THE ERA OF REFORMS UNDER ALEXANDER II.
1. THE ABOLITION OF JUVENILE CONSCRIPTION
When after the Crimean War, which had exposed the rottenness of the old
order of things, a fresh current of air swept through the atmosphere of
Russia, and the liberation of the peasantry and other great reforms were
coming to fruition, the Jewish problem, too, was in line of being placed
in the forefront of these reforms. For, after having done away with the
institution of serfdom, the State was consistently bound to liberate its
three million of Jewish serfs who had been ruthlessly oppressed and
persecuted during the old régime.
Unfortunately the Jewish question, which was nothing more nor less than
the question of equal citizenship for the Jews, was not placed in the
line of the great reforms, but was pushed to the rear and solved
fragmentarily--on the instalment plan, as it were--and within narrowly
circumscribed limits. Like all the other officially inspired reforms of
that period, which proceeded up to a certain point and halted before the
prohibited zone of constitutional and political liberties, so, too, the
solution of the Jewish problem was not allowed to pass beyond the
border-line. For the crossing of that line would have rendered the whole
question null and void by the simple recognition of the equality of all
citizens. The regenerated Russia of Alexander II., stubborn in its
refusal of political freedom and civil equality, could only choose the
path of half-measures. Nevertheless, the transition from the
pre-reformatory order of things to the new state of affairs signified a
radical departure both in the life of Russia in general and in Jewish
life in particular. It did so not because the new conditions were
perfect, but because the old ones were so inexpressibly ugly and
unbearable, and the mere loosening of the chains of servitude was hailed
as a pledge of complete liberation.
Far more intense than in the political life of Russia was the crisis in
its social life. While a chilling wind was still blowing from the wintry
heights of Russian officialdom, while a grim censorship was still
holding down the flight of the printed word, the released social energy
was whirling and swirling in all classes of Russian society, sometimes
breaking the fetters of police restraint. The outbursts of young Russia
ran far ahead of the slow progress of the reforms inspired from above.
It blazed the path for political freedom which the West of Europe had
long traversed, and which was to prove in Russia tortuous and thorny.
The phase of Jewish life which claimed the first thought of Alexander
II.'s Government was the military conscription. Prior to the conclusion
of the Crimean War, the Committee on Jewish Affairs [1] called the
Tzar's attention to the necessity of modifying the method of Jewish
conscription, with its fiendish contrivances of seizing juvenile
cantonists and enlisting "penal" and "captive" recruits. Nevertheless
the removal of this crying evil was postponed for a year, until the
promulgation of the Coronation Manifesto [2] of August 26, 1856, when it
was granted as an act of grace.
[Footnote 1: See above, p. 49.]
[Footnote 2: On the meaning of Manifesto see later, p. 246, n. 1.]
Prompted by the desire--the Manifesto reads--of making it easier for
the Jews to discharge their military duty and of averting the
inconveniences attached thereto, we command as follows:
1. Recruits from among the Jews are to be drafted in the same way as
from among the other estates, primarily from among those unsettled
and not engaged in productive labor. [1] Only in default of
able-bodied men among these, the shortage is to be made up from
among the category of Jews who by reason of their engaging in
productive labor are recognized as useful.
2. The drafting of recruits from among other estates and of those
under age is to be repealed.
3. In regard to the making up of the shortage of recruits, the
general laws are to be applied, and the exaction of recruits from
Jewish communities as a penalty for arrears is to be repealed.
4. The temporary rules, enacted by way of experiment in 1853,
granting Jewish communities and Jewish individuals the right of
presenting as recruits in their own stead coreligionists seized
without passports [2] are to be repealed.
[Footnote 1: See on these designations pp. 64 and 142.]
[Footnote 2: See above, p. 148 et seq.]
The abolition of juvenile conscription followed automatically upon the
annulment, by virtue of the same Coronation Manifesto, of the general
Russian institution of "cantonists" and "soldier children," who were now
ordered to be returned to their parents and relatives. Only in the case
of the Jews a rider was attached to the effect that those Jewish
children who had embraced Christianity during their term of military
service should not be allowed to go back to their parents and relatives,
if the latter remained in their old faith, and should be placed
exclusively in Christian families.
The Coronation Manifesto of 1856 marks the end of the recruiting
inquisition, which had lasted for nearly thirty years, adding a unique
page to the annals of Jewish martyrdom. In the matter of conscription,
at least, the Jews were, in a certain measure, granted equal rights. The
operation of the general statute concerning military service was
extended to them, with a few limitations which were the heritage of the
past. The old plan of the "assortment of the Jews" is reflected in the
clause of the Manifesto, providing for increased conscription from among
"those unsettled and not engaged in productive labor," i.e., of the mass
of the proletariat, as distinct from the more or less well-to-do
classes. Nor was the old historic crime made good: the Jewish cantonists
who had been forcibly converted to the Greek-Orthodox faith were not
allowed to return to their kindred. As heretofore, baptism remained a
_conditio sine qua non_ for the advancement of a Jewish soldier, and
only in 1861 was permission given to promote a Jewish private to the
rank of a sergeant for general merit, without special distinction on the
battlefield which had been formerly required. Beyond this rank no Jew
could hope to advance.
2. "HOMEOPATHIC" EMANCIPATION AND THE POLICY OF "FUSION"
Following upon the removal of the "black stain" of conscription came the
question of lightening the "yoke of slavery," that heavy burden of
rightlessness which pressed so grievously upon the outcasts of the
Jewish Pale. Already in March, 1856, Count Kiselev, a semi-liberal
official and formerly the president of the "Jewish Committee" which had
been appointed in 1840 [1] and which was composed of the heads of the
various ministries, submitted a memorandum to Alexander II. in which he
took occasion to point out that "the attainment of the goal indicated in
the imperial ukase of 1840, that of bringing about the fusion of the
Jews with the general population, is hampered by various provisionally
enacted restrictions which, when taken in conjunction with the general
laws, contain contradictions and engender confusion."
