The strike, the seething activity of liberal, radical and revolutionary unions and committees, the rally wave, which every day more and more conquered the street, armed clashes with the police and troops, organizing the forces of the revolution, quite naturally, at the other pole of the "public" led to the organization of forces hostile to these new phenomena of life. Dark suburban commoners, market women, merchants and their families, the criminal world of the city, closely connected with the criminal investigation department and the police, bureaucracy and employees in the police, secret police, etc. government agencies, numerous river lumpen proletarians, draft cabmen, the clergy, all those strata who directly suffered from the strike or feared for their lives and well-being in the event of the victory of the revolution, were looking for forms of organization to fight the "rebels". The local authorities and the local clergy, headed by "His Eminence Hermogenes" [*https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermogenes_(Dolganyov)] , have long paid attention to these dark, counter-revolutionary forces and began to manipulate them through their agents, using illiteracy, lack of culture, everyday and religious thicket of prejudice.
Hermogenes, the organizer of these elements in the so-called "Christmas Brotherhood", worked especially hard. "Brothers", "Black Hundred" (the defiantly accepted name as opposed to the "Red Hundred") gradually turned into a solid pogrom force. Even after the January strike, the “brothers”, having gathered under the leadership of the extreme monarchist, junk dealer Uvarov, signed in the amount of 1,000 people “the most subjective address”, which read: “Your Imperial Majesty! Our Tsar! We know that you are a sovereign, you grieve with us, experiencing the days of turmoil that disgrace the Russian people. We know and hasten to tell you, that the Russian people will not raise their voice against the motherland and the Tsar... May God preserve you and help you gather worthy assistants in your monarchal cause…” By the way, the governor, accepting this address, replied to the delegation : “I am very pleased that I had the opportunity to see real Russian people who have rallied to achieve a lofty goal” ... These are “worthy helpers”, “real Russian people”, hearing at rallies how “rebels" rejoiced at the fact that the revolutionary people got the manifesto from the tsar on October 17, fueled by police and priestly agitation, went into a frenzy and were ready at any moment to support the "Father-Tsar" and break the ribs of "Jewish revolutionaries, students and the whole other "intelligentsia who sold the tsar for Japanese millions" ...
The pogrom was ripe…
XI. POGROM.
Not even a few hours had passed after the release of administratively arrested political prisoners from prison, a demonstration in honor of the released and a rally on Theater Square about the manifesto on October 17, as alarming rumors about an impending pogrom spread throughout the city, in its philistine mass. They told in their ear about some preparations and orders of the police, about meetings of the Black Hundreds, about secret prayers for the success and overcoming of adversaries-revolutionaries, about cross-marks on the doors and windows of apartments where Jews and liberal intellectuals lived, about anonymous, threatening letters etc. Along the way, there was an outrageous distortion of the speeches uttered by the revolutionaries at the meeting on October 18, clearly speculating on the religious fanaticism of the darkest, most backward sections of the city. It was said, for example, that the revolutionaries and Jews, these “enemies of God and the tsar, want to turn the temples of the Lord into barns for cattle .... into latrines ... into brothels,” etc. These rumors deeply alarmed the Jewish a population which, from tragic experience, knew the manner of the tsarist government to divert the spontaneous anger of the masses against itself to the Jewish nationality. Delegations sent to the deputy governor by Jewish public organizations were not even accepted. They were told “from behind the door” that they had no reason to worry and that nothing could happen that was not caused by the Jews themselves. These "calms" further deepened the panic. Jewish youth hastily began to organize self-defense. The rest, especially the workers, the population, although they were alarmed, however, refused to believe that "the Black-Hundred scum would dare to disturb the joyful mood of the victorious, free people." Only our organization took some defensive measures and kept the fighting squad ready …
On October 19, in the morning, three thousand workers, employees and clerks again gathered on Theater Square and the rally opened again. For some time it continued in perfect order. Meanwhile, Black Hundred pogrom agitation was going on in the Upper Bazaar, at the flea market and near the "exchange", attracting a crowd of people embittered by the strike. Accumulating at the "exchange", taking from there the royal portrait and attaching it to a long pole as a banner, the fierce crowd moved to the revolutionary rally. The crowd was armed with whatever - stones, stakes, knives, brass knuckles, even pins and shafts. Some of them also had firearms. Approaching the rally, the Black Hundred crowd stopped for a minute, and then, as if on a signal, with cries of "beat them ... beat them" rushed into hand-to-hand combat. The rally responded by firing into the crowd. A fierce and prolonged battle ensued. The wounded, the maimed and the dead fell from both sides and were trampled under the feet of the fighters. Finally, our rally faltered under the bestial frenzied onslaught and began to retreat towards the station. At this time, workers from a rally on Institutskaya Square arrived to help him. The fighting squad of those who came to the rescue opened indiscriminate fire at the Black Hundreds, but since this shooting did not cause damage to the crowd, after some panic, with even greater frenzy, they attacked new enemies and soon dispersed them.