At the beginning of Nicholas II's reign in 1894, Russia was faced with revolution. People were beginning to fight for political reformations, and their right to freedom of speech, but Nicholas II was attempting to make it clear that he was going to be just as strict in his guard of the autocracy as his father, Alexander III, was before him. The Russian government had just failed to gain warm water ports in the West, and was now turning toward the East, which meant inevitable war with the growing Far East empire, Japan. This far off war also served to distract the Russian people from pursuing revolution and deflect their attention to the nationalistic battle in the East. However, violence resided not only at the front against Japan, but at home within Russia's borders in the form of pogroms, where Jews were sought out and murdered by the hundreds and in some places, the thousands. In the Pogroms of 1903 to 1906, thousands of Jews were slaughtered across Russia in these waves of anti-Semitic hatred.

After violent anti-Semitic campaigns had been breaking throughout Russia for months, the Russian city of Kishinev witnessed the first pogrom. Forty-five people were murdered, and 1,300

The failed revolution meant a continuation of Czar Nicholas's pogroms. It was obvious to the people that the pogroms were going to continue. The Jews could plainly see that their massacre was being aided by the government and showed no signs of slowing down. Jews all over Russia went into hiding when they weren't able to escape the country outright.

These were the exact words the soldier spoke to the tiny blue eyed child, "You are a good young daughter of Mother Russia!" He planted a kiss on her cheek and set her down back on the ground. It took little Rosie Botwinick several minutes to recover from that encounter. She just stood in the middle of the road wondering if she was still alive. After a man came by to shake her and ask if she was all right, Rosie recovered from her state of complete shock. She took the bag of bread and walked the rest of the way back to the hiding house without further incident, but she always remembered the Cossack's words to her.

homes and shops were plundered. The violent participants in the Kishinev pogrom received very light criminal punishments, and Russians everywhere were shown that pogroms were to become perfectly acceptable and even encouraged.

My great-great grandmother's family was living in Moscow at the time of these horrible pogroms. They tried to emigrate out of the country, but the borders were being tightened and it was dangerous for them to even go outside. Rosie Botwinick, my great-great grandmother, and the rest of the family were forced to go into

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1029
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)