewry and rallied many Jews to the Red Army and the Soviet regime, strengthening the desire for the creation of a homeland for the Jewish people. In August 1919 the Soviet government arrested many rabbis, seized Jewish properties, including synagogues, and dissolved many Jewish communities. The Jewish section of
4004-410: The Jews who were long settled in those lands. Alexander III of Russia escalated anti-Jewish policies. Beginning in the 1880s, waves of anti-Jewish pogroms swept across different regions of the empire for several decades. More than two million Jews fled Russia between 1880 and 1920, mostly to the United States and Palestine . The Pale of Settlement took away many of the rights that the Jewish people of
4095-408: The Kremlin annexed Crimea and Sevastopol . The annexation was not recognized by Ukraine or most other members of the international community. A few weeks later, an armed conflict broke out the Donbas region of Ukraine, in which the Kremlin denies an active role, but is widely considered to be fuelled by soldiers, militants, weapons, and ammunition from the Russian Federation. On February 21, 2022,
4186-505: The Pale and could not migrate elsewhere in Russia without special permission. Within the Pale, the Jewish residents were permitted to vote in municipal elections, but their vote was limited to one third of the total number of voters, even though their proportion in many areas was much higher, even a majority. This served to provide an aura of democracy, while institutionalizing local inter-ethnic conflict. Jewish communities in Russia were governed internally by local administrative bodies, called
4277-406: The Pale of Settlement amounted to 42,338,367—of these, 4,805,354 (11.5%) were Jews. About 450,000 Jewish soldiers served in the Russian Army during World War I , and fought side by side with their Slavic fellows. When hundreds of thousands of refugees from Poland and Lithuania, among them innumerable Jews, fled in terror before enemy invasion, the Pale of Settlement de facto ceased to exist. Most of
4368-606: The Russian Constitutional Democrat Party , Russian Social Democratic Party ( Mensheviks ) and Socialist-Revolutionary Party . The Russian Anarchist movement also included many prominent Jewish revolutionaries. In Ukraine, Makhnovist anarchist leaders also included several Jews. In August 1919 Jewish properties, including synagogues, were seized and many Jewish communities were dissolved. New laws against all expressions of religion and religious education were imposed upon Jews and other religious groups. Many Rabbis and other religious officials were forced to resign from their posts under
4459-399: The Russian Empire was hostile to Catholicism and Polish nationalism. The cultural and habitual isolation of the Jews gradually began eroding. An ever-increasing number of Jewish people adopted Russian customs and the Russian language. Russian education was spread among the Jewish population. A number of Jewish-Russian periodicals appeared. Alexander II was known as the "Tsar liberator" for
4550-481: The Russian Federation in 2014). There were numerous minor border changes between Soviet republics as well. After World War II, the Soviet Union set up seven satellite states , in which local politics, military, and foreign and domestic policies were dominated by the Soviet Union: The dissolution of the Soviet Union has led to the creation of independent post-Soviet states , with the Russian SFSR declaring its independence in December 1991 and changing its name to
4641-443: The Russian State, for example Peter Shafirov , vice-chancellor under Peter the Great . Shafirov came, as most Russian Jews after the fall of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1795, from a Jewish family of Polish origin. He had extraordinary knowledge of foreign languages and served as the chief translator in the Russian Foreign Office, subsequently he began to accompany Tsar Peter on his international travels. Following this, he
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#17327725377704732-415: The Russian president Putin signed a decree recognizing the independence of two Donbas republics in Ukraine, and invaded the region. Two days later, Russian troops openly invaded Ukrainian-held territory of Ukraine , a move widely seen as an attempt to conduct regime change and occupy much or all of Ukraine. After failing to seize Ukraine's capital Kyiv for over a month, the Russian defence minister stated that
