Глава 4: В эпохи реформ

Chapter 4: In the Era of Reforms

At the time of Alexander II's accession to the throne, the peasant question had been long overdue in Russia, relentlessly demanding a resolution for a century. But suddenly, it emerged that the Jewish question was pressing for a solution with no less urgency—not as ancient in Russia as the archaic and brutal serfdom, and until then not seeming so large-scale for the country. (From then on, throughout the 19th century and in the State Duma up to 1917, the Jewish and peasant questions would repeatedly turn out to be adjacent, competing, thus intertwining in a contest of fate.)

Alexander II also ascended the throne during the difficult entrenchment of the Crimean War against united Europe, grappling with the tough decision—whether to stand firm or to capitulate.

With the new reign, "voices immediately arose in defense of the Jewish population"—and within a few weeks, the Tsar ordered: "to equalize Jews in terms of recruitment duty with the rest of the population [and] to stop the recruitment of underage recruits." (Soon after, the project to "categorize" Jewish townspeople was also canceled, meaning "all classes of the Jewish population were equalized in terms of recruitment duty.")¹ This decision was confirmed in the coronation manifesto of 1856: "Recruits from Jews to be taken of the same age and qualities as are defined for recruits from other estates, and then the recruitment of underage Jews to be abolished"². Simultaneously, the institute of military cantonists was abolished altogether, so Jewish cantonists under 20 years old, even if they had transferred to soldiers, were returned to their parents. Those who had served their full term and their descendants were given the right to live throughout the territory of the Russian Empire. (They settled where their service ended, and often became strong settlers, frequently founding Jewish communities in new places³. In a twist of history and as a form of historical retribution: among those settled descendants of cantonists, Russia and the Romanov dynasty got Yakov Sverdlov⁴.)

In 1856, the same manifesto forgave all the [considerable] tax arrears of the Jewish population from previous years. (However, within the next five years, new arrears accumulated amounting to 22% of the supposed tax⁵).

More broadly, Alexander II expressed his intention to resolve the Jewish question in a generally favorable manner. This involved a fundamental change in approach. Under Nicholas I, the government's strategy was to first reform the internal life of the Jewish community, gradually easing it through productive labor and education, and thus leading to the removal of administrative restrictions. In contrast, under Alexander II, the government began by quickly lifting external constraints and limitations, without delving into the possible internal reasons for the Jewish community's insularity and discomfort, hoping that this would naturally resolve all other issues. The intention was to integrate this population with the country's native inhabitants, as stated in the supreme decree of 1856⁶.

In 1856, a new "Committee for the Arrangement of Jewish Life" was established (the seventh committee on Jewish affairs, but by no means the last). Its chairman, still Count Kiselyov, reported to the Emperor that the "goals of integrating Jews with the general population" were "hindered by various restrictions, temporarily established, which in conjunction with the general laws contain many contradictions and cause confusion." Consequently, the Emperor ordered: "To review all existing regulations concerning Jews to align them with the general perspectives of integrating this population with the native inhabitants, as far as the moral state of the Jews may permit," that is, addressing the "fanaticism and economic harm" attributed to them⁷.

No, neither Herzen with "The Bell" nor Belinsky with Granovsky, nor Gogol (who, although not aiming for such an effect, operated in the same direction as they did) passed through Russia in vain. Under the harsh shell of Nicholas I’s reign, the need for decisive reforms accumulated, as did the forces and people to implement them. Remarkably, fresh projects even more effectively impacted enlightened high-ranking government officials than non-official members of the educated society. This was immediately reflected in the Jewish question as well. Ministers of Internal Affairs (successively Lansky and Valuev) and the governors-general of the Western and Southwestern regions frequently presented considerations to the Emperor, which greatly interested him. "Partial improvements in the legal status of Jews were carried out by the government on its own initiative, under the direct supervision of the Emperor"⁸, and were part of the general emancipation reforms, affecting Jews along with the rest of the population.

In 1858, the governor-general of Novorossiya, Stroganov, proposed an immediate, one-time, and complete equalization of Jews in all rights. However, the Committee, now chaired by Bludov, hesitated, was not ready for such a measure, and in 1859 pointed out for comparison that "while Western European Jews at the first invitation of the government began sending their children to public schools and more or less turned to useful occupations, the Russian government has to fight against the prejudices and fanaticism of the Jews." Therefore, "the equalization of Jews in rights with native inhabitants can only follow gradually, as true enlightenment spreads among them, their internal life changes, and their activities turn to useful occupations"⁹.

In the Committee, arguments against equality were developed: that the issue under consideration is not so much a Jewish one as it is a Russian one; that it would be reckless to open full equality to Jews before raising the educational and cultural level of the Russian population, whose ignorant masses would not be able to withstand the economic pressure of Jewish solidarity; that Jews are not striving for integration with the citizens of the country, but for obtaining all civil rights while maintaining their separateness and cohesion, which does not exist among Russians.

However, these voices did not gain influence. Restrictions on Jews were lifted one after another. In 1859, the prohibition from 1835 was lifted: Jews were allowed to lease or manage populated noble lands. (Thus, also the right to manage peasants, although, previously, "in individual cases the prohibition… was secretly violated." However, after 1861, the remaining noble lands could no longer be considered "populated.") The current change aimed to "ease the ability of nobles to openly seek help from Jews" in connection with the decline of noble estate management, but also "to somewhat expand the limited field of economic activity available to Jews." Now Jews could lease these lands and settle on them, but not acquire them as property¹⁰. Particularly in the Southwestern region, "some Jews… accumulated capitals that could be invested in land purchases… but they refused to give their capitals to nobles as a pledge for estates, since such estates could not be acquired by them if needed." Soon within the settlement line, Jews were granted the right to buy land from nobles¹¹.

With the development of railways and steamships, such Jewish businesses as the operation of coaching inns and postal stations declined. Additionally, from the new liberal customs tariffs of 1857 and 1868, which reduced duties on goods imported into Russia, the "profits from smuggling businesses" immediately fell sharply¹².

In 1861, the prohibition on Jews farming out individual incomes from estates was repealed. That same year, the system of state and liquor tax farming was abolished. This was a significant blow to large Jewish entrepreneurship. "Tax farmer and contractor, for Jews, are synonyms for the wealthy"; now, as Orshansky writes, they could only reminisce about "the time of the Crimean War, when contractors, thanks to a flexible conscience and a peculiar view of the treasury in certain areas, made millions"; "thousands of Jews lived and prospered under the auspicious wing of tax farming"—but now, the state's interest was being observed, and contracts became less profitable. And "the liquor trade" became "far less profitable than during the tax farming system"¹³.

Indeed, now when the excise system had replaced the tax-farming system in the alcohol trade, no special restrictions were set for Jews: they could engage in the sale of beverages and the leasing of distilleries within their places of settlement on the same terms as others¹⁴. Jews extensively used their rights to lease and also purchase, and by the 1880s, Jews owned between 32% to 76% of the distilleries within the provinces of the settlement area, and nearly all were characterized as large-scale industrial operations¹⁵. In the Southwestern region by 1872, 89% of all distilleries were leased by Jews¹⁶. Since 1863, Jews were allowed to operate distilleries in Western and Eastern Siberia (since "the most remarkable specialists in distilling almost exclusively belonged to the Jewish community"), and from 1865, Jewish distillers were permitted to reside everywhere¹⁷.

As for wine trading in villages, by the early 1880s, a third of the entire Jewish population within the "Pale of Settlement" lived in villages, with two to three families in each village¹⁸, as remnants of the innkeeping business. — In 1870, an official government report stated that "the liquor trade in the Western region is almost exclusively concentrated in the hands of Jews and the abuses occurring in these establishments exceed all bounds of tolerance"¹⁹. And — it was demanded that Jews conduct the liquor trade only from their own homes. Grigory B. Sliozberg explains the rationale behind this requirement: in the villages of Little Russia, i.e., outside the heritage of Polish orders, landowners did not have the right to trade wine — and thus, Jews could not buy it from them. However, Jews were also unable to purchase even a patch of peasant land; therefore, they rented peasant homes and conducted liquor trade from them. When the sale of liquor from non-owned homes was prohibited — this ban was often circumvented by "subleasing" trade: a nominal license for a liquor establishment was issued to a Christian, while a Jew ostensibly served only as a "sitter" in it²⁰.

Also, the "punitive article" (as referred to by the Jewish Encyclopedia), namely the punishment accompanying the prohibition on Jews personally hiring Christians as servants, was abolished in 1865 as "inconsistent with the general spirit of the tolerance measures being adopted." And "many Jewish families… from the late 1860s, began to hire Christian servants"²¹.

Unfortunately, it is characteristic of many historians of Jews in Russia: if yesterday the struggle and attention were focused on winning a certain right, and today that right is won, then it is already considered trivial. The "double taxation" of Jews is talked about as if it existed for centuries, yet it was an imposition of only a few years and was never actually collected. The Regulation of 1835, once welcomed by Jews with relief, is by the turn of the 20th century described by S. Dubnov as a "charter of lawlessness." To the future revolutionary Lev Deich, still a loyal subject in the 1860s, it seemed that the administration "did not strictly enforce some essential restrictions on… the rights" of Jews, "turned a blind eye to… violations," and "in the sixties, Jews generally lived well in Russia… none of my Jewish peers I noticed an expression of oppressed state, oppression, and alienation" from their Christian peers²². But, with revolutionary dignity, he catches himself and calls all that was granted to the Jews under Alexander I as "essentially insignificant reliefs," while not missing the chance to criticize: "the crimes of Alexander II," although in his view, it was still not right to kill this tsar²³. And from the mid-20th century, it also appears that throughout the 19th century, committees and commissions were created to review Jewish legal restrictions and "concluded that the existing legal restrictions do not achieve their goal and should be… abolished… But none of the projects developed by the Committees… was implemented"²⁴.

Outlived, forgotten, and no beer to honor it.

