The jews of Russia and The World War I

During the First World War, the Russian Empire fought against Germany and Austria-Hungary along a front line that passed through regions thickly settled by Jews: the combat zone being home to four million of them. The Jewish population su­ered terribly from the horrors of war: many Jewish communities were devastated or destroyed, and hundreds of thousands of Jews, having lost their property and spilt their blood, ended up as refugees.

The tragedy of the position that the Jewish population found themselves in was deepened by the Russian military command’s prejudiced attitudes and the unfounded accusations it leveled against them of disloyalty, collaboration and espionage. To the leadership of the Russia Army, it seemed unthinkable to expect Jews to be sincere Russian patriots. To ensure the loyalty of the Jewish population, the military authorities turned to deterrent policies – mass deportations and hostage taking.

Though suspected of disloyalty, Jews, like all other subjects of the Empire, were conscripted into the Russian Army and fought in its ranks. From 1914 to 1917, around 600,000 Jews served in Russia’s armed forces, with no fewer than 100,000 dying on the front. Despite this, the awarding of honours and medals to front line Jewish soldiers was limited, and their promotion to the rank of o-cer or NCO was forbidden. Baseless accusations and repressive measures against the Jewish population in the front line territories, along with the suppression of acts of heroism on the part of Jewish soldiers, prompted a corresponding reaction from the Russian Jewish public. Jewish charitable organisations busied themselves in providing aid to refugees, deportees and other victims of the war.

The epoch-making transformations that shook Russia in the period immediately after the First World War have tended to eclipse the tragic experience of millions of Jews during the conflict. To facilitate the inclusion of this topic into contemporary public consciousness is the goal of the exhibition “The Jews of Russia and the First World War.” It takes the 1917 February Revolution as its chronological cut o­ point, as the “Jewish” dimension of subsequent events (the Revolution and Civil War) deserves separate treatment of its own.