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The present study aims to analyse the wave of the pogroms which broke out in early 1880s and spread through the southern regions of the Russian Empire There are two purposes of this article as follows: analysing the causes which led to the pogrom in this period and its impact on consciousness of Jewish communities in Russia. The word 'pogrom' came from Russian verb "gromit'"(crush) and it had come to be identified with repeated violent attacks on Jewish communities. Jews, who settled in southern and south-western regions of Russia, so called 'the Pale of Settlement' since the annexation of Poland in late 18th century, were forbidden to live outside the Pale. With in the Pale Jews were not permitted to live in villages and agricultural communities. The Russian government had established more than 600 laws and regulations to limit the rights of Jews. On the surface, it may seemed that the pogrom occurred to take revenge on Jews, inspired by the rumors that Jews had assassinated Alexander II. But the pogrom of the 1880s was outbreak of economic tensions and competitions between Jews and Russians caused by the economic reforms of Alexander II including a liberation of the serfs. The reign of Alexander II with his great reforms brought to the Russian Jewry some relief and partial extension of their rights. For this reason Jews assimilated into Russian society more intensively than ever before. But the pogroms of the 1880s slowed down the process of Jewish assimilation and awakened national consciousness among the Russian Jews-especially among the some Jewish intellectuals who were convinced that assimilation was the only solution to the Jewish problems in Russia. Eventually the pogroms of the 1880s prompted a mass immigration of the Russian Jews to the United States and other countries and indirectly gave a boost to the early Zionist movement in the Russian Empire.