| From the first days of the World War I, Russian commanders pointed to the alleged evident disloyalty of Russia’s Jewish population, its direct complicity with the enemy and involvement in espionage. The Russian army began to solve the “problem” of Jewish disloyalty, using local and mass expulsions from various localities, hostage-taking, and restrictions on the movement of Jews in the frontal zone. This lecture examined the reasons for such an extremely hostile attitude towards the Jews and its consequences for the international and domestic situation of the Russian Empire in 1914 -1917. The attitude of the Russian military and civil authorities towards the Jews will be analyzed as a reflection of the systemic crisis of the Russian Empire in its last years of existence. |