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CHAPTER VII: THE
RUSSIAN QUARANTINE AGAINST JEWS (TILL 1772)
1. THE ANTI-JEWISH ATTITUDE OF MUSCOVY DURING THE SIXTEENTH AND
SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES
The Empire of
Muscovy, shut off from Western Europe by
a Chinese-or, more correctly, Byzantine-wall, maintained
during the sixteenth century its attitude of utmost prejudice
towards the Jews, and refused to admit them into its borders.
This prejudice was part of the general disfavor with which the
Russian people of that period, imbued as it was with the
traditions of Tataric-Byzantine culture, looked upon foreigners
or "infidels." But the prejudice against the Jews was fed,
in addition, from a specific source. 'rhe recollection of the
"Judaizing heresy" which had struck terror to the hearts
of the pious Muscovites at the end of the fifteenth and the
beginning of the sixteenth century 1 had not yet died out. The
Jews were regarded as dangerous magicians and seducers,
superstitious rumors ascribing all possible crimes to them.
'rhe ambassador of the Muscovite Grand Duke, Basil III.,
at Rome, observed in 1526 to the Italian scholar Paolo Giovio:
"'rhe Muscovite people dread no one more than the Jews, and
do not admit them into their borders."
Jewish merchants of Poland and Lithuania visited occasionally,
in connection with their business affairs, the border city
Smolensk, but they had no permanent residence there. From
time to time they would carry their goods even into the capital,
1 See p. 36 and p. 37.
THE RUSSIAN QUARANTINE AGAINST JEWS 2.~3
Moscow, although such Jaring did not always pass unpunished.
About 1545 the goods imported by Jewish merchants from
Brest-Lit~)Vsk to Moscow were burned there, on which occasion
the Muscovite ambassador called the attention of the Polish
Government to the fact that the Jews had imported forbidden
merchandise to Russia, though they had not even the right to
travel thither. In 1550 the Polish King Sigismund Augustus
addressed a" charter" to Tzar Ivan the Terrible (Ivan IV.),
demanding the admission of Lithuanian .Jews into Russia for
business purposes, by virtue of the former commercial treaties
between the two countries. Ivan IV. rejected this demand in
resolute terms:
It is not convenient to allow Jews to come with their goods t.o
Russia, since many evils result from them. For they import
poisonous herbs [medicines] into our realm, and lead astray the
Russians from Christianity. Therefore he, the [Polish] King,
should no more write about these Jews.
Ivan the 'l'errible soon had occasion to demonstrate concretely
that he was not inclined to tolerate Jews in his domains.
When, in 1563, the Russian troops occupied the Polish border
city Polotzk: the Tzar gave orders to have all local Jews
converted to the Greek Orthodox faith, and those who refused
baptism drowned in the Dvina. His attitude towards the Poles
was more indulgent. He contented himself in their case
with taking them captive and demolishing their churches.
Fortunately a few years later, in 1579, Polotzk was restored to
Poland throngh the bravery of Stephen Batory, the protector
of the Jews.
[' In the present Russian Government of Vitebsk, to be distinguished
from Plotzk, in Polish, Plock, the capi.tal of the Government
of the same name in Russian Poland, on the right bank of the
Vistula.]
2-:1:4 THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
These primitive forms of denominational politics continued
for a long time to prevail in Muscovy. The Jews of Poland
and Lithuania managed, though illegally, to visit the capital
in the interest of their business. With the influx of Poles into
Moscow during the so-called" period of unrest," the interregnum
preceding the establishment of the Romanov dynasty in
1613, a goodly number of Jews penetrated into Russia. The
Muscovites became alarmed, and their apprehensions found
expression iJ;l1610, when the noblemen of Moscow were conducting
negotiations with Poland looking to the election of
the Polish Crown Prince Vladislav to the Russian throne.
An agreement was concluded, consisting of twenty clauses,
setting forth the conditions on which the noblemen were willing
to vote for Vladislav. The fourth clause of this agreement
runs as follows:
No churches or temples of the Latin or any other faith shall
be allowed in Russia. No one shall be induced to adopt the
Roman or any other religion. and the Jews shall not be allowed
to enter the Muscovite Empire either on business or in connection
with any other affairs.
