Second Kishinev Pogrom Begins

The second Kishinev pogrom began after a right-wing demonstration against the tsar’s October Manifesto turned into an attack on the Jewish quarter. YIVO dates the violence to 19–20 October 1905 and records 19 Jews murdered and 56 wounded. Jewish self-defense groups resisted.

Those October dates are Julian, the civil calendar of the Russian Empire until 1918. YIVO’s own 1903 dates in the same article—6–7 April—are the well-attested Old Style dates of the first Kishinev pogrom, whose Gregorian equivalents are 19–20 April 1903. The October Manifesto was issued on 17 October 1905 Old Style (30 October Gregorian). 19–20 October Old Style therefore falls immediately after the manifesto and corresponds to 1–2 November 1905 Gregorian.

The first Kishinev pogrom, in April 1903, killed 49 people and was preceded by blood-libel agitation in Bessarabets. That 1903 causation does not explain the 1905 violence.