From the end of the 19th century through the early 20th century there was an escalating series of massacres and mass rapes of Jews in the Russian Empire (mostly within the Pale of Settlement, what would become Ukraine, Poland and Belarus) in what would become known as the Pogroms. This term would be expanded in order to cover all ethno-religious riots with a murderous intent. These Pogroms gained their name from the Pogroms of the 1880s in which dozens of Jews were killed.[214] The massacres became bloodier over time and thousands were killed from 1903 through 1906[215] and tens to hundreds of thousands in 1917 through 1922.[216] The massacres are alleged to have been either condoned or organized by the Russian Empire's government.[217][218][219][220]