Odessa pogroms

A series of pogroms against Jews in the city of Odessa, in the Russian Empire (now Ukraine), took place during the 19th and early 20th centuries. They occurred in 1821, 1859, 1871, 1881 and 1905. Odessa had a multi-ethnic population which included Greek, Jewish, Russian, Ukrainian and other communities. The earlier pogroms were unique in the history of the Russian Empire in that the main perpetrators were ethnic Greeks, rather than Russians or Ukrainians. After 1871, the perpetrators were mainly Russians.

According to Jarrod Tanny, most historians in the early 21st century now argue that the pre-20th century incidents (before 1881) were a result of "frictions unleashed by modernization," rather than by a resurgence of medieval antisemitism. The 1905 pogrom was markedly larger in scale, with over 500 casualties (80% Jewish), 300 injuries, and 1600 homes and businesses damaged,^[1] and antisemitism playing a central role, spurred by economic and political turmoil. Robert Weinberg believed the police and hospital figures were likely an underestimate, with a range of estimates from 300 to over 1000 killed, and approximately over 2000 wounded.^[2]

The 1821 pogrom was a fairly serious riot, but was minimized and even dismissed by Jewish communal leaders and intellectuals, despite it killing, wounding, and damaging the homes and businesses of Jews. During the Greek War of Independence Jews tended to support the Ottomans, and after Turks killed Gregory V of Constantinople, Odessa, which had been a major anti-Ottoman revolutionary hotbed, received Gregory's remains for burial. A large number of Greek immigrants recently arrived from Constantinople joined the funeral and spread rumors that the Jews participated in Gregory's death. 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.^{[3]: 119–120}

According to the Jewish Encyclopedia (1906 ed.),

The community did not escape the horrors of the pogrom. ... This was in reality not a Russian but a Greek pogrom; for the leaders and almost all of the participants were Greek sailors from ships in the harbor, and local Greeks who joined them. The pogrom occurred on a Christian Easter; and the local press, in no wise unfriendly to the Jews, attempted to transform it into an accidental fight, the Greek colony at that time being dominant in the administration as well as in the commerce of Odessa. Further pogroms occurred in 1871, 1881, and 1886."^[4]

Historians note economic antagonism between the two urban minorities, in addition to religious frictions.^[5]: 16 There were also rumors that Jews had desecrated the Greek Orthodox Church and cemetery, leading to the participation of many Greek sailors and dockworkers in the 1859 pogrom, and fueling antisemitism.^[6][2]

The 1871 pogrom started as a street fight during Greek Orthodox Holy Week, turning into a serious riot and leading to destruction of Jewish property and 600 arrests. Censorship limited the ability of Odessa newspapers to report on the events, but the press in Saint Petersburg published sympathetic accounts. ^[7]

The 1871 pogrom is seen as a turning point in Russian Jewish history: "The Odessa pogrom led some Jewish publicists, exemplified by the writer Peretz Smolenskin, to question belief in the possibility of Jewish integration into Christian society, and to call for a greater awareness of Jewish national identity."^[8]

In the four days following May 27, 1871, 6 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. 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. ^[3][10] 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.^[9]

Russian newspapers and government officials blamed Jews themselves for the pogrom. The intelligentsia became skeptical of Russification, and led to the collapse of the Russian-Jewish newspaper Razvet and the Society for the Dissemination of Education among the Jews of Russia (ORPME) shut down its branch in Odessa. ^[11][12] The pogrom altered the intellectual landscape, and spurred Jewish national consciousness in Odessa thinkers.^[13][14]

Rumors that Jews had desecrated the Greek Orthodox Church and cemetery led to the participation of many Greek sailors and dockworkers in the 1871 pogrom. Perception of Jews as an economic threat fueled Russian participation in the 1871 pogrom. ^[6][2] Greek merchants were the masterminds of the pogrom.^[15]

To protect the city's reputation, authorities and the press downplayed the 1871 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.^[16]

The 1871 pogrom increased emigration to the United States.^[17]

In the post-1871 period, pogroms were often perpetrated with tacit approval of the Tsarist authorities.^[18] Evidence exists that during the 1905 pogrom, the army supported the mob:

