Pogroms of the Jewish Population in the Towns of Right-Bank Ukraine during the Imperial Period (1881 — February 1917)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15407/uhj2026.01.056Keywords:
Jewish pogroms, towns, Right-Bank Ukraine, interethnic relations, Russian Empire, antisemitism.Abstract
The purpose of the article is to provide a comprehensive analysis of the causes, course, and consequences of Jewish pogroms in the towns of the Kyiv, Podillia, and Volyn gubernias between 1881 and 1917, as well as to examine the response of Ukrainian society and the authorities to these events. The research methodology is based on the principles of historicism, objectivity, and comprehensiveness. The authors employ historical-comparative, problem-chronological, statistical, and source-critical methods, which make it possible to trace the dynamics, scale, and causes of Jewish pogroms in the towns of Right-Bank Ukraine. The study combines micro- and macrohistorical levels of analysis and also applies an interdisciplinary approach that incorporates sociological, political, and ethnopsychological perspectives. The scientific novelty of the research lies in the attempt to reconstruct a comprehensive picture of anti-Jewish violence in the context of socio-political processes in the Ukrainian lands of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, to identify the role of imperial and local authorities in provoking or suppressing pogroms, and to reveal the relationships between the Jewish population and the Ukrainian peasantry during a period of crisis. Conclusions. An escalation of interethnic relations in the Ukrainian lands within the Russian Empire marked the late nineteenth — early twentieth centuries. The Jewish population, which played an important role in the economic life of Right-Bank towns, became a victim of systemic discrimination, socio-economic tensions, and the authorities’ deliberate antisemitic policies. The causes of Jewish pogroms were complex in nature and resulted from a combination of economic competition, religious prejudice, political instability, and deliberate provocations. The passivity or support of local administrations often contributed to the impunity of the perpetrators. Violence reached its greatest scale during the revolutionary events of 1905, when anarchy and social disorientation intensified anti-Jewish sentiments.
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