A pogrom is an organized attack upon a population, characterized by looting, destruction of property, rape, and murder. The word is derived from a Russian word meaning to commit mayhem, and it specifically refers to attacks perpetrated by Christians upon Jewish population centers in Russia.
The first pogroms occurred in 1881, following the assassination of Czar Alexander II by a revolutionary group, Narodnaya Volya, on March 13, 1881. Rumors circulated that the murder of the Czar had been planned and executed by Jews.
At the end of April 1881, the first pogrom occurred in a town in the Ukraine. The violence quickly spread to about 30 other towns and villages. There were more attacks during that summer, but things seemed to calm down.
The following winter, pogroms began anew in other areas of Russia, and murders of entire Jewish families were not uncommon. The attackers at times were very organized, even arriving by train to unleash violence. And the local authorities tended to stand aside and let acts of arson, murder, and rape occur without punishment.
By the summer of 1882 the Russian government tried to crack down on local governors to stop the violence, and again the pogroms stopped for a time. However, they began again, and in 1883 and 1884 new pogroms occurred.
The authorities finally prosecuted a number of rioters and sentenced them to prison, and the first wave of pogroms came to an end.
The pogroms of the 1880s had a profound effect, as it encouraged many Russian Jews to leave the country and seek a life in the New World. Immigration to the United States accelerated.
The poet Emma Lazarus, who had been born in New York City, volunteered to help the Russian Jews fleeing the pogroms in Russia.
The experience of Emma Lazarus with the refugees from the pogroms housed at Ward’s Island, the immigration station in New York City, helped inspire her famous poem “The New Colossus,” which was written in honor of the Statue of Liberty. The poem made the Statue of Liberty a symbol of immigration.
A second wave of pogroms occurred from 1903 to 1906, and a third wave from 1917 to 1921.