Site Map

HISTORY OF THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND

CHAPTER IX: THE BEGINNINGS OF THE RUSSIAN REGIME

1. THE JEWISH POLICY OF CATHERINE II (1772-1796)

The quarantine which Russia, prior to Catherine II., had
established for the " enemies of Christ," was broken through
in 1772 by the first partition of Poland. At one stroke the
number of Russian subjects was swelled by the huge Jewish
masses of White Russia. The Russian Empire was augmented
by a new province adjoining its central possessions, and together
with the new region and its variegated population it
acquired hundreds of thousands of subjects of the kind it had
hitherto ruthlessly driven beyond its borders.
What was to be done with the unwelcome heritage bequeathed
by Poland? The primitive policy of an Elizabeth
Petrovna might have dictated some barbarous measure,
such as the wholesale expulsion of the Jews from the newlyacquired
territory. But the statesmanlike intellect of a Catherine
could not, during the formulation of the liberal" Instructions,"
1admit such barbarism, which moreover would have been
incompatible with the new pledges the Russian Government
had found it necessary to give to the heterogeneous population
of White Russia at the time of annexation. In the" Placard"
issued on this occasion by Count Chernyshev, the first Governor-
General of White Russia, all residents, "of what-
[' In 1766 Catherine convened a Commission, consisting of repre-
. sentatlves of the various estates, for the purpose of elaborating a
new Russian code of laws. As a guide for this Commission
Catherine wrote her famous" Instructions" (in Russian Nakaz),
outlining the principles of government, largely in the spirit of
Montesquieu. ]
BEGINNINGS OF THE RUSSIAN REGIME 307
ever birth anLlcalling," were" solclliIlly assured by thc sacred
name and word of the Empress," that their religious liberty
as well .as their personal rights, and the privileges attaching
to property and estate, would remain inviolate.
This "assurance" included the Jews, though not without
qualification, as is shown by this passage:
From the aforesaid solemn assurance of the free exercise of
religion and the inviolability of property for one and all, it follows
of itself that also the Jewish communities residing in the cities
and territories now incorporated Into the Russian Empire will be
left in the enjoyment of all those liberties which they possess at
present, in accordance with the [Russian] law and [their own]
property. For the humaneness of her Imperial Majesty will not
allow her to exclude the Jews alone from the grace vouchsafed to
all and from the future prosperity under her beneficent rule, so
long as they on their part shall live in due obedience as faithful
subjects, and shall limit themselves to the pursuit of genuine trade
and commerce according to their callings.
To be sure, the Jews, in contradistinction to the rest of the
population, are promised the high Imperial favor on condition
of "due obedience." Yet the inviolability of their former
rights was solemnly guaranteed, and Russian politics had
henceforward to be guided by it.
Immediately on the annexation of the new province a general
census was ordered. According to the testimony of a contemporary,
the number of Jews in White Russia was found tQ
amount to over forty thousand families, about two hundred
thousand souls. An ukase of 1772 imposed upon them a
per capita tax of one rubel (50c.). The annexed territory
was divided into two Governments, those of Moghilev and Polotzk,
or, as it is called at present, Vitebsk. In the interest
of the regular collection of taxes, the administration from
308 THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
the very begimling gave instructions "to have all Jews
affiliate with the 1\ahals and to institute such (Kahals] as the
governors may suggest or as necessity for them may arise."
The problems connecteu with the inner organization of the
Jews were of a more complicated character. Far-reaching
changes were taking place at that time in the provincial and
the social organization of the Russian Empire. In 1775 was
promulgated the" Regulation Concerning the Governments." I
In 1785 was issued the" Act Concerning Municipal Administration,"
2 and the authorities were confronted by an alternative:
either to place the Jews uncler the general laws, according
to the estate to which they belonged (in the cities the
mercantile class, the burghers, and the trade-unions), or, in
view of their peculiar conditions of life and the Kahal autonomy
inherited from Poland, allow them to retain their own institutions
as part of their communal and spiritual self-government.
It was a difficult problem, and Russian legislation at first
wavered between these two ways of solving it, with the result
that matters became muddled. The interference of the local
P This law laid the foundation for the division of the Russian
Empire into" Governments," in Russian gulJernia (the English
term is a reproduction of the French gouvernement). The chief of
a Government is called Governor, in Russian, G1tlJernator. There
are also a few Governors-General, in Russian. Gheneral-GulJernator,
placed over several Governments, mostly on the borders of the
Empire.]
[' According to this new law, the city population is divided
into merchants, burghers, and artisans. The burgher&-in Russian
(also in Polish, see above, p. 44, n. 2), myeshchan1le-are
placed below.the merchants. The former are those possessing less
than 500 rube Is ($250); they have to pay the head-tax and are sub·
ject to corporal punishment. The merchants are those who have a
larger capital, and are privileged in the two directions indicated.
The artisans are organized in their trade-unions. Each estate is
registered and administered separately.]
BEGINNINGS OF THE RUSSIAN REGIME 300
administration and the old rivalry among the various estates
made confusion worse onfounded.
The ukase issued by the Senate in 1776 sanctioned the
existence of the Kahal, regarding it primarily as a fiscal and
legislative institution, which the Russian administration found
convenient for its purposes. At the instance of Governor-
General Chernyshev, the Jews of White Russia were set apart as
a separate tax-unit and as an estate of their own. They were
to be entered on special registers in the towns, town lets, villages,
and hamlets, wherever a census was taken. The instructions
read that
in order that their taxes may be more regularly remitted to the
exchequer, Kahals shall be established in which they [the Jews]
shall all be enrolled, so that everyone of the" Zhyds," 1 whenever
he shall desire to travel somewhere on business, or to live and
settle in one place or another, or to take anything on lease, shall
receive a passport from the Kahal. The same Kahal shall pay
the head-tax, and turn it over to the provincial exchequer.
