In August, 1915, the Council of Ministers issued a decree permitting
the Jews of the area affected by the war to move into the interior
of Russia. This act has been supposed in some quarters to constitute
the virtual abolition of the Pale, this interpretation being chiefly
attributable to the extensive publicity given the measure by the
Russian government; but the evidence, official and otherwise, clearly
indicates that far from being a generous act of a liberal Government
toward an oppressed people, it is in reality only a temporary
expedient, dictated mainly by military necessity and partly by the need
of a foreign loan; it is evident that it was granted grudgingly, with
galling limitations which served to emphasize the servile state of the
Jews; that it is in practice ignored or evaded at the convenience of
the local authorities; and that it has been utilized, if not designed,
to mislead the public opinion of the world.
Evidence in support of this view will now be considered:
=1. It is a temporary measure dictated by military necessity. It does
not remove any of the disabilities to which the Jews in Russia are
legally subject.=
This is admitted officially in the Minute of the Council of Ministers
for August 4 (17), 1915, at which session the abolition decree was
promulgated. This Minute reads as follows:
“It has been observed, of late, in connection with the military
situation, that Jews are migrating _en masse_ from the theatre of
war and are gathering in certain interior governments of the Empire.
This is explained, on the one hand, by the endeavor, on the part of
the Jewish population, to depart in good time from the localities
threatened by the enemy, and, on the other hand, =by the order,
issued by our military authorities, to clear certain localities in
the line of the enemy’s advance.= The further concentration of these
refugees, whose number has been growing ever greater, in the limited
area now available to them, is causing unrest among the local native
population and may lead to alarming consequences in the form of
wholesale disorders. This excessive accumulation of Jewish refugees
also impedes the Government seriously in its efforts to provide
food, work and medical attention for them. Under these circumstances,
deeming it urgently necessary to take prompt measures to avert
undesirable possibilities, the Acting Minister of the Interior has
made a representation with respect to this matter before the Council
of Ministers.
“Taking up this immediate subject for deliberation and =without
touching upon the question of the general revision of laws now in
force concerning Jews,= the Council of Ministers has found that the
most advisable way out of the situation created would be to grant the
Jews the right of residence in cities and towns beyond the Pale of
Settlement. This privilege, =established because of the exigencies
of the military situation,= must not, however, affect the capital
cities,[2] and the localities under the jurisdiction of the Ministries
of the Imperial Court and the Minister of War.”
The appalling facts back of this dry official statement were already
known to all Russia. =Hundreds of thousands of Jews had been expelled
from their homes overnight by act of the military authorities.= At a
previous session of the Council of Ministers, Prince Shcherbatoff,
himself a Conservative, had presented the terrible condition of these
refugees. He pointed out that they were perforce driven into forbidden
territory, that it was difficult to direct them anywhere, each one
naturally seeking some place where he had friends or relatives in the
hope of finding some means of livelihood, and that because of the
residence restrictions they found themselves outlaws against their
will, and poured in petitions and telegrams in tremendous numbers,
begging for official permission to reside legally in their new homes.
These people, he pointed out, cannot be turned away from places beyond
the Pale, because they cannot possibly go back to their old homes.[3]
As was shown by Duma Deputy Skobelev, “the question of the Pale was
brought up in the Council of Ministers =only when the wave of Jewish
refugees had already swept away this medieval dam!”=[4] Another deputy,
an Octobrist, Rostovtzev, declared in the Duma: =“What Pale is this you
are speaking of? There is no Pale; Kaiser Wilhelm has abolished it!”=
If any further evidence were needed to demonstrate that the abolition
decree was not a voluntary act of emancipation but was forced upon the
government by conditions beyond its control, the inspired editorial
in the semi-official government organ, the “Novoe Vremya,” of August
9 (22), 1915, supplies this evidence. It declares flatly that the
reception of the measure by the general press as “the first rays of
a new dawn” is entirely unwarranted; that =the question of removing
all Jewish disabilities was never discussed; it is not particularly
important anyway; it was not even worked out for presentation to the
Duma.[5] Certain conditions, created by a state of affairs already
existing, had made it necessary to modify some of the regulations with
respect to the Pale. That is all. No permanent statute will be enacted=.
