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CHAPTER XII: THE
LAST YEARS OF ALEXANDER i
1. "THE DEPUTATION OF
THE JEWISH PEOPLE"
The great reaction
of 1815-1848, which kept the whole of
Europe in its throes, assumed peculiar forms in Russia. Tzar
Alexander 1., OlJeof the triumvirs of the Holy Alliance, which
had given birth to this reaction, was eager to atone for the
liberal" sins" of his youth, and was cultivating in Russia the
principles of "paternal administration" and "Christian
government." The last decade of his reign paved the way
for the iron-handed absolutism of :Nicholas 1., which fettered
the political and social life of Russia for thirty years, and
stood like an ominous specter of medievalism before the eyes of
Western Europe.
The destinies of the great monarchy of the East determined
those of the greatest Jewish center of the Diaspora. The
Vienna Congress of 1815 enlarged the borders of European
Hussia by including in it almost the entire territory of the
former Duchy of Warsaw, which was renamed" Kingdom
of Poland." 1 About two million Jews were huddled together
on the western strip of the Hussian monarchy during the
period of 1815-1848: and this immense, sharply marked popu-
[' In Russian, Tzarstvo Polskoye. The names Congress-Poland
and Russian Poland are also frequently used.]
• The statistics of the period are far from being accurate. They
are nevertheless nearer the truth than those of the preceding age.
The official" revisions" of 1816-1819brought out the fact that a
large number of Jews had not been entered 011 the lists, and the
Government took severe measure:; against those evading the census.
Relying upon official information, Jost (see his Neuere Ge·
schichte der Israeliten, ii. 122) computed, in 1845, the total number
of Jews in Russia, including those of the Kingdom of Poland, at
1,600,000, but he was careful to point out that, in his opinion,
the actual number of Jews was considerably larger.
THE LAST YEARS OF ALEXANDER I 3!J 1
lation served as the subject of all possible experiments, whic1.
assumed the coloring of the general Russian politics of the time.
The last years of Alexander 1. inaugurate the period of patronage
and oppression, which reached its culmination in the
following reigJ1.
The attitude of the Russian Government towards the Jews
during that period reflects three successive tendencies: first,
in the last years of Alexandcr L's reign (1815-1825), a mixed
tcndellcy of "benevolent paternalism" llnd severe restrictions;
secolld, during the first half of Nichollls l.'s reign (1826-1840),
a military tendency, that of "correcting" the Jews by subjecting
their youth, from the age of childhood, to the austere
discipline of conscription and barrack training, accompanied
by compulsory religious assimilation and by an unprecedented
recrudescence of rightlessness and oppression; and third,
during the latter part of Nicholas's reign (1840-1855), the
"enlightened" tendency of improving the Jews by establishing
" crown schools" and demolishing the autonomous structure
of Jewish life, while keeping in force the former cruel
disabilities (1840-1855). 'I'his endless" correctional" and
" educational" experimenting on a whole people, aggravated
by the resuscitation of ritual murder trials and wholesale
expulsions in approved medieval style, makes the history of
Russian Jews during that period an uninterrupted tragedy.
The beginning of the period did not seem to portend e"i1.
Emperor Alexander returned from the Vienna Congress without
harboring aggressive plans against the Jews. On the contrary,
he remembered the patriotic services rendered by the
Jews in 1812 and the promise given by him at Bruchsal "to
ameliorate their condition." 1 As a matter of fact, several
[' See p. 369.]
il!:l2 'fHE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
steps were taken which seemed to point in the direction of
improvement.
The first manifestations of this tendency were certain administrative
changes in the management of Jewish affairs.
The ukase of January 18, 1817, ordered the Senate to submit
all matters affecting the Jewish communes, with the exception
of legal cases, to the General Manager of the Spiritual Affairs
of Foreign Denominations, a post occupied by Golitzin, the
Tzar's associate in Christian pietism and mystical infatuation.
Later in the same year, the combined Ministry of Ecclesiastic
Affairs and Public Instruction was organized, under the
guidance of Golitzin, symbolizing, as it were, the establishment
of public instruction upon the foundations of "Christian
piety." The charter of the new organization distinctly pro·
vides that all " Jewish matters in charge of the Senate and the
Ministers" are to be transmitted to the head of the new
Ministry. In this manner the Jewish question was officia.uy
connected with the department of ecclesiastic affairs, which
at that time occupied a central p\ace in the administration.
