1881
Tsar Alexander II is assassinated and is succeeded by Alexander III.
Following unsubstantiated rumors that Jews were behind the tsar’s murder, the first of three waves of anti-Jewish pogroms sweeps across Russia. In 1881 alone, 250 attacks are committed against the Jews. The attacks continue until 1884.
1882
Tsar Alexander III passes the May Laws, anti-Jewish regulations that severely restrict the freedom of Russia’s Jewish population.
1892
The anti-Semitic work The Talmud Unmasked: The Secret Rabbinical Teachings Concerning Christians is published in St. Petersburg, Russia.
1894
Tsar Alexander III dies and is succeeded by Nicholas II.
1897
5,200,000 Jews appear in the first census of the Russian Empire.
1903
The newspaper of St. Petersburg, Russia’s Znamya (The Banner), publishes a fraudulent document, The Protocols of Zion, the most notorious work of modern anti-Semitism.
In Kishinev, a three-day pogrom breaks out over Easter, killing nearly fifty Jews. The massacre receives worldwide attention.
A second wave of bloody anti-Jewish pogroms hits Russia from 1903–1906, leaving an estimated two thousand Jews dead.
1904
Russia and Japan fight in the Russo-Japanese War.
1905
In January, the Imperial Guard fires at one thousand peaceful demonstrators who arrive with a priest at the Winter Palace to petition the tsar for better working conditions. During this incident, which becomes known as “Bloody Sunday,” two hundred people are killed and eight hundred are wounded.
Russia’s defeat in the Russo-Japanese War is followed by a revolution in that year, leading to the institution of the Duma.
During the two weeks following the October Manifesto, an estimated three hundred to seven hundred anti-Jewish riots break out during the second wave of pogroms.
The Black Hundredists provoke anti-Semitic sentiments, resulting in numerous pogroms against Russia’s Jews.
1911
Dimitry Bogrov, an agent of Okhrana and the son of a Jewish lawyer in Kiev, assassinates Prime Minister Pyotr Stolypin at the Kiev Opera House while the tsar is in attendance.
1913
The Beilis Trial, a blood libel accusation falsely made against Menaham Mendel Beilis, a Jew from Kiev, causes an international storm of public opinion. It becomes apparent during the murder trial that the evidence was fabricated against him because he is Jewish.
1914
After the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria in Serbia, World War I breaks out in Europe. Germany declares war on Russia.
1915
German troops invade and occupy the area of Ukraine, where large Jewish populations live in what is known as the Pale of Settlement.
1916
The war continues to go badly for Russia. Tsar Nicholas refuses to make the needed reforms in the government.
The royal adviser Rasputin is murdered by a group of nobles.
1917
The February Revolution is followed by the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II.
The Pale of Settlement is abolished by the Provisional Government.
Alexander Kerensky succeeds Prince George L’vov as prime minister of the Provisional Government. During the October Revolution, the Bolsheviks replace Kerensky with Vladimir Lenin.
1918
The Rada (Parliament) refuses to give up control of Ukraine to the Bolsheviks. They declare the independence of the Ukrainian National Republic. Stavishche, Russia, the hometown of the author’s grandmother, becomes a part of the Ukrainian National Republic.
Bolshevik troops invade Ukraine, but the Germans drive them out.
Russia and Germany sign the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, marking Russia’s exit from WWI.
A third wave of anti-Jewish pogroms picks up momentum and sweeps across Russia and Ukraine. During the period of civil unrest (1917–1921), it is estimated that anywhere from well over 100,000 to nearly 250,000 civilian Jews are murdered; many thousands of Jews are left homeless, and many thousands of Jewish children are left orphaned.
Tsar Nicholas II, his wife, and their children are murdered by the Bolsheviks.
Germany is defeated by the Allies.
1919–1920
Symon Petliura becomes head of Army and State in Ukraine. His soldiers begin to carry out brutal massacres against the Jews.
Poland and Russia are at war.
Ukraine is caught up in a bloody civil war. The three forces struggling for power are the White Army (who are against the Bolsheviks), the Ukrainian Army (the Nationalists), and the Bolshevik Red Army.
While fighting against the Bolsheviks, both the Whites and Ukrainian forces are responsible for the majority of pogrom massacres being committed against the Jews of Russia. In 1919 and 1920, the greatest concentration of anti-Jewish violence is in Kiev Province and is carried out by various bands controlled by leaders such as (but not limited to) Nikifor Grigoriev and Danylo Zeleny. Petliura and Anton Denikin lead armies that commit massacres against Jewish civilians.
Bessarabia, once an integral part of the Russian Empire, unites with Romania. Jews fleeing from Russia and Ukraine must now cross over a new border, the Dniester River.
1921
The Bolshevik Red Army defeats the Whites and Ukrainian forces.
Famines in both Ukraine and Russia kill millions of people.
The United States enacts an immigration quota that limits the annual number of immigrants admitted into the country. As a result, tens of thousands of Jewish pogrom victims from Russia and Ukraine are stranded in Europe.
As a combined result of the three violent waves of anti-Jewish pogroms in Russia and Ukraine (1881–1884, 1903–1906, 1917–1921) more than two million Jews flee Russia and Ukraine (over the thirty-year period) and emigrate to other lands.