4823-415: The Soviet population but 12–15 percent of all university students. In 1934 the Soviet state established the Jewish Autonomous Oblast in the Russian Far East. This region never came to have a majority Jewish population. The JAO is Russia's only autonomous oblast and, outside of Israel, the world's only Jewish territory with an official status. The observance of the Sabbath was banned in 1929, foreshadowing
4914-406: The Tsarist regime was attractive to many members of the Jewish intelligentsia because of the oppression of non-Russian nations and non- Orthodox Christians within the Russian Empire . For much the same reason, many non-Russians, notably Latvians or Poles , were disproportionately represented in the party leaderships. In 1897 General Jewish Labour Bund (The Bund), was formed. Many Jews joined
5005-425: The antisemitism that was endemic to tsarist Russia. During the World War, Jews were often accused of sympathizing with Germany and often persecuted. Pogroms were unleashed throughout the Russian Civil War, perpetrated by virtually every competing faction, from Polish and Ukrainian nationalists to the Red and White Armies. 31,071 civilian Jews were killed during documented pogroms throughout the former Russian Empire ;
5096-492: The arbitrariness of the qahal to the Russian government. In some cases, communal elders had the most threatening informers murdered (such as the Ushitsa case , 1836). The zoning rule was suspended during the Crimean War , when conscription became annual. During this period the qahals leaders would employ informers and kidnappers (Russian: " ловчики ", lovchiki , Yiddish : khappers ), as many potential conscripts preferred to run away rather than voluntarily submit. In
5187-441: The areas between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. The key areas were Armenia and Georgia, with some better penetration of the Ottoman Empire, and Persia. By 1829, Russia controlled all of the Caucasus as shown in the Treaty of Adrianople of 1829. The third era, 1850 to 1860, was a brief interlude jumping to the East Coast, annexing the region from the Amur River to Manchuria. The fourth era, 1865 to 1885 incorporated Turkestan, and
5278-471: The case of unfulfilled quotas, younger Jewish boys of eight and even younger were frequently taken. The official Russian policy was to encourage the conversion of Jewish cantonists to the state religion of Orthodox Christianity and Jewish boys were coerced to baptism . As kosher food was unavailable, they were faced with the necessity of abandoning of Jewish dietary laws . Polish Catholic boys were subject to similar pressure to convert and assimilate as
5369-445: The despotic, unpopular regime, and divert popular anger toward a scapegoat. The Soviet Union also officially maintained this Marxist-Leninist interpretation under Joseph Stalin , who expounded Lenin's critique of antisemitism. However, this did not prevent the widely publicized repressions of Jewish intellectuals during 1948–1953 when Stalin increasingly associated Jews with "cosmopolitanism" and pro-Americanism . Jews were prominent in
5460-420: The dissolution of the Communist Party's Yiddish-language Yevsektsia in 1930 and worse repression to come. Numerous Jews were victimized in Stalin's purges as "counterrevolutionaries" and "reactionary nationalists", although in the 1930s the Jews were underrepresented in the Gulag population. The share of Jews in the Soviet ruling elite declined during the 1930s, but was still more than double their proportion in
5551-406: The domains of Prince Andrei Bogolyubsky (1169–1174), although it is uncertain to which degree they would have been living there permanently. Although northeastern Russia had a low Jewish population, countries just to its west had rapidly growing Jewish populations, as waves of anti-Jewish pogroms and expulsions from the countries of Western Europe marked the last centuries of the Middle Ages ,
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#17327725377705642-517: The early Sino-Russian border conflicts , although the Russian Empire later acquired Russian Manchuria in the Amur Annexation . During the Boxer Rebellion , the Russian Empire invaded Manchuria in 1900 , and the Blagoveshchensk massacre occurred against Chinese residents on the Russian side of the border. Russian Empire reached its maximum territory in Asia with the Russo-Japanese War , where after its defeat, Russia ceded Manchuria, southern Sakhalin , Russian Dalian , and Port Arthur to Japan with
5733-484: The education restrictions on the Jews were removed with the appointment of count Pavel Ignatiev as Minister of Education. Even though the persecutions provided the impetus for mass emigration, there were other relevant factors that can account for the Jews' migration. After the first years of large emigration from Russia, positive feedback from the emigrants in the U.S. encouraged further emigration. Indeed, more than two million Jews fled Russia between 1880 and 1920. While
