Jewish Genealogy in Argentina
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HISTORY OF THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND

FROM THE DEATH OF ALEXANDER I UNTIL THE DEATH OF ALEXANDER III

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 regime 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