[Footnote 1: See above, p. 49 et seq.]
The result was an imperial order, dated March 31, 1856, "to revise all
existing regulations affecting the Jews so as to bring them into harmony
with the general policy of fusing this people with the original
inhabitants, as far as the moral status of the Jews may render it
possible." The same ministers who had taken part in the labors of the
Jewish Committee were instructed to draft a plan looking to the
modification of the laws affecting the Jews and to submit their
suggestions to the Tzar.
In this way the inception of the new reign was marked by a
characteristic slogan: the fusion of the Jews with the Russian people,
to be promoted by alleviations in their legal status. The way leading to
this "fusion" was, in the judgment of Russian officialdom, blocked by
the historic unity of the Jewish nation, a unity which in governmental
phraseology was styled "Jewish separatism" and interpreted as the effect
of the inferior "moral status" of the Jews. At the same time it was
implied that Jews with better "morals," i.e., those who have shown a
leaning toward Russification, might be accorded special legal advantages
over their retrograde coreligionists.
From that moment the bureaucratic circles of St. Petersburg became
obsessed with the idea of picking out special groups from among the
Jewish population, distinguished by financial or educational
qualifications, for the purpose of bestowing upon them certain rights
and privileges. It was the old coin--Nicholas' idea of the "assortment"
of the Jews--with a new legend stamped upon it. Formerly it had been
intended to penalize the "useless" or "unsettled burghers" by
intensifying their rightlessness; now this plan gave way to the policy
of rewarding the "useful" elements by enlarging their rights or reducing
their rightlessness. The objectionable principle upon which this whole
system was founded, the division of a people into categories of
favorites and outcasts, remained in full force. There was only a
difference in degree: the threat of legal restrictions for the
disobedient was replaced by holding out promises of legal alleviations
for the obedient.
A small group of influential Jewish merchants in St. Petersburg, which
stood in close relations to the highest official spheres, the purveyor
and banker Baron Joseph Yozel Günzburg [1] and others, seized eagerly
upon this idea which bade fair to shower privileges upon the well-to-do
classes. In June, 1856, this group addressed a petition to Alexander
II., complaining about the disabilities which weighed so heavily upon
all Jews, "from the artisan to the first guild merchant, from the
private soldier to the Master of Arts, and forced them down to the level
of a degraded, suspected, untolerated tribe." At the same time they
assured the Tzar that, were the Government to give a certain amount of
encouragement to the Jews, the latter would gladly meet it half-way and
help in the realization of its policy to draw the Jews nearer to the
original inhabitants and turn them in the direction of productive labor.
[Footnote 1: Popularly known by his middle name as _Yozel_.]
Were--the petitioners declare--the new generation which has been
brought up in the spirit and under the control of the Government,
were the higher mercantile class which for many years has diffused
life, activity, and wealth in the land, were the conscientious
artisans who earn their bread in the sweat of their brow, to receive
from the Government, as a mark of distinction, larger rights than
those who have done nothing to attest their well-meaningness,
usefulness, and industry, then the whole Jewish people, seeing that
these few favored ones are the object of the Government's
righteousness and benevolence and models of what it desires the Jews
to become, would joyfully hasten to attain the goal marked out by
the Government. Our present petition, therefore, is to the effect
that our gracious sovereign may bestow his kindness upon us, and, by
distinguishing the grain from the chaff, may be pleased to accord a
few moderate privileges to the most educated among us, to wit:
1. "Equal rights with the other (Russian) subjects or with the
Karaite Jews [1] to the educated and well-deserving Jews who possess
the title of Honorary Citizens, to the merchants affiliated for a
number of years with the first or second guild and distinguished by
their business integrity, to the soldiers who have served
irreproachably in the army."
2. The right of residence outside the Pale of Settlement "to the
best among the artisans" who possess laudatory certificates from the
trade-unions. The privileges thus accorded to "the best among us"
will help to realize the consummation of the Government "that the
sharply marked traits which distinguish the Jews from the native
Russians should be levelled, and that the Jews should in their way
of thinking and acting become akin to the latter." Once placed
outside their secluded "Pale," the Jews "will succeed in adopting
from the genuine Russians the praise-worthy qualities, by which they
are distinguished, and the striving for culture and useful endeavor
will become universal."
[Footnote 1: On the emancipation of the Karaites see Vol. I, p. 318.]
The petition reflects the humiliating attitude of men who were standing
on the boundary line between slavery and freedom, whose cast of mind had
been formed under the régime of oppression and caprice. Pointing to the
example of the West where the bestowal of equal rights had contributed
to the success of Jewish assimilation, the St. Petersburg petitioners
were not even courageous enough to demand equal rights as the price of
assimilation, and professed, perhaps from diplomatic considerations, to
content themselves with miserable crumbs of rights and privileges for
"the best among us." They failed to realize the meanness of their
suggestion to divide a nation into best and worst, into those worthy of
a human existence and those unworthy of it.
3. THE EXTENSION OF THE RIGHT OF RESIDENCE
After some wavering, the Government decided to adopt the method of
"picking" the best. The intention of the authorities was to apply the
gradual relaxation of Jewish rightlessness not to groups of
restrictions, but to groups of persons. The Government entered upon the
scheme of abolishing or alleviating certain restrictions not for the
whole Jewish population but merely for a few "useful" sections within
it. Three such sections were marked off from the rest: merchants of the
first guild, university graduates, and incorporated artisans.
