sep 1, 1905 - 5th Russian Jewish Pogrom Odessa 1905

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On October 18, Jews and liberals cheered at the news of the October Manifesto. (see link below)

Although demonstrations began peacefully, they quickly turned violent. Those chanting anti-regime (Tzarist) propaganda caused trouble when they took out red flags (Communist) and anti-imperial propaganda.

As violence increased between supporters and opponents of the October Manifesto, members of the latter group began to take out their anger on Odessa's Jews, identifying them as the root of Russia's troubles. When a group of Jews asked a few Russian workers to show respect to a red flag, a fight broke out on the streets and soon turned into an anti-Jewish riot.

The bulk of the October Pogrom took place on October 19-21 and was worst on October 20. Violence spread all over Odessa, from the city centre, 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 neighbourhood 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-defence forces successfully defended some houses as well as streets and even neighbourhoods.

On October 21, after much of the pogrom was over, the city governor of Odessa, D. M. Neidhart, and the commander of the Odessa military garrison, A. V. Kaul'bars, appeared in the streets. They told the rioters to get off the streets and go home. Neidhart and Kaul'bars' inaction up to this point became the subject of debate and led to Neidhart's subsequent resignation from office.

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.
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.

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