At the end of the nineteenth century, more than five million of Jewish population of the Russian Empire were subject to a number of economic, social, and residence discrimination. This paper will focus on elucidating the causes of this discriminations, especially analyzing the intolerance, religious prejudices, fear of economic competition and the distrust of the loyalty of Jews by the Tsarist Empire. Based on studied primary and secondary sources, we argue that the coming to power of the Emperor Alexander III, in 1881, resulted into a continuous deterioration of the governmental policy toward the Jews of the Russian Empire. Unwillingness to continue reforms, the reaction in different areas of public life, were the basic principles of the new emperor, who tried to continue his policy of restricting the rights of non-Russian nationalities. An integral part of this policy were anti-Jewish measures.