Thus, as regards the payment of taxes, and the rights not
only of transit but also of business, every Jew was placed ill
the same position of dependence on his Kahal as under the old
Polish regime. At the same time the Kahal was endowed with
certain judicial functions. District and Government Kahals,
the latter conceived as courts of appeal, were established for
cases between Jews, each of these Kahals being assigned a
definite number of elective judges. Only lawsuits between
Jews and non-Jews were to be brought before the general
magistracy courts.
But a few years later the Government was shaken in its
resolve to uphold the former Kahal organization to its full
[' See p. 320, n. 2.J
310 THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
extent. In 1'182an inquiry wasaddressedby the Senate t9 Passek,
the new Governor-Generalof White Russia, as to the legality
of establishing special Jewish law courts. A year later the
Government took a decided step in the opposite direction. It
recognized the rights of Jews registered in the merchant class
to participation in the general city government, to elect and to
be elected on equal terms with the Christian members of the
magistracies, town councils, and municipal courts. The realization
of this reform was greatly hampered by the opposition of
the Christian merchants and burghers, who hated the Jews,
and could not reconcile themselves to the municipal equality
of their competitors. Having accustomed themselves to look
down upon the Jews as citizens of an inferior grade, the
Christian city officials assumed a hostile attitude towards
their Jewish colleagues who had been elected to public posts,
and by electioneering methods managed to reduce their numbers
in the city corporations to a minimum. The interests of
the Jews were bound to suffer, particularly as far as the
administration of justice was concerned.
On the other hand, the administration itself began to oppress
them. The liberal Chernyshev was superseded by the anti-
J-ewish Passek, who did his utmost to restrict the Jews in
their economic activities, to the obvious advantage of thcir
competitors in the ranks of the Shlakhta and the Christian
merchants.
The Jews-a contemporary who had himself been affected by
these measures informs us-were driven from their breweries and
distilleries, their toll-houses. hostelries, etc., which formed their
principal means of livelihood. Thousands of families were reduced
to beggary. In addition, new restrictions were introduced affecting
business, handicrafts, and so forth.
BEGINNINGS OF THE RUSSIAN REGIME 311
The acuteness of the economic and social crisis among the
Jews of White Russia during that period of transition is
evidenced by the petition which their delegates submitted in
1784 to Catherine II.
The petition, consisting of six points, is permeated with a
profound feeling of despair. The Jews complain that the
administration has deprived them completely of their main
sources of income: distilling, brewing, and liquor-selling in
the cities. They furthermore point out that Governor-General
Passek has forbidden the landed proprietors to lease the inns
on their estates to Jews, and that in consequence a large
number of families. who depended for their livelihood on some
form of liquor-selling and innkeeping, had been brought to the
verge of ruin. They also contend that the Jews had not reaped
the expected benefits from the equal municipal rights conferred
upon them, for where the Jews are in a minority not a single
Jewish candidate is admitted to a municipal or judicial office,
"so that whenever a Jew goes to law against a Christian,
he is liable to become the victim of a partial verdict, because
there is no coreligionist to intercede on his behalf in the
courts, and he is not familiar with the Russian language."
'l'heir further grievances relate to the arbitrariness of the
landed proprietors, who "from sheer caprice, contrary to
agreement," impose an excessive land rent on the Jews who
have erected houses on their property, so that they are forced
to abandon their houses. Sometimes houses are requisitioned
for Government purposes, or are torn down" to be rebuilt according
to [new official street] plans," without the slightest
compensation to their owners. The magistracies, on the other
hand, often compel the Jews who are domiciled in the townlets
and villages, but are enrolled among the merchants or burghers
312 THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
., Her Majesty desires to have it pointed out that, inasmuch as the
aforesaid persons of the Jewish religion have been placed by the
ordinances of her Majesty in the same position as the others,
It is necessary in every case to observe the rule that everyone Is
entitled to the advantages and rights appertaining to his calling or
estate, without distinction of religion or nationality.
of some city, to build houses in that city, "whereby the Jews
are liable to be reduced to extreme poverty, inasmuch as by
spending their capital on building they have no capital wherewith
to run their business."
The petition was received by the Empress, who, in forwarding
it, in 1785, to the Senate for consideration, deemed it
necessary to indicate her general attitude in the following
" resolution" :
The Senate had to comply with the comprehensive and
liberal-minded injunction of the Empress in endeavoring to
solvethe burning problems affecting Jewish life. The solution
finally arrived at was a feeble. compromise between the
economic, national, and class interests which were contradictory
to one another. In its ukase of May 7, 1786, the Senate
partly fulfilled and partly declined the demands of the White
Russian Jews. The right of pursuing freely the liquor trade
in the cities was refused, in view of the fact that, according
to thc new law, liquor-dealing constituted a monopoly of the
city administration. On the other hand, the Jews were accorded
the rights of participating on equal terms with non-
Jews in the public bids for the lease of the pothouses. Passek's
rescript forbidding the landowners to let out distilleries
and inns to the Jews was declared an illegal infringement of
the rights of the landowners, and therefore ordered to be
countermanded.
BEGINNINGS OF THE RUSSIAN REGIME 313
The complicated question as to the compatibility of municipal
self-government with Jewish Kahal autonomy was
equally solved by a compromise. With respect to the magistracies,
town councils, boards of aldermen, and law courts, the
Jews were accorded proportionate representation in agreement
with the general provisions of the new city government.
The common municipal courts, in which Jews were to be
represented by elective jurymen of their own, were to handle
both civil and criminal cases, not only between persons of
different denominations, but also betwen Jew and Jew. The
District and Government Kahals were to deal with spiritual
affairs only. 'l'hey werealso to becharged with the distribution
of the state and communal taxes in the various Jewish communities.