In these' circumstances the Jews were deprived of all
opportunity to develop commercial life in the reactionary
Empire. Forty years later this same Empire pushed its way
into the territories of Poland and Lithuania, which were
populated by Jews, and the policy of Muscovy was destined to
reveal its creative genius in the domain of the Jewish question.
The first contact of the Muscovite Empire with large Jewish
masses took place when the province of Little Russia was
annexed by Tzar Alexis Michaelovich in 165'1. When the
Russian troops, allied with the Cossacks, overmn White Russia,
Lithuania, and the Ukraina, they were struck by the
THE RUSSIAN QUARANTINE AGAINST JEWS 245
undreamed-of spectacle of cities in which entire quarters were
populated by Jews, a strange people about which the unenlightened
Muscovites knew nothing except that once upon a timc
they had crucified Christ, and for this reason were not allowed
.to enter pious, Greek Orthodox Russia. Alexis ~ichaelovich
and his military commanders began after their own fashion
to play the masters in the temporarily occupied Polish provinces.
In Vilna and Moghilev the Jews were murdered, and
those who survived were expelled. In Vitebsk the Jews were
made prisoners of war, while in other cities they were assaulted
and plundered.'
As a result the Muscovite Empire soon found within its
precincts a strangely composed Jewish population, consisting
of prisoners of war, who had been carried off principally from
the border towns of the Government of Moghilev, and had been
deported to the central provinces of Russia, and in some cases
even as far as Siberia. By the Peace of Andrusovo, concluded
in 1667 between Russia and Poland, the prisoners of war of
both countries were given their freedom, but the captive Jews
were allowed to remain in Muscovy. These Jews formed the
nucleus of a small Jewish colony in Moscow, which grew up
gradually, and in which occasionally even converts were to be
found. It seems that with the aid of these "legal" Jewish
residents other" illegal" Jews, from the neighboring regions
of Lithuania and White Russia, managed to penetrate to
Moscow. A few Jewish merchants, particularly those trading
in cloth, succeeded in obtaining an official permit, the so-called
"red ticket," to visit the capital. However, in 1676 the prohibition
against Jews entering Moscowwas renewed. Only in
the portion of the Ukraina which had been annexed by Russia,
1See pp. 153 et seq.
246 THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
in the provinces of Chernigov and Poltava, and a part of the
province of Kiev, there could still be found small groups of
Jews who had survived the Cossack massacres of 1648. Moreover,
from the Polish section of the Ukrajpa, Jews occasionally
came on busrness into these Cossack districts, notwithstanding
the fact that, according to Russian law, the Jews were barred
from residing within the borders of Little Hussia.
2. THE JEWS UNDER
PETER I AND HIS SUCCESSORS
This treatment of
the Jews did not improve even in the
new Russia, in which Peter the Great, the 'rzar-Reformer, "had
broken through a window into Europe." True, Peter's reforms
effected a change for the better in the attitude of the isolated,
unenlightened Empire towards foreigners, but this change did
not extend to the Jews. We know of no laws enacted during his
reign which might illustrate the views of the new Government
on the Jewish qaestion. There is reason to believe that the
Tzar, in allowing the former enactments against the admission
of Jews into Russia to remain in force, took into account the
primitive habits and prejudices of his people. A contemporary
witness narrates that, in 1698, during Peter's stay in
Holland, the Jews of Amsterdam requested the burgomaster
Witsen to petition the Tzar concerning the admission of their
coreligionists into Russia. After listening to the convincing
arguments of Witsen, with whom he was on a very friendly
footing, Peter replied:
My dear Witsen, you know the Jews, and you know their char.
acter and habits; you also know the Russians. I know both, and
believe me, the time has not yet come to unite the two nationalities.
Tell the Jews that I am obliged to them for their proposition, and
that I realize how advantageous their services would be to me, but
I
THE RUSSIAN QUARANTINE AGAINST JEWS 247 • that I should have to pity
them were they to live in the midst of
the Russians.