The resuscitated "Committee for the Amelioration of the Jews" [1]
displayed an intense activity during that period (1856-1863). For fully
two years (1857-1859) the question of granting the right of permanent
residence in the interior governments to merchants of the first guild
occupied the attention of that Committee and of the Council of State.
The Committee had originally proposed to restrict this privilege by
imposing a series of exceedingly onerous conditions. Thus, the merchants
intending to settle in the Russian interior were to be required to have
belonged to the first guild within the Pale for ten years previously,
and they were to be allowed to leave the Pale only after securing in
each case a permit from the Ministers of the Interior and of Finance.
But the Council of State found that, circumscribed in this manner, the
privilege would benefit only a negligible fraction of the Jewish
merchant class--there were altogether one hundred and eight Jewish
first-guild merchants within the Pale--and, therefore, considered it
necessary to reduce the requirements for settling in the interior.
[Footnote 1: Compare above, p. 49.]
A long succession of meetings of this august body was taken up with the
perplexing problem how to attract big Jewish capital into the central
governments and at the same time safeguard the latter against the
excessive influx of Jews, who, for the sake of settling there, would
register in the first guild and, under the disguise of relatives, would
bring with them, as one of the members of the Council put it, "the whole
tribe of Israel." After protracted discussions, a resolution was adopted
which was in substance as follows:
The Jewish merchants who have belonged to the first guild for not
less than two years prior to the issuance of the present law shall
be permitted to settle permanently in the interior governments,
accompanied by their families and a limited number of servants and
clerks. These merchants shall be entitled to live and trade on equal
terms with the Russian merchants, with the proviso that, after the
settlement, they shall continue their membership in the first guild
as well as their payment of the appertaining membership dues for no
less than ten years, failing which they shall be sent back into the
Pale. Big Jewish merchants and bankers from abroad, "noted for their
social position," shall be allowed to trade in Russia under a
special permit to be secured in each case from the Ministers of the
Interior and of Finance.
The resolution of the Council of State was sanctioned by the Tzar on
March 16, 1859, and thus became law.
In this manner the way was opened for big Jewish capital to enter the
two Russian capitals and the tabooed interior. The advent of the big
capitalists was followed by the influx of their less fortunate brethren,
who, driven by material want from the Pale, were forced to seek new
domiciles, and in the shape of first guild dues paid for many years a
heavy toll for their right of residence and commerce. The position of
these merchants offers numerous points of contact with the status of the
"tolerated" Jewish merchants in Vienna and Lower Austria prior to 1848.
Toleration having been granted to the Jews with a proper financial
status, the Government proceeded to extend the same treatment to persons
with educational qualifications. The latter class was the subject of
protracted debates in the Jewish Committee as well as in the Ministries
and in the Council of State. As early as in 1857 the Minister of Public
Instruction Norov had submitted a memorandum to the Jewish Committee in
which he argued that "religious fanaticism and prejudice among the Jews"
could only be exterminated by inducing the Jewish youth to enter the
general educational establishments, "which end can only be obtained by
enlarging their civil rights and by offering them material advantages."
Accordingly, Norov suggested that the right of residence in the whole
Russian Empire should be granted to the graduates of the higher and
secondary educational institutions. [1] Those Jews who should have
failed to attend school were to be restricted in their right of entering
the mercantile guilds. The Jewish Committee refused to limit the rights
of those who did not attend the general schools, and proposed, instead,
as a bait for the Jews who shunned secular education, to confer special
privileges in the discharge of military service upon those Jews who had
attended the _gymnazia_ [2] or even the Russian district schools, [3] or
the Jewish Crown schools, [4] more exactly, to grant them the right of
buying themselves off from conscription by the payment of one hundred to
two hundred rubles (1859). But the Military Department vetoed this
proposal on the ground that education would thus bestow privileges upon
Jews which were denied even to Christians. The suggestion, relating to
military privileges was therefore abandoned, and the promotion of
education among Jews reduced itself to an extension of the right of
residence.
[Footnote 1: The latter category comprises primarily the _gymnazia_ (see
next note) in which the classic languages are taught, and the so-called
_real gymnazia_ in which emphasis is laid on science. The higher
educational institutions, or the institutions of higher learning, are
the universities and the professional schools, on which see next page,
n. 4.]
[Footnote 2: The name applies on the European continent to secondary
schools. A Russian _gymnazia_ (and similarly a German _gymnazium_) has
an eight years' course. Its curriculum corresponds roughly to a combined
high school and college course in America.]
[Footnote 3: _i.e._, schools found in the capitals of districts (or
counties), preparatory to the _gymnazia._]
[Footnote 4: See above, p.58 and below, p.174.]
In this connection the Jewish Committee warmly debated the question as
to whether the right of residence outside the Pale should be accorded to
graduates of the higher and secondary educational institutions, or only
to those of the higher. The Ministers of the Interior and Public
Instruction (Lanskoy and Kovalevski) advocated the former more liberal
interpretation. But the majority of the Committee members, acting "in
the interests of a graduated emancipation," rejected the idea of
bestowing the universal right of residence upon the graduates of
_gymnazia_, and _lyceums_ and even upon those of universities and other
institutions of higher learning, [1] with the exception of those who had
received a learned degree, Doctor, Magister, or Candidate. [2] The
Committee was willing, on the other hand, to permit the possessors of a
learned degree not only to settle in the interior but also to enter the
civil service. The Jewish university graduate was thus expected to
submit a scholarly paper or even a doctor dissertation for two purposes,
for procuring the right of residence in some Siberian locality and for
the right of serving the State. Particular "circumspection" was
recommended by the Committee with reference to Jewish medical men: a
Jewish physician, without the degree of M.D., was not to be permitted to
pass beyond the Pale.
[Footnote 1: Such as technological, veterinary, dental, and other
professional schools, which are independent of the universities.]