After the initial concessions by Alexander II, the primary restriction felt most acutely by Jews became the Pale of Settlement. "As soon as there was hope for the possibility of upcoming nationwide reforms, as soon as the first breath of the expected renewal of state life was felt, the Jewish intelligentsia boldly aimed to raise the issue of eliminating the Pale of Settlement"²⁵. However, the idea of the razbor, imposing duties on the non-sedentary and those not engaged in productive labor, was still fresh in Jewish memory. Among Jews, "by their social status and nature of their activity, who could come into closer contact with central authority", in the "group of Jewish merchants, from St. Petersburg and other cities"²⁶, a petition was born in 1856 to the Tsar "requesting privileges not for all Jewish people but only for specific categories": the young generation "educated in the spirit and under the supervision of the government", "the higher merchant class", "conscientious artisans earning their bread by the sweat of their brow", so that they might be "distinguished by the government with greater rights than those who have yet to demonstrate their particular goodwill, usefulness, and industriousness… Our petition is that the Merciful Monarch would grant us and, distinguishing the wheat from the chaff, kindly, as an encouragement to goodness and commendable activity, provide some, albeit moderate, privileges to the most worthy, most educated among us"²⁷. (Despite all the excited hopes—they still could not imagine how quickly changes in the status of Jews would proceed—in 1862 some of the authors of this petition would be able to request "granting equality to all who have completed a secondary education institution", because high school graduates "certainly must be considered people who have received a European education"²⁸).

Yes, "the tsar was not fundamentally opposed to violating the laws on the Pale of Settlement for the benefit of certain groups of the Jewish population." In 1859, Jews who were merchants of the first guild were granted the right to reside anywhere in Russia (from 1861 in Kiev — also the second guild, and in Nikolaev, Sevastopol, Yalta — all three guilds)²⁹ — with the right to establish factories, take on contracts, and acquire real estate. —Previously, doctors and masters of science (with the occupation of posts in public service; one can note Professor of Medicine G.A. Zakharin, who was later to issue a lethal verdict due to the illness of Alexander III) already had the right to reside everywhere. From 1861, this right was also granted to "university candidates," that is, those who had just graduated from them³⁰, as well as to "persons of free professions"³¹. The restrictions of the Pale of Settlement no longer applied to "individuals wishing to receive higher education… specifically, those entering the medical academy, universities, and technical institute"³². —Later, as a result of petitions from individual ministers, governors, and influential Jewish merchants (Evzel Ginzburg) — from 1865, the entire territory of Russia, including St. Petersburg, was opened to Jewish craftsmen — but only as long as such a person was actually engaged in his craft. (The concept of craftsmen was later expanded to include technicians of all kinds, typesetters, printing workers.)³³

It should be noted that merchants moved with their clerks, accountants, various assistants, and Jewish servants, while craftsmen also moved with foremen and apprentices. Altogether, this formed a significant flow. Thus, a Jew who obtained the right to reside outside the Pale was free to move not only with his family.

New permissions were outpaced by new petitions. In 1861, right after the "university candidates," the Governor-General of the Southwestern region requested that graduates of state Jewish schools, i.e., non-complete secondary institutions, also be allowed to move out of the Pale. He vividly described the condition of the graduates: "Young men, leaving the institutions, see themselves completely detached from Jewish communities… Not finding occupations among their own communities that match their education, they become accustomed to idleness and often degrade the value of the education they represent in the eyes of society"³⁴.

In the same year, the Ministers of Internal Affairs and Education jointly stated that "the main reason for the dire situation of the Jews lies in the abnormal quantitative ratio between them, who are predominantly a commercial-industrial element, and the rest of the agricultural mass." Consequently, "the peasants inevitably become victims of the Jews, being as if obliged to give part of their means for their support." But internal competition also puts Jews "almost in an impossibility to earn a living by legal means." Therefore, it was necessary to "grant the right of residence everywhere to merchants" of the 2nd and 3rd guilds, as well as to those who have completed courses at secondary educational institutions³⁵.

In 1862, the Governor-General of Novorossiya again requested the "complete abolition of the Pale of Settlement": to start "by granting the right of residence everywhere to the entire [Jewish] people"³⁶.

Not at the same pace, but individual permissions for universal residence continued to be issued in their own sequence. From 1865, Jews were allowed to hold positions as military doctors, and subsequently (in 1866 and 1867), Jewish doctors were permitted to serve in the Ministries of Public Education and Internal Affairs³⁷. — From 1879, this was extended to pharmacists and veterinarians, as well as to "those preparing for the corresponding type of activity"³⁸, including midwives and paramedics, and "those wishing to study paramedic arts"³⁹.

Finally, in 1880, a decree from the Minister of Internal Affairs (Makov) followed: to allow all those Jews who had settled outside the Pale of Settlement illegally to remain there⁴⁰.

It is appropriate to add here: in the 1860s, "Jewish lawyers… in the absence of a bar association at that time, easily found employment in public service"⁴¹.

Relaxations also affected the border zone. — In 1856, when, according to the Treaty of Paris, the Russian state border receded, approaching Kishinev and Akkerman, Jews were no longer expelled from the newly formed border strip. In 1858, "the decrees of Nicholas I, which had required Jews to leave a 50-verst border zone, were finally abolished"⁴². — From 1868, the crossing of Jews from the western provinces of Russia to the Kingdom of Poland and back (previously formally, though not strictly prohibited) was permitted⁴³.

Alongside official relaxations in legal restrictions, there were exceptions and circumventions of the rules. For example, in the capital, St. Petersburg, "despite the prohibitions, Jews still managed to settle for long periods"; and "with the ascension of Alexander II… the number of Jews in St. Petersburg began to rapidly increase. Capitalists appeared, paying significant attention to organizing the community" of Jews there, "such as Baron Horace Ginzburg… L. Rosenthal, A. Varshavsky and others"⁴⁴. By the end of Alexander II's reign, EA. Peretz (a grandson of the tax farmer Abram Peretz) was a Russian State Secretary. — In the 1860s, "St. Petersburg began to attract many representatives of the Jewish commercial-industrial and intellectual circles"⁴⁵. — According to the Commission for the Arrangement of Jewish Life, in 1880-81: officially, there were 6,290 Jews in St. Petersburg⁴⁶, according to other official data — 8,993, and according to a "local census" from 1881 — 16,826, about 2% of the total population⁴⁷.

In Moscow in 1856, the requirement for visiting Jewish merchants to reside only in the Glebovskoye courtyard was abolished, and the courtyard itself "was eliminated… Jews were allowed to stay in any district of the city. Under Alexander II… the Jewish population of Moscow began to grow rapidly", reaching about 16,000 by 1880⁴⁸.

Similar to Moscow, in Kiev after 1861, "a rapid growth of the Jewish population of Kiev began" (from one and a half thousand in 1862 to 81,000 by 1913). From the 1880s, there was an influx of Jews into Kiev. "Despite frequent police raids, which Kiev was notorious for, the number of its Jewish population far exceeded official figures… By the end of the 19th century, Jews constituted 44% of the Kiev merchant class"⁴⁹.

Y.I. Gessen describes the "granting of the right of universal residence to craftsmen in 1865" as "most important." However, there was a hitch with their relocation. Being so crowded, so constrained, and so deprived of a market for sales and earnings — why then did they "almost not make use of the right to leave the Pale of Settlement"? By 1881, in 31 internal provinces, there were only 28 thousand Jewish craftsmen (and 34 thousand Jews in total). Gessen explains this paradox as follows: affluent craftsmen did not need to seek new places, the impoverished ones lacked the means to move, and the middle group, "scraping by from day to day without enduring particular hardship," feared that after their departure, their old community, for tax reasons, would refuse to renew their annual passport or even "demand the return of the emigrants home"⁵⁰.

But one can seriously doubt the accuracy of the statistics themselves. We have just read that in St. Petersburg alone, there were at least twice as many Jews as the official figures indicated. Was the volatile and mobile Jewish population accurately counted by the slow-moving Russian apparatus — at specific times and in all places?

The Jewish population in Russia was growing steadily and quickly. In 1864, excluding Poland, it amounted to 1.5 million⁵¹. Including Poland, the figures were: in 1850 — 2.35 million, and by 1880 — 3.98 million. From the initial population of around one million at the time of the first partitions of Poland to 5.175 million by the 1897 census — it grew more than five times over a century. (At the beginning of the 19th century, Russian Jewry accounted for 30% of the global Jewish population; by 1880, this figure had risen to 51%.)⁵²

This is a major historical phenomenon that was not understood in its time by either Russian society or the Russian administration.

This rapid numerical growth of the Jewish population, even without considering all other accompanying aspects of the "Jewish question," already posed a significant state problem for Russia. — And here, as always with any issue, it is essential to try to understand both perspectives. With such extraordinary growth of Russian Jewry, two national needs increasingly clashed. The need of the Jews (and the characteristic of their dynamic three-thousand-year-old life): to disperse as widely as possible among other peoples, allowing as many Jews as possible to engage in trade, brokerage, and production (and subsequently to have access to the culture of the surrounding population). — And the need of the Russians, in the government's assessment, was: to maintain control over the nerve of their economic (and later cultural) life and to develop it independently.

At the same time as all these specific alleviations for Jews, let us not forget that throughout Russia, one after another, the general liberal reforms of Alexander II were taking place, thus extending their benefits to the Jews as well. For example, in 1863, the poll tax on urban populations was abolished, which meant it was also abolished for the main part of the Jewish population; only local duties remained, which the Jews covered through the box tax collection⁵³.

But precisely the largest of those Alexandrian reforms, the most historically significant, a turning point in Russian history—the emancipation of the serfs and the abolition of serfdom in 1861—turned out to be very unfavorable for Russian Jews, and for many, it was ruinous. "The general socio-economic changes that occurred in connection with the abolition of serfdom… significantly worsened the material situation of the broad Jewish masses during that transitional period"⁵⁴. The social change involved the cessation of a multimillion, rights-deprived, and immobile class of peasantry, which diminished the comparative importance of personal freedom for Jews. Economically, "the peasant, freed from dependency… became less in need of Jewish services," meaning he was freed from the strict prohibition on handling all the sales of his products and purchasing goods except through an appointed intermediary (in the western provinces, almost always a Jew). Additionally, landlords, having lost the gift of forced peasant labor, were now forced to personally manage their estates, where previously Jews played a significant role as lessees and intermediaries in various commercial and industrial affairs"⁵⁵.