Discounting the element of anecdote in this story, we may
reasonably assume that Peter did not think it entirely harmless
for the Jewish emigrants to settle among the benighted
Russian masses, which had been accustomed to look upon the
Jew as some kind of sea-monster, and as an infidel and Christkiller.
It is possible that Pet.er was prompted by similar considerations
when he refused to admit the Jews into the central
provinces of Russia.
However, from another source we learn that the" reformer"
of Russia was not free from anti-Jewish prejudices, though
they were not always of a religious nature.
While inviting skilful foreigners from all over-says the Russian
historian Solovyov-Peter made a permanent exception but
for one people-the Jews .•• I prefer," he was wont to say, ••to see
in our midst nations professing Mohammedanism and paganism
rather than Jews. They are rogues and cheats. It is my endeavor
to eradicate evil and not to multiply it. They shall not be allowed
either to live or to trade in Russia, whatever efforts they may
make, and however much they may try to bribe those near me."
Of course, only a goodly dose of anti-Semitic bias could
prompt a view which regards in this light the economic activity
of the Jews among the Russian merchants, those same merchants
who had of yore given expression to their commercial
principles in the well-known Russian dictum, "If you don't
eheat, you don't sell."
It is possible that Peter was not unfamiliar with anti-Jewish
prejudices of a more objectionable kind. In 1702 reports were
received in Moscow from Little Russia, that in the town of
Gorodnya, near Chernigov. "the Jews had tortured a Christian
to death, and had sent his blood to a number of Jews in
248 THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
Little Russian towns." The descendants of Khmelnitzki had
evidently succeeded in importing into Russia what was at that
time a fashionable article in Poland, the charge of ritual murder,
and these obscure rumors may have affected injuriously
the attitude of the Russian Tzar towards the Jews.
On the other hand, we are informed that, during the Russo-
Swedish War, when the Russian army was operating on the
Polish border territory, populated by Jews, Peter the Great
refrained from repeating the pogrom experiments of his
father, Alexis Michaelovich. In August, 1708, shortly before
the celebrated battle at Lesnaya, in White Russia, he checked
a military riot against the Jews which had been started in
Mstislavl. A brief Hebrew entry in the loca.l Kahal journal,
or PiJnkes, runs as follows:
On the twenty-eighth of Elul, in the year 5468, there came the
Clesar, who is called the Tzar of Muscovy, by the name of Peter,
the son of Alexis, with his whole suite, an immense, numberless
host. Robbers and murderers from among )lis people fell upon us,
without his knowledge, and it almost came to bloodshed. And if
the Lord Almighty had not put it into the heart of the Tzar to
enter our synagogue in his own person, blood would certainly have
been shed. It was only with the help of God that the Tzar saved
us, and took revenge for us, by giving orders that thirteen men
from among them [the rioters] be immediately hanged, and the
land became quiet.
During the last years of his reign, I'eter began to admit
Jewish financial agents to his new capital, St. Petersburg.
One of the most energetic financial agents at that time was
the" court Jew" Lipman Levy, a banker from Courland, who
attained to particular prominence under Peter's successors.
Under the immediate successors of Peter the Great the
" defensive" policy towards the Jews gradually became an
THE RUSSIAN QUARANTINE AGAINST JEWS 249
" offensive" one. The magnates at the Russian court, who
dominated Russia under the label of "The Supreme Secret
Council," called attention to the unnecessary proximity of the
Jewish colony in Smolensk to the center of the Empire. The
district of Smolensk bordering on Poland harbored a group
of White Russian Jews, who earned a livelihood by a trade
profitable at that time, the lease of excise and customs duties.
One of these big tax-farmers, a certain Borukh Leibov (son of
Ltib), even had the courage to build a synagogue for the
few Jews of the village of Zverovich. This aroused the
ire of the local Greek Orthodox priest, who in his na~vet{;
was convinced that the establishment of a synagogue would
result in diverting his flock from the Church and converting
it to Judaism. The inhabitants began to bombard St.
