with a
purely local coloring, and without the earmarks of a common organization
or the force of an epidemic, such as characterized the pogrom campaigns
of 1881, or those of 1903-1905. This is an additional proof for the
contention that systematic pogroms in Russia are impossible as long as
the central Government and the local authorities are honestly and firmly
set against them.

The stringent measures adopted by Tolstoi were soon reflected in the
legal trials arising out of the pogroms. Formerly, the local authorities
refrained as a rule from putting the rioters on trial lest their
testimony might implicate the local administration, and even when action
was finally brought against them, the culprits mostly escaped with
slight penalties, such as imprisonment for a few months. But after the
declaration of the Government in June the courts adopted a more rigorous
attitude towards the rioters. [1] In the summer of 1882, a number of
cases arising out of the pogroms at Balta and in other cities were tried
in the courts. The penalties imposed by the courts were frequently
severe, though fully deserved, such as deportation and confinement at
hard labor, drafting into penal military companies, etc. In one case,
two soldiers, having been convicted of pillage and murder, were
court-martialled and sentenced to death. When the sentence was submitted
for ratification to Drenteln, governor-general of Kiev, the rabbi of
Balta, acting on behalf of the local Jewish community, betook himself to
Kiev to support the culprits in their petition for pardon. It was
strange to listen to this appeal for mercy on behalf of criminals guilty
of violence and murder, coming from the camp of their victims, from the
demolished homes which still resounded with the moans of the wounded and
with the weeping over lost lives and dishonored women. One finds it
difficult to believe that this appeal for mercy was due entirely to an
impulse of forgiveness. Associated with it was probably the apprehension
that the death of the murderers would be avenged by their like-minded
accomplices who were still at liberty.

[Footnote 1: This, by the way, was not always the case. The court of
Chernigov, which was compelled to bring in a verdict of guilty against
the perpetrators of the pogrom in the townlet of Karpovitchin the same
government, decided to recommend the culprits to the clemency of the
superior authorities, in view of the dissatisfaction of the people with