It should be noted that the land credit introduced in those years displaced the Jew "as the organizer of the financial basis of the landlord's household"⁵⁶. The development of consumer and credit cooperatives led to "the liberation of the people from the tyranny of usury"⁵⁷.

An intellectual contemporary conveys the Jewish sentiments of the time. Although Jews had access to government service and free professions, although "industrial rights" of Jews were "expanded," and there was "more means for education"; and although there was a "feeling… in every… corner" of "convergence… between the Jewish and Christian populations"; and although the remaining "restrictions… are far from being enforced with such zeal," and "law enforcers now treat the Jewish population with much more respect," — nevertheless, the situation of Jews in Russia "at present… is extremely sad," Jews "rightly regret" the "good old times," and everywhere within the Pale of Settlement there are "regrets [from Jews] about the past." This is because during the era of serfdom there was an "extraordinary development of intermediation," the lazy landlord could not make a move without a "Jewish merchant and factor," and the downtrodden peasant also could not manage without him: he sold his harvest through him and also borrowed from him. The Jewish "industrial class" "previously reaped huge benefits from the helplessness, prodigality, and impracticality of landowners," but now the landlord has taken to doing everything himself. Likewise, the peasant has become "less submissive and fearful," often reaching wholesale traders himself, drinks less, and this "naturally adversely affects the trade in beverages, which sustains a huge number of Jews." The author concludes with the hope that Jews, as has happened in Europe, "join the productive classes and not find themselves superfluous in the national economy"⁵⁸.

Now Jews have developed leasing and purchasing land. In reports initially (in 1869) from the Governor-General of Novorossiya with a request to also prohibit Jews from buying land there, as it was already prohibited in 9 western provinces, and later (in 1872) in a memo from the Governor-General of the Southwestern region, it was written that "Jews lease land not for agricultural pursuits, but solely for industrial purposes; they sublease the lands to peasants not for money, but for specific services that exceed the value of ordinary rent for the land, 'establishing a kind of serf-like dependency'." And although "with their capital they undoubtedly invigorate, as well as through trade, the rural population"—the Governor-General "did not consider it beneficial to combine industry and agriculture in the same powerful hands, as only with free competition between agriculture and industry can the peasants avoid 'oppressive subjugation of their labor and land to Jewish capital, which equals inevitable and swift material and moral ruin.'" However, proposing to limit the leasing of land by Jews in his region, he suggested: "to allow Jews the opportunity to resettle in the Great Russian provinces"⁵⁹.

The memo was submitted to the newly established "Commission for the Arrangement of Jewish Life" (the 8th in the series of "Jewish committees"), which was quite sympathetic to the situation of Jews, and it received a negative review, later approved by the government: a ban on Jewish leasing would be "a complete violation of rights" with respect to… the landlords. Moreover, a major Jewish lessee "becomes fully aligned with the interests of other landowners… It is true that Jewish proletarians group around major lessees and live off the labor and means of the rural population. But the same is visible on estates managed by local landlords, who to this day cannot manage without the help of Jews"⁶⁰.

However, in the Don Cossack region, the rapid economic advancement of Jews was limited by a prohibition (in 1880) on owning or leasing real estate. The regional government found that "given the unique situation of the Don region, where the Cossack population is universally obliged to military duty, [this] is the only sure way to save the Cossacks' economy and the recently establishing local industries and trade from ruin," because "too hasty exploitation of local wealth and rapid development of industry… are usually accompanied by an extremely uneven distribution of capital, rapid enrichment of some and impoverishment of others. Meanwhile, the Cossacks must possess wealth, as they serve their military duty on their own horses and with their own equipment"⁶¹. This action prevented a possible Cossack uprising.

А как дела с отбыванием рекрутской повинности евреями после александровских полегчаний 1856? — Для 60-х годов картина такая: «Когда получается Высочайший манифест о рекрутском наборе и евреи успевают проведать о нём, то прежде, чем манифест обнародуется установленным порядком, все члены еврейских семейств, годные к военной службе, разбегаются из своих жилищ в разные стороны…» По требованиям веры, по «отсутствию товарищества и вечной обособленности еврейского солдата… военная служба представлялась для евреев самою грозною, самою разорительною и самою тягостною из всех повинностей»⁶². Хотя с 1860 была дозволена служба евреев и в гвардии, с 1861 — производство в унтер-офицеры, приём в писари⁶³, — но не было доступа к чинам офицерским.

I.G. Orshansky, a witness of those 1860s, states: "Indeed, there is a lot of evidence supporting the opinion that Jews, indeed, in recent years do not fulfill their conscription duty in person. For this purpose, they purchase and submit to the treasury old conscription receipts"—some peasants kept them even from 1812 and did not know their value, Jewish resourcefulness put them into circulation; moreover, they "hire substitutes" in their place, "contributing a certain amount to the treasury." "They also try to divide families into smaller units,"—thus, in each family, they use the exemption of "only sons" (who are exempt from military service). However, he notes, "all tricks to evade conscription… are also found among the pure-blooded Russian rural population," and he provides figures for the Yekaterinoslav province. He even expresses surprise that Russian peasants, even for high pay, do not stay in military service, but want "to return to the favorite activity of the Russian people—agriculture"⁶⁴.

In 1874, the conscription duty was replaced by a uniform statute on universal military obligation, which brought "significant relief" to the Jews. "The text of the statute contained no articles that discriminated against Jews"⁶⁵. However, after military service, Jews were no longer allowed to reside in the interior provinces. Rules were also developed to "determine the number of the male Jewish population," because it remained largely undefined and unaccounted for. Governors were sent "information on Jewish abuses aimed at evading military duty"⁶⁶. In 1876, the first "measures to ensure the proper execution of military duties by Jews" were adopted⁶⁷, which the Jewish Encyclopedia sees as "a heavy network of repressive measures": "rules were issued about the registration of Jews to draft districts, about replacing Jews unfit for service with other Jews," and about checking the correctness of exemptions based on family composition: in case of violations of these rules, it was "permitted to draft… only sons"⁶⁸.

The St. Petersburg newspaper "Golos" ("The Voice"), influential in those decades, cites an official government figure, quite astonishing, published "in the report on the recruitment of conscripts in 1880… A total of 3,309 conscripts were under-recruited [across the Russian Empire]; of this overall shortfall, 3,054 were Jews, which constitutes 92%"⁶⁹.

A. Shmakov, a well-known lawyer hostile towards Jews, cites data from the "Government Herald" for the period 1876-1883: "out of 282,466 Jews eligible for conscription, 89,105 did not appear, i.e., 31.6%." (The overall shortfall across the Empire was 0.19%.) — The administration could not overlook this, and a series of "measures to eliminate such abuse" was implemented. This had an effect, but only a short-term one. In 1889, 46,190 Jews were eligible for conscription, and 4,255 did not show up, i.e., 9.2%. But in 1891 "out of a total of 51,248 Jews listed in the draft lists, 7,658 avoided military duty… or 14.94% — at a time when the percentage of Christians who appeared barely reached 2.67%." — In 1892, non-appearances were: Jews — 16.38%, Christians — 3.18%. — In 1894, 6,289 Jews did not appear for conscription — that is 13.6% (with the overall percentage of draft non-attendance at 2.6%)⁷⁰.

However, from the same data for 1894, we see: "in total, the following were obligated to serve: 873,143 Christians, 45,801 Jews, 27,424 Muslims, and 1,311 pagans." The comparison of these figures is also striking: in Russia, Muslims accounted for (according to the 1870 census) — 8.7%, yet their proportion in the draft was only 2.9%! Jews were placed at a disadvantage compared to Muslims and the general population: their draft proportion was 4.8%, while their population share (as of 1870) was 3.2%. (The Christian share of the draft was 92%, while in the population it was 87%.)⁷¹

From all that has been said here, it should not be concluded that during the Turkish War of 1877-78, Jewish soldiers did not demonstrate courage and tactical ingenuity. Convincing examples of both were presented at the time by the magazine "Russian Jew"⁷². However, during that war, there was significant irritation against Jews in the army, mainly due to dishonest quartermaster contractors — "and such were almost exclusively Jews, starting with the main contractors of the Horowitz, Greger, and Kagan Company"⁷³. The quartermasters supplied (presumably under the patronage of high-ranking officials) substandard equipment at inflated prices, including the infamous "cardboard soles," which led to soldiers getting frostbite on their feet at Shipka.

During the era of Alexander II, a half-century-long plan to attach Jews to agriculture ended in failure.

After the abolition in 1856 of the intensified Jewish conscription — agriculture "immediately lost all its attractive force" for the Jews, or, in the words of a government official, there occurred a "false interpretation by them of the manifesto, according to which they considered themselves free from the mandatory occupation of agriculture" now, — and they could freely leave. "Almost completely ceased were also the very petitions of Jews for their resettlement as farmers"⁷⁴.

The condition of the existing colonies remained the same, if not worse: "fields… plowed and sown almost mockingly, or just for show." In 1859, "some colonies did not even harvest the sown grain." For livestock, even in the newest "model" colonies, there are still no barns, not even sheds or pens. — Most of the land owned by Jewish colonists is consistently leased out to outsiders, to peasants or German colonists. — Many request permission to hire Christian workers, otherwise threatening to further reduce their crops, — and such a right was recognized for them, even independent of the actual size of the crop⁷⁵.

Indeed, among the colonists, a number of prosperous farmers emerged who successfully managed their farms. The settlement of German colonists proved very beneficial, as they provided expertise that was adopted by the Jews. The younger generation, born there, was more receptive to agriculture and German experience, developing a "conviction in the profitability of their agricultural position compared to their previous urban and small-town settings," where they had faced congestion and fierce competition⁷⁶.