The Bolshevik Piatnitsky who was in Odessa at the time recalls what happened: "There I saw the following scene: a gang of young men, between 25 and 20 years old, among whom there were plain-clothes policemen and members of the Okhrana, were rounding up anyone who looked like a Jew—men, women and children—stripping them naked and beating them mercilessly... We immediately organised a group of revolutionaries armed with revolvers... we ran up to them and fired at them. They ran away. But suddenly between us and the pogromists there appeared a solid wall of soldiers, armed to the teeth and facing us. We retreated. The soldiers went away, and the pogromists came out again. This happened a few times. It became clear to us that the pogromists were acting together with the military."^[19]

In the 1881 and 1905 pogroms, many Greek houses were also destroyed.^[20]

Like the 1871 pogrom, the 1881 disillusioned Jewish intellectuals of the haskalah who had to reconcile the reality of antisemitism.^[9]

The 1905 pogrom of Odessa was the worst anti-Jewish pogrom in Odessa's history. Between 18 and 22 October 1905, ethnic Russians, Ukrainians, and Greeks killed over 400 Jews and damaged or destroyed over 1600 Jewish properties.^[22] Robert Weinberg believed the police and hospital figures were likely an underestimate, with a range of estimates from 300 to over 1000 killed, and approximately over 2000 wounded.^[2] Pogroms swept through the shtetls in 1905-1907.^[23][24]

Odessa had become the country's most important port city, home to banks, brokerage houses, sugar refineries, and other factories, and also had a vibrant intellectual culture that reflected cosmopolitan Europe.^[6] Despite being widely known as a city of liberal, enlightened attitudes toward the Jewish population, which suggests a relatively more favorable environment for Jews than in many other parts of the Pale of Settlement, Odessa was also home to antisemitic views. Rumors of a pogrom arose each year around Eastertime. Jewish and Russian youths also often got into violent fights with each other.^[2]

In the 1897 census, Jews made up 34.41%, surpassed only by the ethnic Russian plurality at 45.58%, followed by Ukrainians (9.38%), Poles (4.29%), Germans (2.48%), and Greeks (1.26%).^[27]

The October environment was one of popular mobilization and political polarization in Odessa, characterized by railroad worker strikes, mutinies, student organization, and strikes spreading to factories, retail, and other industries. High school and university students returning from their summer breaks brought in their parents and teachers to the revolutionary activities, who let them use lecture halls for organizing. Aimed at the autocracy in general and not a specific employer, the strikes enjoyed popular support, but in public spaces often clashed with Cossacks and the police, leading to barricades, shootings, injuries, and casualties. Police morale was at a low and they were operating at reduced effectiveness.^[30] The military was called in to help when the police couldn't handle the popular unrest, but in many cases they were poorly trained and essentially uniformed peasants. They were often disloyal, and conscription for the Russo-Japanese War and the events of the October Revolution contributed to a growth of mutinies in the army and navy. This had the effect that the military, when called to suppress unrest, instead frequently contributed to it, joining in the looting and killing despite official policy forbidding troop participation in pogroms.^[31]

Jewish radicalized students and Jewish revolutionaries who had left the city returned to defend their community during the pogroms. ^[23] Jews became associated with revolutionaries in the popular imagination, even though many reports of Jewish revolutionary activity were exaggerated or even fabricated. Some Jewish revolutionaries were arrested for making and stockpiling bombs, urging self-defense and for Jews to arm themselves to struggle for civil and political freedom. Some Jewish youths joined the student strikes and public demonstrations or joined revolutionary parties to organize Jewish self-defense, procuring weapons and forming armed brigades. While this had the effect of saving some Jewish lives, it also reinforced the perception of Jews as instigators and troublemakers. ^[6]: 87

Contributing to the climate of political polarization in Odessa, pro-tsarist, right-wing organizations, such as the Black Hundreds, consolidated their ranks to counter revolutionary and liberal movements. These groups viewed the anti-government opposition as a threat to the autocracy and Russian national identity. Their newspapers and leaflets blamed minorities such as Poles, Armenians, Georgians, but especially Jews for the social and political unrest, calling on Russians to "beat the Jews, students and wicked people who seek to harm our Fatherland".^{[2][16]: 61}

The Black Hundreds explicitly linked their support for the tsar with antisemitism. Their rallies and patriotic marches, like the one that preceded the main pogrom on October 19, enjoyed the tacit blessing of the local authorities, and were used by advocates of the autocracy to support the government and undermine the concessions made as a result of the October revolution.^[2][16] This ideology framed anti-Jewish violence as a way to "strengthen the foundation of tsarist rule" and punish what they perceived as "treasonable behavior" such as desecrating portraits of the tsar or forcing bystanders to pay tribute to revolutionary flags.^[6]

