The Odessa pogroms were a series of violent anti-Jewish riots and attacks in the multi-ethnic port city of Odessa in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Odessa had become a successful and cosmopolitan city known for liberal attitudes, and a hotbed of revolutionary activity in the Russian Empire, with a growing and vital Jewish community that had grown more prosperous along with the city, even though the majority still lived in abject poverty. The pogroms became an international cause célèbre for the Jewish diaspora. Notable pogroms occurred in 1821, 1849, 1859, 1871, 1881, 1886, 1900, 1905, and 1918–1919, resulting in hundreds of Jewish deaths, thousands of injuries, and destruction of property, devastating the community and driving emigration.
The causes of the pogroms included religious and ethnic discrimination, economic competition and resultant economic antisemitism, and political changes. Odessa's population included Greek, Jewish, Russian, Ukrainian, and other communities, with the Jewish population growing to become the second-largest group behind Russians. The earlier pogroms, such as those in 1859 and 1871, were initiated by Greeks with Russians joining in.
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