However, an overwhelming majority were reluctant to engage with the land. The same inspector reports became entirely monotonous: "Everywhere, there was a general aversion among Jews to agricultural labor, their regret about their previous occupations in crafts, trade, and industry"; they showed "tireless diligence in various industrial activities," for example, "in the midst of the busiest time of fieldwork… they would leave the field, upon learning that nearby it was possible to buy or sell a horse, ox, or something else profitably"; a preference for “'small trade turnovers,' which they believed required 'less labor and provided more means to live'”; "easier earnings for Jews in the nearest German, Russian, and Greek villages, where the Jewish colonists engaged in tavern-keeping and petty trade." Even more detrimental to the land was their tendency to take prolonged and distant leaves: leaving only one or two family members in the homes in the colonies, while the rest went off to earn money or engage in brokerage. In the 1860s (the conclusion of half a century since the founding of the colonies) families or many members simultaneously were allowed to leave the colonies; in the colonies, there were many who never actually lived there. When releasing from the colony, often no terms were set for registration to a social estate in the new place, and there "many remained for several years in a row, with families, not registered to any estate, not bearing any taxes or duties." Meanwhile, the houses built for them in the colonies stood empty and fell into disrepair. Since 1861, Jews were also granted the right to operate drinking establishments in the colonies⁷⁷.

Finally, the St. Petersburg authorities came to see the idea of Jewish agriculture in an ultimately bleak light. Arrears (forgiven for various state and royal events, such as, for example, the emperor's marriage) kept growing, and each forgiveness only encouraged further non-payment of taxes and non-repayment of loans. (In 1857, the latest 10 years of exemptions and deferrals ended, and another 5 years were added. But even in 1863, debts could not be collected.) So why resettle? And why provide exemptions and loans? This 60-year saga, on one hand, provided Jewish farmers with a temporary "means to avoid fulfilling state duties," but for the overwhelming majority, it did not develop a "fondness for agricultural labor"; "the success did not justify the expenses." On the contrary, a "simple permission to reside in the interior provinces, without any exemptions, attracted a considerably larger number of Jewish settlers" — they were so insistently drawn there⁷⁸.

If in 1858 there were formally counted 64,000 Jewish colonists, that is, 8-10 thousand families, by 1880 the ministry counted only 14,000 souls, less than 2,000 families⁷⁹. And local commissions, checking whether the land was being used or was neglected, in 1872 found fewer than 800 Jewish colonist families throughout the entire Southwestern region⁸⁰.

The Russian authorities now saw unmistakably that their attempt to transform Jews into settled farmers had failed. They no longer believed that the "cherished hope for the prosperity of the colonies would be realized." Minister Kiselev found it particularly difficult to let go of this dream, but he resigned in 1856. One after another, official documents declared: "the resettlement of Jews for agricultural activities 'did not yield favorable results'." Meanwhile, "a vast expanse of fertile, coenzyme (black earth) land remained in the hands of Jews unproductive." The best land had been designated and preserved for the Jewish population. The portion that was temporarily leased out to those who wished it yielded a significant income (which sustained the Jewish colonies): the population in the South was growing, everyone was requesting land. Now, even the lesser-quality land, from the reserve, exceeding what was allocated for Jewish colonization, was rapidly increasing in value⁸¹. The Novorossiysk region had already absorbed many other active settlers and "no longer needed artificial colonization"⁸².

Jewish colonization no longer had any state purpose.

In 1866, Alexander II confirmed: the action of special decrees on the transfer of Jews into farmers was to be stopped. The task now was to equalize Jewish farmers with other farmers of the Empire. Jewish colonies proved incapable of participating in the independent local life that was starting everywhere. The only option left was to allow them to exit the agricultural state, even fragmentarily, not as complete families (1868), and transition into craftsmen and merchants. They were also allowed to buy out their land allotments—and they did purchase them and resold them at a significant profit⁸³.

However, in the debate over various projects within the Ministry of State Properties, the issue of transforming Jewish colonies dragged on and even completely stalled by 1880. Meanwhile, with the new military statute of 1874, Jewish farmers also lost their conscription exemptions—thereby definitively losing their last interest in farming. By 1881, "in the colonies, 'the predominant features were estates consisting only of a living house, around which there were no signs of settlement, i.e., no fences, no livestock buildings, no farm buildings, no vegetable patches, or even a single tree or bush; there were very few exceptions'"⁸⁴.

A government official with 40 years of experience in agriculture (State Councilor Ivashintsev, sent in 1880 to study the condition of the colonies) wrote: in all of Russia "there was not a single peasant community upon which assistance was bestowed so generously"—and "these aids could not remain a secret to the peasants and could not but provoke in them ill feelings." The peasants neighboring the Jewish colonies "were indignant… because, due to their lack of land, they had to rent, at a high price, lands from Jews that had been cheaply allocated to the latter by the treasury in amounts that actually exceeded their real need. It was this very circumstance that explained… 'partly also the animosity of the peasants against the Jewish farmers, which manifested in the destruction of several Jewish settlements'" (in 1881-82)⁸⁵.

In those years, commissions worked that cut off excess land from Jewish settlements to peasants. Unused or abandoned plots were reclaimed by the government. "In the Volyn, Podolia, and Kiev provinces out of 39,000 hectares, only 4,082 remained [under Jewish farming]"⁸⁶. However, some quite extensive Jewish agricultural settlements remained. For example, Yakshtsa in the scant-soil Minsk province: for 46 families, 740 hectares⁸⁷, which means on average 16 hectares per family, a rarity among peasants in central Russia. — Then there's Annengof of the Mogilev province, also not with expansive lands: in 1848, 20 Jewish families each received 20 hectares of state land, but by 1872 only 10 families were found there, and much of the land was uncultivated, going fallow⁸⁸. — In Vishenki of the Mogilev province — 16 hectares per family⁸⁹, Ordynovshchina of the Grodno province — 12 hectares per family. — In the southern provinces, naturally, there was more space; in the original settlements retained: in Bolshoi Nagartav — 17 hectares, in Seydemenukha 16, in NovoBerislav 17. — In the settlement of Roskoshnaya in the Yekaterinoslav province, 15 hectares, but together with the land "at the colony" it amounted to 42 hectares⁹⁰ — In Veselaya (by 1897) — 28 hectares per family. In Sagaidak 9 hectares, considered to be little land⁹¹. — And here in the Kiev province, Elyuvka — 6 Jewish families, but they had 400 hectares, i.e., 67 hectares per family! And "land rented from Germans"⁹².

From a Soviet author of the 1920s, we read a categorical statement: "Tsarism almost completely prohibited Jews from engaging in agriculture"⁹³.

On the pages summarizing his vast, meticulous work, the researcher of Jewish agriculture, V.N. Nikitin, concludes: "The reproaches of Jews for their weak dedication to agriculture and for their unauthorized departures from the colonies to cities, for trade and craft activities, are entirely justified… We do not deny the guilt of Jews in that, over the course of 80 years, a relatively small number of them became farmers." However, he offers the following considerations in defense of Jewish farmers: "they were trusted in nothing; their colonization system was changed multiple times", sometimes "those appointed to direct their lives knew nothing about agriculture or were completely indifferent to them… Jews from independent urban life were thrown into villages without any preparation for life there"⁹⁴.

Around the same time, in 1884, N.S. Leskov in a memo intended for the still new government "Palen Commission," pointed out that the Jewish "disconnection from agriculture was not formed in a single generation"; this disconnection "is so strong that it equals a loss of abilities for farming," and a Jew would not become a farmer again, except perhaps gradually⁹⁵.

(And Leo Tolstoy, via an indirect transmission of his words, judged thus: "What kind of people are those who keep an entire nation in the grip of urban life and do not give it the opportunity to settle on the land and begin the only labor inherent to mankind—agricultural work. After all, it's the same as not allowing this nation to breathe air… who could possibly be harmed by… Jews settling in villages and living a clean, laborious life, which this old, wise, and wonderful nation probably longs for…"⁹⁶ — What clouds was he living on? What did he know about the 80-year practice of this land colonization?)

Indeed, but after the experience of settling in Palestine, where Jewish settlers felt at home, they managed very well with the land, even under conditions far less favorable than in Novorossiya. Nevertheless, all attempts to persuade or compel Jews to engage in farming in Russia (and later in the USSR) ended in failure (and thus a humiliating legend that Jews are generally incapable of farming).

Thus, after 80 years of efforts by the Russian government, this entire colonization was a grandiose, futile endeavor: a lot of effort, a mass of resources, the stalling of the development of Novorossiya—and all for nothing. The experience showed that it should not have been undertaken at all.

Characterizing Jewish commercial and industrial entrepreneurship in broad strokes, I.G. Orshansky justly wrote, already at the beginning of the 1970s: the question of Jewish industrial activity is even "the essence of the Jewish question," on which "the fate of the Jewish people in any country depends"; "the lively, trading, agile Jewish tribe," "while a ruble turns over twice for a Russian, it turns over five times for a Jew." Among Russian merchants there is stagnation, sleepiness, monopoly (for example, after the expulsion of Jews from Kiev, life there became more expensive). The strength of Jewish participation in commercial life lies in accelerating the circulation even of the most insignificant working capital. Countering the view that the "corporate spirit" of Jews gives them victory in any competition, that "Jews [merchants] always support each other, having their own bankers, contractors, carters," Orshansky attributes the Jewish corporate spirit only to public and religious affairs, not to commerce, where, supposedly, Jews are in fierce competition with each other (which partly contradicts the custom of mandatory distribution of spheres of activity, which "only gradually disappeared with the change in the legal status of Jews"⁹⁷). — Furthermore, he cites the prevailing opinion that all Jewish trade does not enrich the country, that "it consists exclusively of the exploitation of productive and working classes," that "the profit of Jews is a pure loss for the country," — and disputes it: Jews constantly seek and find new markets and thereby "open up new sources of income for the poor Christian population"⁹⁸.