=2. The decree was issued in the hope of facilitating a foreign loan.=
Count A. Bobrinski, a Conservative member of the Imperial Council,
declared, in a statement to the editor of the “Dehn”:[6]
“The conservative members of the Imperial Council raised no objection
whatsoever against the recent Government measure granting permission
to the Jews to reside outside of the Pale. I believe that we shall
have to become accustomed to the idea of seeing the Jews dwell in all
parts of Russia after this war is over. There can be no return to the
old conditions.
“The necessities of the war must lead us also to sanction future
concessions toward the Jews whenever the need thereof will be
recognized by the Government =in order to be able to place a
Government loan in America.”=
The attitude of “Kolokol,” the organ of the Holy Synod, reflects this
with perfect frankness:
“Power has gradually passed from the mailèd knights, from heroes of
the battlefield to the counting house, because in gold there is more
power than in fearless argonauts. If Germany excels us in armament
and was better prepared in every other way it is because her nation
is older than ours, older in its culture by several hundred years.
Herein lies our weakness. But the Jews are the oldest people on earth.
Their cult is the cult of gold and of brains. It does not matter
that they have forgotten their glorious epoch of military heroism,
have forgotten how they defended their Jerusalem. It does not matter
that they are no longer accustomed to bear arms and to decide with
the sword their differences and quarrels. This people has learned
to draw to itself the gold of the world. It is like a sponge.... It
has learned caution and foresight and is organized into a powerful
international force. Under the conditions of the present war the Jews
are a power not to reckon with which is to be politically blind.
Would it not be advantageous to Russia to throw into its scales these
nuggets of gold, these billions of the international bankers?...”[7]
The naïveté of these statements is ridiculed by the liberal press, led
by the Petrograd “Retch,” with the comment that “It is difficult for
the anti-Semites of yesterday to pour new wine into old flasks. The
scare-crows of ‘Jewish freemasonry,’ the ‘universal Kehillah’ and other
myths still terrify the editors of ‘Kolokol’; but instead of screaming:
‘The Jews are strong; crush them!’ the cry now is ‘The Jews are strong;
yield to them!’ =It does not seem to occur to these new converts that
the Jewish question is merely one of elementary civic decency.”=[8]
The significance of this will be appreciated when it is recalled that
the liberal press reflects the ideals of the Russian masses just as
“Kolokol” reflects the hopes and fears of the Russian government.
=3. The measure was granted grudgingly, with galling limitations which
emphasize the humiliating position of the Jews.=
The Jews are even under the provisions of the new decree still debarred
from all villages, from the two capitals Petrograd and Moscow, from
the vicinities where royal residences happen to be located and from
the districts of the Don and Turkestan which happen to be under the
jurisdiction of the ministry of war. These restrictions were denounced
as senseless by all the liberal elements of the Empire. “Russkoe
Slovo,” August 13 (26), 1915, declares:
“Hereafter a Jew may live in Kaluga, but is excluded from Tashkent;
in Yekaterinodar he may not live; in Nizhni he may. It is very hard
to find any sense in such distinctions, even from the point of view
of the Black Hundreds. If you should ask Markov 2d [the leader of the
Black Hundreds.—Tr.] into what cities we ought to admit Jews—whether
into Nizhni, or into Tashkent, he would answer at first, of course,
that we ought not to admit them into either; but confronted with ‘dire
necessity’ he would hardly give preference to Tashkent, already full
of alien nationalities.
“And yet to whom, except Markov 2d and his kind, would all these
exceptions and limitations give any aid or comfort? Suppose we do
allow the Jews perfect freedom of travel within the country; suppose
we do find villages where so much as a whole Jew—and not a fractional
Jew—exists statistically per hundred of peasant population; suppose
we do find a Jewish tailor, a blacksmith or a merchant in a Russian
village—would that be such a calamity?”