The departmental change was followed by a more substantial
reform. The Government recognized the necessity of establishing
at the Ministry of Ecclesiastic Affairs a permanent advisory
council composed of elected Jewish representatives or
" deputies of the Jewish communes." The project was suggested
by the ephemeral and accidental endeavors in the way of
popular Jewish representation on the part of the two purveyors,
Sonnenberg and Dillon, who were attached to the headquarters
of the Russian army during the campaign of 1812. At the
audience at which Alexander I. gave these deputies the assurance
that the condition of their coreligionist8 would be
THE LAST YEARS Ol~ ALEXANDER I 3!J3
improved,' they were also told to appear in the capital after
the conclusion of the war for the purpose of acquainting
the Kahals with the plans of the Government. The deputies
accordingly appeared in St. Petersburg, and entered upon
their duties as Jewish spokesmen, which they exercised during
1816 and 1817. They realized, however, that they' had no right
to regard themselves as the accredited representatives of the
Jewish communities of Russia, and therefore appealed to the
Government-Sonnenberg wa,sparticularly active in this direction-
to instruct all the Kahals to elect a complete group of
deputies in due form. The Government having agreed to the
proposal, a clause was included in the instructions to the
newlyestablished
Ministry of Ecclesiastic Affairs, to the effect that
"the [names of the] deputies of the Jewish communes shall
after their election be submitted by the Minister to his Majesty
for ratification."
In the autumn of 1815 all the large Kahals received orders
from the governors to choose an electoral college, two electors
for each Government. In August, 1818, the twenty-two electors
chosen from eleven Governments assembled in Vilna to
elect from their own midst three deputies and an equal number
of substitutes. The choice fell, apart from the former deputies
Sonnenberg and Dillon, on Michael Eisenstadt, Benish Lapkovski,
and Marcus Veitelson, all from the Government of
Vitebsk, and Samuel Epstein from the Government of Vilna.
To provide for the expenses of the deputies, who were to live in
St. Petersburg, the Vilna conference issued an appeal to all
Jewish communities calling upon them to make an "embroidery
collection," i. e. to cut off and convert into cash the
[' See p. 369.1
394 'fHE JEWS [N RUSSIA AND POLAND
embroidered collars which well-to-do Jews attached to their
"Kittels" (shrouds worn beneath the prayer shawls on the
Day of Atonement), though the alteruatiye of donating their
value jn money was allowed. 'rhe Jews, who had been ruined
during the war, were evidently not in a position to tax themselves
directly.
Soon afterwards followed the establishment of a special
department, which was placed at the service of" the Deputation
of the Jewish People," the name by which this college of deputies,
presided over by the energetic Sonnenberg, was frequently
designated. The" college," either 38 a whole or through its
individual members, laborcd for seven years (1818-1825), but
its activity was too limited to justify the expectations of
Russian Jewry. The hope of the deputies, that they would be
consulted about the general problems bearing on the proposed
amelioration of Jewish conditions, failed to materialize. On
the contrary, the Government had in the meantime abandoned
all thought of legislative reforms, and a little later even began
to contrive ways and means of carrying into effect the restrictive
clauses of the Statute of 1804" which had bcen suspenden
in its operation by the War of 1812.
The deputies, who resided in St. Petersburg and did a great
deal of lobbying, frequently managed in their intercourse with
the officials to ferret out these "designs" of the authorities
and to communicate their findings secretly to the Kahal
kadel'S in the provinces. At the same time they endeavored
of their own accord to avert the danger by personal negotiations
with the leading officials. While reporting on the one hand to
the Kahals, the deputies 011 the other hand transmitted to Golitzin,
the Minister of Ecclesiastic Affairs, the petitions of the
Kahals and their complaints against the local administration.
The deputies were thus reduced, by the force of circumstances,
THE LAST YEARS OF ALEXANDER I 393
to mere go-betweens in Jewish matters. In exercising this
function, some of them, Sonnenberg in particular, were indefatigable.
They tried the patience of the high officials with
their petitions and representations, and on one occasion Sonnenberg
was even deprived of his post of deputy for" impertinent
conduct towards the authorities." The bureaucracy of
St. Petersburg began to resent these endless solicitations and
this constant meddling with their plans.
Gradually the deputies themselves lost heart, having realized
their impotence in grappling with the rising wave of reaction.
Some of them left St. Petersburg altogether. The downfall of
Golitzin's :Ministry of Ecclesiastic Affairs, which had been
undermined by the ultra-reactionary Arakcheyev party,' involved,
as a natural consequence, the downfall of the curious
Jewish representation affiliated with it. Golitzin's successor
as Minister of Public Instruction, the obscurantist Shishkov,
made representations to the 'l'zar concerning the necessity of
abolishing the institution of Jewish deputies, "numerous
instances having demonstrated that their stay here is not
only unnecessary and useless but even very harmful, inasmuch
as, under the pretext of working for the public interest, they
collect money from the Jews for no purpose, and prematurely
advertise the decisions and even the intentions of the Government."