Petersburg with their protests, the elders of the Holy Synod
became alarmed, the specter of the "Judaizing heresy" once
more flitted across their vision, and, as a result, Empress
, Catherine I. issued, in March, 1727, an ukase 1 through thc
Supreme Secret Council, that Borukh and his associates be
removed from their office in connection with the excise and
customs duties, and "be deported immediately from Russia
beyond the border."
A month later another even stricter ukase was promulgated
by the Empress through the Supreme Secret Council, which affected
all Jews in the border provinces, particularly those residing
in Little Russia. The ukase decreed that" the Jews, both
of the male and the female sex, who have settled in the Ukraina
and in other Russian cities, be deported immediately from
[' Pronounced ookaz, with the accent on the last syllable. The
original meaning of the word Is ••Indication," ••Instruction:' It Is
applled to orders Issued by the Tzar himself or, in the name of
the Tzar, by the Senate.]
250 THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
Russia beyond the border, and in no circumstances be admitted
into Russia, of which fact they shall in all places be strictly
forewarned." The exiles were forbidden to carry gold and
silver coins abroad, into the Polish dominions. They were
ordered to exchange them for copper money prior to their
expulsion. This ukase was a gross violation not only of the
ancient rights of the Jews who had been left in Little Russia
after its annexation by Muscovy, but also of the autonomy
of the province and its elective authorities, the hetmans, to
whom the right of initiative belonged in such cases.
The arbitrariness of the central Government called forth the
protest of the Little Russian Cossacks, who.,wereotherwise far
from friendly to the Jews. In the name of " the Zaporozhian
army on both sides of the Dnieper'" Hetman Daniel Apostol
addressed a petition to St. Petersburg, pleading for the admission
of traveling Jewish salesmen to the Little Russian
fairs, in view of their commercial usefulness. A reply to
this petition may be found in an ukase which the Suprcmr
Secret Council issued in 1728, in the name of Emperor
Peter II., the latter still being a minor. One of its clauses
runs thus:
The Jews are permitted to visit temporarily the fairs of Little
Russia for commercial purposes, but they are only allowed to sell
their goods wholesale, and not retail, by ells and in pounds. The
money taken in from the sale of these goods shall be used to buy
other goods. In no circumstances shall they be allowed to carry
gold and silver money from Little Russia abroad. . .. The [permanent]
residence of the Jews in Little Russia is forbidden by
virtue of the ukase of the previous year, 1727.
·1 Little Russia possessed at that time its own military organization,
consisting of regiments and" hundreds," under the command
of native omcers. At the head of the organization stood the
commander-in-ehief, called hetman rsee p. 1'43, n. 1].
THE RUSSIAN QUARANTINE AGAINST JEWS 251
In this way the Jews who had been illegally deported were
now" graciously" granted the right of temporary visits to the
fairs. Moreover, even this right was hedged about by severe
restrictions, such as the prohibition of retail business, and the
compulsion of leaving in the country the money taken in for
their goods, for the purpose of equalizing imports and exports.
In 1731, this act of " grace" was extended to the Government
of Smolensk, and three years later another concession
was wrested from the authorities. The representatives of the
"Border Province of Sloboda," the present Government of
Kharkov, petitioned the Russian ruler to grant permission to
the Jews visiting the fairs to sell their goods not only wholesale
but also retail, "by ells and in pounds," in view of the fact
that "in the Sloboda regiments there are few business men,
and their trade is unsatisfactory," Empress Anna complied
with the request in 1774. In the same year the privilege concerning
the retail trade of Jews at the fairs was extended to
the whole of Little Russia, in compliance with a petition of its
Christian inhabitants.