5824-501: The expanding Russian Empire. In 1495, Alexander the Jagiellonian expelled Jewish residents from Grand Duchy of Lithuania , but reversed his decision in 1503. In the shtetls populated almost entirely by Jews, or in the middle-sized town where Jews constituted a significant part of population, Jewish communities traditionally ruled themselves according to halakha , and were limited by the privileges granted them by local rulers. (See also Shtadlan ). These Jews were not assimilated into
5915-446: The first All-Russian Zionist Congress was disrupted by members of the Cheka and a female representative of the Yevsektsiya. At its third conference in July 1921, the Yevsektsiya demanded the "total liquidation" of Zionism. According to Richard Pipes , "in time, every Jewish cultural and social organization came under assault". The section in Rostov-on-Don persecuted local Jewish leaders, both Zionist and religious, and especially
6006-425: The general Soviet population. According to Israeli historian Benjamin Pinkus, "We can say that the Jews in the Soviet Union took over the privileged position, previously held by the Germans in tsarist Russia ". In the 1930s, many Jews held high rank in the Red Army High Command: Generals Iona Yakir , Yan Gamarnik , Yakov Smushkevich (Commander of the Soviet Air Forces ) and Grigori Shtern (Commander-in-Chief in
6097-577: The larger eastern European societies, and identified as an ethnic group with a unique set of religious beliefs and practices, as well as an ethnically unique economic role. Documentary evidence as to the presence of Jews in Muscovite Russia is first found in the chronicles of 1471. The relatively small population of them were subject to discriminatory laws, but these laws do not appear to have been enforced at all times. Jews residing in Russian and Ukrainian towns suffered numerous religious persecutions. Converted Jews occasionally rose to important positions in
6188-588: The late 17th century Russia had enjoyed. At this time, the Jewish people were restricted to an area of what is current day Belarus, Lithuania, eastern Poland and Ukraine. Where Western Europe was experiencing emancipation at this time, in Russia the laws for the Jewish people were getting more strict. They were allowed to move further east, towards a less crowded region, though it was only a minority of Jews who took to this migration option. The sporadic and often impoverished communities formed were known as Shtetls . Before 1917 there were 300,000 Zionists in Russia, while
6279-437: The late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Russian Empire had not only the largest Jewish population in the world, but actually a majority of the world's Jews living within its borders. In 1897, according to Russian census of 1897 , the total Jewish population of Russia was 5,189,401 persons of both sexes (4.13% of total population). Of this total, 93.9% lived in the 25 provinces of the Pale of Settlement . The total population of
6370-485: The leading Bolsheviks were Ethnic Jews , and Bolshevism supports a policy of promoting international proletarian revolution—most notably in the case of Leon Trotsky —many enemies of Bolshevism, as well as contemporary antisemites, draw a picture of Communism as a political slur at Jews and accuse Jews of pursuing Bolshevism to benefit Jewish interests, reflected in the terms Jewish Bolshevism or Judeo-Bolshevism . The original atheistic and internationalistic ideology of
6461-584: The main Jewish socialist organization, the Bund , had 33,000 members. Only 958 Jews had joined the Bolshevik Party before 1917; thousands joined after the Revolution. The chaotic years of World War I , the February and October Revolutions , and the Russian Civil War had created social disruption that led to antisemitism. Some 150,000 Jews were killed in the pogroms of 1918–1922, 125,000 of them in Ukraine, 25,000 in Belarus. The pogroms were mostly perpetrated by anti-communist forces; sometimes, Red Army units engaged in pogroms as well. Anton Denikin 's White Army
6552-559: The main goal of the war was the "liberation of the Donbas", but later a Russian general stated that it was to seize eastern and southern Ukraine right through to Transnistria, a breakaway territory in Moldova. On 30 September 2022, Putin announced in a speech that Russia was to annex four partially occupied regions of Ukraine: Donetsk , Kherson , Luhansk , and Zaporizhzhia Oblasts . However, Russia's annexation of these territories