As for the complaints of the Jews against the oppression
of the administration as well as of the magistracies
and the landowners, all the Senate did was to point to the
principle by which all the members of a given estate are
equally vouchsafed the rights appertaining to it. rfhe Senate
even went so far as to bar all references to the former Polish
laws with their discriminations against the Jews, "for, inasmuch
as they [the Jews] are enrolled among the merchants and
burghers on the same terms, and pay equal taxes to the exchequer,
they ought in all circumstances to be given the same
protection and satisfaction as the other subjects." Yet in
the very same ukase the Senate refuses to grant the petltfon
of several White Russian Jews who asked to be enrolled in the
merchant corporation of Riga, basing its refusal on the absence
of a special Imperial permit allowing the Jews to register as
merchants outside of White Russian territory.
3H 'l'HE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
Here we have the first application of the igllominious principle
of subsequent Russian legislation, that c\'el'yLhiug is f~rbidden
to Jews unless permitted by special law. The ukase or
1786, with all its liberal phrases about the equality of the members
of all classes irrespective of religion, imperceptibly instituted
a Pale of Settlement by attaching the Jews to dcfinite
localities, which had been wres~cd from Poland, and refusing
them the right of residence in other parts of Russia. The implied
criticism of the Senate, directed against "the former
Polish laws with thcir discriminatioml against the Jews,"
could with far greater justice be leveled in much sharper
form against the Russian legislation which subsequently curtailed
the Jewish right of transit and commerce to an extent
undreamt-of even by the fiercest anti-Jewish restrictionists of
Poland.
While in the first two decades after the occupation of White
Russia the Russian Government observed a comparatively
liberal, at least a well-intentioned, attitude towards the Jewish
question, in later years it openly embarked upon a policy of
exceptional laws and restrictions. The general reactionary
tendency, which was partly the result of the" ominous" successes
of the great French Revolution, and gained the upper
hand in Russia towards the end of Catherine's reign, was mIrrored
also in the position of the Jews. At that juncture the
second and third partitions of Poland (1793, 1795) were
,effected:, and hundreds of thousands of Jews from Lithuania,
Volhynia, and Podolia were added to the numbers of Russian
subjects. The country, which barely a generation before had
not tolerated a single Jew within its borders, now included
a territory more densely populated by .Jews than any other.
Some means of reconciliation had to be found between these
historic opposites, the trad.itional anti-Jewish policy of Russia,
BEGINNINGS OF THE RUSSIAN REGIME 315
on the one hand, and the presence of millions of Jews within
its dominions, on the other, and such means were found in
that system of Jewish rightlessness which since that time has
become one of the principal characteristics of the political
genius of Russian autocracy. The ancient Muscovite policy
peeped out with ever greater boldness from beneath the European
mask of St. Petersburg.
On the very eve of the second partition of Poland, when the
Russian Government merely anticipated an influx of Jews, it
had a fatal gift in store for them: the law of the Pale of Settlement,
which was to create within the monarchy of peasant
serfs a special class of territorially restricted city serfs. It
should be added that the impulse towards the creation of this
disability did not come from above but from below, from the
influential Christian middle class, which, fearing free competition,
began to shout for protection.
The first step in robbing the Jews of Russia of their freedom
of movement was made a few years after the occupation of
White Rmlsia. The Jewish merchants of the White Russian
Governments Moghilev and Polotzk (or, as the latter is called
at present, Vitebsk) which border on the Great Russian Governments
of Smolensk and Moscow, began to visit the two cities
of the same nllme and carryon trade, wholesale and retail, in
imported dry goods. They did a good business, for the Jewish
merchants sold goods of a higher quality at a lower figure than
their Christian competitors. This set the merchants of Moscow
agog, and in February, 1790, they lodged a complaint with
the communder-in-chief of Moscow against the Jews who sell
"foreign goods by lowering the current prices, and thereby
inflict very considerable damage upon the local trade." The
complainants point to the ancient tradition of the Muscovite
316 THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
Empire excluding the Jews from its borders, and a~~ure the
authorities that Jewish rivalry will throw the trade of Moscow
into complete "disorder," and bring the Russian merchants
to the verge of ruin.
The petition, which at bottom wa_rected not alone against
the Jews, but also against the interests of the Russian consumer,
who was exploited by the" real Russian" trade monopolists,
found a sympathetic echo in Government circles. Accordingly,
in the autumn of the same year, the Council of State,
after considering the counter-petition of the Jews asking to be
enrolled in the merchant corporations of Smolensk and Moscow,
rendered the decision that it did not deem it expedient to
grant the Jews the right of free commerce in the inner Russian
provinces, because" their admission to it is not found to
be of any benefit." A year later this verdict was reaffirmed
by an Imperial ukase issued on December 23, 1791, to the effect
that" the Jews have no right to enroll in the merchant corporations
in the inner Russian cities or ports of entry, and are permitted
to enjoy only the rights of townsmen and burghers of
White Russia." To mitigate the severity of this measure the
ukase "deemed it right to extend the said privilege beyond
the White Russian Government, to the vice-royalty of Yekaterinoslav
and the region of Tavrida," i. e. the recently annexed
territory of New Russia, where the Government was anxious to
populate the lonely steppes.
In this way the first territorial ghetto, that of White Russia,
was established by law for the purpose of harboring the Jewish
population taken over from Poland. When again, two
years later, the second partition of Poland took place, the
northwestern ghetto was increased by the neighboring Government
of Minsk and the southwestern region- Volhynia
BEGINNINGS OF THE RUSSIAN REGIME 317
with the greater part of the Kiev province and Podolia. The
ukase of June 23, 1794, conferred upon this enlarged Pale
of Settlement the sanction of the law. The Jews were granted
the right "to engage in the occupations of merchants and
burghers in the Governments of Minsk, Izyaslav (subsequently
Volhynia), Bratzlav (Podolia), Polotzk (now Vitebsk),
Moghilev, Kiev, Chernigov, Novgorod-Seversk, Yekaterinoslav,
as well as in the region of rravrida." The ukase thus enlarges
the former pale of Jewish settlement by including Little Hussia,
or the portion of the Ukraina which had been wrested from
Poland as far back as ] 654,'-in short, the territory from
which the Jews had been assiduously driven "beyond the
border" in the reign of the three Empresses preceding Catherine.