But this avalanche of "favors" and "privileges "-the
partial restoration of rights which had been grossly trampled
upon-suddenly stopped, and was followed by a series of cruel
repressions. The change was prompted by the Muscovite fear
of Jews, the traditional dread felt by the Russian people of the
specter of "Jewish seduction." An occurrence had taken
place which was enough to strike terror to the hearts of
people with old Muscovite notions. The above-mentioned taxfarmer
of Smolensk, Borukh Leibov, who, even after his expulsion,
continued to cross the forbidden Polish-Russian frontier,
had occasion, during his stay in Moscow, to come in close
contact with Alexander Voznitzin, a retired captain of the
252 THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
navy, and "seduced him." Voznitzin, who was wont to
speculate about religious matters, studied the Bible under the
guidance of his Jewish friend, and his eyes were opened. He
realized that the Biblical doctrine, of one God was incompatible
with the dogmas of the Greek Ohurch and with the cult of
ikons, in which he had been brought up. Voznitzin became
convinoed of the truth of Judaism, and, having made up his
mind to embrace the Jewish religion, he decided to brave the
difficulties and dangers which such a step implied. He went to
the little town of Dubrovna, in the Government of Moghilev,
near Smolensk, where the son of Borukh Leibov resided, to
undergo there the ceremony of circumcision and accept the
principles and practices of Judaism. Voznitzin's conversion
became known, and the Oaptain, together with hi,S teacher
Borukh, were brought to justice. They were conveyed to St.
Petersburg, and turned over to the awe-inspiring" Ohancellery
for Secret Inquisitorial Affairs."
The accused were put on the rack and confessed their
"crimes." Voznitzin admitted having embraced "the Jewish
law," and having uttered "blasphemous words against the
Holy Ohurch," while Borukh Leibov owned that he had
" seduced" Voznitzin from the path of Greek Orthodoxy. In
addition, BOl1lkhwas accused of having, " together with other
Jews," predisposed the common people in Smolensk in favor
of the Jewish religion, and of having insulted, by word and
deed, the local Russian Pope Abramius, in connection with
the establishment of a Jewish synagogue in the village of
Zverovich. The latter crimes, however, were not investigated
further in view of the fact that the conversion of Voznitzin
was sufficient to inflict the death penalty on Borukh. The
Inquisitorial Oourt hastened to announce its verdict, basing
'tHE RUSSIAN QUARANTINE AGAINST JEWS 253
it upon the "!ltatute" of 'rzar Alexis Michaelovich. The
report of the Senate elicited in 1738 an Imperial resolution,'
decreeing that" both of them [Voznitzin and Borukh] shall
be executed and burned, in order that other ignorant and
godless people, witnessing this, shall not turn away from the
Christian law, and such seducers as the above-mentioned Jew
BorUkl1 not dare to lead them astray from the Christian
law an nvert them to their own laws." The auto-da-fe
took pI St. Petersburg, on a public square, in the presence
of a la rowd of spectators, on July 15, 1738.
This e isolated incident was sufficient to rekindle in the
Government circles of St. Petersburg the invete~ate Muscovite
hatred against "unbaptized Jews" and to justify
further violence against them. It had come to the knowledge
of the authorities that, contrary to the ukase of 1727, numerous
Jews were still residing in Little Russia, being employed
on the estates of the Russian landowners as arendars and innkeepers.
It had also been ascertained that the Jews who came
from the Polish part of the Ukra.ina to visit the fairs in many
cases settled permanently in Little Russia. The Government
found such a state of affairs unendurable. In 1739 the Senate
decreed the expulsion of the Jews from Little Russia, whither
in recent years they had penetrated" from the other side of the
Dnieper." In reply to this Senatorial rescript, the Military
Chancellery of Little Russia reported that an immediate expulsion
of the Jews was fraught with danger, on account of the
war with Turkey, which was going on at that time, " since their
present expulsion might be accompanied by spying." The
Cabinet of Ministers, acting upon the representation of the
P The term ••resolution" (in Russian. resolutzia) is applied to
a decision written by the Tzar in his own hand on the margin of
the reports submitted to him.]
254 THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
Senate, pasl!ed the resolution, that" the expulsioL of the Jews
shall be postponed until the termination of the present Turkish
War." When the war was over, Empress Anna issued an
ukase, in 1740, ordering the execution of the postponed expulsion.