[Footnote 2: _Magister_ in Russia corresponds roughly to the same title
in England and America. It is inferior to the doctor degree and precedes
it. _Candidate_ is a title, now mostly abolished, given to the best
university students who have completed their course and have presented a
scholarly paper, without having passed the full examination.]
In this shape the question was submitted to the Council of State in
1861. Here opinions were evenly divided. Twenty members advocated the
necessity of "bestowing" the right of residence not only on graduates of
universities but also of _gymnazia_, advancing the argument that even in
the case of a Jewish _gymnazist_ [1] "it is in all likelihood to be
presumed that the gross superstitions and prejudices which hinder the
association of the Jews with the original population of the Empire will
be, if not entirely eradicated, at least considerably weakened, and a
further sojourn among Christians will contribute toward the ultimate
extermination of these sinister prejudices which stand in the way of
every moral improvement."
[Footnote 1: _i.e._, the pupil of a _gymnazium_.]
Such was the opinion of the "liberal" half of the Council of State. The
conservative half argued differently. Only those Jews deserve the right
of residence who have received "an education such as may serve as a
pledge of their having renounced the errors of fanaticism. "The wise
measures adopted" as a precaution against the influx of Jews into the
interior governments" would lose their efficacy, "were permission to
settle all over Russia to be granted suddenly to all Jews who have for a
short term attended a _gymnazium_ in the Western and South-western
region, for no other purpose, to be sure, than that of pursuing on a
larger scale their illicit trades and other harmful occupations." Hence
only Jews with a "reliable education," i.e., the graduates of higher
educational institutions, who have obtained a learned degree, should be
permitted to pass the boundary of the Pale.
Alexander II. endorsed the opinion of the conservative members of the
Council of State. The law, promulgated on November 37, 1861, reads as
follows:
Jews possessing certificates of the learned degree of Doctor of
Medicine and Surgery, or Doctor of Medicine, and likewise of Doctor,
Magister, or Candidate of other university faculties, are admitted
to serve In all Government offices, without their being confined to
the Pale established for the residence of Jews. They are also
permitted to settle permanently in all the provinces of the Empire
for the pursuit of commerce and Industry.
In addition, the law specifies that, apart from the members of their
families, these Jews shall be permitted to keep, as a maximum, "two
domestic servants from among their coreligionists."
The promulgation of this law brought about a curious state of affairs,
the upshot of the genuinely Russian homoeopathic system of emancipation,
A handful of Jews who had obtained learned degrees from universities
were permitted not only to reside in the interior of t e Empire, but
were also admitted here and there to Government service, in the capacity
of civil and military physicians. Yet both of these rights were denied
to all other persons with the same university education, "Physicians and
Active Students," [1] who had not obtained learned degrees. On one
occasion the Minister of Public Instruction put before the Council of
State the following legal puzzle: A Jewish student, while attending the
university of the Russian capital, enjoys the right of residence there.
But when he has successfully finished his course and has obtained the
customary certificate, without the learned degree, he forfeits this
right and must return to the Pale.
[Footnote 1: Both titles are given at the conclusion of the prescribed
university course; the former to medical students, the latter to
students of other faculties.]
Yet the Government in its stubbornness refused to make concessions, and
when it was forced to make them, it did so rather in its own interest
than in that of the Jews. Owing to the scarcity of medical help in the
army and in the interior, ukases issued in 1865 and 1867 declared Jewish
physicians, even without the title of Doctor of Medicine, to be
admissible to the medical corps and later on to civil service in all
places of the Empire, except the capitals St. Petersburg and Moscow.
Nevertheless, the extension of the plain right of domicile, without
admission to civil service, remained for a long time dependent on a
learned degree. It was only after two decades of hesitation that the law
of January 19, 1879, conferred the right of universal residence on _all_
categories of persons with a higher education, regardless of the nature
of the diploma, and also including pharmacists, dentists,
_feldshers_, [1] and midwives.
[Footnote 1: From the German _Feldscherer_, a sort of combination of
leech, first-aid, and barber, who frequently gave medical advice.]
The privileges bestowed upon the big merchants and "titled"
intellectuals affected but a few small groups of the Jewish population.
The authorities now turned their attention to the mass of the people,
and, in accordance with its rules of political homoeopathy, commenced to
pick from it a handful of persons for better treatment. The question of
admitting Jewish artisans into the Russian interior occupied the
Government for a long time. In 1856 Lanskoy, the Minister of the
Interior, entered into an official correspondence concerning this matter
with the governors-general and governors of the Western provinces. Most
of the replies were favorable to the idea of conferring upon Jewish
artisans the right of universal residence. Of the three governors-general
whose opinion had been invited the governor-general of Vilna was the
only one who thought that the present situation needed no change. His
colleague of Kiev, Count Vasilchikov, was, on the contrary, of the
opinion that it would be a rational measure to transfer the surplus of
Jewish artisans who were cooped up within the Pale and had been
pauperized by excessive competition to the interior governments where
there was a scarcity of skilled labor. [1]
[Footnote 1: The official statistics of that time (about the year 1860)
brought out the fact that the number of Jews in the fifteen governments
of the Pale of Settlement, exclusive of the Kingdom of Poland, but
Inclusive of the Baltic region, amounted to 1,430,800, forming 8% of the
total population of that territory. The number of artisans in the
"Jewish" governments was far greater than in the Russian interior. Thus
in the government of Kiev there were to be found 2.06 artisans to every
thousand inhabitants, against 0.8 in the near-by government of Kursk,
i.e., 2% times more. In reality, the number of Jews in the Western
region, without the Kingdom of Poland, exceeded considerably 1 and
one-half millions, there being no regular registration at that time.]
