Chapter I: Front Matter

HISTORY OF THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND

FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES UNTIL THE PRESENT DAY

BY S.M. DUBNOW

TRANSLATED FROM THE RUSSIAN BY I. FRIEDLAENDER

VOLUME II

FROM THE DEATH OF ALEXANDER I. UNTIL THE DEATH OF ALEXANDER III. (1825-1894)

PHILADELPHIA THE JEWISH PUBLICATION SOCIETY OF AMERICA 5706--1946

Copyright 1918 by THE JEWISH PUBLICATION SOCIETY OF AMERICA

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE

It was originally proposed to give the history of Russian Jewry after 1825--the year with which the first volume concludes--in a single volume. This, however, would have resulted in producing a volume of unwieldy dimensions, entirely out of proportion to the one preceding it. It has, therefore, become imperative to divide Dubnow's work into three, instead of into two, volumes. The second volume, which is herewith offered to the public, treats of the history of Russian Jewry from the death of Alexander I. (1825) until the death of Alexander III. (1894). The third and concluding volume will deal with the reign of Nicholas II., the last of the Romanovs, and will also contain the bibliographical apparatus, the maps, the index, and other supplementary material. This division will undoubtedly recommend itself to the reader. The next volume is partly in type, and will follow as soon as circumstances permit.

Of the three reigns described in the present volume, that of Alexander III., though by far the briefest, is treated at considerably greater length than the others. The reason for it is not far to seek. The events which occurred during the fourteen years of his reign laid their indelible impress upon Russian Jewry, and they have had a determining influence upon the growth and development of American Israel. The account of Alexander III.'s reign is introduced in the Russian original by a general characterization of the anti-Jewish policies of Russian Tzardom. Owing to the rearrangement of the material, to which reference was made in the preface to the first volume, this introduction, which would have interrupted the flow of the narrative, had to be omitted. But a few passages from it, written in the characteristic style of Mr. Dubnow, may find a place here:

Russian Tzardom began its consistent role as a persecutor of the
Eternal People when it received, by way of bequest, the vast Jewish
population of disintegrated Poland. At the end of the eighteenth
century, when Western Europe had just begun the emancipation of the
Jews, the latter were subjected in the East of Europe to every
possible medieval experiment.... The reign of Alexander II., who
slightly relieved the civil disfranchisement of the Jews by
permitting certain categories among them to live outside the Pale
and by a few other measures, forms a brief interlude in the Russian
policy of oppression. His tragic death in 1881 marks the beginning
of a new terrible reaction which has superimposed the system of
wholesale street pogroms upon the policy of disfranchisement, and
has again thrown millions of Jews into the dismal abyss of
medievalism.

Russia created a lurid antithesis to Jewish emancipation at a time
when the latter was consummated not only in Western Europe, but also
in the semi-civilized Balkan States.... True, the rise of Russian
Judaeophobia--the Russian technical term for Jew-hatred--was
paralleled by the appearance of German anti-Semitism in which it
found a congenial companion. Yet, the anti-Semitism of the West was
after all only a weak aftermath of the infantile disease of
Europe--the medieval Jew-hatred--whereas culturally retrograde
Russia was still suffering from the same infection in its acute,
"childish" form. The social and cultural anti-Semitism of the West
did not undermine the modern foundations of Jewish civil equality.
But Russian Judaeophobia, more governmental than social, being fully
in accord with the entire régime of absolutism, produced a system
aiming not only at the disfranchisement, but also at the direct
physical annihilation of the Jewish people. The policy of the
extermination of Judaism was stamped upon the forehead of Russian
reaction, receiving various colors at various periods, assuming the
hue now of economic, now of national and religious, now of
bureaucratic oppression. The year 1881 marks the starting-point of
this systematic war against the Jews, which has continued until our
own days, and is bound to reach a crisis upon the termination of the
great world struggle.

Concerning the transcription of Slavonic names, the reader is referred to the explanations given in the preface to the first volume. The foot-notes added by the translator have been placed in square brackets. The poetic quotations by the author have been reproduced in English verse, the translation following both in content and form the original languages of the quotations as closely as possible. As in the case of the first volume, a number of editorial changes have become necessary. The material has been re-arranged and the headings have been supplied in accordance with the general plan of the work. A number of pages have been added, dealing with the attitude of the American people and Government toward the anti-Jewish persecutions in Russia. These additions will be found on pp. 292-296, pp. 394-396, and pp. 408-410. I am indebted to Dr. Cyrus Adler for his kindness in reading the proof of this part of the work.

The dates given in this volume are those of the Russian calendar, except for the cases in which the facts relate to happenings outside of Russia.

As in the first volume, the translator has been greatly assisted by the Hon. Mayer Sulzberger, who has read the proofs with his usual care and discrimination, and by Professor Alexander Marx, who has offered a number of valuable suggestions.

I.F.