On 17 October, Tsar Nicholas II issued the October Manifesto, which established civil liberties for the people and promised to create an elected assembly. It was reported in Odessa on 18 October, causing celebration in the streets. Jews hoped that the Manifesto would lead to greater freedom and less antisemitism in the Russian Empire.^[5] While many Jews and liberals in Odessa celebrated the October Manifesto, conservatives considered the document as a threat to the autocracy and the might of the Russian Empire.

The tsar and his ministers contributed to an attitude of antisemitism and of tolerance of, or the perception that they unofficially condoned, actions against Jews. Some ministers advocated restraint, but many supported a trend of repression over emancipation. Discriminatory legislation that restricted Jews also contributed to their image as not to be trusted. While the tsar's government did not actually sponsor pogroms, they encouraged and subsidized antisemitism, increased conflict between Jews and gentiles, and worsened the conditions of Jews while blaming them for their misfortunes. Lower level officials explicitly encouraged and participated in antisemitic activities, believing they were accomplishing the tsar's wishes.^[31]

The pogroms, while stemming from deep-rooted anti-Jewish religious hatred, also coincided with economic factors. A significant economic downturn in Odessa at the turn of the 20th century played a part in creating the condition for the pogroms. Restricted trading, reduced industrial production, and the Russo-Japanese War resulted in high unemployment in Odessa. Many workers blamed Jews for lay-offs during the economic recession. Hatred for Jews heightened when a number of Jews did not support the war with Japan. Patriotic Russians called Jews unpatriotic and disloyal.^[32]

Growing antisemitism as a result of the changing place of Jews in Odessa's economy helped fuel an environment conducive to a pogrom.^[2][6] Odessan Jews had a prominent place in trade and finance, forming a majority of the banking, moneylending, and moneychanging industries and a significant involvement in commerce. They were also represented in fields such as the intelligentsia and as artists, though not a majority. They were underrepresented as city workers, which were majority Christian.^[27] After the Crimean War disrupted trade routes, many Greek companies relocated due to bankruptcy or a search for more profitable bases of operation. Jewish merchants successfully expanded their businesses to fill the void in the grain trade previously monopolized by Greeks. By 1886 firms owned by Jews controlled 70 percent, and by 1910, Jewish firms controlled nearly 90 percent of the grain export trade. Many factors contributed to the spread of antisemitism in Odessa including the success of Jewish traders. Like other groups, Jews often gave preference to other Jews in employment. There were also rumors that Jews had desecrated the Greek Orthodox Church and cemetery, leading to the participation of many Greek sailors and dockworkers in the 1859 and 1871 pogroms, and fueling antisemitism.^[2][6]

Many Russians, facing limited employment opportunities and lower wages, became frustrated and believed they were being exploited by the growing Jewish population. They had a largely incorrect perception of Odessa's populace that Jews possessed great wealth, power, and influence. Despite being a minority in the city, Jews had a growing influence on certain industries, particularly in commercial trades. Jewish-owned brokerage houses managed the majority of the city's export trade. 13 of the 18 banks that operated in Odessa had Jewish board members and directors. Approximately half the members of the city's three merchant guilds were Jewish. Perception of Jews as an economic threat fueled Russian participation in the 1871 pogrom, and encouraged Russians to scapegoat Jews for their problems. They pointed to the steady Jewish population growth in Odessa, from 14% (14,000 of 100,000) in 1858 to 35% (140,000 of 400,000) in 1897. ^[6][2]

Although by the end of the 19th century, Jews had made significant inroads in manufacturing and trade, the majority of wealth and power in Odessa still belonged to non-Jews. Jews certainly did not dominate the economy of Odessa, nor did they control Odessa politically.^[16] The perception that the growing Jewish capitalist population was "exploiting" Russians was exaggerated in the popular belief. While some Jewish-owned firms were successful, the majority of Jews in Odessa were impoverished. The population growth levelled off in 1897, and the majority of enterprises under factory inspection in Odessa were owned by foreigners and Russians, who employed primarily Russian workers. In 1911, Jews owned 17 percent of real estate parcels, while non-Jews controlled about half of all large commercial enterprises. Most Jews barely made ends meet as shopkeepers, second-hand dealers, salesclerks, petty traders, domestic servants, day laborers, workshop employees, and factory hands. A 1902 study estimated that almost 50,000 Jews were destitute, 30,000 under the poverty line, and in 1905, nearly 80,000 Jews needed financial aid to purchase matzah for Passover, indicating that well over half of Odessa's Jews were living in poverty.^[35][2]