A surprisingly liberal pronouncement came from, the governor-general of
New Russia, Count Stroganov. In the world of Russian officialdom
professing the dogma of "gradation" and "caution" in the question of
Jewish rights he was the only one who had the courage to raise his voice
on behalf of complete Jewish emancipation. He wrote:
The existence in our times of restrictions in the rights of the Jews
as compared with the Christian population in any shape or form is
neither in accord with the spirit and tendency of the age nor with
the policy of the Government looking towards the amalgamation of the
Jews with the original population of the Empire.
The count therefore concluded that it was necessary "to permit the Jews
to live in all the places of the Empire and engage without any
restrictions and on equal terms with all Russian subjects in such crafts
and industries as they themselves may choose, in accordance with their
habits and abilities." It is scarcely necessary to add that the bold
voice of the Russian dignitary, who in a lucid interval spoke up in a
manner reminiscent of the civilized West, was not listened to by the
bureaucrats of St. Petersburg. Nevertheless, as far as the specific
question of Jewish artisans was concerned, the favorable replies were
bound to have a decisive effect.
However, red-tape sluggishness managed to retard the decision for
several years. In 1863 the question was referred back to the Jewish
Committee, only a short time before the dissolution of that body, which
for a quarter of a century had perpetrated every conceivable experiment
over the "amelioration of the Jews." Thence the matter was transferred
to the Committee of Ministers and finally to the Council of State.
In the ministerial body, Valuyev, Minister of the Interior, favored the
idea of granting the right of settling outside the Pale to Jewish
artisans and mechanics, dependent on certain conditions, "by practising
caution and endeavoring to avert the rapid influx into the midst of the
population of the interior governments of an element hitherto foreign to
it." In reply to Baron Korff, who had advocated the admission of the
Jewish artisans beyond the Pale not only with their families but also
with Jewish domestics, Valuyev argued that this privilege "will enable
Jewish business men of all kinds to reside in the interior governments,
under the guise of employes of their coreligionists." "The Jews,"
according to Valuyev, "will endeavor to transfer their activity to a
field economically more favorable to them, and it goes without saying
that they will not fail to seize the first best opportunity of
exploiting the places of the Empire hitherto inaccessible to them." The
Council of State passed the law in the formulation of the Ministry of
the Interior, adding the necessary precautions against the entirely
legitimate endeavor of Jewish business men "to transfer their activity
to a field economically more favorable to them."
After nine years of preparation, on June 28, 1865, Alexander II. finally
gave his sanction to the law permitting Jewish artisans, mechanics and
distillers, including apprentices, to reside all over the Empire. Both
in the wording of the law and in its subsequent application the
privilege was hedged about by numerous safeguards. Thus, the artisan who
wished to settle outside the Pale had to produce not only a certificate
from his trade-union testifying to his professional ability but also a
testimony from the police that he was not under trial. At stated
intervals he had to procure a passport from his native town in the Pale,
since outside the Pale his status was that of a temporary resident. In
his new place of residence he was permitted to deal only in the wares of
his own workmanship. If he happened to be out of work, he was to be sent
back to the Pale.
While opening a valve in the suffocating Pale, the Government took good
care to prevent the artificially pent-up Jewish energy from rushing
through it. However, heaving cooped up for so long, the Jews began to
press through the opening. In the wake of the artisans, who, on account
of the indicated restrictions of the law or because of the lack of
travelling expenses, emigrated in comparatively small numbers, followed
the commercial proletariat, using the criminal disguise of artisans, in
order to transfer their energies to a "field economically more favorable
to them." The position of these people was tragic. The fictitious
artisans became the tributaries of the local police, depending entirely
on its favor or disfavor. The detection of such "criminals" outside the
Pale was followed by their expulsion and the confiscation of their
merchandise.
As a matter of fact, the Russian Government did everything in its power
to stem the influx of Jews into the interior. Only with the greatest
reluctance did it widen the range of the "privileged" Jewish groups. The
Tzar himself, held in the throes of the old Muscovite tradition,
frequently put his veto upon the proposals to enlarge the area of Jewish
residence. A striking illustration of this attitude may be found in the
case of the retired Jewish soldiers, who, after discharging their
galley-like army service of a quarter of a century, were expelled from
the places where they had been stationed and sent back into the Pale. To
the report submitted in 1858 by the Jewish Committee, pointing out the
necessity of granting the right of universal residence to these
soldiers, the Tzar attached the resolution: "I decidedly refuse to grant
it." When petitions to the same effect became more insistent, all he did
was to permit in 1860, "by way of exemption," a group of retired
soldiers who had served in St. Petersburg in the body-guard to remain in
the capital. Ultimately, however, he was obliged to yield, and in 1867
he revoked the law prohibiting retired Jewish soldiers to live outside
the Pale. Thus after long wavering the right of domicile was finally
bestowed upon the so-called "Nicholas soldiers" and their offspring--a
rather niggardly reward for having served the fatherland under the
terrible hardships of the old form of conscription.
4. FURTHER ALLEVIATIONS AND ATTEMPTS AT RUSSIFICATION
Nevertheless, the liberal spirit of the age did its work slowly but
surely, and partial legal alleviations were granted by the Government or
wrested from it by the force of circumstances. The barriers which had
been erected for the Jews within the Pale itself were done away with.
Thus the right of residence was extended to the cities of Nicholayev and
Sevastopol, which, though geographically situated within the Pale, had
been legally placed outside of it. The obstructions in the way of
temporary visits to the holy city of Kiev were mitigated. The
disgraceful old-time privilege of several cities, such as Zhitomir and
Vilna, entitling them to exclude the Jews from certain streets, [1] was
revoked. Moreover, by the law of 1862, the Jews were permitted to
acquire land in the rural districts on those manorial estates in which
after the liberation of the peasants the binding relation of the
peasants to the landed proprietors had been completely discontinued.