In 1825 the" Deputation of the Jewish People" was
abolished. Thus ended an organization beautifully conceived,
but mutilated in execution, one that ..night well have served as a
substitute for Jewish communal representation, and might have
[' Alexis Arakcheyev (b. 1769) had been prominent in Russian
military affairs under Paul and Alexander, and had attained to
fame on account of his Iron discipline. Beginning with 1814.
he gradually gained the complete confidence and friendship of
Alexander. He died In 1834.]
396 THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
softened the regime of caprice and blighting patronage which
ate deeper and deeper into the vitals of Russian politics.
2. CHRISTIANIZING ENDEAVORS
It was quite in
harmony with the spirit of the new era that
the solicitude of the Russian Government for the Jews should
have manifested itself in an attempt at saving their souls.
Christian pietism was the fashion of the day, and Alexander 1.
and Golitzin, the Minister of Ecclesiastic Affairs, both of whom
were mystically inclined, conceived the idea of becoming the
instruments of Divine Providence in converting the Jews to
Christianity. Golitzin, who was the president of the Russian
Bible Society, and was anxious to make it a faithful copy of
its English model, the Missionary Bible Society of London,
approached the missionary problem in his own way. On March
25, 1817, the T·zarpublished an ukase calling for the formation
of a "Society of Israelitish Christians," for the purpose of
assisting Jews already converted or preparing for conversion.
We have learned-thp ukase readB-<lf the difficult situation of
those Jews who, having by Divine Grace perceived the light of
Christian truth, have embraced the same. or are making ready to
join the flock of the good Shepherd and the Savior of souls. These
Jews, whom ~he Christian religion has severed from their brethren
in the flesh, lose every means of contact with them, and not only
have forfeited every claim to their assistance, but are also exposed
to all kinds of persecutions and oppressions on their part. Nor
do they readily flnd shelter among Christians. their new brethren
in the faith. to whom they are as yet unknown. . . .. For this
reason we, taking to heart the fate of the Jews converted to
Christianity.
and prompted by reverent obedience to the Voice Of B~i88
. which caUeth unto the scattered sheep Of Israel to join the faith
of O~1'ist, have deemed it right to adopt measures for their welfare.
THE LAST YEARS OF ALEXANDER 1 397
The" welfare" held out to the converts was of a rather
substantial nature. Each of their groups was to be allotted
free crown lands in the southern and northern provinces, with
the right of founding all kinds of settlements, townlets. and
cities. They were to be granted full civil equality, extensive
communal self-government, and special alleviations in the payment
of taxes. These groups, or colonies, of Jews, after being
converted to the Greek Orthodox, Catholic, or Lutheran faith,
were to form part of the " Society of Israelitish Christians,"
which was to be managed by a special committee to be appointed
in St. Petersburg under the patronage of the Emperor.
The solemn phraseology of the Imperial ukase shows unequivocally
that the Government was not satisfied with the modest
task of rendering assistance to occasional neophytes. It was
ready to embark upon a vast undertaking, that of encouragiIlg
baptism among the Jewish population, and organizing the converted
masses into separate, privileged communes, to serve as a
bait for the Jews still languishing in their old beliefs. The
imagination of the Hussian legislators pictured to them the
fascinating spectacle of huge masses of Jews marching "to
join the faith of Christ," drawn to it not only by heavenly, but
also by earthly, " bliss."
The missionary mood of the heads of the Hussian Government
was speedily utilized byLewisWay,a representative of the
London Bi.ble Society. Way was thoroughly imbued with the
apocalyptic belief in the approaching redemption of Israel
under the regis of Christianity. 'I'his however did not prevent
him from looking upDn present-day unconverted Israel with
santiment<Jof profound respect, as the banner-bearer of a great
Divine mission in the history of ma.nkind, and he was Cl£eply
aroused over the civil disabilities to which they were subjecte'd
398 THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
in the various countries of Europe. When the monarchs who
.had concluded the Holy Alliance assembled, in the autumn of
1818, with their ministers and diplomats at the Congress in
Aix-Ia-Chapelle, Way grasped the occasion to submit to Alexander
I. a "Memorandum Concerning the Condition of the
Jews," I in which he appealed to the Russian Tzar to emancipate
the Jews of his dominions and persuade the Prussian and
Austrian rulers to do likewise.
In the course of my protracted travels through the lands of
Poland, for the purpose of gathering information about the Jews,
I came-says Way-to the conclusion that Providence has not in
vain placed so many thousands of Jews under the protection of
three Christian sovereigns. Rather has this taken place in fulfil·
ment of the promises given to the Patriarchs.
If the Jews are to join the flock of Christ, they ought to bc
treated like children, and regarded as equal members of humau
society. Captive Israel must be set free materially, before it
can be liberated spiritually. Way therefore implores the Russian
'rzar to set the exampIc, "which will producc its effect
upon the whole world."