The number of J eW8liable to expulsion was found to be
292 of the male sex and 281 of the female sex, who resided
on 130 manorial estates, altogether a handful of 573 Jewish
souls, who had obtained shelter on the outskirts of Russia.
3.
ELIZABETH PETROVNA AND THE FIRST YEARS OFCATHERINE II
The policy of
religious intolerance was practiced assiduously
during the reign of Elizabeth Petrovna (1741-1761). During
the reign of this Empress, who divided her time between
church services and court-balls, the persecutions of the adherents
of other faiths were intensified. By order of the Holy
Synod and the Senate, Greek Orthodoxy began to be disseminated
among the pagan nationalities of the East, while those of
them who, under the influence of the Tatars, had embraced
Mohammedanism, were subjected to fines unless they adopted
the religion of the state. In the hope of suppressing the
Mohammedan propaganda, orders were given to demolish the
mosques in many villages of the Governments of Kazan and
Astrakhan. The destruction of the mosques was stopped only
by the fear of Turkish reprisals, "in ~der that this rumor
shall not reach those countries in which adherents of the
Greek Orthodox persuasion live in the midst of Mohammedans,
and that the churches existing there shall not suffer oppression."
The Jews living in the border provinces were subjected to
similar treatment: they were expelled with one hand and
THE RUSSIAN QUARANTINE AGAINST JEWS 255
pushed into the doors of the church with the other. 'l'owards
the end of 1741, Elizabeth Petrovna issued a remarkable ukase.
Referring to the decree of 1727 concerning the expulsion of
Jews, the Empress states that" it has now come to our k-nowledge
that some Jews in our Empire, and particularly in
Little Russia, continue to live there under all kinds of pretence,
being engaged in business or in keeping inns and taverns,
from which circumstance no benefit of any kind, but, coming
from such haters of the name of our Savior Christ, only
extreme injury, can accrue to our faithful subjects." Hence
the Empress "most graciously" commands that
from our whole Empire, both from the Great Russian and Little
Russian cities, villages, and hamlets, all Jews of the male and
female sex, of whatever calling and dignity they may be, shall, at
the publication of this our ukase, be immediately deported with all
their property abroad, and shall henceforward, under no pretext,
be admitted into our Empire for any purpose; unless they shall
be willing to accept the Christian religion of the Greek persuasion.
Such [Jews], having been baptized, shall be allowed to
live in our Empire, but they shall not be permitted to go outside
the country.
The ukase was to be printed and promulgated in the whole
Empire, so as to gain wide circulation among the people and to
inculcate in the Russian masses the proper sentiments towards
"the haters of the name of our Savior Christ."
However, the Empress and her exalted prompters calculated
wrongly. The cruel expulsion decree did not draw a single
Jew into the fold of the Greek Orthodox Church, while the
reason given in the ukase for the expulsion, "the extreme
injury" inflicted by the enemies of Christ" upon our faithful
subjects," failed to carry conviction to the latter. The ukase
had been designed in particular to "benefit" the inhabit-
17
256 THE JEWS iN RUSSIA AND POLAND
ants of the two border provinces of Little Russia and Livonia
by eliminating the Jews from their midst. 'l'hese inhabitants,
however, speaking through their local representatives, declared
that such "beneficence" would only result in ruining them.
From Little Russia the Greek contractors of the customs duties
complained to the Senate that the repressions against the
Jews, which hampered their commercial visits to Poland, had
caused great losses to the state revenues by lowering the income
from imported goods, that a sudden expulsion of Jews, who
were bound up with the Christian merchants by business interests
and monetary obligations, would ruin both sides, and that
it was therefore necessary to allow the Jews to retain their
former right of free admission into Little Russia for business
purposes.