Unfortunately, what the Jews thus gained through the liberation of the
peasants, they lost to a large extent soon afterwards through the Polish
insurrection of 1863, forfeiting the right of acquiring immovable
property outside the cities in the greater part of the Pale. For in
1864, after quelling the Polish insurrection, the Government undertook
to Russify the Western region, and both Poles and Jews were strictly
barred from acquiring estates in the nine governments forming the
jurisdiction of the governors-general of Vilna and Kiev.
[Footnote 1: On the medieval privilege _de non tolerandis Judaeis_ see
Vol. I, pp. 85 and 95.]
The two other great reforms, that of rural self-government and the
judiciary, were not stained by the ignominious label _kromye Yevreyev_,
"excepting the Jews," so characteristic of Russian legislation. The
"Statute concerning Zemstvo Organizations," [1] issued in 1864, makes no
exceptions for Jews, and those among them with the necessary agrarian or
commercial qualifications are granted the right of active and passive
suffrage within the scheme of provincial self-government. In fact, in
the Southern governments the Jews began soon afterwards to participate
in the rural assemblies, and were occasionally appointed to rural
offices. Nor did the liberally conceived Judicial Regulations of 1864
[2] contain any important discriminations against Jews. Within a short
time Jewish lawyers attained to prominence as members of the Russian
bar, although their admission to the bench was limited to a few isolated
cases.
[Footnote 1: A system of local self-government carried on by means of
elective assemblies and its executive organs. There is an assembly for
each district (or county) and another for each government.]
[Footnote 2: Among other reforms they instituted the Russian bar as a
separate organization.]
Little by little, another dismal spectre of the past, the missionary
activity of the Government, began to fade away. In the beginning of
Alexander's reign, the conversion of Jews was still encouraged by the
grant of monetary assistance to converts. The law of 1859 extended these
stipends to persons embracing any other Christian persuasion outside of
Greek Orthodoxy. But in 1864 the Government came to the conclusion that
it was not worth its while to reward deserters and began a new policy by
discontinuing its allowances to converts serving in the army. A little
later it repealed the law providing for a mitigation of sentence for
criminal offenders who embrace Christianity during the inquiry or trial.
[1]
[Footnote 1: See above, p. 45.]
In encouraging "the fusion of the Jews with the original population,"
the Government of Alexander II. had in mind civil and cultural fusion
rather than religious assimilation, which even the inquisitorial
contrivances of Nicholas' conscription scheme had failed to accomplish.
But as far as the cultural fusion or, for short, the Russification of
the Jews was concerned, the Government even now occasionally indulged in
practices which were borrowed from the antiquated system of enlightened
absolutism.
The official enlightenment, which had been introduced during the
forties, was slow in taking root. The year 1848 was the first scholastic
year in the two enlightenment nurseries, the rabbinical schools of Vilna
and Zhitomir. Beginning with that year a number of elementary Crown
schools for Jewish children were opened in various cities of the Pale.
The cruel persecutions of the outgoing regime affected the development
of the schools in a twofold manner. On the one hand, the Jewish
population could not help turning away with disgust from the gift of
enlightenment which its persecutors held out to it. On the other hand,
the horrors of conscription induced many a Jewish youth, to seek refuge
in the new rabbinical schools which saved their inmates from the
soldier's uniform. Many a parent who regarded both the barracks and the
Crown schools as training grounds for converts preferred to send his
children to the latter, where, at least, they were spared the martyrdom
of the barracks. The pupils of the rabbinical schools came from the
poorest classes, those that carried on their shoulders the whole weight
of conscription. True, the distrustful attitude towards the official
schools was gradually weakening as the new Government of Alexander II.
was passing from the former policy of oppression to that of reforms. By
and by, the compulsory attendance at these schools became a voluntary
one, prompted by the desire for general culture or for a special
training as rabbi or teacher. Nevertheless the expectation of the
Russian Government under Nicholas I. that the new schools would take the
place of the time-honored educational Jewish institutions, the heder and
yeshibah, remained unfulfilled. Only an insignificant percentage of
Jewish children went to the Crown schools, and even these children did
so only after having received their training at the heder or yeshibah.
Realizing this, the Government decided to combat the traditional school
as the rival of the new. Immediately upon his accession to the throne,
Alexander confirmed the following resolution adopted by the Jewish
Committee on May 3, 1855: "After the lapse of twenty years no one shall
be appointed rabbi or teacher of Jewish subjects, except graduates of
the rabbinical schools [1] or of the general educational establishments
of a higher or secondary grade."
[Footnote 1: i.e., the Government training schools for rabbis provided
by the ukase of 1844. See the preceding page.]
Having fixed a term of twenty years for abolishing the institution of
melammeds and religious leaders, the product of thousands of years of
development, the Government frequently brandished this Damocles sword
over their heads. In 1856 a strict supervision was established over
heders and melammeds. A year later the Jewish communities were
instructed to elect henceforward as "official rabbis" [1] only graduates
of the rabbinical Crown schools or of secular educational
establishments, and, in default of such, to invite educated Jews from
Germany. But all these regulations proved of no avail, and in 1859 a new
ukase became necessary, which loosened the official grip over the
heders, but made it at the same time obligatory upon the children of
Jewish merchants to attend the general Russian schools or the Jewish
Crown schools.
[Footnote 1: Crown (In Russian _kazyonny_) rabbis in Russia are those
that discharge the civil functions connected with their office, in
distinction from the "spiritual" or ecclesiastic rabbis who are in
charge of the purely religious affairs of the community. This division
has survived in Russia until to-day.]