Jewish commercial and industrial entrepreneurship in Russia quickly recovered from two significant blows in 1861—the abolition of serfdom and the abolition of alcohol monopolies. "The financial role of Jews became especially significant by the 1860s, when previous work had accumulated capital in their hands, and at the same time, the emancipation of the serfs and the associated ruin of 'noble nests' created a huge demand for money from the landowning class. It was during this time that land banks emerged, in the organization of which Jewish capitalists played a noticeable role"⁹⁹. — The entire economic life of the country was rapidly changing, immediately in many directions, — and the Jewish eternal search, inventiveness, and capital — fully kept up with the changes, and even outpaced them. As already mentioned, capital flowed, for example, into the sugar industry of the Southwest (so that in 1872 a quarter of all sugar factories belonged to Jews and a third of joint-stock sugar companies¹⁰⁰), as well as into flour milling and other factory productions, — both within and outside the Pale of Settlement. — After the Crimean War, there was "intensified construction of railway tracks, various industrial and commercial enterprises were created, joint-stock companies and banks emerged" — and "many Jews… found broad application for their strengths and talents in the listed… enterprises… and for a few [this] served as a reason for their incredibly rapid enrichment"¹⁰¹.

"In the grain trade, Jews have long been involved, but their role becomes especially significant from the moment of the emancipation of the serfs and the construction of railways." — "Already by 1878, Jews accounted for 60% of the grain export, and subsequently, the export of grain was almost exclusively carried out by Jews." And "thanks to Jewish industrialists, timber became the second most important item of Russian export (after grain)." Logging contracts and the acquisition of forest estates by Jews have not been prohibited since 1835. "The timber industry and timber trade were developed by Jews. Jews also created the timber export abroad." — "The timber trade represents at the same time one of the largest branches of Jewish trade and one of the most outstanding in terms of capital concentration… The beginning of the intensified growth of Jewish timber trade dates back to the 1860s-70s, when, in connection with the abolition of serfdom, landlords threw a mass of estates and forests onto the market." — "The 1870s were years of the first massive surge of Jews into industry" — including in manufacturing, linen, food, leather, carpentry, furniture, and "tobacco production has long been concentrated in the hands of Jews"¹⁰².

In the description by Jewish authors: "During the era of Alexander II, the entire wealthy Jewish bourgeoisie was… loyal… to the monarchy. It was during this time that large fortunes were created by the Ginzburgs, Polyakovs, Brodskys, Zaitsevs, Balakhovskys, Ashkenazis." As already mentioned, "the lessee Evzel Ginzburg founded his own bank in St. Petersburg." Samuel Polyakov built six railway lines; the three Polyakov brothers later became hereditary noblemen¹⁰³. "Thanks to railway construction, which was guaranteed and heavily subsidized by the state, large fortunes were created by the Polyakovs, I. Bliokh, A. Varshavsky, and others." — And to list smaller fortunes, for example, A.I. Zak, a former assistant to E. Ginzburg in leases: having moved to St. Petersburg, he created there a Discount and Loan Bank, "had an extensive circle of relatives, his own and his wife’s, and placed them in charge of the enterprises he led"¹⁰⁴.

Indeed, the course of Alexander II's reforms also changed the entire social life, opening up new opportunities for active Jews. "In government decrees that allowed certain groups of Jews with higher education to enter government service, there were no restrictions on their advancement up the career ladder. Upon receiving the rank of actual state councilor, Jews were elevated to hereditary nobility on common grounds"¹⁰⁵.

In 1864, the Zemstvo reform took place. It "had an all-estate character. The regulation… did not provide for any restrictions on the rights of Jews to participate in Zemstvo elections, nor on holding elective Zemstvo positions. Over the 26 years that the regulation was in effect, Jews are often encountered as vocal members, as well as members of Zemstvo administrations"¹⁰⁶.

The judicial statutes of 1864 also imposed no restrictions on Jews. The judicial reform established an independent judiciary and, replacing the previous private legal intermediaries, an independent bar as a separate estate with its own corporate structure (and, incidentally, with such an unchallengeable right as to deny assistance to an applicant "based on a moral assessment of his character," which could also be used for political evaluations). There were no restrictions for Jews to enter this estate. Hessen writes: "Not to mention the bar, where Jews have taken a prominent place, they began to appear occasionally in judicial offices as investigative authorities, as well as within the ranks of prosecutors oversight; in some places, they also occupied positions in justices of the peace institutions and district courts," and they also participated as jurors¹⁰⁷ — and, in the first decades, without any percentage restrictions. (It is also noteworthy: the oath of Jews before the civil court was pronounced without adhering to the requirements of Jewish religion.)

During the same years, a reform of urban self-governance was also implemented. It was initially proposed to limit the number of Jews among the vocal members of the city duma and members of the city administration to no more than half of the total composition, but, due to resistance from the Minister of the Interior, the city regulation of 1870 reduced this share to one-third, and Jews were not allowed to hold the position of city head¹⁰⁸: there were concerns that "otherwise the internal cohesion and external isolation of Jews would ensure them a leading role in municipal institutions and a predominance in resolving public affairs"¹⁰⁹. However, Jews now received full equality in the course of the elections themselves (not in a separate curia as before), which "increased the influence of Jews on city affairs." (However, in liberal Odessa, this non-curial system was established from the city's inception, and later in Kishinov. "Generally, in Southern Russia, Jews were not burdened by the public contempt that was once actively cultivated in Poland.")¹¹⁰

Thus developed "perhaps… the best period in the history of Russian Jews." There was "open access to public service… Legal relief and the general atmosphere of the 'era of great reforms' had a beneficial effect on the mental state of the Jewish population"¹¹¹. Influenced by the era of great reforms, it seemed that "the traditional life of the Jewish masses turned towards the outside world" and Jewry "began to take an active part in the struggle for rights and freedom… There is no area of economic, social, and spiritual life in Russia where the creative efforts of Russian Jews would not have been reflected"¹¹².

Finally: the doors for universal Jewish education were widely opened at the beginning of the century. Although for a long time, Jews entered them in small numbers, reluctantly.

Ya.L. Teitel, who later became a well-known judicial figure, recalls Mozir in the 1860s: "The director of the gymnasium… often… addressed the Jews of Mozir, pointing out the benefits of education and the government's desire to see more Jews in the gymnasium. Unfortunately, the Jews did not meet this desire"¹¹³. Yes, in the first post-reform years they did not—even then, when maintenance was offered at the state's expense; when the charter of the gymnasiums and pro-gymnasiums (1864) declared that educational institutions were open for admission without any distinctions in creed¹¹⁴. "The Ministry of Public Education… tried to facilitate Jews' entry into general educational institutions," showing "a favorable attitude… towards Jewish students"¹¹⁵. (L. Deich particularly highlights the then-curator of the Novorossiysk educational district, the famous surgeon N.I. Pirogov: he "greatly helped to ease the hostile attitude of my fellow tribesmen towards 'Gentile' schools and sciences"¹¹⁶.) — Soon after Alexander II's ascension to the throne, the Minister of Education formulated the government's program as follows: "It is necessary to extend teaching of general education subjects by all means and at the same time to interfere as little as possible in the religious education of children, leaving it more to the care of parents, without any restrictions or guidance from the government"¹¹⁷. For the children of Jewish merchants and Jews — honorary citizens, education in general state educational institutions was declared (in 1859) mandatory¹¹⁸.

However, all these privileges and invitations did not have explosive success. The greatest achievement the authorities reached by 1863 was that Jews made up 3.2% of students in Russian gymnasiums¹¹⁹, that is, their proportional norm. Besides the aversion to Russian education among the Jewish community, there was also a shift in the goals of Jewish public leaders: "When the era of great reforms began, the 'friends of enlightenment' merged the question of educating the masses with the issue of legal status"¹²⁰, that is, the removal of all remaining restrictions. The possibility of such liberal freedom became clear after the upheaval of the severe Crimean War.

But in terms of education, almost a magical change occurred in 1874—following the issuance of the new military statute, "granting service privileges to educated individuals": from that time, there was an "influx of Jews into general schools"¹²¹. "After the military reform of 1874, even many orthodox families began sending their sons to secondary and higher educational institutions to shorten the duration of service"¹²². These privileges were not only a deferment of military service and an easing of its burden, but, as Mark Aldanov recalls, Jews could now take exams for officer ranks and "receive officer titles." "It was not uncommon [for them] to receive noble titles as well"¹²³. The 1870s saw a "huge increase [in the number] of Jewish students in general educational institutions and the creation of a numerous layer of a diploma-holding [Jewish] intelligentsia." By 1881, Jews accounted for about 9% of all university students in the country, which rose to 13.5% by 1887, meaning one in every seven students. In individual universities, the percentage was even higher: in Kharkov on the medical faculty—42% Jews, in Odessa—31%, and in law—41%¹²⁴. — In all gymnasiums and pro-gymnasiums of the country, the percentage of Jews doubled from 1870 to 1880—to 12% (compared to 1865, it quadrupled), in the Odessa educational district by 1886 it reached 32%, and in some educational institutions—75% and more¹²⁵. (And when D.A. Tolstoy, the Minister of Education from 1866, began to embed the Russian school into the "classical" system from 1871, emphasizing antiquity, — the Russian intelligentsia protested, but among the Jews that reform did not meet dissatisfaction, as recalled by more than one memoirist.)

However, this educational movement has so far touched only the "Jewish bourgeoisie and intelligentsia. The broader masses remained faithful… to the heder and yeshivas," the Russian "elementary school… gave nothing in terms of privileges"¹²⁶. "The mass Jew remained in his previous isolation, due to the specific conditions of his internal and external life"¹²⁷. — "In the popular masses of the towns and shtetls of the Pale of Settlement, living in an atmosphere of strict religious tradition and discipline, the process of joining modern universal culture was extremely slow, and the sprouts of the new struggled to break through"¹²⁸. — "Concentrated within the Pale of Settlement, the Jewish masses in daily life did not feel the need to know the Russian language… The broad mass remained within the familiar walls of the primitive elementary school—the heder"¹²⁹ — and those who barely knew how to read had to read the Bible in ancient Hebrew immediately¹³⁰.