'rhe Tzar received Way's memorandum, alid tUl'LlcJit over to
Nesselrode, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, with instructions
to submit it to the Congress for consideration. At a meeting
of Ministers-Plenipotentiary, representing Russia, Austria,
Prussia, England, and France, held on November 21, 1818,
Way's memorandum, together with his elaborate, printed project
for a pan-European "reform of the civil and political
legislation" affecting the .rews, came up for discussion. 'rhe
diplomats, who were least of all concerned about the Jewish
1 It was written in French, under the title Memoires (sic!) sur
l'etat des Israehte8.
THE LAST YEARS OF ALEXANDER I 399
question, and had no desire to make this" domestic affair" of
each Government an object of international negotiations,
agreed upon the following resolution:
Without entering into the merits of the view entertained by the
author of the project. the conference recognizes the justice of his
general tendency. and takes cognizance of the fact that the
plenipotentiaries
of Austria and Prussia [Metternich and Hardenberg)
have declared themselves ready to furnish all possible information
concerning the Jewish situation in those two monarchies in order
to clarify a problem which must claim the attention equally of
the statesman and the humanitarian.
By means of this hollow, liberal-sounding phrase, which diu
not in volve the slightest obligation. the diplomats managed
to rid themselves of this vexatious problem, even the perfunctory
attention given to it at the Congress having been prompted
by 110 other motive than consideration for the Russian Emperor.
For the rest, everyone of the three allied Governments
which had distributed Poland among themselves went on to
handle "its" Jews according to the requirements of its
domestic policy, which was frankly rea.ctionary, a.nd was not
even disguised by the fictitious label of humanitarianism.
The same domestic policy continued in Russia. The Tzar,
who abroad had listened benevolently to Way's appeal for the
civil emancipation of the Jews, irrespedi\"c of the future sa1-
nttion of their souls, uecided, when at home again, to leaye
everything untouched, looking for a partial solution of thc
Jewish problem to the fantastic endeavors of the Society of
Israelitish Christians. Undeterred by the fact that the solemu
appeal issued by the Tzar in 1817 had, d tIring the three years
since its promulgation, failed to attract a singlc group of couverts,
for the simple reason that such groups were not in
26
-WO THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
existence, there being only rare isolated instances of baptism,
prompted in most cases by questionable motives, the Government
set aside, in 1820, a large tract of land in the Government
of Yekaterinoslav for a future settlement of "Israelitish
Christians." It even appointed a special official, with the title
Curator, to take charge of it.
But year after year passed by and the empty land was waiting
in vain for settlers, while the idle Curator was just as vainly on
the lookout for someone to take care of. At last, in 1823, an
obscure group of "Israelitish Christians" appeared on the
scene. It consisted of thirty-seven families from Odessa, who
expressed their willingness to accept the free lands with all the
manjfold rights and privileges attached to them. Subsequent
inquiries from the officeof the Governor-General of New Russia
revealed the fact, however, that the claimants to the public
pie, though confessing the Greek Orthodox faith, did not possess
certificates of baptism, and could not even produce passports,
with the result that the application of the adventurers
was denied.
At last, realizing the impracticability of the whole missionary
scheme, Count Golitzin advised Alexander 1., in 1824, to
dissolve the mythical Society of Israelitish Christians with its
Board of rrrustees, which by that time carried a whole staff
of Government officials on its budget. The Tzar refused to
liquidate by official action an undertakiug which had been
heralded so solemnly, and the society without a membership,
administered by trustees without a trust, continued to figure on
the lists of Government institutiolls until 1833, when Nicholas
1. issued a curt ukase putting a sudden end to this bureaucratic
phantom. '1'he new ruler had in the meantime discovered elltirely
dilferelJt and by lI0 means fantastic contrivances for drivTHE
LAST YEARS OF ALEXANDER I 401
ing the Jews into the fold of the Orthodox Ohurch. 'fhese con
trivances were the military barracks and the institution 01
Cantonists.
3. "JUDAIZING" SECTS IN RUSSIA
While the Russian
authorities were dreaming of a wholesale
conversion of Jews to Ohristianity, their attention was diverted
by the ominous spectacle of huge numbers of Ohristians embracing
a doctrine closely akin to Judaism. The Russian
officials disclosed the existence of a sect of "Sabbatarians"
and" J udaizers" in the Governments of Voronyezh, Saratov,
and Tula, all of them without Jewish residents, who might
otherwise have been suspected of a missionary propaganda
among the Greek Orthodox. 'fhe new "Judaizing" heresy
first engaged the attention of the central Government in 1817,
when a group of peasants in the region of Voronyezh addressed
a petition to the Tzar in which they naively complained of " the
oppressions which they had had to undergo at the hands of the
local authorities, both ecclesiastic and civil, on account of
their confessing the law of Moses." Acting under Imperial
instructioJ;ls, Golitzin gave orders "to examine most rigorously
" the origin of the" sect," for the purpose of preventing
its further spread and bringing back the renegades into the
fold of Orthodoxy.
