Caucasian Phobias and the Rise of Antisemitism in the North Caucasus in the 1920S

Home , Antisemitism, Mountain Jews, Pogrom

Th e Soviet and Post-Soviet Review 36 (2009) 42–57 brill.nl/spsr

Caucasian Phobias and the Rise of Antisemitism in the North Caucasus in the 1920s

Lyudmila Gatagova Institute of Russian History of the Russian Academy of Sciences

Abstract Before 1917 the North Caucasus witnessed almost no Jewish pogroms. After the Revolution, traditional Armenophobia began to decline and was replaced by a growing Judeophobia. Th e ﬁ rst victims of the increasing anti-Semitism were the Mountain Jews. In the summer of 1926, there was a massive pogrom of Mountain Jews in Makhachkala and there were simultaneous pogroms in several other localities.

Keywords North Caucasus, Armenia, antisemitism, mountain Jews, Armenophobia, pogrom

Th e North Caucasus was not part of the Pale of Settlement, and therefore the percentage of Jewish population in the region was very low even in the towns, where there were only an insigniﬁ cant number of Jews, primarily merchants and artisans. European Jews began to appear in the territory only in the 19th century, the only exception being Dagestan, where the compact communities of Mountain Jews had lived since the early Middle Ages. As a consequence, prior to 1917, the North Caucasus had experienced neither anti-Jewish pogroms, nor antisemitism. In their stead, Armenophobia dominated virtu- ally the entire region. In the absence of a Jewish population, Jew-baiting was practically non-existent. Th e closest analogy was to be found in hostile attitudes to Armenians.1 In a sense, in the North Caucasus, the Armenians substituted for Jews as an incarnation of evil.

1 ) E.H. Panesh. Etnicheskaia psikhologiia i mezhnatsional`nie otnosheniia. Vzaimodeistvie i osobennosti evoliutsii (na primere Zapadnogo Kavkaza. SPb. Evropeiskiy dom, 1996. P. 272–273.

Armenophobia started to spread in Antecaucasia in the l9th - early 20th centuries, emerging gradually, under the infl uence of internal and external factors. Armenians had been arriving in the North Caucasus in the course of centuries, in several waves of migration.2 Th ey formed communities, bolstered by the offi cial grant of privileges in trade, freedom of worship, certain tax benefi ts, and the right of self-government.3 From the Middle Ages onwards, the professional orientation of the majority of Armenians was well within the framework of their traditional commercial occupations. In the 18th and 19th centuries, Armenians became very active in entrepreneurship. According to A. Kappeler, by the early 19th century they took over a number of tasks typi- cal of a mobilized Diaspora group.4 Th e North Caucasus was one of the most densely populated and ethnically diverse border-lands. Under conditions of ethnic localization, and in combi- nation with the ever growing processes of migration, this factor alone created a high degree of internal psycho-social tension. Th e increasing concentration of social and material benefi ts in the hands of one population group prompted the discontent of other groups, who did not want to accept this state of aff airs. It is a well-known fact that representatives of “discriminated” groups, when unable to change their situation by legal means, often resort to violence, see- ing it as the only way left open to them. Violence is a frequent outgrowth of ethnic hatreds. Th e Great Reforms of the 1860s resulted, in the North Caucasus, in the emergence of a signifi cant entrepreneurial stratum composed predominantly of Poles, Baltic Germans, Turks and, especially, Armenians. During this period, thousands of Armenians came from Turkish Asia Minor to fi ll the vacuum left behind by the Muhadjirs (Muslins who had emigrated from the Caucasus). In the North-Caucasian milieu, prejudice against the Armenians and their commercial activity gradually developed. In S. Yu. Witte’s opinion, dating to the early 20th century, and in words suggestive of anti-Jewish clichés, “in the Caucasus, the strongest hostility was toward the Armenians because they engaged in commerce of exploitative type.”5

2 ) See N.G. Volkova. O rasselenii armian na Severnom Kavkaze do nachala XX veka // Istoriko- ﬁ lologicheskiy zhurnal. 1966. № 3. P. 259–272. 3 ) A. Kappeler. Rossiia – mnogonatsional`naia imperiia. Vozniknovenie. Istoriia. Raspad. M. « Progress-Traditsiia », 1997. P. 104. 4 ) Ibid. P. 104–105. 5 ) S.U. Vitte. Izbrannie vospominaniia. 1849–1911 gg. M. Misl`, 1991. P. 396.