The enforcement of school attendance would scarcely have produced the
desired effect--the orthodox managed somehow to give the slip to
"Russian learning"--were it not for the fact that under the influence of
the inner cultural transformation of Russian Jewry the general Russian
school became during that period more and more popular among the
advanced classes of the Jewish population, and gymnazium and university
took their place alongside of heder and yeshibah. Yet the hundreds of
pupils in the new schools faded into insignificance when compared with
the hundreds of thousands who were educated exclusively in the old
schools. The fatal year 1875, the last of the twenty years of respite
granted to the melammeds for their self-annihilation, arrived. But the
huge melammed army was not willing to pass out of Jewish life, in which
they exercised a definite function, with no substitute to take its
place. The Government was forced to yield. After several brief
postponements the melammeds were left in peace, and by an ukase issued
in 1879 the idea of abolishing the heders was dropped.
Towards the end of this period the Government abandoned altogether its
attempts to reform the Jewish schools, and decided to liquidate its
former activity in this direction. By an ukase issued in 1873 the two
rabbinical schools and all Jewish Crown schools were closed. On the
ruins of the vast educational network, originally projected for the
transformation of Judaism, only about a hundred "elementary schools" and
two modest "Teachers Institutes," [1] which were to supply teachers for
these schools, were established by the Government. The authorities were
now inclined to look upon the general Russian schools as the most
effective agencies of "fusion," and put their greatest trust in the
elemental process of Russification which had begun to sweep over the
upper layers of Jewry.
[Footnote 1: In Vilna and Zhitomir. The latter was closed in 1885. The
former is still in existence.]
5. THE JEWS AND THE POLISH INSURRECTION OF 1863
While the official world of St. Petersburg was obsessed with the idea of
the Russification of Jewry, in Warsaw the tendency of Polonization, as
applied to the Jews of the Western region, cropped up in the wake of the
revolutionary Polish movement in the beginning of the sixties. At the
inception of Alexander's reign the Russian Government set out to
equalize the legal status of the Jews in the Kingdom of Poland with that
of the Empire, and to abolish the surviving special restrictions, such
as the prohibition of residing in certain towns, or in certain parts of
towns, disabilities in acquiring property, and others. But the highest
Polish administration in Warsaw was obstructing in every possible way
the liberal attempts of the Russian Government. Prior to the
insurrection of 1863, the attitude of Polish society towards the Jews
was one of habitual animosity, and this notwithstanding the fact that by
that time Warsaw harbored already a group of Jewish intellectuals who
were eager to assimilate with the Poles and were imbued with Polish
patriotism. When, in 1859, the _Warsaw Gazette_ published an
anti-Semitic article in which the Jews were branded as foreigners, the
Polish-Jewish patriots, including the banker Kronenberg, a convert, were
stung to the quick, and they came forward with violent protests. This
led to passionate debates in the Polish press, generally unfriendly to
the Jews. The radical Polish organs, published abroad by political
exiles, took occasion to denounce bitterly the anti-Semitic trend of
Polish society. The veteran historian Lelevel, who had not yet forgotten
Poland's historic injustice of 1831, [1] issued a pamphlet in Brussels,
calling upon the Poles to live in harmony with the race with which it
had existed side by side for eight hundred years.
[Footnote 1: See above, p. 105.]
Lelevel's kindly words would scarcely have brought the anti-Semites to
reason, had not the Poles at that moment embarked upon an enterprise for
the success of which they sorely needed the sympathy and co-operation of
their Jewish neighbors. The revolutionary movement which engulfed
Russian Poland in 1860-1863 required the utmost exertion of effort on
the part of the entire population, in which the half-million Jews played
no small part. All of a sudden Polish society opened its arms to those
whom it had but recently branded as foreigners, and out of the ranks of
Warsaw Jewry came a hearty response, expressing itself not only in
patriotic manifestations but also in sacrifices and achievements for the
sake of the common fatherland.
At the head of the Warsaw community during this stormy period stood a
man who combined Polish patriotism with rabbinic orthodoxy. Formerly
rabbi in Cracow, Berush [1] Meisels had as far back as 1848 been sent as
deputy to the parliament at Kremsier, [2] and stood in the forefront of
the Polish patriots of Galicia. In 1856 he accepted the post of rabbi in
Warsaw. When the revolutionary movement had broken out, Meisels
endeavored to instruct his flock in the spirit of Polish patriotism.
Revered by the Jewish masses for his piety, and by the intellectuals for
his political trend of mind, this spiritual leader of Polish Jewry
played in the revolutionary Polish movement a role equal in importance
to that of the leading ecclesiastics of Poland. The harmonious
co-operation of the orthodox Chief Rabbi Meisels, the reform preacher
Marcus Jastrow, [3] and the lay representatives of the community lent
unity and organization to the part played by the Jews in preparing the
rebellion.
[Footnote 1: A variant of the name _Baer_.]
[Footnote 2: A town in Moravia, where, after the rising of 1848, the
Austrian parliament met provisionally till March, 1849.]
[Footnote 3: After the suppression of the Polish insurrection, Jastrow
went to the United States, and became a leading rabbi in Philadelphia.
He died in 1903.]
The Jews of Warsaw participated in all street manifestations and
political processions which took place during the year 1860-1861. Among
those pierced by Cossack bullets during the manifestation of February
27, 1861, were several Jews. The indignation which this shooting down of
defenceless people aroused in Warsaw is generally regarded as the
immediate cause of the mutiny. Rabbi Meisels was a member of the
deputation which went to Viceroy Gorchakov to demand satisfaction for
the blood that had been spilled. In the demonstrative funeral procession
which followed the coffins of the victims the Jewish clergy, headed by
Meisels, marched alongside of the Catholic priesthood. Many Jews
attended the memorial services in the Catholic churches at which fiery
patriotic speeches were delivered. Similar demonstrations of mourning
were held in the synagogues. An appeal sent out broadcast by the circle
of patriotic Jewish Poles reminded the Jews of the anti-Jewish hatred of
the Russian bureaucracy, and called upon them "to clasp joyfully the
brotherly hand held forth by them (the Poles), to place themselves under
the banner of the nation whose ministers of religion have in all
churches spoken of us in words of love and brotherhood."