The organic connection of Little HURsiawith the portion
of the Ukraina on the right bank of the Dnieper which
had just been annexed from Poland, left the Hussian Government
no other choice than to allow the Jews who had lived in
those parts from time immemorial to rema.in there. Even the
holy city of Kiev opened its gates to the Jews. The Dnieper
became thereby the central rivcr of the Jewish Pale of Settlement.
The third partition of Poland, in 1795, added to the Dnieper
system that of the Niemen, the territory of Lithuania, consisting
of the Governments of Grodno and Vilna: This completed
the process of formation of the Pale of Settlement, at
the end of the eighteenth century. As for Eastern Russia, she
was just as vigilantly on her guard against the penetration of
lit consisted of the Governments of Chernigov and Novgorod-
Seversk (subsequently Poltava) and a part of the Government of
Kiev.
["The present Government of Koyno was constituted as late as
1872. Its territory was up till then included in the Government of
Vllna.]
318 THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
the Jewish element as she had been ill the time of the ancient
:Muscovite Empire.
The same ukase of 1794, which circumscribed the area of
the Jewish right of residence, laid down another fundamental
discrimination, that of taxation. 'rhe Jews, desirous of enrolling
themselves in the mercantile or burgher class in the
cities, were to pay the instituted taxes" doubly in comparison
with those imposed on the burghers and merchants of the
Christian religion." Those Jews who refused to remain in the
cities on these conditions were to leave the Russian Empire
after paying a fine in the form of a double tax for three years.
In this way the Government exacted from the Jews, for the
privilege of remaining in their former places without the right
of free transit in the Empire, taxes twice as largc as those of
the Christian townspeople enjoying the liberty of transit. This
punitive tax did not relieve the Jews from the special military
assessment, which, by the ukases of 1794 and 1796, they had
to pay, like the Russian mercantile class in general, in exchange
for the personal discharge of military service.
It is interesting to observE.' that at the solicitation of Count
Zubov, the Governor-General of New Russia, the Karaites of the
Government of Tavrida were released from the double tax.
They were also granted permission to own estates, and were
in general given equal rights with the Christian population,
"on the understanding, however, that the community of Karaites
should not be entered by the Jews known by the name of
Rabins (Rabbanites), concerning whom the laws enacted by us
are to be rigidly enforced" (ukase of June 8, 1795). Here the
national-religious motive of the anti-Jewish legislation crops
out unmistakably. The handful of Karaites, who had for
BEGINNINGS OF THE RUSSIAN REGIME 319
centuries lived apart from the Jewish nation and its spiritual
possessions, were declared to be more desirable citizens of the
monarchy than the genuine Jews, who were on the contrary to
be cowed by repressive measures.
A decided bent in favor of such measures is manifested in
the ukase of 1795, which prescribes that the Jews living in villages
be registered in the towns, and that" endeavors be made
to transfer them to the District towns, so that these people
may not wander about, but may rather engage in commerce
and promote manufactures and handicrafts, thereby furthering
their own interests as well as the interests of society."
The effect of this ukase was to sanction by law the long-established
arbitrary practice of the local authoritiei'. who frequently
expelled the Jews from the villages, and sent them to
the towns under the pretext that Jews could be enrolled only
among the townsfolk. The expelled families, deprived of all
means of livelihood, were of course completely ruined, as the
mere bidding of the authorities did not suffice to enable them
" to engage in commerce and promote manufactures and handicrafts"
in the towns in which even the resident merchants and
artisans failed to make a living. The system of officialtutelage
had the effect of fettering instead of developing the economic
activity of the Jews.
Experiments were now made to extend this tutelage to the
communal self-government of the Jews. In 1795 the edict was
repeated whereby the Government and District Kahals, in view
of the right, conferred upon the Jews, of participating in the
general city administration, in the magistracies and town councils,
were to be deprived of their social and judicial functions,
and not to be allowed «to concern themselves with any affairs
21
320 THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
except the ceremonies of religion and divine service.'" As a
matter of fact, the active participation of the Jews in the
municipalities, owing to the hostile attitude of the Christian
burghers, was extremely feeble. Yet, in the interest of the
exchequer, the Kahals were preserved for fiscal purposes, anJ,
on account of their financial usefulness, they continued to
function as the organs of Jewish communal autonomy, however
curtailed and disorganized the latter had now become.
In this wise the restrictive legislation against the Jews appears
firmly established towards the end of the reign of
Catherine II. A" Muscovite" wall had been raised between
the west and east of Russia, and even within the circumscribed
area of Jewish settlement the tendency was discernible to mark
off a still smaller area and, by forcing the Jews out of the
villages, to compress the Jewish masses in the towns and cities.
It fell to the lot of the successors of Catherine to consolidate
this tendency into law.
In conclusion, the historian cannot pass over in silence the
solitary" reform" of this period. In the legislative enactments
of the last decade of Catherine's reign the formerly current
contemptuous appellation" Zhyd " gave way to the name" Hebrew"
(Yevrey)" The Russian Government found it impossible
to go beyond this verbal reform.
S This was in direct violation of the pledge given by the Russian
Government at the occupation of the Polish provinces. As recently
as in January of the same year (1795) the Lithuanian Governor-
General Repnin had replied to the application of the Lithuanian
Jews, who pleaded for the maintenance of the Kahal tribunal, that
the Jews" may retain the same rights they had been enjoying prior
to the last [Polish] mutiny [of 1794]."