Wealthy Jews were also not able to transform wealth into political power. Out of the 3449 total staff of the imperial government, 71 were Jews. However, after an 1892 civic reform, Jews lost the right to elect representatives to city councils. Instead, a special municipal affairs office took over, appointing Jews to six allotted seats, which capped their representation as a fixed percentage of the sixty-person Odessa City Council, disenfranchising them and depriving them of their right to elect representatives proportionally.^[2][36][6]

Practically every segment of the Christian population participated in anti-Jewish agitation and the pogroms, including Greek grain monopolists, wealthy Russian merchants, nationalist Ukrainian intellectuals, liberal professions, government employees, and vagrants.^[27]

Modern academics have pointed out that the traditional explanation of Jews as scapegoats for all the problems of non-Jews does not adequately explain the extent and mechanism of the pogroms. According to this theory, Jewish economic roles as middlemen such as moneylenders, made them a form of insurance for non-Jews, and economic shocks which coincided with political turmoil, stopped that insurance and exacerbated ethnic violence. In times of economic crisis, middlemen were unable to forgive debts or extend new credit, leading to debtors being unable to repay, and damaging economic relationships due to political uncertainty. "Middlemen minorities" can be in a precarious position and become targets of both elites and lower-class groups in times of economic distress and instability. However, this theory does not negate the prevalence of antisemitism, blood libels, and religious and ethnic animosity that created the conditions for outbursts of violence.^[37]

Fear of a pogrom in April 1905 prompted the National Committee of Jewish Self-Defense to urge Jews to arm themselves and protect their property. Non-Jews were threatened with armed retaliation if a pogrom occurred. Although a pogrom did not take place until October, fear of one re-emerged in June when Jews were declared culpable for instigating shootings as well as fires at the port. On 13 June 1905, Cossacks shot several striking workers. The next day, large groups of workers stopped working and attacked police with rocks and guns. The battleship Potemkin, whose crew had mutinied on 14 June, arrived in Odessa that evening. Thousands of Odessans went to the port to see the battleship and support the mutinous sailors. During the afternoon of 15 June, the unruly crowd began to raid warehouses and set fire to wooden buildings in the harbor. Chaos ensued when, the military tried to suppress the unrest by cordoning off the harbor and opening fire on the trapped crowd. Strikes, disorder, and the arrival of Potemkin resulted in the deaths of nearly 2,000 people at the Port of Odessa. An antisemitic pamphlet called Odesskie dni ("Odessan Days") was distributed soon after the violence at the harbor, accusing Jews of responsibility for the tragedy. Odesskie dni demanded restitution from Jews, disarmament, and a general search of Jewish residences. Although the events of June did not immediately cause a pogrom, an antisemitic environment had been formed, sufficient for the October pogrom.^[6][2]

On 14 October, a number of high school students skipped classes and attempted, but failed due to police intervention, to join rallies taking place at the university. In the process of intercepting them, armed policeman injured several youths.^[32] This led to anger and indignation toward the authorities from the liberal community, and calls for a citizen's militia to replace the police. The authorities closed the university to student organizing meetings.^[30]

The next day, radical students and revolutionaries armed themselves and encouraged other workers to lend them support.^[6] On 16 October, students and workers took to the streets and erected barricades. To try to preserve order, the police fought them, killing several students. Although a public funeral had been planned for the students, the Odessa city governor, D. M. Neidhart, had the bodies buried without formalities to limit rallying around the deaths.^[32] On 17 October, the police and military continued to monitor the streets, though no major confrontations occurred. About 4000 workers, including many Jews, went on strike.^[6]

On 18 October, the news of the October Manifesto inspired celebratory marching in the streets in Odessa's Jewish and liberal communities. Red flags plus a desecrated image of the tsar outraged the monarchists, who began to take out their anger on Odessa's Jewish community, whom they viewed as the source of Russia's problems. When a group of Jews demanded Russian workers doff their caps to red flags celebrating the October Manifesto, a fight broke out on the streets and soon turned into a full-fledged pogrom, with Russians indiscriminately attacking Jews and looting Jewish homes and businesses.^[6]: 89

