NOTE ON TRANSLITERATION, DATES, TERMS, AND PLACE-NAMES

In transliterating Hebrew and Russian I have followed the Library of Congress rules except that I have eliminated most diacritical marks and have presented the names of those known in the Western world (e.g., Alexander Pushkin or Hayyim Nahman Bialik) in their most familiar form. Yiddish transliteration is based on the system devised by the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. Personal names appear in different versions depending on the geographic or cultural context in which the individual was most active. Place-names are identified with the spelling used at the time (e.g., “Vilna,” not “Vilnius,” and “the river Byk,” not “Bîc”).

The Julian, or Old Style, calendar was until the turn of the twentieth century twelve days behind the Gregorian calendar—and thirteen days behind it at the outbreak of the Kishinev pogrom.