The whole year 1861 stood, at least as far as the Polish capital was
concerned, under the sign of Polish-Jewish "brotherhood." At the
synagogue service held in memory of the historian Lelevel Jastrow
preached a patriotic sermon. On the day of the Jewish New Year prayers
were offered up in the synagogues for the success of the Polish cause,
accompanied by the singing of the national Polish hymn _Boze cos
Polske_. [1] When, as a protest against the invasion of the churches by
the Russian soldiery, the Catholic clergy closed all churches in Warsaw,
the rabbis and communal elders followed suit, and ordered the closing of
the synagogues. This action aroused the ire of Lieders, the new viceroy.
Rabbi Meisels, the preachers Jastrow and Kramshtyk as well as the
president of the "Congregational Board" were placed under arrest. The
prisoners were kept in the citadel of Warsaw for three months, but were
then released.
[Footnote 1: Pronounce, _Bozhe, tzosh Polske_, "O Lord, Thou that hast
for so many ages guarded Poland with the shining shield of Thy
protection!"--the first words of the hymn.]
In the meantime Marquis Vyelepolski, acting as mediator between the
Russian Government and the Polish people, had prepared his plan of
reforms as a means of warding off the mutiny. Among these reforms, which
aimed at the partial restoration of Polish autonomy and the improvement
of the status of the peasantry, was included a law providing for the
"legal equality of the Jews." Wielding considerable influence, first as
director of the Polish Commission of Ecclesiastical Affairs and Public
Instruction, and later as the head of the whole civil administration of
the Kingdom, Vyelepolski was able to secure St. Petersburg's assent to
his project. On May 24, 1862, Alexander II. signed an ukase revoking the
suspensory decree of 180 1808, [1] which had entailed numerous disabilities
for the Jews incompatible with the new tendencies in the political and
agrarian life of the Kingdom. This ukase conferred the following rights
upon the Jews:
[Footnote 1: See Vol. I, p. 299.]
1. To acquire immovable property on all manorial estates on which
the peasants had passed from the state of serfs into that of
tenants.
2. To settle freely in the formerly prohibited cities and city
districts, [1] not excluding those situated within the twenty-one
verst zone along the Prussian and Austrian frontier. [2]
3. To appear as witnesses in court on an equal footing with
Christians in all legal proceedings and to take an oath in a new,
less humiliating form.
[Footnote 1: See above, pp. 172 and 178.]
[Footnote 2: See above, p. 95.]
Bestowing these privileges upon the Polish Jews in the hope of bringing
about their amalgamation with the local Christian population, the Tzar
forbids in the same ukase the further use of Hebrew and Yiddish in all
civil affairs and legal documents, such as contracts, wills,
obligations, also in commercial ledgers and even in business
correspondence. In conclusion, the ukase directs the Administrative
Council of the Kingdom of Poland to revise and eventually to repeal all
the other laws which hamper the Jews in their pursuit of crafts and
industries by imposing special taxes upon them.
This ukase of Alexander II., though revoking only part of the insulting
restrictions in the elementary civil rights of the Jews, was given the
high-sounding title of an "Act of Emancipation." The secluded hasidic
mass of Poland was glad to accept the legal alleviations offered to it,
without thinking of any linguistic or other kind of assimilation. On the
other hand, the assimilated Jewish _intelligentzia_, which had joined
the ranks of the Polish insurgents, was dreaming of complete
emancipation, and confidently hoped to attain it upon the successful
termination of the revolutionary enterprise.
In the meantime the revolution was assuming ever larger proportions. The
year 1863 arrived. The demonstrations on the streets of Warsaw were
succeeded by bloody skirmishes between the Polish insurgents and the
Russian troops in the woods of Poland and Lithuania. The Jews took no
active part in this phase of the rebellion. As far as Poland proper was
concerned, their participation was limited to the secret revolutionary
propaganda. In Lithuania again neither the Jewish masses nor the newly
arisen class of intellectuals sympathized with the Polish cause. In that
part of the country the systematic Jew-baiting of the Polish pans, or
noble landowners, was still fresh in the minds, and the Jews, moreover,
were pinning all their faith to the emancipation to be bestowed by St.
Petersburg. The will o' the wisp of Russification had already begun to
lure the Jewish professional class. In many Lithuanian localities the
Jews who failed to show their sympathy with the Polish revolutionaries
ran the risk of being dealt with severely. Here and there, as had been
the case in 1831, the rebels were as good as their word, and hanged or
shot the Jews suspected of pro-Russian sympathies.
The reserved attitude of the Lithuanian Jews throughout the mutiny
proved their salvation after the suppression of the rebellion, when the
ferocious Muravyov, the governor-general of Vilna, took up his bloody
work of retribution. As for the Kingdom of Poland, neither the
revolution nor its suppression entailed any serious consequences for
them. True, the fraternization of the Warsaw Jews with the Poles during
the revolutionary years weakened for a little while the hereditary
Jew-hatred of the Polish people, and helped to intensify the fever of
Polonization which had seized the Jewish upper classes. But indirectly
the effects of the Polish rebellion were detrimental to the Jews of the
rest of the Empire. The insurrection was not only followed by a general
wave of political reaction, but it also gave strong impetus to the
policy of Russification which was now applied with particular vigor to
the Western provinces, and was damaging to the Jews both from the civil
and the cultural point of view.