[' Zhyd, originally the Slavic form of the Latin Judaeus, has
assumed in Russian a derogatory connotation. It is interesting to
note that in Polish the same word has no unpleasant meaning,
although in polite speech other terms are used.]
BEGINNINGS OF THE RUSSIAN REGIME 321

2. JEWISH LEGISLATIVE SCHEMES DURING THE REIGN OF PAUL I

The brief reign of Paull. (1796-1801) added nothing of
moment to the Russian legislation concerning the Jews. The
law imposing a double tax was confirmed, and also the other
restrictions were left in force. The area of Jewish settlement
was increased by the newly-acquired Government of Courland,
on the outskirts of the Empire. In this Duchy, which was annexed
in 1795, there were several thousand Jewish inhabitants,
who had been" tolerated" as foreigners, after the German pattern,
and had only partly succeeded in forming a communal
organization. The question now arose as to the best way of
collecting the taxes from the itinerant chapmen who formed
the bulk of the Jewish population, and were enrolled neither
among the rural nor the urban estates, and were not even
affiliated with Jewish communities. The Russian Government
solved this question in 1799, by placing the Jews of Courland
in the same position as their coreligionists in the other western
Govemments, and by granting them the right of enrolling
themselves among the mercantile or burgher estates, as well
as establishing their own Kahals. In this case fiscal considerations
were responsible for the organization of the Jewish masses
in the dominion of the German barons.
Having confined the Jewish population within the western
pale, the Government could not very well hamper its freedom
of transit within that pale, at least as far as moving from city
to city was concerned. This elementary right of free transit
was resorted to by many Jews of impoverished White Russia,
who began to emigrate into the Little Russian provinces, particularly
into the Government of Novgorod-Seversk, later the
Government of Poltava, which were more prosperous, and less
322 THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
crowded with Jews. The Government became aware of this
internal transmigration, and could not abstain frolD taking
it under its fatherly protection. ~Ierchants were allowed to
move unhampered from White Russia into Little Russia.
Burghers, however, were permitted to emigrate onl)' on the
conditions applying to all persons of the taxable estatesthey
had to obtain certificates of dismissal (December, 1796).
Poor as was the reign of Paul in the field of concrete legislation
concerning the Jews, it was rich in preliminary endea VOl'S
leading up to it. }j'or his reign abounds in all kinds of projects
looking to the regulation of the status of the Jews on the basis
of official "investigations." In the outgoing years of the
eighteenth century (1797-1800) the Government offices were
feverishly busy in this direction. The Government was endea\'-
oring to familiarize itself with the state of the former Polish
provinces and particularly with the condition of the Jewish
population. The first step in this pursuit after knowledge
consisted in sending out a circular inquiry to the nobles and
the higher officials of the region under consideration. The
stimulus to this inquiry came in 1797, from a report submitted
on account of the famine which had been raging in the Government
of Minsk. Governor Karnyeyev of Minsk received
orders from St. Petersburg to gather the opinions of the local
Marshals, or leaders of the nobility, and on that basis supply
" an elucidation of the causes of the impoverished condition of
the peasants," with plans looking to their amelioration.
The shrewd device of question ing the landed aristocrats as to
the causes of the impoverishment of their peasant serfs bore
worthy fruit. Needless to say, the Polish magnates who
assembled in Minsk at the invitation of the GoverI.ment did
not even for a moment think of reproaching themselves anu
BI!JGINNINGS OF' THE RUSSIAN REGIME 323
their own estate of slaveholders for the misery of the people
enthralled by them. Instead they preferred to put the blame
partly on external circumstances (" the changes and mutinies
in the prOVil)Ce;' bad crops, poor means of communication,
etc.), and partly on the lews, "whom the owners [of the
villages] retain as arendars and tavern-keepers, contrary to the
orders of the authorities restricting their domicile to the
cities." The Jewish tavern-keepers in the country, so the
nobleR allege, " lure the peasants into drunkenJlef>s," by selling
thcm flpirits on trust, and thereby "render thrm unfit to
mauage their a.ffa.irs." In order to save the peasants, the Government
should insist "that the right of distilling be open
exclusively to the landowners, and be withheld from the lews
as well as other arendars and tavern-keepers," and that in the
rural public houses "perm ission to sell hot wine [whiskey]
be given only to the squires." '1'0 put it in other words, the
peasants will thrive and be " fit to manage their affairs," if,
instead of Jewish alcohol, they will imbibe the aristocratic
alcohol of the landed proprietors.
One need Dot be a statesman to uiscover the underlying
motive of this" opinion" of the nobles, who were concerned
on1y about retaining the ancient alcohol monopoly which they
had enjoyed under the Polish regime (" the right of propination
"). This, however, did not prevent the Governor of
Minsk from presenting the report of the nobility to the Tzar,
who on July 28, 1797, put down the following" resolution": •
" Measures are to be taken, in accordance with the proposals of
the marshals of the nobility, to restrict the rights of the Jews
who ruin the peasants." At the same time the Senate called the
Governor's attention to Catherine's ukase ordering the trans-
£' See p. 263, n. 1; fOT •• propination •• see p. 67, n. 2.]
324 THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
fer of the Jews to the District towns, "so that these people
may not wander to and fro to the detriment of society." 'fhis
was tantamount to giving the authorities carte blanche in
expelling the Jews rrom the villages.