On October 19, hundreds of Russians marched in patriotic and religious marches displaying their loyalty to the tsar. Organizers distributed flags, icons, and portraits of the tsar as participants sang the national anthem and religious hymns, and according to some reports, "Down with the Jews; they need a beating". The patriotic marchers, many of whom were unskilled day laborers, particularly dockworkers, but also including factory and construction workers, shopkeepers, salesclerks, workshop employees, and vagrants, were not all politically motivated. Some were reportedly enticed by the vodka, guns, and money handed out by plainclothes policemen. Violence re-erupted with the shooting and bombing of a demonstration, possibly by revolutionaries or Jewish and student self-defense brigades.^[6][2][16]

After shots from surrounding buildings killed a young boy carrying an icon, the pogrom erupted. Although the perpetrators remain uncertain, revolutionaries or members of Jewish and student self-defense brigades are though to have fired shots and reportedly threw homemade bombs, triggering a panic. The patriotic crowd, convinced that Jews were responsible, began shouting "Beat the Kikes" and "Death to the Kikes," kicking off a violent rampage. The pogrom escalated as people fired more shots from rooftops and balconies, and after Jewish self-defense brigades fired on Russians holding smaller patriotic processions and provoked similar pogromist responses. The violence raged until October 22. This pogrom became the most destructive anti-Jewish incident in Russian history at the time, exceeding the 1881-1882 pogrom wave. The attackers committed atrocities including brutally beating, mutilating, and murdering defenseless Jewish people, hurled Jews out of windows, raping women and slaughtering infants in front of their parents.^[6]

The bulk of the October pogrom took place on the 19-21 October and was worst on 20 October. Violence spread all over Odessa, from the city center, to the suburbs, and to nearby villages. The rioters demonstrated excellent organization throughout sections of Odessa, coordinating their numbers based on the size of the neighborhood under attack. Rather than working to protect Jews and end the pogrom, many policemen and soldiers wearing civilian clothes watched or participated in the massacre. Though they suffered many casualties and were eventually vanquished, Jewish self-defense forces successfully defended some houses as well as streets and even neighborhoods.^[32]

On 21 October, after much of the pogrom was over, the city governor Dmitri Neidhardt, and the commander of the Odessa military garrison, A. V. Kaul'bars, appeared in the streets. They instructed the rioters to disperse and go home. Neidhart's and Kaul'bars' prior inaction became a controversy, and led to Neidhart's subsequent resignation from office.^[32] Neither took any decisive action to suppress the pogrom quickly. Senator A.M. Kuzminskii, who was appointed to investigate the causes of the Odessa pogrom, conducted an official inquiry that faulted Neidgart for 'malfeasance in office' and for creating a situation where the city was left defenseless, by ordering the police to withdraw from their posts. Kaul'bars did not order his troops to shoot at pogromists until October 20, after the pogrom had been raging for two days. Both Kaul'bars and Neidgart defended the provocative behavior of the police and military, accusing Jewish and student militias of hampering their efforts to contain the pogrom. Some police and soldiers were actively participating in the violence, condoning the destruction of Jewish property, and even directing mobs and providing protection for pogromists or for non-Jewish properties.^[2][6]

Kuzminsky collected testimony that indicated that both opponents and defenders of the autocracy were to blame for the escalation of violence. The report also presented evidence that policemen and soldiers participated in the violence against Jews. From his point of view, this was an understandable response, as he believed that Jewish revolutionaries were responsible for the civil and political unrest, and that Jewish armed self-defense units that confronted pogromists and even fired on policemen and soldiers who were encouraging the mobs.^[6] Kuzminsky, like Neidgart and Kaul'bars, and other authorities, blamed the pogrom on political events and considered them spontaneous, but this is questionable. Authorities were accused of encouraging the pogromists. Kuzminskii's own investigation uncovered evidence of police involvement in the planning of the patriotic counter-demonstration and the pogrom. A soldier named L. D. Teplitskii testified that as early as October 15-16, policemen were discussing using force against Jews. One told him, "Jews want freedom-well, we'll kill two or three thousand. Then they'll know what freedom is." Teplitskii also testified that on the morning of October 18, he met day laborers who said they had been instructed to attack Jews that evening at a police station. Furthermore, policemen were reported to have compiled lists of Jewish-owned businesses and apartments, and agitators reportedly went from house to house spreading rumors that Jews were slaughtering Russian families in an effort to incite residents. There is also evidence suggesting that police were instructed not to interfere with the pogromists. An army captain informed Kuzminskii that a policeman told him that their superiors had granted them permission for three days of beating because Jews had destroyed the tsar's portrait in the municipal duma.^{[2]: 66–68}

