Why Did Michael Douglas's Grandfather Leave Belarus?

Michael Douglas's grandfather on his father's side left Belarus in 1902. Two other brothers were bank robbers there. They went to jail, the grandfather got out in 1902, came to the country, and changed his name.

Michael Douglas had thought the grandfather left around 1914, in the time of the Russian Revolution, while Cossacks were rounding up Jews and putting them in pogroms. Belarus was part of Russia around the turn of the century, in 1900. Henry Gates's Find Your Roots did the homework and put the departure in 1902, tied to the two brothers. The area in Belarus sits right near Chernobyl in Ukraine, on the border with the little town the family came from. The town was downwind of the explosion. Michael Douglas says the town where the family came from is part of a dead area.

The exit he had pictured as a flight from pogroms was a departure in 1902 after the brothers went to jail, and the hometown later became part of a dead area downwind of Chernobyl.