The Greek Orthodox Archbishop of Voronyezh reported, in
substance, as follows:
The sect came into existence about· 1796' ••through natural
Jews." It afterwards spread to several settlements in the districts
of Bobrov and Pavlovsk. 'I'he essence of the sect, without being
directly an Old Testament form of Jewish worship, consists of a
1 According to subsequent accounts the date was 1806.
402 THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
few [Je.wish] ceremonies, such as Sabbath observance and circumcision,
the arbitrary manner of contracting and dissolving
marriages, the way of burying the dead, and prayer assemblies.
The number of avowed sectarians amounts to one thousand five
hundred souls of both sexes, but the secret ones are In all likelihood
more numerous.
'1'0 exterminate the sect, the Archbishop of Voronyezh proposes
various measures, to be carried out partly by the ecclesiastic
authorities and partly by the police, among them the
deportation of the soldier Anton Rogov, the propagandist of
the heresy.
Similar reports from the ecclesiastic authorities of Tula,
Orlov, Saratov, and other Great Russian Church districts were
soon received by the Synod. The" Judaizing heresy" spread
rapidly to the villages and cities, appealing alike to peasants
and merchants. Whenever taken to task, the sectarians declared
that they longed to return to the Old Testament and
"maintain the faith of their fathers, the Judeans."
The central authorities were alarmed, and resorted to
extraordinary measures to check the spread of the schism. The
Committee of Ministers approved the following draconian
project submitted by Count Kochubay in 1823 :
The chiefs and teachers of the Judaizing sects are to be Impressed
into military service, and those unflt to serve deported to
Siberia. All Jews are to be expelled from the districts in which
the sect of Sabbatarians or ••Judeans" has made its appearance.
Intercourse between the Orthodox inhabitants and the sectarians
Is to be thwarted in every possible manner. Every outward display
of the sect, such as the holding of prayer·meetings and the
observance of ceremonies which bear no resemblance to those
of Christians, Is to be forbidden. Finally, to make the sectarians
an object of contempt, Instructions are to be given to designate
THE LAST YEARS Ol!~ALEXANDER I 403
the Sabbatarians as a Jewish I sect and to publish far and wide that
they are in reality Zhyds, inasmuch as their present designation
as Sabbatarians, or adherents of the Mosaic law, does not give
the people a proper idea concerning this sect, and does not excite
in them that feeling of disgust which must be produced by the
realization that what is actually aimed at is to turn them into
Zhyds.
All these police regulations, in addition to a scheme of
disciplinary ecclesiastic measures, proposed by the Synod for
the purpose" of uprooting the Juuean beet," were sanctioned by
Alexander 1. (Febmary and September, 1825). The tragic
consequences of these reprisals came to light only during the
following reign. Entire settlements were laid waste, thousands
of sectarians were banished to Siberia and the Caucasus. Many
of them, unable to endure the persecution, returned to the Orthodox
faith, but in many cases they did so outwardly, continuing
in secret to cling to their sectarian tenets.
4. RECRUDESCENCE
OF ANTI-JEWISH LEGISLATION
As far as the Jews
are concerned, the immediate result of
these measures was insignificant. The number of Jews
involved in the decree of expulsion from the affected Great
Russian Governments was infinitesimal, since, owing to the
restriction of the Jewish right of residence, the only Jews
occasionally to be found there were a few traveling salesmen
or distillers. Yet, indirectly, the Judaizing movement had a
harmful effect upon the position of Russian Jewry. The Government
circles of St. Petersburg, which were religiously attuned,
were irritated by the fact that so many from the Ortho-
[' In the original, Zhydovskaya, adjective derived from Zhyd.
See p. 320, n. 2.1
404 THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
dux fold went over to the camp of the very people among whom
the Government had been hunting vainly for proselytes, and
while the colonies so hospitably prepared for the Israelitish
Christians were clamoring for inhabitants, many Great Russian
villages had to be stripped of their inhabitants, who were
deppl"ted to Siberia, on account of their Jewish leanings. In
the mind of Golitzin, the Minister of Ecclesiastic Affairs, the
opinion gained ground that" the Jews are enjoined by their
tenets to convert everybody to their religion." These circumstances
produced in Russian official circles a frame of mind
conducive to repressive measures, and helped to provide a
moral justification for them. Accordingly, the last years of
Alexander 1.'s reign were marked by a recrudescence of religious
oppression, which lit times assumed the dimensions of
wholesale persecutions.
Sentiments of this kind were responsible for the medieval
prohibition against keeping Christian domestics. The prohibition
was suggested by Golitzin, a man otherwise far removed
from anti-Semitic prejudices, and was officiallyjustified
in the Senatorial ukase of April 22, 1820, by the alleged proselytism
of the Jews. As instances of the latter the Senate quotes
the Judaizing movement in the Government of Voronyezh,
the communication of the Governor of Kherson concerning
certain Christian domestics in Jewish homes, who had adopted
Jewish customs and ceremonies, and so forth.
