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for her artistic work. In later years, Plisetskaya
turned to choreography, as in a 1972 perfor-
mance of
Anna Karenina.
tionship with the last two czars, Pobedonostsev
greatly influenced the development of the repres-
sive, nationalistic, authoritarian political agenda
of the Russian government, especially during the
1880s. Even though his direct political influence
declined in later years, his rigid personality and
inflexible political views made him a symbol or
lightning rod of a regime that in the years pre-
ceding the 1905 Revolution was seen as out of
touch with the people of Russia.
Pobedonostsev, Konstantin Petrovich
(1827-1907)
statesman
A conservative political philosopher and advo-
cate of unfettered autocracy, Pobedonostsev
wielded great influence in the late 19th century
as tutor to the last two czars of the Romanov
dynasty,
ALEXANDER III
and
NICHOLAS II
. Pobedo-
nostsev was born in Moscow, the son of a priest
who taught at Moscow University. In 1846 he
graduated from the Oldenburg School of Law in
St. Petersburg and entered the civil service, first
working in the Moscow office of the Senate. His
publications on the history of Russian civil law
led to a lectureship on civil law at Moscow Uni-
versity, where he developed a reputation as an
articulate and organized lecturer. In 1861 Czar
ALEXANDER II
invited him to serve as tutor to his
son, Alexander Alexandrovich, the heir to the
throne, during the imperial family's visits to
Moscow. Four years later, the appointment
became a permanent one, and Pobedonostsev
left Moscow University for St. Petersburg.
Pobedonostsev arrived at the capital toward the
end of the reformist decade of Alexander II's
reign. Pobedonostsev's views took on distinctly
conservative, if not reactionary, tones, and he
came to oppose all of Alexander's reforms, oth-
erwise known as the
GREAT REFORMS
, at a time
when the czar himself was having second
thoughts about the political course he had
charted up to the 1860s. Pobedonostsev contin-
ued to rise through the imperial hierarchy, with
appointments to the Senate in 1868, to the
Council of State in 1872, and, most important,
as procurator of the Holy Synod of the Russian
Orthodox Church in 1880. He held the latter
position—essentially the chief administrator of
the church—until 1905, when pressured to
resign in the course of the 1905 Revolution.
From this position and through his close rela-
pogrom
A term that denotes a mob attack on ethnic or
religious minorities, often encouraged or toler-
ated by the authorities. In Russian history
pogroms are most commonly associated with the
mob violence and massacres of Jews and attacks
on their property that were common in the late
19th and early 20th centuries. Although the city
of
ODESSA
witnessed a pogrom in 1871, there
were few other such incidents before 1881, when
a wave of pogroms followed the assassination of
czar
ALEXANDER II
. From April through December
1881, at least 12 localities, mostly in the Pale of
Settlement, including
KIEV
and Odessa, witnessed
anti-Jewish pogroms. In 1883, there were at
least four other major pogroms including places
outside the Pale such as
NIZHNII NOVGOROD
. These
attacks on Jewish communities and property
triggered a wave of Jewish emigration, largely to
the United States. All together, between 1881
and 1914 almost 2 million Jews left the Russian
Empire. The next major violent episode was a
three-day pogrom in the Moldavian city of
Kishinev in April 1903, which resulted in the
death of 45 Jews and the looting of 700 houses
and 600 businesses. Anti-Semitic violence
increased again during the 1905 Revolution and
subsequent years, with over 300 separate pog-
roms that left about 1,000 casualties and thou-
sands more wounded. Beginning in April 1905,
pogroms spread from Zhitomir to Kiev, Białystok,
Simferopol, and Yaroslavl, before peaking in an
orgy of violence in Odessa from October 18 to
21, which left about 500 Jews dead. The publi-
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