However, no evidence ties Neidgart to the planning of the pogrom, and was likely trying to avert a major violent event. Neidgart even requested that Kaul'bars cancel a funeral procession to honor students killed on October 16, fearing an eruption of violence. Still, though, Neidgart delayed intervening even when community leaders such as a rabbi and a banker begged for his help. Neidgart may have simply realized his police force was disgruntled, underpaid, understaffed and out of his control. He may have realized he could not rely on his police force to maintain order and only sought help from Kaul'bars after the pogrom had grown too large for student self-defense units to manage. He sympathized with the mob and blamed the Jews, reportedly telling Jewish leaders, "You wanted freedom. Well, now you're getting 'Jewish freedom'." From his perspective, Jews were responsible for the city's problems, and the pogrom a form of retribution. While there is no evidence that Neidgart planned the pogrom or had prior knowledge of it, he did sympathize with the mob's actions and may have seen the attacks on Jews as a way to "squelch the revolution." Kaul'bars also did not act decisively to restore order, and ignored reports that his forces were participating in the pogrom, and on the 21 stated, "all of us sympathize in our souls with the pogrom." Still, he acknowledged that despite their personal sympathies, he, the police and the military had a responsibility to restore order and protect the Jews.^{[2]: 66–68}

According to a subsequent account written by the British Consul to Odessa, Charles Stewart Smith, Neidhart had ordered the police to withdraw from the streets, allowing the mobs a free hand to murder, rape and pillage. Stewart Smith addressed to M. Neidhart a forceful protest calling upon him to stop the pogrom and re-call the police to their duties. The French Consul-General wrote to the Prefect in the same sense. Next day the pogrom subsided. ‘It is quite clear,’ Stewart Smith reported to the Foreign Office, ‘that the late disorders were prepared and worked by the police who openly superintended the work of destruction, looting and murder.’ A few weeks later he wrote: ‘There were hopes that there would be a real judicial investigation of the whole affair, with proper apportionment of blame; but the Emperor has thanked the troops, and apparently Neidhart has been given another post (Nijni Novgorod). One newspaper says that M. Witte objected, but he was told that it was too late, the appointment was made. I was hoping that a real victory might be won for the law as against lawlessness of high officials, but my hopes are waning.’^[38]

Various reports estimate the number of Jews killed in the October Pogrom from 302 to 1,000. Other relevant statistics from the pogrom include approximately 5,000 Jews injured, 3.75 million rubles in property damage, 1,400 ruined businesses, and 3,000 families forced into poverty. The Odessa Jewish Central Committee to Aid the Victims of the Pogroms of 1905 collected 672,833 rubles from Jews in Odessa and abroad to aid those hurt by the pogrom. In total, the committee assisted 2,499 families affected by the October Pogrom.^[32]

Charles Stewart Smith, the British Consul, later wrote that such was the prevailing lawlessness that for many months the streets continued to be unsafe. Armed robberies were everyday occurrences. Six months after the pogrom he wrote in a private letter: ‘Crime continues in odious intensity. The “Black Crow” robberies have subsided, but bombs are thrown and assassinations occur far too often. A surgeon friend tells me that formerly in the Town hospital they used to receive one or two stabbing cases every week; now there are one or two a day.' ^[38]

It was one of the events that resulted in many Jews emigrating from Odessa and Ukraine to western Europe and to the United States in the following years.

Almost 50,000 Jews left Odessa after 1905's pogroms.^[27] Thousands of Jewish refugees went over the border to Austria-Hungary and Germany, leading to protests targeting Russia, and threats of diplomatic intervention. The value of Russian bonds went down, and Russian lawmakers had to develop new policies to react.^[39]

• 1941 Odessa massacre
• Odessa Museum of the Regional History

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Singer, Isidore; et al., eds. (1901–1906). "Odessa". The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls.