Fateful Triangle

Aftermath5641. A Chapter of Jewish History“On the eve of the Easter festival of 1903, mysterious rumorswere set afloat in Kishinev [capital of Bessarabia] telling ofthe murder of a Christian servant girl, whose death wasascribed to the Jews... The goings-on in Kishinev on theeve of that Easter bore the earmarks of an energetic activity on the partof some secret organization which was hatching an elaborate fiendishscheme... Printed hand-bills were scattered about in the city, telling thepeople that an imperial ukase had been published, granting permissionto inflict a ‘bloody punishment’ upon the Jews in the course of the threedays of the Christian Passover. The police made no attempt to suppressthese circulars, for, as was subsequently brought out, they were in theconspiracy... On the eve of the festival of Passover, the representativesof the Jewish community waited upon the governor and the Chief ofPolice, praying for protection, and received the cool reply that thenecessary instructions had already been given and that the propermeasures for their safety had been adopted.“The conflagration which was openly prepared by the incendiariesbroke out at the moment determined upon. On Sunday, April 6, the firstday of the Christian Passover and the seventh day of the Jewish holiday,the church bells began to ring at noontime, and a large crowd ofRussian burghers and artisans, acting undoubtedly upon a given signal,scattered all over the town, and fell upon the Jewish houses and stores.The bands were preceded by street urchins who were throwing stones atthe windows. The rioters, whose number was swelled by these youthful‘fighters,’ seeing that the police made no attempt to interfere, began tobreak into the houses and stores, and to throw the contents on the streetwhere everything was destroyed or plundered by the festive crowd. ButClassics in Politics: The Fateful TriangleNoam Chomsky