CHAPTER II 



ODESSA AND THE POGROM 



A ~p v HE spring of 1881 was the most significant, the 

 -* most interesting year in my husband's early life. 

 He peacefully devoted himself to his studies, to his 

 tutoring, to forming "Self-Education Centers," helping 

 in the distribution of underground literature and estab- 

 lishing new centers. My husband counted among his 

 friends as many Christians as Jews, and visited as 

 many Christian homes as Jewish. The question of 

 race and creed did not exist among the Intelligentsia 

 at all. In the University the Jewish and Christian stu- 

 dents were on the friendliest of terms. The meetings 

 were just of one body the student body. The good 

 of Russia, of its working masses, of its peasants these 

 were the topics that interested and united the best 

 among its members. 



The autumn of 1881 changed everything. The 

 whole spirit of the country was altered. The Terrorist 

 Movement was then at its height, one high official after 

 another having been assassinated. Czar Alexander 

 II himself, was killed. The government needed an ex- 

 cuse, an explanation, a scapegoat for all the terror that 



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