In 1798 came the turn or the nobility or the Southwest, of
Volhynia and Podolia, to state their wishes ror the benefit of
the fatherland. The marshals of Podolia, who met at Kamenetz,
elaborated a much more comprehensive scheme of reform
than their compeers in Minsk. After expressing their gratitude
to the Tzar" ror his Impcrial benevolence in leavillg us
the franchise or liquor-dealing," the nobles plead that" neither
the right of distilling nor that of selling liquor be let to Jews
or even to Ohristians," and that the DobIes themselves he
granted the "liberty" or employing people in their "public
houses at their own discretion." After securing the monopoly
of intoxicating the people throngh their own bartenders, the
nobles propose to transform the bulk of the Jews into export
agents, to find roreign markets for the agrarian, i. e. manoria 1,
products, "whence commercial profits will accrue both to tIle
tillers of the soil (?!) and to the nobles." As ror the other
Jews, part ot them were to be retained by the landowners in
their public houses, and the rest were" to be forced to engage
in agriculture and handicrafts."
This brilliant prospect of becoming the tools of the nobles
ror the disposal of rural products and the sale of manorial
alcohol had evidently little fascination for the Jews themselves.
Alarmed by these aristocratic designs, they held. a consultation,
and even called a conference of delegates. The conference met
in Ostrog (Volhynia) in the summer of 1798, and decided to
collect a rund and send a deputation to St. Petersburg, to
lay before the Tzar the needs and wishes of the Jews or the
-
BEGINNINGS OF THE RUSSIAN REGIME 325.
South west, WhOUlthe Government had entirely forgotten to ask
how they themselves would like to have their affairs arranged.
Unfortunately the Governor-General of the Southwest, Count
Gudovich, "got wind" of these preparations. Far-sighted
statesman that he was, he immediately suspected "that this
collection [of money for the deputation] might merely serve
as a cover for some wicked Jewish design." He accordingly
confiscated the funds already secured, forbade all further collections,
and hastened to report his achievement to .St. Petersburg.
To his astonishment, the overzealous Governor-General
received the chilling reply, that the T'zar found nothing criminal
in the desire of the Jews to senn a deputation to him.
At the same time he was instructed to return the confiscated
money and not to interfere with the sending of the deputation
(September, 17D8). Whether the deputation actually proceeded
to the capital, and what it achieved, is unknown. But
the occurrence in itself bears witness to the fact that even in
that unenlightened epoch and in the secluded Hasidic environment
of Volhynia and Podolia, the Jews were not altogether
insensible of the political and social upheavals which
were taking place in Russia.
The last to respond to the Governmental inquiry was the
nobility of Lithuania. The marshals of the nineteen Lit.huanian
districts, who met in 1800, submitted their" opinion;'
which had been adopted with only three dissenting votes, to
]'riese], the Governor of Vilna. The three opposing marshals
suggested leayillg the Jews ill the condition which had prevailed
under the Polish reg'ime. All the others drafted a plan
of Jewish" reform," which was even more radical than that
of the nobles of Minl'ik and Podolia. 'rhe Jews were to be
barred not only from distilling and keeping taverns of their
326 THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
own, but al80 from the sale of spirits in the manorial publitl
houses. 'l'he Jewish rural population, which would thus be
deprived of all means of subsistence, was to he transferred
partly to the cit.ies, partly "to be scattered over the crown
and manorial settlements, where they might be allowed to
grow corn and to mortgage and farm estates." The economic
reform was to be supplemented by one affecting the inner life
of the Jews. It was necessary " to abolish the Jewish costume
and introduce among the JOewsthe form of dress customary
among the other inhabitants." Altogether the separateness of
the Jews was to be broken down, for" they constitute a people
by themselves, and as such have their own administration ...
in the form of synagogues and Kahals~ which not only arrogate
to themselves spiritual authority, but also meddle in all
civil affairs and in matters appertaining to the police." These
measures would bring about the amalgamation of the Jews
with the surrounding population.
'l'he "reformatory" ardor of the Lithuanian 1I0bles, who
thought it necessary to bracket the problem of Kahal autonomy
with the sale of alcohol, was the effect of outside interference.
Friesel, the Governor of Vilns, who was a cultivated
German, and as such was acquainted with the state of the
Jewish problem in Germany, found it necessary to address
himself to the Lithuanian marshals twice, their first statement
having been found "unsatisfactory." Only a second
revision of the views of the nobles, which included the plan of
inner reforms, satisfied Friesel. In April, 1800, Friesel forwarded
these recommendations to the Senate, accompanying
them by his own comprehensive memorandum, which to a large
extent was obviously based on Chatzki's and Butrymovich's
BEGINNINGS OF THE RUSSIAN REGIME 327
projects submitted some ten years previously to the " Jewish
JJmmission " of the Quadrennial Diet.
Friesel urges the necessity of a "general reform," and
professes to take Western Europe as a model, but all he
adopted thence was the most objectionable tactics of "enlightened
absolutism." In his opinion "the education of
the Jewish people must begin with their religion." It is
necessary "to wipe out all Jewish sects with their superstitions
and to forbid strictly the introduction of any innovations
whereby impostors might seduce the masses and
plunge them into ever greater ignorance," a veiled allusion to
the Hasidim and in particular to their 'l'zaddiks, whose strife
with the anti-Hasidic rabbis was engaging the attention of the
Russian Government at the time. He further recommends
that the Jews be forced to send their children to the Government
schools, to conduct all their business in Polish, to wear
the customary non-Jewish form of dress, and not to marry
before the age of twenty. Finally the Jews are to be classified
in three categories, merchants, artisans, and tillers of the soil,
these three estates to form part of the general class stratification
of the Empire. In this way the fiscal services of the
Kahals could be dispensed with, and the Kahals themselves
would pass out of existcnce automatically.
The suggestions of the leaders 01 the nobility as well as the
proposals of the governors were turned over in the spring of
1800 to the Senate, whose function was to examine and utilize
them for a new legal enactment or "statute." Here they happened
to fall into the hands of one of the Senators, Gabriel
Dyerzhavin, the celebrated Russian poet, who by the whim of
fate was soon to blossom forth into a "specialist" in rebus
Judaicis.