From the government's side: with the wide opening of general education to Jews, the Jewish state schools lost their purpose. From 1862, it was decided to also allow Jews to hold the positions of senior supervisors in these schools. Now in these schools "the staff gradually included more ideologically driven Jewish educators; acting in the spirit of the times, they directed efforts towards enhancing the study of the Russian language and reducing the teaching of Jewish subjects"¹³¹. In 1873, these schools were partially abolished and partially transformed into general-type Jewish primary schools, with 3 and 6 years of education, while two rabbinical schools, in Vilnius and Zhitomir, were turned into teacher training institutes¹³². The government henceforth… aimed to overcome the alienation [of Jews] through joint education. But the "Commission for the Regulation of the Jews' Mode of Life" received both reports from Jewish advocates, often high-ranking officials, and obstructive opinions: that Jews "cannot be treated… on par with other nationalities of the Empire… they cannot be allowed unconditional residence throughout the entirety of Russia; this can be permitted only when all possible measures to convert them into productive and useful citizens at their current places of residence have been tried and when these measures prove to be clearly successful"¹³³.

Meanwhile, shaken by all the ongoing reforms, especially by the abolition (in 1856) of the heavy conscription duty (but also by the rights of elders over the Jewish community in connection with it), and then the abolition (in 1863) of the special tax associated with it, "the administrative power of community leaders was significantly shaken compared to the former almost unlimited power," which had passed to them from the abolished (in 1844) kahal, the former absolute ruler over Jewish life¹³⁴.

And precisely in these same years, at the end of the 1850s and in the 1860s, a converted Jew named Yakov Brafman emerged before the government and then publicly, with an energetic attempt to achieve decisive reform of Jewish life. He submitted a memo about this to the emperor and was called by the Synod to St. Petersburg for consultations. He undertook to expose and interpret the kahal system (partly already too late, due to the abolition of kahals), for which he translated into Russian the acts of the Minsk kahal from the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries that he had obtained, publishing them first in parts, then (in 1869 and 1875) collectively in the form of the "Book of the Kahal," illustrating the comprehensive totality of personal and property rightslessness of a community member. This book "acquired exceptional authority in the eyes of the administration, being accepted as an official guide, and earned its place (often only by hearsay) in the broad circles of Russian society," "Brafman's triumphant march," "exceptional success"¹³⁵. (Later, the book was translated into French, German, and Polish¹³⁶.) — "The 'Book of the Kahal' managed to instill in many individuals a fanatical hatred of the Jewish people as a 'universal enemy of Christians', succeeded in spreading a distorted view of the internal life of Jews"¹³⁷.

"Brafman's mission" to collect kahal acts and translate them into Russian "alarmed the Jewish community"; at the Jews' request, a government verification commission was created with their participation. Some "Jewish writers promptly came forward with evidence that the kahal documents were presented by Brafman in a distorted form, partly in a false light," and one critic "even questioned the authenticity of some documents"¹³⁸. (A century later, in 1976, the New Jewish Encyclopedia confirms that "the materials used by [Brafman] are authentic and his translations are sufficiently accurate", although it faults him for the falseness of his interpretations¹³⁹. The even more recent Russian Jewish Encyclopedia in 1994 assesses that "the documents published by Brafman are a valuable source for the study of the history of Jews in Russia at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries"¹⁴⁰. (Incidentally, the poet Khodasevich was Brafman's great-nephew.)

Brafman asserted that "state laws cannot destroy the harmful force hidden within Jewish self-government… this organization is not limited to local 'kahals'… but encompasses the Jewish people all over the world… and as a result, Christian nations cannot escape from Jewish exploitation until everything that contributes to the insularity of Jews is destroyed." Brafman facilitated "the view of the Talmud not as a code of religious-national character, but as a 'civil-political code' that goes 'against the current of the political and moral development of Christian countries'"¹⁴¹, creating a "Talmudic republic." He insisted that "Jews constitute a state within a state", that Jews "consider state laws non-binding for themselves"¹⁴², and the Jewish community has "one of its main goals 'to outwit Christians' to turn them into mere nominal owners of their property"¹⁴³. — Further, he "accused the Society for the Promotion of Enlightenment among the Jews of Russia and the World Jewish Union ('Alliance Israélite') of being part of a 'global Jewish conspiracy'"¹⁴⁴. According to Hessen, the "Book of the Kahal"…"demanded only that Jewish communal self-government be completely eradicated", regardless of "civil disenfranchisement"¹⁴⁵.

The State Council, "softening the decisive phraseology of the 'Book of the Kahal'," stated that even if administrative measures manage to eliminate the external distinction of Jews from the rest of the population, "this will by no means ensure the elimination of the closed and even almost hostile attitude of Jewish communities towards Christians." The "destruction of the harmful isolation of Jews for the state" can be achieved by "on one hand, weakening the possible communal connections among Jews and the abusive power of Jewish elders, and on the other hand—and this is even more important—by spreading enlightenment among Jews"¹⁴⁶.

This process of enlightenment had already begun within the Jewish community itself. The earlier Haskalah movement of the 1840s was more influenced by German culture, and Russian language remained foreign to them (they knew Goethe and Schiller but not Pushkin and Lermontov)¹⁴⁷. "Until the mid-19th century, even educated Jews, with few exceptions, did not know the Russian language and literature, while they were fluent in German"¹⁴⁸. However, the movement of those "maskilim", more concerned with their own enlightenment rather than the broad masses of the Jewish people, had waned by the 1860s¹⁴⁹. "Russian influences broke into the Jewish milieu in the 1860s. Until then, Jews did not live, but merely existed in Russia"¹⁵⁰ — seeing their problems as completely separate from Russian reality. Until the Crimean War, the Jewish intelligentsia in Russia recognized only German culture; but from the Reforms — gravitated towards Russian, mastering the Russian language — "raises… a sense of self-respect"¹⁵¹. — Now Jewish enlightenment developed under the strong influence of Russian culture. "The best… Russian-Jewish intelligentsia did not forget about their people", they did not just pursue "personal interests", but cared "about easing their plight," — and indeed, Russian literature taught to serve the lesser brethren¹⁵².

However, for the new enlightenment, this engagement with their own masses was greatly hindered by the fact that they were firmly bound by religion, which, for the progressives, was a "definitely regressive factor"¹⁵³. And the emerging movement of Jewish enlightenment was moderately secular. The process of secularization of public consciousness in the Jewish milieu "proceeded especially difficultly due to the exceptional role that religion had played over many centuries in the diaspora as the basis of Jewish national consciousness," so that "the formation of Jewish secular national consciousness" broadly began — essentially, only at the end of the century¹⁵⁴. — "And this was not due to stubbornness, but quite consciously: the Jew did not want to risk being severed from God"¹⁵⁵.

But then, the Russian-Jewish intelligentsia, in its very inception, encountered Russian culture during a tumultuous period of development for Russian intelligentsia itself, as well as amidst a flood of Western culture into Russia during those years (Buckle, Hegel, Heine, Hugo—and even up to Comte and Spencer). It is noted¹⁵⁶ that the figures from the first generation of Russian-Jewish intelligentsia, who later had a considerable influence on global Jewry, were born almost simultaneously, between 1860 and 1866: S. Dubnow, M. Krol, G. Sliozberg, O. Gruzenberg, and Saul Ginzburg. (Incidentally, their contemporaries, prominent Jewish revolutionaries such as M. Gots, G. Gershuni, F. Dan, Azev, L. Axelrod-‘Orthodox’, and notably P. Axelrod, L. Deich and many other Jewish revolutionaries were born in the 1850s.)

In 1863 in St. Petersburg, with the support of the wealthy Evzel Ginzburg and A.M. Brodsky, it was permitted to establish the "Society for the Promotion of Enlightenment among the Jews in Russia" (OPE). Initially, it was composed of a small group, and during its first decade, it focused not on educational but solely on publishing activities — even this caused "sharp opposition" from Jewish orthodox groups¹⁵⁷ (there were protests against the Russian edition of the Pentateuch as a blasphemous assault on the sanctity of the Torah). From the 1870s, OPE provided financial support to Jewish schools. Its cultural work was Russified, making concessions only to Hebrew, but not to "jargon"¹⁵⁸, as Yiddish was commonly referred to at the time; according to the fiction writer Osip Rabinovich, the "corrupted jargon" spoken by Jews in Russia "could not aid enlightenment because it was not only impossible to express abstract concepts in it, but it was even impossible to express a single decent thought"¹⁵⁹. "We, Jews in Russia, instead of adopting the beautiful Russian language, cling to our corrupted jargon, which is unmelodious, incorrect, and impoverished"¹⁶⁰. (German "maskilim" in their time ridiculed the jargon even more sharply.)

And thus, in Russian Jewry, "a new social force emerged that quickly began to contest [the] alliance… of capital and the synagogue," as the liberal Yu.I. Hessen puts it. This force turned out to be, albeit still in its timid infancy, the Jewish periodical press in the Russian language¹⁶¹.

Its first issue was the Odessa journal "Rassvet" ("Dawn"), which was published only for two years (1859-1861) by the same O. Rabinovich. The journal was intended to serve as a "means of spreading 'useful knowledge, true religiosity, and the laws of social living and morality,'" and aimed to encourage Jews to learn the Russian language and "integrate with national education" ¹⁶². "Rassvet" also paid attention to politics, expressing "love for the homeland" and an intention to "assist the aims of the government" ¹⁶³. It promoted living a common life with all nations, participating in their education and their successes, while at the same time preserving, developing, and perfecting its own unique, national heritage ¹⁶⁴. One of the leading contributors of "Rassvet," the publicist L. Levanda, defined the journal's goal as dual: "to act defensively and offensively—defensively against external attacks when it comes to protecting our human rights and confessional (religious) interests, and offensively against our internal enemy: obscurantism, routine, public disorders, our tribal vices, weaknesses" ¹⁶⁵.

This last direction, "exposing the sore spots of internal Jewish life," caused fear among Jewish circles that it "would lead to new legislative repressions." The Jewish newspapers that had emerged by that time (in Yiddish) "considered the direction of 'Rassvet' excessively radical."—But these moderate newspapers themselves, by their mere appearance, were shaking the "patriarchal order" of communal life, which was maintained by the silence of the people ¹⁶⁶. From the 1860s, this was compounded by the struggle of progressive publicists against rigid domestic customs. And, as Hessen notes, "in the 1860s, the system of repressive measures against ideological opponents did not offend the conscience even of quite educated people," and, for example, publicist A. Kovner, "the Jewish Pisarev," did not hesitate to report one of the Jewish newspapers to the governor-general of Novorossiya ¹⁶⁷. (Pisarev himself "enjoyed enormous popularity among Jewish intellectuals in the 1870s" ¹⁶⁸.)

