“Now they are in Tambov in real mourning”: the anti-Semitic campaign of 1909–1912 in the Tambov Governorate

We examine the purpose, reasons and course of the anti-Semitic campaign of 1909– 1912 in the Tambov Governorate, raised by the governor N.P. Muratov. On the basis of archival and memoir sources, the conflict between N.P. Muratov and the director of the Tambov music school S.M. Starikov is reconstructed, the main reason for which was the anti-Semitic views of the Tambov governor. The practices and approaches used by N.P. Muratov in the implementation of discriminatory legislation and his views in the context of their prevalence in the governor’s corps of the period under study are considered. The relevance of the research topic is associated with the need for a clearer understanding of the mechanisms and principles of interaction between the provincial government and society in the Russian Empire in the early 20th century. It is concluded that, despite the discriminatory legislation against Jews in force in the Russian Empire, N.P. Muratov could not deprive S.M. Starikov of his post thanks to the support provided to him by the Im perial Russian Musical Society. At the same time, the anti-Semitic views of N.P. Muratov do not reflect the views of the entire governor corps of this period or the officials of the Russian Empire as a whole.

Russian Empire, Tambov Governorate, governor’s corps, N.P. Muratov, discriminatory legislation