Just got this idea after mulling over DEFIANCE, which I watched last wk- what effects would there have been without the cont'd Tsarist-orchestrated pogroms in the Pale of Settlement during the 19th C ?
Slightly lower numbers of Jews immigrating west perhaps would be the biggest effect (although many will still be making the move if they remain confined in the Pale: for instance, the American agents sent by business interests to recruit workers are still going to sound awfully good in the face of so much poverty and discrimination, even without the organized violence to give further impetus).
The question I have, is what stops the pogroms from occurring in TTL? Alexander II living longer/managing to pass the torch to a somewhat progressive heir? The extreme right wing becoming increasingly marginalized at court? Is this a world (like Decades of Darkness) where the Russian Empire continues on a path of slow political and social liberalization that sees the Pale of Settlement abolished, and Jews allowed the opportunity to participate more in Russian society?
In any case, a Russia like that would have some interesting possibilities as the Twentieth Century dawns...