M. Aldanov believes that considering the participation of Jews in Russian cultural and political life should begin from the late 1870s¹⁶⁹. (In the revolutionary movement—a decade earlier.)

В 70-х годах началось сотрудничество новых еврейских публицистов — того же Л. Леванды, критика С. Венгерова, поэта Н. Минского — в общей русской печати (Минский, как сообщает Г. Аронсон, в русско-турецкую войну собирался ехать воевать за братьев-славян). Министр просвещения граф Игнатьев выразил тогда веру в привязанность российских евреев к России. После русско-турецкой войны 1877-78 среди евреев возникли слухи о предстоящих крупных благоприятных реформах. Тем временем центр еврейской интеллигенции переместился из Одессы в Петербург, там выдвигались новые литераторы, адвокаты — как руководители общественного мнения. В атмосфере этих новых надежд в 1879 в Петербурге возобновился «Рассвет». В программной статье М.И. Кулишер писал: «Быть органом нужд и потребностей русских евреев… для пробуждения громадной массы русских евреев от умственной спячки… этого требует и благо России… Интеллигентная часть русских евреев этим не выделяет себя из среды русских граждан»¹⁷⁰».

Alongside the development of the Jewish press, Jewish literature inevitably began to evolve—initially in Hebrew, then in Yiddish, and eventually in Russian, spurred by examples from Russian literature¹⁷¹. Under Alexander II, "there were quite a few Jewish writers who persuaded their coreligionists to learn Russian and to regard Russia as their homeland"¹⁷².

In the conditions of the 1860s and 1870s, Jewish enlighteners, still few in number and surrounded by Russian culture, could only move towards assimilation, "following the path that led educated Jews of Western Europe to unilateral assimilation with the dominant nation"¹⁷³. However, the difference was that in European countries, the general cultural level of the native population was already higher, while in Russia, assimilation was not with the Russian people, who were still barely touched by culture, nor with the Russian ruling class (due to opposition, non-acceptance) — but only with the small number of Russian intelligentsia, already thoroughly secular and having renounced their own God. Similarly, Jewish enlighteners, finding no other connection to their people, completely distanced themselves from it, spiritually considering themselves solely as Russian citizens"¹⁷⁴.

It was established that there was a "daily convergence between the intellectual groups of Russian and Jewish societies" ¹⁷⁵. This was driven by the general revival, movement, life outside the Pale of Settlement for certain categories of Jews, and also by the development of railway communications (and trips abroad), — "all this facilitated closer communication between the Jewish ghetto and the surrounding world" ¹⁷⁶. In Odessa, by the 1860s, "up to one third… of Jews spoke Russian" ¹⁷⁷. The population here grew rapidly "thanks to the mass migration to Odessa of both Russian Jews and foreigners, predominantly from Germany and Galicia" ¹⁷⁸. The flourishing of Odessa in the mid-century was a harbinger of the flourishing of all Russian Jewry at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. Free Odessa had been developing according to its own laws since the early 19th century, separate from the all-Russian ones, — at times a free port, open to Turkish ships, even during wars with Turkey. "The main occupation [of Odessa's Jews] during this period was grain trade. Many Jews were small traders, intermediaries (mainly between landlords and exporters), agents of large foreign and local, primarily Greek, grain trading companies, brokers… at the grain exchange, appraisers, cashiers, weighers, loaders"; "Jews held a dominant position in the grain trade: by 1870 they controlled a large portion of the grain export. In 1910… 89.2% of the export" ¹⁷⁹. — "Compared to other cities in the Pale of Settlement, more Jews lived in Odessa — professionals… who had good relations with representatives of the Russian educated society and were patronized by the city's top administration… Particularly patronizing to the Jews… was the curator of the Odessa Educational District from 1856-58, N. Pirogov" ¹⁸⁰. A contemporary vividly described this Odessan mix, where Jewish and Greek merchants strongly collided in fierce competition, where "in harvest years half the city lives from the sale of grain products, starting with the big grain magnate and ending with the last junk dealer", — there, in this mix-whirl with Russian as the connecting language "it was impossible to draw a line where in Odessa the 'wheat' merchant or banker ends and where a person of intellectual professions begins" ¹⁸¹.

Thus, in general, "among the enlightened Jewry, the process of assimilation to all things Russian began to intensify" ¹⁸². "European education and knowledge of the Russian language became essential life necessities," "everyone rushed to learn the Russian language and Russian literature; everyone thought only about how to quickly become related and completely merge with the surrounding environment," not just to master the Russian language, but advocated "for complete Russification and penetration by the 'Russian spirit,' so that 'a Jew, apart from religion, would not be different from other citizens.'" — A contemporary of the era, M.G. Morgulis conveyed this as follows: "Everyone began to see themselves as citizens of their homeland, everyone received a new fatherland" ¹⁸³. — "Representatives of the Jewish intelligentsia believed that they 'must, for the sake of state goals, renounce their national peculiarities and… merge with the nation that dominates in the given state.' One of the Jewish progressives of those years wrote that 'Jews, as a nation, do not exist,' that they 'consider themselves Russians of the Mosaic faith'… 'Jews recognize that their salvation lies in merging with the Russian people'" ¹⁸⁴.

Here, perhaps, one should mention the doctor and publicist Veniamin Portugalov. In his youth, he experienced revolutionary passions, even spent some time in the Peter and Paul Fortress, and settled in Samara from 1871. He "played an outstanding role in the development of zemstvo medicine and sanitation… was one of the pioneers in the treatment of alcoholism and the fight against it in Russia," and organized public readings. "Even in his youth, he was influenced by populist views about the destructive role of Jews in the economic life of the Russian peasantry. These views laid the foundation for the dogmas of the Judeo-Christian movement of the 1880s." (The Spiritual-Biblical Brotherhood.) Portugalov believed it was necessary to free Jewish life from ritualism and that "Jewry could exist and develop culture and civilization only by dissolving into European nations (implicitly, the Russian)" ¹⁸⁵.

At the same time, during the era of Alexander II, there was a noticeable decline in the number of baptisms, which became unnecessary after the "epoch of the cantonists" and with the expansion of Jewish rights ¹⁸⁶. — From these years, the sect of the "Judaizers" began to openly profess their religion ¹⁸⁷.

At that time, the attitude of wealthy Jews, especially those outside the Pale of Settlement, and of Jews who had received a Russian education, towards Russia as their undoubted homeland is notable and indeed was recognized. "In light of the great reforms, all conscious Russian Jews, without exception, can be said to have been Russian patriots and monarchists, regarding Alexander II with literal adoration. The infamous for his cruelty to the [rebelling in 1863] Poles, [the then Governor-General of the Northwest Region M.N.] Muravyov, was patronizing towards Jews, pursuing a sound policy of attracting a significant part of the population of the Western region, Jewish, to the side of Russian state principles" ¹⁸⁸. Although Polish Jewry significantly participated on the side of the Poles in the 1863 uprising ¹⁸⁹, for the Jews of Vilnius, Kovno, and Grodno provinces "healthy national instinct suggested… that it was necessary to side with Russia, as the side from which they could expect more justice and humane treatment than from the Poles, who, although they had long tolerated Jews, always regarded them as an inferior race" ¹⁹⁰. (Y. Teitel illuminates this as follows: "Polish Jews always stood apart from Russian Jewry," viewing it "as true Poles would." And the Poles themselves intimately explained to him about the Russian Jews in Poland: "The best of the Jews are our enemies. The Russian Jews, who have flooded Warsaw, Łódź, and other major centers of Poland, are the conduits of Russian culture, which is unsympathetic to us" ¹⁹¹.)

In those years, the Russification of Russian Jews was "highly desirable" for the Russian government¹⁹². Russian authorities recognized "interaction with Russian youth as the surest means of reeducating Jewish youth and eradicating their 'hostility towards Christians'"¹⁹³.

However, this nascent Russian Jewish patriotism had clear limits. The lawyer and publicist I.G. Orshansky emphasized that to accelerate the process, "it is necessary to put Jews in such a position that they can feel and consider themselves as free citizens of a free civilized country" ¹⁹⁴. Lev Levanda, already mentioned as the "learned Jew" at the governor of Vilna, wrote: "I will become a Russian patriot only when the Jewish question is resolved finally and satisfactorily." A contemporary Jewish author, who has experienced the long and bitter ordeal of the 20th century and emigrated to Israel, replies to him, looking back over a century: "Levanda does not see that one does not set conditions to the Motherland. She is loved unconditionally, without conditions and preconditions, loved because she is Mother. This program—Love on condition!—has been exceptionally consistently maintained by the Russian-Jewish intelligentsia for 100 years, amidst otherwise impeccable 'Russianness'" ¹⁹⁵.

However, during the described period, "only individual small groups of the Jewish community were integrating into 'Russian citizenship', and that too primarily in larger trade and industrial centers… Thus, an exaggerated perception of the triumphant march of the Russian language deep into Jewish life was created." And "the broad masses remained apart from the new trends… they were isolated not only from Russian society but also from the Jewish intelligentsia" ¹⁹⁶. The Jewish masses in the 1860s and 1870s remained outside of assimilation, and there was a threat of detachment from the Jewish intelligentsia. (In Germany, during Jewish assimilation, such a phenomenon did not occur, because there was no 'Jewish masses'—everyone was higher on the social ladder and did not live in such historical density ¹⁹⁷).

And within the Jewish intelligentsia itself, by the late 1860s, there were already troubling voices against such a transformation of Jewish intellectuals into mere Russian patriots. The first to speak about this was Peretz Smolenski in 1868, stating that assimilation with the Russian character represents a "national danger" for Jews; although there is no need to fear enlightenment, one should not sever ties with their historical past; while joining the common culture, it is necessary to preserve one's national spiritual identity ¹⁹⁸, and "that Jews are not a religious sect, but a nation" ¹⁹⁹. If the Jewish intelligentsia departs from its people—they will not escape from administrative oppression and spiritual stagnation. (The poet I. Gordon articulated: "Be a person on the street and a Jew at home.")

