Country: Russia

Group: Jews

Date Finalized: 11/13/2022

Team: Kelsey Dwyer (lead), Gabrielle Staker, Aria Robinson, Noelle Collings, Juwairiah Afridi

Content Warning:

Approximate Time Period: 1880-present

The population of Jews living in Russia has declined significantly, with nearly half of the Jewish community leaving, since 1989 (MRG, 2020).  The presence of anti-Semitic violence in Russian pogroms drove many Jews in Russia to flee the country, mainly to the United States and Israel during the Great Jewish Migration in which nearly two million Jews migrated (PBS, 2005). There have been three main waves of Jews being forced away in Russia between the years 1880 and 1920 (Lambroza, 1987). In the early 1880s, the progroms began due to the anti-Semitic violence that started after the assassination of Czar Alexander II (History, 2018). Many of these pogroms included the official execution of Jews by Russian authorities. The second wave involved the Pale Settlement from 1903 to 1906 where many murderous outbreaks occurred, followed by the third wave during the Russian Civil War from 1917 to 1922 (Lambroza, 1987). Anti-semitic violence continued in Russia through the Holocaust in German-controlled territory which led to many Jews seeking safety elsewhere (Noti, 2021). Russian gulags that took place during the 1930s to the 1950s were responsible for the forced resettlement of many ethnic groups, such as the Jews, who were deemed “unfit” or “suspect” (Stone, 2019). While it is unclear whether or not Jews were specifically targeted here, they were among the ethnic groups moved to Siberia or Kazakhstan to fend for themselves or be forced laborers (Stone, 2019).

Anti-Semitism in Russia is not currently recognized at the government level. Jews still experience discrimination from Russian nationalist groups and neo-Nazi groups (MRG, 2020). Some Jews have returned to Russia since the Great Migration (MRG, 2020). With the recent invasion of Ukraine, there were an estimated 165,000 Jews living in Russia, and nearly 20,500 fled from January to August of 2022 (Hall, 2022). This is not an explicit example of ethnic-based forcing away, but it is important to note as a possible fourth wave of Jewish migration due to lethal violence in Russia and supports the general wave of migration occurring. The data was of high quality, as all of the evidence included came directly from peer-reviewed journal articles and many Jewish sources.

Sources

  1. Hall, S. (2022, August 25). Jews are leaving Russia again – is history repeating itself? The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/jews-are-leaving-russia-again-is-history-repeating-itself-189090
  2. History Encyclopedia. (2018, January 25). Pogroms. HISTORY. https://www.history.com/topics/russia/pogroms
  3. Lambroza, S. (1987). The tsarist government and the pogroms of 1903-06.
  4. Noti, J. (2021, August 5). The Great Migration and the Jewish East End. The Jewish Museum London. https://jewishmuseum.org.uk/2017/11/07/the-great-migration-and-the-jewish-east-end/
  5. Minority Rights Group. (2020, December). Jews. https://minorityrights.org/minorities/jews-5/
  6. PBS. (2005, September). Destination America . When did they come? | PBS. PBS: Public Broadcasting Service. https://www.pbs.org/destinationamerica/usim_wn_noflash_6.html
  7. Stone, D. (2019). Concentration camps: A very short introduction. Oxford University Press.