Black Hundreds

The Black Hundreds were reactionary, monarchist, and ultra-nationalist groups in Russia in the early 20th century. They were staunch supporters of the House of Romanov, and opposed any retreat from the autocracy of the reigning monarch. Their name arose from the medieval concept of "black", or common (non-noble) people, organized into militias. The Black Hundreds were noted for extremism and incitement of pogroms, nationalistic Russocentric doctrines, as well as various xenophobic beliefs, including antisemitism, anti-Polish sentiment and anti-Catholic sentiment, as well as sentiment against the Ukrainian secessionism. The Black Hundreds attracted large numbers of members from all Orthodox Eastern Slavic folks (Russians / 'Great Russians', Ukrainians / ‘Little Russians’ or Belarusians / 'White Russians') who subscribed to the ideas of ‘pan-Russian’ Orthodox monarchism. The most frequent Jewish pogroms involving members of the Black Hundreds took place in the governments of the Jewish ‘Pale of Settlement’, where the Ukrainian and the Cossack population predominated (a group which, both culturally and ethnically, stood between the ‘Great’ and ‘Little’ Russians). The ideology of the movement is based on a slogan formulated by Count Sergey Uvarov: "Orthodoxy, Autocracy, and Nationality".