NEW YORK, February 25, 1918.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

XIII. THE MILITARY DESPOTISM OF NICHOLAS I.
1. Military Service as a Means of De-Judaization 13
2. The Recruiting Ukase of 1827 and Juvenile Conscription 18
3. Military Martyrdom 22
4. The Policy of Expulsions 30
5. The Codification of Jewish Disabilities 34
6. The Russian Censorship and Conversionist Endeavors 41

XIV. COMPULSORY ENLIGHTENMENT AND INCREASED OPPRESSION.
1. Enlightenment as a Means of Assimilation 46
2. Uvarov and Lilienthal 50
3. The Abolition of Jewish Autonomy and Renewed Persecutions 59
4. Intercession of Western European Jewry 66
5. The Economic Plight of Russian Jewry and Agricultural
Experiments 69
6. The Ritual Murder Trial of Velizh 72
7. The Mstislavl Affair 84

XV. THE JEWS IN THE KINGDOM OF POLAND.
1. Plans of Jewish Emancipation 88
2. Political Reaction and Literary Anti-Semitism 94
3. Assimilationist Tendencies Among the Jews of Poland 100
4. The Jews and the Polish Insurrection of 1831 105

XVI. THE INNER LIFE OF RUSSIAN JEWRY DURING THE PERIOD OF MILITARY DESPOTISM.
1. The Uncompromising Attitude of Rabbinism 111
2. The Stagnation of Hasidism 116
3. The Russian Mendelssohn (Isaac Baer Levinsohn) 125
4. The Rise of Neo-Hebraic Culture 132
5. The Jews and the Russian People 138

XVII. THE LAST YEARS OF NICHOLAS I.
1. The "Assortment" of the Jews 140
2. Compulsory Assimilation 143
3. New Conscription Horrors 145
4. The Ritual Murder Trial of Saratov 150

XVIII. THE ERA OF REFORMS UNDER ALEXANDER II.
1. The Abolition of Juvenile Conscription 154
2. "Homeopathic" Emancipation and the Policy of "Fusion" 157
3. The Extension of the Right of Residence 161
4. Further Alleviations and Attempts at Russification 172
5. The Jews and the Polish Insurrection of 1863 177

XIX. THE REACTION UNDER ALEXANDER II.
1. Change of Attitude Toward the Jewish Problem 184
2. The Informer Jacob Brafman 187
3. The Fight Against Jewish "Separatism" 190
4. The Drift Toward Oppression 198

XX. THE INNER LIFE OF RUSSIAN JEWRY DURING THE REIGN OF ALEXANDER II.
1. The Russification of the Jewish Intelligenzia 206
2. The Society for the Diffusion of Enlightenment 214
3. The Jewish Press 216
4. The Jews and the Revolutionary Movement 221
5. The Neo-Hebraic Renaissance 224
6. The Harbinger of Jewish Nationalism (Perez Smolenskin) 233
7. Jewish Literature in the Russian Language 238

XXI. THE ACCESSION OF ALEXANDER III. AND THE INAUGURATION OF POGROMS.
1. The Triumph of Autocracy 243
2. The Initiation of the Pogrom Policy 247
3. The Pogrom at Kiev 251
4. Further Outbreaks in South Russia 256

XXII. THE ANTI-JEWISH POLICIES OF IGNATYEV.
1. The Vacillating Attitude of the Authorities 259
2. The Pogrom Panic and the Beginning of the Exodus 265
3. The Gubernatorial Commissions 269
4. The Spread of Anti-Semitism 276
5. The Pogrom at Warsaw 280

XXIII. NEW MEASURES OF OPPRESSION AND PUBLIC PROTESTS.
1. The Despair of Russian Jewry 284
2. The Voice of England and America 287
3. The Problem of Emigration and the Pogrom at Balta 297
4. The Conference of Jewish Notables at St. Petersburg 304

XXIV. LEGISLATIVE POGROMS.
1. The "Temporary Rules" of May 3, 1882 309
2. Abandonment of the Pogrom Policy 312
3. Disabilities and Emigration 318

XXV. INNER UPHEAVALS.
1. Disillusionment of the Intelligenzia and the National
Revival 324
2. Pinsker's "Autoemancipation" 330
3. Miscarried Religious Reforms 333

XXVI. INCREASED JEWISH DISABILITIES.
1. The Pahlen Commission and New Schemes of Oppression 336
2. Jewish Disabilities Outside the Pale 342
3. Restrictions in Education and in the Legal Profession 348
4. Discrimination in Military Service 354

XXVII. RUSSIAN REACTION AND JEWISH EMIGRATION.
1. Aftermath of the Pogrom Policy 358
2. The Conclusions of the Pahlen Commission 362
3. The Triumph of Reaction 369
4. American and Palestinian Emigration 373

XXVIII. JUDAEOPHOBIA TRIUMPHANT.
1. Intensified Reaction 378
2. Continued Harassing 382
3. The Guildhall Meeting in London 388
4. The Protest of America 394

XXIX. THE EXPULSION FROM MOSCOW.
1. Preparing the Blow 399
2. The Horrors of Expulsion 401
3. Effect of Protests 407
4. Pogrom Interludes 411

XXX. BARON HIRSCH'S EMIGRATION SCHEME AND UNRELIEVED SUFFERING.
1. Negotiations with the Russian Government 434
2. The Jewish Colonisation Association and Collapse of the Argentinian
Scheme 419
3. Continued Humiliations and Death of Alexander III. 423