In 1903-1905, pogroms raged throughout the Jewish Pale of Settlement. The bright side of such tragic events was that they enriched the English language by adding the word ‘pogrom’ and the expression ‘beyond the pale’.
They also taught a lesson that I never thought would be of any value in Britain: how to protect Jews from anti-Semitic violence. And I’ve discovered that the autocratic government of Nicholas II and the supposedly democratic government of Britain have something in common.
Nicholas was personally anti-Semitic, and that heartfelt sentiment overpowered his commitment to the good of the state. Count Witte, the most gifted of the tsar’s ministers, was personally anti-Semitic as well. But unlike the tsar, he was an intelligent statesman who didn’t let his feelings affect his judgement.
Partly for that reason Nicholas disliked Witte (as he later disliked another outstanding minister, Stolypin), although he begrudgingly realised he needed his services. At some point, Witte begged the tsar to remove all legal restrictions on Jews, including one banning them from living outside the 15 western provinces that made up the Pale.
Treating Jews as noxious outsiders, explained Witte, drew them to assorted revolutionary movements, including frankly terrorist ones. That presented a threat to the survival of the realm, and, though he, Witte, had no more time for Jews than His Majesty did, needs must and all that.
Nicholas heard Witte out patiently and respectfully, but had to disagree. “I understand everything you say, Sergei Yulyevich,” he said. “And I’m sure you have a point. But doing what you suggest would go against my Christian conscience.”
Such emotions tend to emanate downwards top to bottom. The tsar and his ministers didn’t officially encourage the pogroms, but they let it be known unofficially that they wouldn’t go out of their way either to protect the targeted Jews or to punish the violent thugs.
The message was heard loud and clear. Gangs of feral drunk thugs went on a rampage of murder, looting, arson and rape, with the local police either idly standing by or in some cases joining in.
Yet another wave of pogroms was under way, but it was neither the first nor the worst one. Violence against Jews was a time-honoured sport in Russia, and it tended to break out at the slightest provocation.
One such was provided by the assassination of Alexander II in 1881. The tsar’s secret police, Okhrana, immediately spread the rumour the tsar had fallen victim to a Jewish cabal. Only one of the eight conspirators, Hesia Helfman, was Jewish, and she was strictly a marginal figure. Moreover, like all her simon-pure Slavic accomplices, she was an atheist. But febrile haters believe whatever they want to believe.
Pogroms broke out. Mobs led by priests were howling the traditional battle cry of “Kill Jews, save Russia” as Jews were beaten or even killed, their houses burned, their property looted, their women raped, some of their babies torn to pieces. Meanwhile, stories ran in ‘conservative’ papers, blaming the victims and spreading the ‘blood libel’, the accusation that Jews used the blood of murdered Christian babies for ritual purposes.
Other pogroms followed, but on a smaller scale – until 1903. In that year, the Okhrana concocted and leaked the notorious Protocols of the Elders Of Zion, a forgery based on the 19th century French pamphlet attacking Napoleon III.
That galvanised the air with fresh electricity, and mobs took to the streets. The worst pogrom happened in Kishinev, the provincial centre of Bessarabia. As officials turned a blind eye, rioting continued for two days. Forty-seven Jews were killed, 92 severely wounded, 500 injured, 700 houses destroyed, 600 shops pillaged. And Kristallnacht was still 35 years away.
The Jews realised that the government wasn’t going to do anything to protect them. They had to protect themselves, and self-defence groups were organised and armed throughout the Pale, but especially in Gomel and Odessa.
Gomel’s turn came next, but the rioters were in for a surprise. Instead of pleas for mercy, they were met by pistol shots, and some of them were killed. The pogrom ended soon thereafter, and the damage to Jews was nowhere near as severe as it had been in Kishinev.
In his anti-Semitic tract, 200 Years Together, Solzhenitsyn rebuked those Gomel fighters for responding to violence with violence. To anti-Semitic minds, Jews just can’t win. When they meekly go to Nazi gas chambers, they are despised for not resisting. When they defend themselves, they are hated for fighting back.
It would be disingenuous to draw a direct parallel between Russia, 1903, and Britain, 2026. However, some similarities are discernible, and they are too many for comfort and too worrying to ignore.
Some leading figures in the Labour and Green Parties, the former governing, the latter aspiring, make openly anti-Semitic and pro-Hamas statements. Usually they try to pass them for opposition to Zionism or support for the Palestinians, but sometimes they dispense with even such transparent subterfuge.
(During the first year of the present Labour rule, the subject of Israel and Palestine came up in Parliament more than any other issue of foreign or domestic policy. It’s good to see that our government has no other worries.)
Both parties are committed to continuing a mass influx of Muslims, with the Greens objecting to putting even token limits on immigration. The government encourages ostensibly pro-Palestinian, in fact pro-Hamas and anti-Semitic, marches, and some key Labour and Green figures have been known to join in.
Just as in 1903 Russia, such signals reach those tuned to the same wavelength, and violence against Jews has become commonplace. Jewish areas, such as London’s Golders Green and Samford Hill, have turned into besieged communities of people living in constant expectation of violence. If many of the demonstrators aren’t Muslim, violent attackers invariably are.
Politicians make all the right noises, but do next to nothing to stamp out this outrage that shames the whole country. Various protective measures are mooted, but they remain just talk.
British Jews are getting the message: if the state won’t protect them, they must protect themselves. Self-defence groups are popping up in Jewish areas. Young men patrol schools and synagogues, learn basic safety procedures, study Krav Maga (an Israeli martial art focused on real-world scenarios).
All this is commendable, but, unlike those self-defence groups in 1903 Gomel and Odessa, the groups in 2026 London go unarmed. This means they’ve heeded a part of the Gomel lesson but not all of it.
The only way for the Jewish community to protect itself is to have the streets in Jewish areas constantly patrolled by armed units. They could carry iron rods, baseball bats, knives – even firearms. Yes, I know guns are outlawed, but legal niceties ought to fall by the wayside at a time of deadly threat.
After a few Muslims have been assaulted in North London, the government will spring to action. It’ll possibly be mouthing Solzhenitsyn’s call to Jewish non-resistance and definitely prosecuting the young men for taking the law in their own hands. But what if no other hands are there to protect them?
Eventually, even this wicked Marxist government will get the message: if it doesn’t want public order to disintegrate, it had better protect Jewish areas in deed, not just word.
I for one would hate to see large tracts of London turning into combat zones, but it may be time to remind Muslims that it’s not only Israelis but also diaspora Jews who can defend themselves, with extreme violence if need be and quite a bit of skill.
All of us who love our country must be appalled to see that Britain, circa 2026, is beginning to resemble Russia, circa 1903. When we can’t protect the Jewish subjects of His Majesty from mob violence, how British are we? Also, Starmer and his friends ought to remind themselves what happened to the tsar and his whole family 15 years after those 1903 pogroms.
P.S. Essa Suleiman, the Golders Green stabber, was free to roam the streets, knife in hand, even though he was in 2008 sentenced to nine years for stabbing a policeman and his dog. Where is the RSPCA when we need it?