The same motives, strengthened by the tendency of removing
the Jews from the villages, long since pursued by the Government,
suggested harsher restrictions in letting to Jews
manorial estates with the peasant" souls" attached to them.
tJkases issued in 1819 and in subsequent years enjoin the local
administration to prosecute all so-called" krestentzya" conTHE
LAST YEARS OF ALEXANDER I 405
tracts, transactions whereby the squire leased the harvest of a
given year to a Jew, entitling him to employ the peasants
for gathering the grain and hay and for other agricultural
labors. Such transactions were looked upon as a criminal encroachment
of the Jews upon the right of owning slaves, which
was the prerogative of the nobles. Orders were accordingly
given, that all such farm leases be taken away from the Jews,
in spite of the complete ruin of the Jewish lessees, who were
left to settle their accounts with the squires.
At the same time the Government set out again to realize its
devout consummation-the expulsion of the Jews from the villages
and hamlets already provided for by the Statute of 1804,
though suspended for a time when the cruelty of the measure
spelling ruin to tens of thousands of Jewish families had
become apparent. The arguments by means of which the
Jewlsh Committee had endeavored in 1812 to convince, and
finally did convince, the Government of the impracticability
of such a migration of nations, were blotted out from memory.
'rhe local and central authorities were again on the war path
against the Jews. '1'0 renew the campaign against the rural
Jews, the methods which had been tried with success in the
time of Dyerzhavin were again resorted to. When, in 182].
hapless W~ite Russia was again stricken by a famine, which
affected the Jewf' to a ronsiderahle extent, the local nobility
was ORce morc on the alert, placing the whole responsibility
for the ruin of the peasantry on the Jewish tenants and saloonkeepers.
The landlords proposed that the Government expel
all the Jews from the province or at least forbid theDJ to sell
spirits in the rural settlements, since the Jews "lead the
peasants into ruin." The local authorities, in reply to an
406 THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
inquiry of Senator Baranov, who had been dispatched from st.
Petersburg to White Russia, expressed a similar opinion.
The question was first brought up before the Committee
which was charged with the task of giving relief to the
Governments of White Russia, and included several ministers,
among them the all-powerful Arakcheyev. 'fhe Relief Committee
approved the restrictive project of the nobility, and so,
a little later, did the Committee of Ministers. 'fhe result was II
stern ukase of the Tzar, uddressed, on April 11, 1823, to the
governors of White Russia, to the following cITed:
(l) To forbid the Jews in all the settlements of the Governments
of Moghilev and Vitebsk to hold land leases, to keep public
houses, saloons, hostelries, posts, and even to live in them
[in the villages], whereby all farming contracts of this kind are
to become null and void by January I, 1824. (2) to transplant all
the Jews in these two Governments from the settlements into the
cltles and towns by January 1, 1825.
In signing this ukase, which spelled sorrow and misery for
thousands of families, Alexander 1. gave verbal instructions
to the Committee of Ministers, to.point out to the White Russian
Governor-GiJneral Khovanski " ways and means of obtaining
employment and designating sources of livelihood for the
local Jews in their new places of abode." But no "ways and
means" of any kind could mitigate the misery of people
doomed to expulsion from their old nests and reduced to
beggary and vagrancy.
Immediately on the receipt of the ukase the local authorities
eIllbarked upon their task with relentless cruelty. By January,
1824, over twenty thousand Jews of both sexes had been driven
from the villages of both Governments. Hordes of hapless refugees,
with their wives and children, began to flock into the
THE LAST YEARS OF ALEXANDER I 407
overcrowded. towns and townlets. There they could be seen,
stripped almost to their shirts, wandering aimlessly in the
streets. They lived in frightful congestion, as many as ten
of them being squeezed into a single room. They were huddled
together in the synagogues, while many of them, unable to find
shelter, remained on the streets with their families facing the
winter cold. Sickness and increased mortality began to spread
among them, particularly in the city of NeveJ. Even the anti-
J-ewish Governor-General Khovanski, who was making a tour
of inspection through the stricken district, was stirred by the
spectacle, and advised the Committee of Ministers to stop the
disastrous expulsions. But the blow had been dealt. By the
beginning of 1825 the majority of rural Jews had been expatriated,
and turned out into the wide world.
'l'he question naturally arises, whether this human holocaust
was required in the interest of the country. The Government
itself gave the answer twelve years later-when it was too late.
As far as White Russia Is concerned-quoth the Council of State
in 1836-experience has not justified our anticipations of the usefulness
of the Indicated measure [the expulsion from the villages].