=4. In practice the act is often ignored or evaded by local officials.=
The Governor of Smolensk has continued to expel Jews entering his
province, entirely regardless of the law. The government of Kiev
even refused to permit the publication of the ministerial decree
until the middle of September, some six weeks after its official
promulgation, and has consistently ignored it since. In practically
all the other governments of the Empire the administration of the act
is entirely dependent upon the whims of the local governors. Late
advices bring reports of the expulsions of Jews from the Caucasus,
Tomsk, Vladivostok, Siberia, and many other cities and provinces in
which, under the terms of the abolition decree, Jews are permitted to
reside.[9]
In many places the local authorities have even taken advantage of the
new decree to deprive the Jews of rights possessed by them under older
statutes. In Saratov, for example, a small number of Jewish merchants,
professional men and artisans have been permitted to live and engage
in gainful occupations since 1893, under the terms of a special Ukase
issued in that year, although the city, being outside the Pale, is
closed to Jews in general. The regulations, however, required that the
Jews obtain special passports from the police department certifying
to their right of residence in Saratov, and special permits from the
local license boards, based upon the police certificates, authorizing
them to engage in their several occupations. But now that the Pale has
been “abolished” the police officials have discontinued the issuing of
special certificates, claiming that since all Jews have been granted
the right of residence throughout the Empire the need for issuing such
certificates to individual Jews no longer exists. Yet the license
boards persist in their demand for such certificates from the Jews and
have, to date, absolutely refused to grant them the necessary licenses
without which they cannot continue in their occupations. In other
words, the Jews of Saratov now have the legal =right to live= in that
city, but are denied the legal =right to secure the wherewithal to
live.=[10]
=5. The promulgation of the abolition act, designed to mislead the
public opinion, and thereby to win the sympathy, of the civilized
world, has not misled the people of Russia.=
This is clearly indicated by the typical expressions of editorial
opinion which follow; and at this point it may be well to remind the
American reader again that in Russia, more than in any other country,
the press must weigh its words carefully, since editorial missteps have
serious consequences.
The “Russkoe Slovo,” August 13 (26), 1915, condemns the measure as a
half-way measure, as a substitution of one Pale for another, “even
though it be granted that the new Pale is larger than the old.” It
demands =the full abolition of the Pale—“that greatest misfortune of
Russian life.”=
“Unfortunately,” it continues, “we tend to repeat our mistakes only
too often. When we do ‘submit’ to the demands of life we do so either
too late or with such indecision and so grudgingly that in the end,
instead of evoking real satisfaction, we not infrequently evoke a
feeling of misunderstanding or produce an effect which is the very
opposite of the one intended. Yet an act can be valid and precious and
achieve its highest aim only when it is done in good time, cheerfully,
frankly, straightforwardly and with decision—as befits a government
that is strong and sure of itself.”
The Petrograd “Retch,” the great liberal daily, August 20 (September
2), 1915, points out that the measure is merely tentative and must be
legalized by statutory enactment within six months. It hopes that this
enactment will not preserve the absurd limitations of the original
decree.
“If it has at last been recognized as expedient to remove that
shameful blot, the Pale, we ought to leave not even a small speck of
it. From a moral point of view,—and even an empire must have a point
of view—it matters little whether a man is held by a long chain or a
short one. =There should be no chains at all=....”
This is echoed by the Petrograd “Courier”:
“If there is only one corner of Russia left to which Jews may not be
admitted, the Pale still remains, no matter what arguments may be
used, and no matter what promises of future ‘privileges’ may be made.
A principle cannot be measured quantitatively. The step taken so far
is merely a beginning, and life demands that it should be completed.
Besides the ‘right to live’ there are other rights derived from it:—the
right to attend school, to do business, to own property, to choose
one’s occupation freely.”[11]
Even the extreme reactionary organ, “Kolokol,” which has hitherto been
most insistent in its demand that “True Russians” be protected from
Jewish competition by the confinement of Jews to the Pale, now declares:
“Abolish the Pale entirely. Even now it is, in fact, nothing but a
sieve. All of real ability in Jewry, every Jewish faculty sharpened
for the struggle for existence, easily escapes the Pale. But this
constant necessity for circumvention of the law only corrupts the Jews
and exasperates them.”[12]
The persons most affected, the six million Jews of Russia, received
the “Emancipation Act” with deep mistrust. They were chiefly concerned
lest the news of this act should deceive their co-religionists abroad.