328 THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND

3. DYERZHAVIN'S "OPINION" ON THE JEWISH PROBLEM

Dyerzhavin was born in one of the remote eastern provinces
of Russia, and spent the greater part of his life in the Government
offices of St. Petersburg. He had never come in contact
with the Jewish population, until, in 1799, he was dispatched
to the little town of Shklov in White Russia, to
look into the case of the owner of the town, a retired general
by the name of Zorich. 'rhe latter had been one of the
favorites of Catherine, and lived the fast and extravagant
life of a Russian country squire in the town which was his
private property. His typically Russian devil-may-care conduct
wal\ not calculated to spare the large Jewish population
of the town. Zorich evidently fancied that the Jews living
on his land were just as much his serfs as were the peasants,
and he handled them in the way serfs were dealt with in thooe
days. He expelled several of them from the town, and seized
their houses. Others he beat with his own hands, and still
others he forced to supply him with drink free of charge. The
Jews appealed to the Government against this attempt to turn
them into serfs, and it was in response to their appeal that
Emperor Paul dispatched Senator Dyerzhavin, with instructions
to curb the violence of the boisterous squire.
Dyerzhavin, who was imbued with the spirit of serfdom,
could not but take a mild view of the high-handed methods
of Zorich, and came to the conclusion tllat the Jews were
partly to blame for the disorders that had taken place. 'rhe
death of Zorich in 1800 put a stop to the case, but theoretically
the Senate decided that, according to Russian law, the Jews,
by virtue of their being members of the merchant and burgher
class, could not be regarded as serfs even in the towns and settlements
owned by squires.
BEGINNINGS OF THE RUSSIAN REGIME 329
A year later Dyerzhavin was again dispatched to White
Russia, this time invested with very large powers. The province
was in the throes of a terrible famine, brought about not
only by bad crops but also by the outrageous conduct of the
landed proprietors. These gentlemen, instead of supplying
their peasants with foodstuffs, preferred to send large quantities
of grain either abroad, for sale, or into their distilleries, for
the production of whiskey, which, instead of feeding the
peasants, poisoned them. In dispatching Dyerzhavin to White
Russia, Emperor Paul gave him full power to put a stop to
these abuses and to inflict severe penalties on the squires,
who, "moved by unexampled greed, leave their peasants
without assistance." They were to be dispossessed, and
their estates placed under state control (June 16, 1800). In
a supplementary instruction added by the Procurator-General
of the Senate, Obolanin, the following clause was added:
" And whereas, acconling 14> information received, the exhaustion
of the White Russian peasants is to a rather considerable
extent caused by the Zhyds, it is his Majesty's wish that your
Excellency may give particular attention to their part in it
and submit an opinion how h) avert the general damage inflicted
by them." 'l'his unmistakably anti-Semitic postscript,
to which Dyerzhavin was ill all likelihood a party, to which
at all events he gave his approval, was designed to mitigate the
blow aimed at the squires and turn it against the Jews. '1'he
conspiracy of these two bureaucrats, who believed in serfdom
and sided with the squires, put an altogether different complexion
on Dyerzhavin's missioJJ.
The pacification of White Russia was speedily accomplished.
Dyerzhavin placed the estate of one Polish magnate under state
control, and personally closed up a Jewish distillery in the
330 THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
town of Lozno, the residence of the famous Hasidic Tzaddik,
Rabbi Zalman Shncofsohn. He proceeded with such energy that
one J-ewish woman complained of having received blows at his
hands. After having" installerl order," Dyerzhavin set out to
do what he conside-red to be his main task-prepare an
elaborate memorandum concerning the Jews, under the characteristic
title, "Opinion of Senator Dyerzhavin Concerning
the Averting of the Want of Foodstuffs in White Russia by
Curbing the Avaricious Pursuits of the Jews, also Concerning
Their Re-education, and Other Matters."
The very title betrays thc underlying motive of the writer,
to make the Jews the scapegoat for the economic -ruin of
the province. in which the squires had always been the masters
of the situation. But Dyerzhavin did not confine himself to
the evaluation of the economic activity of the Jews. He was
no less anxious to depict their inner life, their beliefs, their
training and education, their communal institutions, theil'
"moral situation." For all these purposes he drew upon a
multitude of sources. While writing h is memorandum in
Vitebsk, in the fall of 1800, he gathered information about
the .lews from the local anti-Jewish merchants and burgherti,
and from the" scientific" instructors at the Jesuit College in
the same city, in the court-houses, and-from" the very Cossacks
the~selves."
It must be added that Dyerzhavin also had in his possession
two projects from the pen of "enlightened Jews." The
author of one of them, Nota Shklover by name, a wealthy merchant,
who had served as purveyor to Potemkin's army, and,
living at that time in St. Petersburg, knew the drift of
opinion in Government circles, proposed to attract the .Jews
to manufacturing, which should be introduced, in cOlineetion
BEGINNINGS OF THE RUSSIAN REGIME 331
with agriculture and cattle-breeding, into colonieo set apart
for this purpose" in the neigh borhood of the Black Sea ports."
The originator of the second project, a physician from Kreslavka,
in the Government of Vitebsk, by the name of Frank,-
evidently a German Jew of the Mendelssolmian type-suggested
that the Government through Dyerl'.havin focus its attention
on the reform of the Jewish religion, which" in its original
purity rested on unadulterated Deism and the postulates of
pure morality," but in the course of time was distorted by" the
absurdities of the Talmud." Frank accordingly proposes to
follow the example set by Mendelssohn in Germany, to throw
open the Russian public schools to the Jews, and to teach their
children Russiau, German, and Hebrew, implying of eourse
that the JOewthus educated will not fail to prove himself of
unquestionable benefit to the country.