Twelve years have passed since it was carried into effect, but
from the data collected in the Department of Law it is quite
manifest, that, while it has ruined the Jews, it does not in the least
seem to have improved the condition of the villagers.
The White Russian orgy of destruction was merely the prelude
to a new legislative campaign against the Jew". Almost
simultaneously with the ukase ordering the expulsion of the
Jews from the villages, another ukase was issued on May 1,
1823, calling for the establishment of a new " Committee for
the Amelioration of the Jews." The Committee, which included
among its members the Ministers of Interior, Finance,
408 THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
Justice, Ecclesiastic Affairs, and Public Instruction, was intrusted
with a very comprehensive piece of worktu
examine the enactments concerning Jews passed up to date and
point out the way in which their presence in the country might be
rendered more comfortable and useful, also what obligations they
are to assume towards the Government; in a word, to indicate
all that may contribute towards the amelioration of the civll
status of this people.
In these soft-spoken terms was couched the public function
of the Committee. But its secret function, which later revealed
itself in action, is correctly defined in the frank admission
of the Committee of Ministers in its report of 1829: "A t the
very establishment of the Jewish Committee one of the obligations
imposed upon it was to devise ways and means looking
generally towards the reduction of the number of Jews in the
monarchy." This was evidently what" the amelioration of
the civil status" of the Jews amounted to. The new Conunittee
was instrncted to finish its work by the beginning of 1824, but
its reactionary activity was not fully unfolded until the following
reign.
In the meantime the legal machinery did not remain idle.
The process of the territorial compression of Jews went on
as before. To guard the western frontier of the monarchy
against smuggling, it was decided, at the suggestion of the
Administrator of the Kingdom of Poland, Grand Duke Constantine
Pavlovich, to expel the Jews from the border zone.
Two ukases were issued in 1825 ordering the removal of all
the Jews residing outside the cities within fifty versts from the
frontier, with the exception of those owning immovable property.
Once again human beings were hurled from their lifelong
domiciles, when a rational policy would have been content
THE LAST YEARS OF ALEXANDER I 409
with instituting a closer watch. '1'0 prevent the undesirable
"multiplication of Jews" in the border Governments, Jewish
emigrants from neighboring countries, particularly from Austria,
were forbidden to settle in Russia (1824).
Needless to say, the Governments of the interior, where the
Jews could sojourn only temporarily, and where they had to
produce gubernatorial passports, like foreigners, were carefully
guarded against the invasion of the residents of the Pale.
On his last trip from St. Petersburg to Southern Russia in
September, 1825, Alexander 1. espied, in a little village near
Luga: a Jewish family, which was engaged in making tin-plate,
and he at once inquired "on what ground" it lived there.
The Governor of St. Petersburg was frightened, and gave
orders to have the family deported immediately from the
district, to censure the local ispravnik: and to warn the gubernatorial
authorities, "that the rules concerning the J"ews must
be observed with all possible stringency."
5. THE RUSSIAN
REVOLUTIONARIES AND THE JEWS
Such was the
attitude of the Russian Government toward!!
the Jews. But what was the attitude of the Russian people '?
Considering the character of the age, in which public opinion
was not able to express itself even in political literature, an
answer to this question would be entirely impossible, had not
the revolutionary movement of the Decernbrists I disclosed the
frame of mind of the most progressive section of Russian
society in its relation to the Jewish question. Taken as a whole
it was an unfriendly attitude. It reflects the utter estrange-
[1A town in the Government of st. Petersburg.]
[" Police inspector.]
[" See next note.]
410 THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
ment in language, in mallDer~,and in culture hetween Jews and
Russians at that time, an estrangement which breeds suspicion
and hostility. The Rus~ian knew no more of the life of the
secluded Jewish populace than he did of the life of the Chinese.
The educated Russian looked with suspicion upon the exclusiveness
of patriarchal .Jewish life, the unintelligible religious
ceremonies which surrounded it, the rigorism of the rahbis,
the ecstasy of the Tzaddiks, the strange emotionalism of the
Hasidic masses. If he turned to books for an explanation
of these strange phenomena, he would find it in the current
pamphlet literature of Germany or Poland, with its hackneyed
phrases about the fanaticism of the" chosen people," a " state
in a state," etc.
The attitude of the Decemhrists 1towards the Jewish problem
reflects the conventional ideas of an age of reaction. The
"Russian Truth" by Pestel contains a chapter entitled " On
the Tribes Populating Russia," in which the Jewish problem is
described as an ahnost indissoluble political tangle. Peste!
enumerates the peculiar Jewish characteristics which, in his
opinion, render the Jews entirely unfit for membership in a
social order. The Jews" foster among themselves incredibly
close ties"; they have" a religion of their own, which instils
into them the belief that they are predestined to conquer all
nations," and" makes it impossible for them to mix with an.y
[' In Russian, Dyekabristy, the name by which the revolutionaries
of that period are generally designated. They Lrst organized
themselves into a secret league consisting of Russian army officers
in the latter part of Alexander I.'s reign. Their open revolt took
place in December (hence the name), 1825, immediately after the
accession of Nicholas I. The league was divided into a ••Northern
Society," led by Nikita Muravyov, and a "Southern Society," of
which Paul Pestel was the head. The latter wrote" The Russian
Truth," a work in which he expounded the revolutionary program.]