6643-468: The mob. The systematic policy of discrimination banned Jewish people from rural areas and towns of fewer than ten thousand people, even within the Pale, assuring the slow death of many shtetls . In 1887, the quotas placed on the number of Jews allowed into secondary and higher education were tightened down to 10% within the Pale, 5% outside the Pale, except Moscow and Saint Petersburg, held at 3%, even though
6734-505: The northern approaches to India, sparking British fears of a threat to India in the Great Game . Historian Michael Khodarkovsky describes Tsarist Russia as a "hybrid empire" that combined elements of continental and colonial empires. According to Kazakh scholar Kereihan Amanzholov, Russian colonialism had "no essential difference with the colonialist policies of Britain, France, and other European powers". Qing China defeated Russia in
6825-648: The number of Jewish orphans exceeded 300,000. A majority of pogroms in Ukraine during 1918–1920 were perpetrated by the Ukrainian nationalists, miscellaneous bands and anti-Communist forces. Continuing the policy of the Bolsheviks before the Revolution, Lenin and the Bolshevik Party strongly condemned the pogroms, including official denunciations in 1918 by the Council of People's Commissars. Opposition to
6916-572: The peers and increased emigration rates. Special quotas restricted Jews from entering profession of law, limiting number of Jews admitted to the bar. In 1886, an Edict of Expulsion was enforced on the historic Jewish population of Kiev . Most Jews were expelled from Moscow in 1891 (except few deemed useful ) and a newly built synagogue was closed by the city's authorities headed by the Tsar's brother. Tsar Alexander III refused to curtail repressive practices and reportedly noted: "But we must never forget that
7007-624: The pogroms and to manifestations of Russian antisemitism in this era were complicated by both the official Bolshevik policy of assimilationism towards all national and religious minorities, and concerns about overemphasizing Jewish concerns for fear of exacerbating popular antisemitism, as the White forces were openly identifying the Bolshevik regime with Jews. Territorial evolution of Russia The borders of Russia changed through military conquests and by ideological and political unions from
7098-704: The public (and antisemitic) opinion and are most of the time included in these figures. At the 1906 elections, the Jewish Labour Bund had made an electoral agreement with the Lithuanian Labourers' Party ( Trudoviks ), which resulted in the election to the Duma of two (non-Bundist) candidates in the Lithuanian provinces: Dr. Shmaryahu Levin for the Vilnius province and Leon Bramson for
7189-427: The public use of the ethnic slur жид ("Yid") being punished by up to one year of imprisonment, and tried to modernize the Jewish community by establishing 1,100 Yiddish-language schools, 40 Yiddish-language daily newspapers and by settling Jews on farms in Ukraine and Crimea; the number of Jews working in the industry had more than doubled between 1926 and 1931. At the beginning of the 1930s, the Jews were 1.8 percent of
7280-487: The ranks of two principal revolutionary parties: Socialist-Revolutionary Party and Russian Social Democratic Labour Party —both Bolshevik and Menshevik factions. A notable number of Bolshevik party members were ethnically Jewish, especially in the leadership of the party, and the percentage of Jewish party members among the rival Mensheviks was even higher. Both the founders and leaders of Menshevik faction, Julius Martov and Pavel Axelrod , were Jewish. Because some of
7371-492: The sixth Chabad rebbe Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn The Yevsektsiya attempted to use its influence to cut off state funds to Habima Theatre , branding it counter-revolutionary. The theatre left Russia to go on tour in 1926, before settling in Mandatory Palestine in 1928 to become Israel 's national theatre. The Yevsektsia were disbanded as no longer needed in 1929. Many leading members were murdered during
7462-687: The south once again recalled the government attention to the Jewish question. A conference was convened at the Ministry of Interior and on May 15, 1882, so-called Temporary Regulations were introduced that stayed in effect for more than thirty years and came to be known as the May Laws . The repressive legislation was repeatedly revised. Many historians noted the concurrence of these state-enforced antisemitic policies with waves of pogroms that continued until 1884, with at least tacit government knowledge and in some cases policemen were seen inciting or joining