Aside from these projects, Dyerzhavin bad before him
~pecimens of sevel'alPrussian Juden-Reglemenis, as well as
the recommendations of the marshals and governors of Western
Russia referred to above, and similar documents: This
material sufficed for the Hussian official, wlJO had caught no
more than a fleeting glimpse of the Jews while passing through
White Russia, to elaborate a most comprehensive" Opinion"
demanding a cOlllplete transformation of Jewish life.
The somber picture which Dyerzhavin draws of the life of
the Jews suftlccs to show how superficial was his aequa intuure
'Dyerzhavin's statement, that he had" borrowed his principal
ideas from Prussian institutions," refers in all likelihood to the
well-known PruBsian J1tden-Reglernent tilt' S'iid-u;/ut-Ne1wstpreussen
of 1797, which was at that time operative in the whole of
Prussian Poland. There are numerous points of contact between
Dyerzhavin's project and the Prussian enactment. The latter may
be found in the work of Ronne and Simoll, Verhiiltnisse der J1tden
in den siimmtlichcn Landestheilen des pl-eul/sischen Staates, ed.
1843, pp. 281-302_
332 THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
with the conditions he describes. The na:ivete with which he
judges and completely distorts many aspects of Jewish life is
astounding. The economic pursuits of the Jews, such as trading,
leasing of land, innkeeping, brokerage, are nothing but
"subtle devices to squeeze out the wealth of their neighbors,
under the guise of offering them benefits and favors." The
Jewish school is "a hotbed of superstitions." Moral sentiments
are entirely absent among Jews: "they have no conception
of lovingkindness, disinterestedness, and other virtues."
All they do is "to collect riches in order to erect a
new temple of Solomon or [to satisfy] their fleshly desires."
This curious bit of characterization forms the preamble to
a vast scheme, consisting of no less than eighty-eight clauses,
looking to the" transformation of the Jews." rrhe Jews are to
be placed under "Supreme [i. e. Imperial] protection and
tutelage" and to be supervised by a special Christian official,
a "Protector," who, with the assistance of committees to be
appointed by the gubernatorial administrations, shall carry
out this work of "transformation," shall take a census of
all the Jews, and provide them with family names. Thereupon
the Jews shall be divided into four categories: merchants,
urban burghers, rural burghers, and agricultural settlers,
and every Jew shall be forced to register in one of these
categories. All this mass of Jews is to be evenly distributed
over the various parts of White Russia, and the surplus transferred
to the other Governments.
This reform having been accomplished, the Kahals shall be
dispensed with. To provide for the management of the spiritual
affairs of the Jews, "synagogues," with rabbis and
" schoolmen," are to be organized in the various Governments.
BEGINNINGS OF THE RUSSIAN REGIME 333
A supreme ecclesiastic tribunal is to be established at St. Petersburg,
under the name" Sendarin," 1 which shall be presided
over by a chief rabbi, or " patriarch," after the pattern of the
Mohammedan mufti of the Tatars.
Suggestions of various repressive and compulsory measures
supplement these positive proposals. The Jews are to be forbidden
to keep Ohristian domestics; they are to be deprived of
their right of participating in the city magistracies; they are
to be compelled to give up their distinct form of dress and to
execute all deeds and business documents in Russian, Polish,
or German. The children shall be allowed to go to the Jewish
relig~otis schools only up to the age of twelve, and shall afterwards
be transferred to the secular schools of the state.
Finally the author proposes that the Government establish a
printing-office of its own, to publish Jewish religious books
"with philosophic annotations." In this way, Dyerzhavin
contends, will "the stubborn and cunning tribe of Hebrews
be properly set to rights," and Emperor Paul, by carrying out
this reform, will earn great fame for having fulfilled the commandment
of the Gospels, "Love your enemies, bless them
that curse you, do good to them that hate you."
Such is Dyerzhavin's project, a curious mixture of the
savage fancies of an old-fashioned Muscovite about an unfamiliar
historic culture on the one hano, and notlollS of
reform conceived in the contemporary Prussian barrack spirit
and various "philosophic" tendencies on the other hand, a
medley of hereditary Jew-hatred, vague appreciation of the
historic tragedy of Judaism, and the desire to "render the
1 This is the way Dyerzhavin spells the word Synhedrion, or San·
hedrin, which he evidently had piCked up casually.
334 THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
Jews useful to the state." I And over it all hovers the spirit
of official patronage and red-tape regulations, the curious
notion that a people with an ancient culture can, at the mere
bidding of an outside agency, change its position like figures
on a chess-board, that strange faith in the saving power of
mechanical reforms which prevailed, though in less naIve
manifestations, also in Western Europe.
Dyerzhavin's "Opinion" was laid before the Senate in
December, 1800, and together with the previously submitted
recommendations of the West-Russian marsha Is and governors
was to supply the material for an organic legal enactment concerning
the Jews.
But the execution of this plan was not destined to take place
during the reign of Paul. In March, 1801, the Tzar met his
tragic fate, and the cause of "Jewish reform" entered into
a new phase, a phase characterized by the struggle between the
liberal tendencies prevalent at the beginning of Alexander L's
reign and the retrograde views held by the champions of Old
Poland and Old Russia.
I The following sentence in Dyerzhavin's ••Opinion" is typical
of this mixture of medieval notions with the new system of
••enlightened patronage": ••Inasmuch as Supreme Providence, In
order to attain its unknown ends, leaves this people, despite Its
dangerous characteristics, on the face of the earth, and refrains
from destroying it, the Governments under whose scepter it takes
refuge must also sufter It to live; assisting the decree of destiny.
they are In duty bound to extend their patronage even to the
Jews, but In such wise that they [the Jews] may prove useful both
to themselves and to the people in whose midst they are settled.'-

Go to Next Page