Southeastern and eastern European Jewish communities and Ottoman Armenians in Istanbul and Anatolia were subjected to various forms of collective mass violence in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, including the anti-Jewish riots of 1881–1883 and of 1903–1906 in the Russian Empire, the Civil War pogroms in Soviet Russia, the anti-Armenian pogroms of 1895–1897 in the Ottoman Empire, and the organized mass killings committed against the Ottoman Armenian population during the First World War. This seminar explores the origins, dynamics, and nature of popular anti-Jewish and anti-Armenian violence in the Russian, Habsburg, and Ottoman empires. In a comparative perspective, it aims to help students acquire a critical understanding of the factors, motivations, and forces behind instances of anti-Jewish and anti-Armenian violence in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Each week throughout the semester, we will discuss various aspects of a particular case of violence and related concepts by investigating modern historiography and primary sources. The key questions and issues addressed in the seminar consider the complexities of collective violence against particular population groups and the changing nature of politics, society, and intercommunal relations in modern multiethnic empires such as Tsarist Russia and the Ottoman Empire.
This seminar is designed for bachelor/undergraduate students regardless of background and experience. There are no prerequisites for the seminar. No prior knowledge of the subject is assumed.