THE LAST YEARS OF ALEXANDER I 411
other nation." The rabbis 1 wield unlimited sway over the
masses; they keep the people in spiritual bondage, "forbidding
the reading of all books excep~ the Talmud" and other
religious writings. '],he Jews" are waiting for the coming of
the Messiah, who is to establish them in their kingdom," and
therefore" look upon themselves as temporary residents of the
land in which they live." Hence their passion for commerce
and their neglect of agriculture and handicrafts. Since commerce
alone is unable to provide the huge masses of Jews with
a livelihood, cheating and trickery are considered permissible,
to the injury of the Christians. Pestel has no eye for the heavy
burden of Jewish disabilities, and even considers the Jews
a privileged class of the population, since they do not furnish
any recruits, have their own rabbinical tribunals, possess
" the right of educating their children in whatever principles
they like," and " moreover enjoy all the rights of the Christian
nations" ( !).
Such was the vein in which a Hussian revolutionary leader
wrote, not knowing, or perhaps not caring to know, of the
iron vise of the Pale of Settlement, of the pitiless expulsions
which were taking place just at that time, ignorant altogether
of the whole mesh of legal restrictions which placed the Jews
on the lowest rung of Hussian rightlessness.
After presenting this picture of Jewish life, Pestel suggests
to the future revolutionary Government (" The Supreme Provisional
Administration") two ways of solving the Jewish
problem. One consists in breaking up "the influence of the
close relationship among the Jews so injurious to the Chris-
I Pestel evidently has in mind the Tzaddiks, whom he had occasion
to observe specifically in Tulchyn, his Podolian place of
residence, and more generally in the territory controlled by the
••Sonthern Society."
-
·.412 THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
tians," because it keeps them apart from the other citizens.
For this purpose he advises convoking" the most leamed rabbis
and the most intelligent Jews "-Pestel had evidently heard of
Napoleon's Synhedrion-"listening to their representations,"
and thereupon adopting measures for eradicating Jewish exclusiveness,
for, " inasmuch as Russia does not expel the Jews,
they ought to be the more careful not to adopt an unfriendly
attitude towards the Christians."
The second way consists in an honorable expulsion of the
Jews or, to use his words, "in assisting tlle Jews to form
a separate commonwealth of their own in some portion of Asia
Minor." . To this end Pestel makes the proposal to choose a
rallying-point for the Jewish people and to supply them with
some troops so as to reinforce them. For, as Pestel continues,
were all the Russian and Polish Jews to congregate in one place,
they would number over two millions. Such a mass of people,
being in search of a fatterland would not flnd it difficult to overcome
all obstacles which the Turks might place b. their way, and,
after traversing the whole of European Turkey, might pass over
into Asiatic Turkey, and, having occupied an adequate area, form
a separate Jewish State.
Pestel himself felt more attracted towards the latter alternative
of solving the Jewish problem,' but, being fully aware
that" this gigantic undertaking depends on particular circumstances,"
he did not formulate it as " a special obligatioll
upon the Supreme Administration."
1 It has been conjectured that Pestel was influenced by his
fellow-Decembrist Gregory Peretz, a son of the converted tax-
-farmer Abraham Peretz in St. Petersburg (see p. 333 and p. 388).
Peretz advocated on numerous occasions the necessity of organizing
a society for the purpose of liberating the scattered Jews
and settling them in the Crimea or in the Orient, ••in thp- shape
of a separate nationality."
THE LAST YEARS OF ALEXANDER I 413
Accordingly, if Pestel's first plan had materialized, the Jews
of Russia would have received from the Supreme Provisional
Administration, not civil equality, but a stern Reglemenl of
the Austrian or Old Prussian type, made up of a long string of
" correctional measures" aiming at compulsory assimilation or
Russification, at the demolition of the whole cultural autonomy
of Russian Jewry, not excluding" the right of educating their
children in whatever principles they like," and finally culminating
in the economic" curbing of Jewry," perhaps in the spirit
of that very Government against which the Decembrists were
fighting.
Pestel's views on Judaism were shared by many Decembrists,
but not by all. The constitution drafted by the leader of
the" Northern Society," Nikita Muravyov, originally proposed
to grant political rights to the Jews only within their Pale
of Settlement, but in the second draft this limitation was
replaced by the principle of perfect equality.
BALTIMORE, MD., U. S. A.
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