At a national conference of Jewish publicists and relief workers at
Petrograd these resolutions were adopted:
=“We are unwilling that our brethren in other lands shall gain a false
impression from our attitude toward the abolition measure.... The
permission to reside in cities outside of the Pale in no way remedies
the evil, nor does it relieve the pressing needs of our times, nor
does it affect in any way the legal restrictions in force against
Jews.... In expressing our profound indignation at the humiliation and
persecution to which the Jews have been subjected since the beginning
of the war, we declare that the State can do justice to the Jews and
prevent further persecutions only by the total and unconditional
repeal of all special restrictions.”=
The leading Russian Jewish Weekly, “Evreyskaya Zhizn,” of August 23
(September 5), 1915, declared editorially:
“If this measure had been passed in July or August of 1914 we would
have met it with faith and joy. Then the Jewish people were ready to
appreciate any political measure of relief and looked upon everything
as the beginning of a new era. That new era came, but, alas! of what
a different nature! Periods of accusations and horrors, of Kovno
expulsions and Kuzhi[13] slanders came and the people grew desperate.
This half measure of the Ministers, in spite of its practical
importance, cannot vitalize the Jewish people, and the main reason
lies in the fact that this measure does not carry with it any new view
upon the real subject matter of the Jewish question. This measure is
only a slight relief in the condition of citizens who have no rights
and who remain without rights.... The Jews are considered, in the new
order, as citizens of the second class. We remain the same pariahs,
from whom something has to be kept back, to whom the villages must be
closed with fear, and to whom the chosen centers must be closed with
a feeling of loathing.... The element of distinction between Jews and
other citizens remains and is even more emphasized. =The principle
of equality of rights for Jews has not been realized and without it
no material benefits promised by the new act will find their way to
the soul of the people. Only acknowledgment of the right of Jews to
all rights of Russian citizenship will melt the ice of that cold
disappointment which has seized all Russian Jews.”=
Finally, the eminent Jewish historian, Simeon Dubnov, in an impassioned
article in “Evreyskaya Nedelya” (September, 1915), denounced the
hypocrisy of the government and demanded the immediate abolition of all
Jewish restrictions:
“It is fully a year since the terrified faces of the ‘prisoners’
appeared through the bars of that gigantic prison known as ‘the Jewish
Pale.’ Part of the prison was already enveloped in the flames of war,
and the entire structure was threatened. The prisoners, in deathly
terror, clamored that the doors be thrown open. They were driven from
one part of the prison to another part that seemed in less danger,
but the prison doors remained shut. The warden’s answer to their
prayer was that it was impossible to ‘release them,’ even in war time,
because later it would be difficult to ‘recapture’ them!
“Ultimately the keepers were compelled to open the doors slightly
and to let out a part of the dazed and half-asphyxiated inmates; but
even then they were quarantined within three governments, which were
immediately congested with refugees; and only now, when the largest
section of the Pale, with a Jewish population of two million, has
become foreign country—only now are the gates of the overcrowded
prison thrown wide open and the prisoners cautiously permitted to
leave....
“=Should our further emancipation proceed at the same pace, we shall
attain full freedom only after our complete annihilation.=... The
sop is thrown to us under conditions internal and external which
sharply emphasize its enforced character. This measure is not one of
restoration; rather it is like a rag thrown to the victim after his
last shirt has been taken from him. This belated, partial, privilege
must remind the Jew that of all nationalities in Russia—not excepting
the semi-savage tribes—he alone needed _such_ a favor.
“At this time of profound mourning, upon the graves of thousands of
our brothers who have fallen victims not only to the sword of the
enemy, but because of outrage within our own borders, amidst the ruins
of our cities, our weary hearts cannot rejoice over the beggarly dole
tossed out to us. In silence shall our people accept the miserly gift
from those from whom it is accustomed to receive only blows; but, as
ever, it will demand aloud that those rights of which it has been
deprived should be restored to it.”
It is apparent, therefore, that the legal status of the Jews in Russia
has remained substantially unchanged by the war.
The restrictions normally imposed upon the Jews of Russia (with
the exception of certain specially designated—and numerically
negligible—fractions) subject them to the following principal
disabilities: