b.

The year 1884 was marked by a novel feature in the annals of pogroms: an
anti-Jewish riot outside the Pale of Jewish Settlement, in the ancient
Russian city of Nizhni-Novgorod, which sheltered a small Jewish colony
of some twenty families. While comparatively circumscribed as far as the
material loss is concerned, the Nizhni-Novgorod pogrom stands out in
ghastly relief by the number of its human victims. A report, based upon
official data, which endeavors to tone down the colors, gives the
following description of the terrible events:

The "disorders" [a euphemism for excesses accompanied by murder]
began on June 7 about nine o'clock in the evening, due to the
instigation of several half-drunk laborers who happened to overhear
a Christian mother telling her child, who was playing with a Jewish
girl, to stop playing with her, as the Jews might slaughter her. The
work of destruction began with the Jewish house of prayer which was
crowded with worshippers. It was followed by the demolition of five
more houses owned by Jews. In these houses the mob destroyed
everything that fell into its hands. The doors and windows were
broken and everything inside was thrown into the streets. On this
occasion six adults and one boy was killed; five Jews were wounded,
two of whom died soon afterwards.

The governor of Nizhni-Novgorod reported that the disorders could not
possibly have been foreseen. Yet there can be no doubt that the people
were to a certain extent prepared for them. The investigations of the
police and the judicial inquiry both converged to prove that the
Nizhni-Novgorod excesses were prompted primarily, if not exclusively, by
the desire for plunder. In all demolished houses not a single article of
value that could be removed was destroyed, and not only money but
anything at all that was fit for use was looted. That the disorders
broke out on the seventh of June was, in the opinion of the governor,
entirely accidental, but that they were directed against the Jews was
due to the fact that the _people had been led to believe that even the
the gravest crimes were practically unpunishable, so long as they were
were committed against the Jews, and not against other nationalities_.

An additional reason for the pogrom was the reputed wealth of a goodly
number of the Jewish families of Nizhni-Novgorod. The judicial
investigation brought out the fact that before attacking the offices of
Daitzelman,