Even more energetic representations were sent to the Senate
from the Baltic province of Livonia. The gubernatorial administration
of the province and the magistracy of the city
of Riga stated that, in accordance with the promulgated ukase,
the Jews living in the suburb of Riga and in the surrounding
district had been ordered to leave within six weeks, but that
this expulsion was bound to cause great injury to the exchequer
and to spell ruin for the whole mercantile class. For the
Polish pans and merchants, who had their Jewish brokers in
Riga, would stop buying their goode there, and would prefer to
import them, with the aid of their expelled Jewish middlemen,
from Germany, so that "trade in Riga would fall off, and
commerce might be destroyed entirely," the Russian merchants
finding themselves unable to secure customers for" the goods
imported by sea." The Livonians therefore pleaded to grant
the Jews free admission into Riga for carrying on business,
though it be only in the capacity of temporary residents.
THE RUSSIAN QUARANTINE AGAINST JEWS' 257
Impressed by these representations, the Senate suliluitted a
report to the Empress, in which it endeavored to convince her
that for the sake of "promoting commerce," increasing the
revenues of the exchequer, and guarding the interests of the
Christian population in the" border localities," it was necessary
to comply with the petitions of the Ukrainians and
Livonians and grant the Jews free admission to both provinces
and to other localities on the frontier, so that they may
carry on temporary business during the time of the fairs, this
privilege having been exercised by them in Little Russia since
1728, by virtue of earlier Imperial decrees. Elizabeth Petrovna
read these convincing arguments of the Senate, but, blinded by
religious fanaticism, refused to pay attention to them. On the
reports submitted by the Senate, she put down, in December,
1743, the following laconic resolution ': "From the enemies
of Christ I desire neither gain nor profit."
'fhe Senate could do nothing but submit to the despotic
will of the Empress. A month later, in January, 1744, an ukase
was issued, demanding that immediate steps be taken to detect
the Jews in Little Russia, Livonia, and other places, and expel
all except those who were willing to be baptized.
Henceforward-the Senatorial decree runs-the above Jews
shall not by any means, under any conditions, and for any purpose
whatsoever, be admitted into Russia, though it be for the fairs
or for a short time only; nor shall any representations concerning
their admission be further addressed to the Senate, and the Senate
shall be duly informed when all the above [Jews] shall have been
expelled.
In this manner Elizabeth Petrovna cleared these provinces
of their Jewish population, where-for better or for worse-it
P See p. 253. n. 1.]
A con-
(1753)
258 THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
had lived long before their annexation by Russia.
temporary historian calculates that up to his time
some 35,000 Jews had been banished from Russia.
The fanatical Empress searched with the vigilance of an
inquisitor for the slightest trace of Judaism in her Empire.
Since 1731 there had lived in St. Petersburg a learned physician,
hy the name of Antonio Sanchez, evidently a Sephardic
Marano, who professed Judaism in secret. Originally invited
from Holland, Sanchez occupied in St. Petersburg the post
of body-physician at the courts of Anna Johannovna and her
successors, and he was at the same time in charge of the medical
department of the army. He subsequently became a
member of the Academy of Sciences, and wrote a number of
medical works, which drew the atteption of the scientific
world to him. In 1749 Sanchez was suddenly dismiss~J from
the Academy of Sciences, and compelled to transfer his abode
to Paris. It seems that Empress Elizabeth had found out
the secret" crime" of her body-physician, which was none
other than his loyalty to Judaism. "As far as I am aware"-
the president of the Academy, Razumovski, wrote to Sanchez-
"you have not been guilty of any wrong-doing against her
. Imperial Majesty or against any of her interests. But she
finds it contrary to her conscience to tolerate in the Academy
a man who has deserted the banner of Christ, and has joined
the ranks of those who fight under the banner of Moses and
the Old Testament prophets." When the famous mathematician
Euler heard of Sanchez' expulsion, he wrote: "I doubt
whether amazing actions of this kind will contribute towards
the reputation of the Russian Academy of Sciences."
There was no one perhaps in the contemporary Government
circles of Russia who was so ready to condemn this malicious
THE RUSSIAN QUARANTINE AGAINST JEWS 259
policy, inspired by Byzantine clericalism, as that cultured
« Westerner," Empress Catherine II. (1762-1796). Nevertheless
in the first years of her reign she found herself unable to
change a policy which had already been hallowed by tradi·
tion, and was regarded as "national" and truly Russian.
