Crap, I just finished a response to this post and losr
my Interet connection. Here we go again...
>
> ----------
>
> Jabotinsky (born and
> raised in Odessa) was involved in organizing a
> militia against the
> pogrom in Odessa and went to Kishinev to cover the
> aftermath of the
> pogrom there as a journalist. (Any interesting
> details about either
> of these cities--or Jabotinshy--and their pogroms
> would be
> appreciated.)
The book does discuss the self-defense militias. I'll look it up again and give you as detailed an answer as I can, hampered by teh fact that this book, like most Russian books, does not have an index. Leafing through the relevant chapter, I don't see mention of Jabotinsky.
>
> I haven't read anything on the Russian pogroms. But
> I got the
> impression that during the 1903-05 period they were
> part of a general
> government sponsored suppression of
> anti-modernization, anti-liberal,
> anti-revolution communities, and Russian Jews (or at
> least the urban
> and/or working class) were prominently involved in
> these anti-tzarist
> movements.
>
According to Stepanov, though it is widely believed that the October 1905 pogrom(s) were part of a top-down plot on the part of the secret police, there is not much evidence that it is actually true. He suggests that this supposed myth came about because the press, which was mostly liberal in Russia at that time, could not admit for ideological reasons that many people (esp. among the peasantry -- 83% of the pogromshiki arrested were peasants) supported absolutism after the 1905 Revolution. He doesn't discuss earlier pogroms, since his focus is specifically on the Black Hundreds.
>
> I also had the impression (indirect suspicion gained
> from reading
> unrelated material) that the Russian Jews leaving in
> the wake of the
> pogroms were a very motley crew (ragged, hungry,
> poor, desperate)
Stepanov says that it is difficult to determine exactly which strata of the Jewish population suffered (most), but definetly the poorer ones. In at least one city, the poor Jewish quarter was razed to the ground.
and
> were a shock to the rather effete German middle
> class Jews who took
> them in---something along the lines of say Black
> southern dirt farmers
> showing up in Chicago in the 20s and 30s and
> boarding with better off
> Black urban families. (With the implicit sense: `you
> think its bad in
> Chicago, you should try Mississippi..')
>
>
Hannah Arendt, at least, spoke of the Ostjuden with some contempt.
Nu, zayats, pogodi!
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