The St. Petersburg journals "Rassvet" (1879-1882) and "Russian Jew" were already moving in this direction. They increased the attraction of Jewish youth towards studying their past and present life. At the end of the 1870s and the beginning of the 1880s, a divide emerged between cosmopolitan and national directions in Russian Jewry. "In essence, the leaders of 'Rassvet' no longer believed in the truth of assimilation… 'Rassvet', unknowingly, was moving towards awakening national self-awareness… a distinctly national inclination… illusions of Russification… were dissipating" .

Additionally, the general European historical context of the second half of the 19th century set the tone: the turbulent Polish uprising, the unification battles in Italy, then in Germany, and later among the Balkan Slavs. Everywhere, the national idea was intensifying and triumphing. Clearly, this direction would have continued to strengthen in Jewish intelligentsia even without the events of 1881-82.

Meanwhile, during the same 1870s, the attitude of Russian society towards Jews was changing, reaching its most favorable point during the height of the Alexandrov reforms. The publications by Brafman, taken very seriously, caused considerable concern in Russian society.

In 1860, the Alliance Israélite Universelle was loudly founded in Paris with the goal of protecting the interests of Jews worldwide, led by Adolphe Crémieux as head of its Central Committee. Initially not well-informed about the situation of Jews in Russia, the Alliance began to take an interest in Russian Jewry and soon started working persistently on behalf of Russian Jews. The Alliance did not operate within Russia's borders and engaged in charitable and educational activities. It often directly appealed to the Russian government on behalf of Russian Jews, although sometimes these interventions were misplaced (as in 1866, when they pleaded not to execute Itzka Borodai, accused of arson for political reasons, who was not even sentenced to death; or when Crémieux protested against the relocation of Jews to the Caucasus and the Amur region, which was not even planned by the Russian government; in 1869, alleging persecutions of Jews in St. Petersburg which did not occur; and complained to the U.S. President about alleged persecutions of the Jewish faith by the Russian government). Meanwhile, the newly established Alliance, symbolized by the Tablets of Moses above the globe, according to a report from the Russian ambassador in Paris, already had "extraordinary influence on the Jewish community in all states." This not only alarmed the Russian government but also Russian society. Yakov Brafman, vigorously campaigned against the Alliance Israélite Universelle, claiming that the Alliance, like all Jewish organizations, had a dual nature (its official documents telling one thing to governments and secret ones saying another), and aimed to "shield Judaism from the deadly influence of Christian civilization" (fn:205). Accusations also fell on OPE (Society for the Promotion of Enlightenment among the Jews of Russia), established in 1863, claiming it aimed to "achieve and strengthen global Jewish solidarity and caste exclusiveness" (fn:206).

Fears against the Alliance were fueled by its initial emotional appeal to "the Jews of all countries" as well as by forgeries. Concerning Jewish unity, it declared: "Jews! If you believe that the Alliance is beneficial for you, that although you are part of various nations, you can still share common feelings, desires, and hopes… if you think that your scattered efforts, good intentions, and individual aspirations could become a significant force, united in one whole and moving in one direction towards a single goal… support us with your sympathy and cooperation" (fn:207).

Later, a secondary document appeared, printed in France—a supposed appeal by Adolphe Crémieux "To the Jews of the Universe." It is very likely that this was a forgery. It is possible that it was one of the drafts for an appeal, not adopted by the organizers of the Alliance (however, it matched the accusations of Braffman that the Alliance had hidden objectives): "We dwell in foreign lands and we cannot be concerned with the fluctuating interests of these countries, while our own moral and material interests are in jeopardy… Jewish teaching must fill the entire world…" The Russian press erupted into a heated exchange, at the end of which I.S. Aksakov in his newspaper "Rus" concluded that "the question of the forgery of the appeal does not have particular significance in the current case due to the authenticity of the Jewish views and aspirations expressed in it"²⁰⁸.

The pre-revolutionary Jewish Encyclopedia writes that from the 1870s in the Russian press "voices in defense of Jews began to sound less frequently… In Russian society, the notion that Jews from all countries are united by a strong political organization, centrally managed by the Alliance Israélite Universelle, began to solidify"²⁰⁹. Thus, its creation produced a reaction in Russia, and perhaps not only in Russia, that was contrary to the intended goal of the Alliance.

If the founders of the Alliance could have foreseen how much condemnation against Jewish global solidarity and even conspiracy accusations would arise from the organization, they might have refrained from establishing it, especially since the Alliance did not alter the course of European history.

After 1874, when a new military statute in Russia introduced universal equal conscription duty, "animosity towards Jews began to be fueled in society by numerous articles about Jewish evasion of military duty" ²¹⁰. The World Jewish Alliance was also accused of intending "to take care of the fate of young Jews leaving Russia in view of the new conscription law's publication" and that "with foreign support, Jews would have a greater opportunity than other subjects to leave the country." (A question that sharply arose a century later, in the 1970s…) Adolphe Crémieux responded that the Alliance's mission was "to fight against religious persecutions," and that the Alliance had decided "not to provide assistance in the future to any Jew who would try to evade this duty" in Russia, and also to "issue an appeal to our co-religionists in Russia to encourage them to strictly comply with all the provisions of the new law" ²¹¹.

Besides emigration, one of the ways to evade military service was self-mutilation. General Denikin, who was quite liberal (before and during the revolution) and spent several years in the Volyn province attending medical examinations of Jewish conscripts—though already in the early 20th century—discusses hundreds of bitter cases of self-mutilation based on his experience. His testimony about these numerous and desperate acts of self-harm is all the more striking²¹².

As previously noted, since the introduction of the new military statute in 1874 and the educational privileges it granted, there was a sharp increase in the number of Jews attending general, secondary, and higher educational institutions. This surge was very noticeable and now seemed excessively large. From the Northwest Region, there had already been "calls to limit the admission of Jews to general educational institutions." And in 1875, the Ministry of Public Education pointed out to the government the "impossibility of accommodating all the Jews seeking to enter general educational institutions without inconveniencing the Christian population" ²¹³.

Let's add to this the reproachful testimony of G. Aronson that Mendeleev also "exhibited anti-Semitism" at Saint Petersburg University ²¹⁴. The Jewish Encyclopedia summarizes all this as "the turn in the mood of part of the Russian intelligentsia that occurred at the end of the 1870s… renouncing the ideals of the previous decade, especially concerning… the Jewish question" ²¹⁵.

However, a notable feature of the era was that the press, certainly more the right-wing, exhibited a wary (but by no means hostile) attitude towards the project of full Jewish equality, rather than government circles. The press could be read stating: "How can we 'grant all civil rights to this… stubbornly fanatical tribe and admit them to the highest administrative positions? <…> Only education… and social progress can genuinely bring [Jews] closer to Christians… Introduce them to the common family of civilization—and we will be the first to offer them words of love and reconciliation.' 'Civilization in general will benefit from this rapprochement, which promises the cooperation of an intelligent and energetic tribe… Jews… will come to the realization that it is time to cast off the yoke of intolerance to which they have been led by too strict interpretations of the Talmudists.' Or: 'Until education leads Jews to the understanding that they must live not only at the expense of Russian society but also for the benefit of this society, there can be no talk of greater equality than that which exists.' Or: 'If it is possible to grant Jews civil rights, then in any case they must not be admitted to positions "where their authority is subject to the lives of Christians, where they can have influence on the administration and legislation of a Christian country"' ²¹⁶.

The tone of the Russian press at the time can also be traced through the leading St. Petersburg newspaper "Golos": "Russian Jews cannot complain in general that the Russian press is unfavorable to their interests. In the majority of Russian media outlets, there is a sentiment in favor of equalizing Jews in civil rights"; it is understood that "Jews strive to expand their rights, to be equal with other Russian citizens"; but… "what dark force drives Jewish youth into the insane arena of political agitation? Why is it that in the rare political trial do Jews not appear, and invariably in prominent roles?.. Such phenomena as the universal evasion of military duties by Jews and the obligatory participation of Jews and Jewish women in every political trial cannot benefit the cause of expanding Jewish rights"; "if you wish to have rights, you must first prove in practice that you can also fulfill duties inseparably linked with rights," "so that in relation to general state and public interests, the Jewish population does not stand out in such an unprofitable and extremely bleak light" ²¹⁷.

But, notes the Encyclopedia, "despite this propaganda, in bureaucratic circles there continued to prevail an awareness that solving the Jewish question was possible only through emancipation: as early as March 1880, the majority of the members of the 'Commission on the Arrangement of Jewish Life' leaned towards the necessity of equalizing the rights of Jews with the rest of the population" ²¹⁸. Raised by two decades of Alexandrian reforms, bureaucrats of that reign were largely swept up in their victorious movement, — and we have already encountered quite radical — and favorable towards Jews — proposals in some memoranda of the governors of the Pale of Settlement.x

Let's not overlook the new influential steps of Sir Moses Montefiore, who again visited Russia in 1872; and the pressures from Benjamin Disraeli, as well as Bismarck on Gorchakov at the Berlin Congress of 1878. There, a beleaguered Gorchakov defended himself by stating that Russia was not at all against religious freedom and fully granted it, but "one should not confuse religious freedom with granting Jews political and civil rights" ²¹⁹.

However, in Russia, the situation was precisely heading in that direction. From 1880, the "dictatorship of the heart" under Loris-Melikov began, and the hopes of Russian Jewry for an undeniable, now imminent attainment of equality, the eve of its dawn, became great and substantial.

And at this very moment, the Narodnaya Volya (People's Will) assassinated Alexander II, disrupting many liberal processes in Russia, including the movement towards full equality for Jews.

Sliozberg notes: the tsar was killed on the eve of Purim. After a series of assassination attempts, the Jews were not surprised by this—but they were concerned about the future ²²⁰.