Year of Crisis, Year of Hope

Book excerpt: Examines the causes of the pogroms in the south of Russia in 1881-1882 and the consequences for Russian Jewry. The reforms of Tsar Alexander II had partially removed restrictions on Jews and raised hopes for a solution of the Jewish question through integration. The pogroms, the failure of the government to suppress them, and the ambivalent reactions of the intelligentsia disappointed these hopes. The revolutionary movement welcomed the pogroms as "a bridge to the Revolution". The last part of the book describes Jewish responses to the pogroms (pp. 101-186).