Catherine II., in endeavoring to justify the dethronement or
her husband, the Prussophil Peter III., was bound, in the first
years or her reign, to act against her own convictions and
pose as a national ruler, anxious to follow in the footsteps or
her Orthodox predecessors. We derive our knowledge of
this fact from her own memoirs, in which, speaking of herself
in the third person, she makes this confession:
On the fifth or sixth day after her accession to the throne.
Catherine II. arrived at the Senate. It happened that on the
agenda of that session was the question of the admission of Jews
into Russia. The Senators unanimously declared that their admission
was useful, but Catherine, in view of the circumstances at the
time, found it difficult to give her assent. The Senator Count
Odoyevski came to her aid. He rose up and said: ••Before mak-
Ing a decision, perhaps your Imperial Majesty will consent to see
the autograph decision which on a similar occasion was rendered
by Empress Elizabeth." Catherine ordered the documents to be
brought, and she found that Empress Elizabeth, prompted by piety,
had written on the margin ••• From the enemies of Christ I desire
neither gain nor profit." It is necessary to observe that less than
a week had passed since Catherine's accession to the throne. She
had been placed on it for the defense of the Greek Orthodox faith;
she had to deal with a pious people and with a clergy to which its
estates had not yet been returned, and which, in consequence of
this Ill-fitting measure. had nothing to live on. The minds. as Is
always the case after such a great upheaval [the violent death
of Peter III.], were in a state of great excitement. To begin
her reign by the admission of Jews would not at all have helped to
pacify their minds: to declare it as injurious was also impossible.
Catherine acted simply: when the Procurator-General collected
260 TIlE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
the votes and a.pproached her for her decision, she said to him •
••I desire that this matter be postponed for another time." Thus
it often happens that it is not enough to be enlightened, to have
good intentions, and even the power to realize them.
In this way,in spite of the unanimous opinion of the Senate,
that the admission of .Jews was beneficial to Russia, and in
spite of her own liberal frame of mind, Catherine II. left the
Jewish question in its former state, being afraid of arousing
against her the resentment of the reactionary element of the
Russian people. In the very same year, on December4, 1762,
the Empress, in issuing a manifesto permitting all foreigners
to travel and to settle in Russia, added the fatal formula,
kromye Zhydov (" except the Jews").
Two years later, in 1764, Catherine II. received a petition
from the Little Russian nobles and elders, who, together with
the hetman, pleaded for the restoration of the autonomous
"ancient rights" of Little Russia, which had been grossly
violated by the Russian Government. Out of the twenty
clauses of the document, one refers to the Jews. 'The representatives
of the Little Russian people declare that the law
barring Jews from entering their province had inflicted great
damage on the local trade, because the Jews, "being inhabitants
of a neighboring state, take a very large part in Little
Russian commerce, buying the goods of Little Russia at a
much larger price, and the foreign goodsat a smaller price, as
compared with that now prevailing." The petition concludes
with these words: .
That the above-mentioned Jews be granted domicile in LitUe
Russia, with this we dare not trouble your Imperial Majesty. All
we do is to plead most humbly that, 10r the sake 01 promoting
Little Russian commerce, the Jews be allowed to visit Little
Russia for free commercial transactions.
THE RUSSIAN QUARANTINE AGAINST JEWS 261
The petition was not granted, for even Catherine II. " dared
not" repeal the inquisitorial resolution of Elizabeth Petrovna
against "the enemies of Christ."
It was amidst conditions such as these that the event which
marks a critical juncture in the history of the Jewish people
took place. Starting with the year 1772, Russia began to
acquire the inheritance of disintegrating Poland. The country
which had stood in fear of a few thousand Jews was now
forced to accept them, at one stroke, by the tens of thousands
and, shortly afterwards, by the hundreds of thousands. Subsequent
history will show in what way Russia endeavored to
solve this conflict between her anti-Jewish traditions and the
necessity of harboring in her dominions the greatest center of
the Jewish Diaspora.
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