at the same peasants and laborers who had attacked the Jews as
the representatives of the non-Russian bourgeoisie might easily be
directed against the representatives of the ruling classes in general.
During the spring and summer pogroms, several attempts were made by
mysterious persons, through written appeals and oral propaganda, to turn
the pogrom movement also against the Russian nobles and officials. [3]
Towards the end of August, 1881, the Executive Committee of "The
People's Freedom" issued an appeal in which it voiced the thought that
the Tzar had enslaved the free Ukrainian people and had distributed the
lands rightfully belonging to the peasants among the pans [4] and
officials, who extended their protection to the Jews and shared the
profits with them. Therefore, the people should march against the Jews,
the landlords, and the Tzar. "Assist us, therefore," the appeal
continues, "arise, laborers, avenge yourselves on the landlords, plunder
the Jews, and slay the officials!"

[Footnote 1: See above, p. 222.]

[Footnote 2: In Russian, _Narodnaya Vola_. It was organized in 1879, and
was responsible for the assassination of Alexander II.]

[Footnote 3: These endeavors were evidently the reason why the Russian
Government was originally inclined to ascribe the anti-Jewish movement
to revolutionary tactics.]

[Footnote 4: The Polish noble landowners. See Vol. I, p. 93, n. 2.]

True, the appeal was the work of only a part of the Revolutionary
Executive Committee, which at that time had its headquarters in Moscow.
It failed to obtain the approval of the other members of the Committee
and of the party as a whole, and, being a document that might compromise
the revolutionary movement, was withdrawn and destroyed after a number
of copies had been circulated. Nevertheless, the champions of "The
People's Freedom" continued for some time to justify theoretically the
utilization of the anti-Jewish movement for the aims of the general
social revolution. Only at a later stage did this section of the
revolutionary party realize that these tactics were not only mistaken
but also criminal. For events soon made it clear that the anti-Jewish
movement served as an unfailing device in the hands of the black
reactionaries to divert the popular wrath from the source of all
evil--the rule of despotism--and direct it towards the most unfortunate
victims of that despotism.

5. THE POGROM AT WARSAW

When the July pogroms were over