7553-517: The third (1795) Partitions of Poland . Under the Commonwealth's legal system, Jews endured economic restrictions euphemised as " disabilities ", which also continued following the Russian occupation. Catherine established the Pale of Settlement , which included Congress Poland , Lithuania, Ukraine, Belarus, Bessarabia , and Crimea (the latter was later excluded). Jews were required to live within
7644-576: The threat of violent persecution. This type of persecution continued into the 1920s. In 1921, a large number of Jews opted for Poland, as the Peace of Riga entitled them to choose the country they preferred. Several hundred thousand joined the already numerous Jewish population of Poland . The chaotic years of World War I, the February and October Revolutions, and the Civil War were fertile ground for
7735-633: The towns of Gierdawy (now Zheleznodorozhny) and Iławka (now Bagrationovsk) from Poland and expelled the already formed local Polish administration. The Chinese Eastern Railway , formerly a tsarist concession, was taken again by the Soviet Union after the 1929 Sino-Soviet conflict , the railway was returned in 1952 . Meanwhile, territories were removed from the Russian SFSR, including Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan in 1924, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan in 1936, and Karelo-Finland from 1945 to 1956. The Crimean oblast and city of Sevastopol were transferred to Ukraine on 19 February 1954 (later annexed by
7826-674: The wealthy bribed their way out of having their children conscripted, fewer potential conscripts were available; the adopted policy deeply sharpened internal Jewish social tensions. Seeking to protect the socio-economic and religious integrity of Jewish society, the qahals did their best to include “non-useful Jews” in the draft lists so that the heads of tax-paying middle-class families were predominantly exempt from conscription, whereas single Jews, as well as "heretics" ( Haskalah influenced individuals), paupers, outcasts, and orphaned children were drafted. They used their power to suppress protests and intimidate potential informers who sought to expose
7917-550: Was a bastion of antisemitism, using "Strike at the Jews and save Russia!" as its motto. The Bolshevik Red Army , although individual soldiers committed antisemitic abuses, had a policy of opposing antisemitism, and as a result, it won the support of much of the Jewish population. After a short period of confusion, the Soviets started executing guilty individuals and even disbanding the army units whose men had attacked Jews. Although pogroms were still perpetrated after this, in general
8008-622: Was also a Crimean Karaim deputy, Salomon Krym . Three of the Jewish deputies, Bramson, Chervonenkis and Yakubson, joined the Labour faction; nine others joined the Kadet fraction. According to Rufus Learsi, five of them were Zionists, including Dr. Shmaryahu Levin , Dr. Victor Jacobson and Simon Yakovlevich Rosenbaum . Two of them, Grigori Borisovich Iollos ( Poltava province) and Mikhail Herzenstein (b. 1859, d. 1906 in Terijoki ), both from
8099-407: Was fluency in Russian, and they often had no education in, or knowledge of Jewish law. The beginning of the 19th century was marked by intensive movement of Jews to Novorossiya , where towns, villages and agricultural colonies rapidly sprang up. In 19th century, legally the Jews were a subcategory of the inorodtsy category, special ethnicity-based category of non-Slavic population that received
8190-417: Was raised to the rank of vice-chancellor because of his many diplomatic talents and skills, but was later imprisoned, sentenced to death, and eventually banished. Their situation changed radically during the reign of Catherine II , when the Russian Empire acquired large Lithuanian and Polish territories which historically included a high proportion of Jewish residents, especially during the second (1793) and
8281-692: Was widely condemned by the international community, and Russia does not control the full territory of any of the four annexed regions, and its government was unable to describe the new international "borders". Yevsektsiya A Yevsektsiya (Russian: евсекция , IPA: [jɪfˈsʲektsɨjə] ; Yiddish : יעווסעקציע ) were the Jewish section of the Soviet Communist Party and its main institutions. These sections were established in fall of 1918 with consent of Vladimir Lenin to carry Party ideology and Marxist-Leninist atheism to
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