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The Illiustratsiia Affair of 1858: Polemics on the Jewish Question in the Russian Press

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

John D. Klier
John D. Klier*
Affiliation:
Fort Hays Kansas State College
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Extract

Writing in 1862, the testy Slavophile publicist and editor Ivan Aksakov complained:

The expressions: ‘idea of the age,’ ‘liberal idea,’ ‘human thought’ — act in our progressive society as some sort of scarecrow (pugalo), to frighten the most courageous critic. This is that sort of sign for which every lie is willingly concealed, a lie often not only not liberal and not humane, but forcibly disturbing and insulting to the rights of life, and the daily existence of the voiceless mass, to the advantage of the imaginarily-oppressed (mnimo-ugnetennyi), the clamerous, vocal minority …. As in the case of the Jewish Question, we only bow and scrape civilly and — it is necessary to recognize — not quite sincerely, before any new privilege for the [the Jews], not taking into account the significance and limits of such a privilege.

Type
Symposium
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 5 , Issue 2 , Fall 1977 , pp. 117 - 135
Copyright
Copyright © 1976 by the Association for the Study of the Nationalities (USSR and East Europe) Inc. 

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References

Notes

1. Den', No. 19 (February 16, 1862), 1.Google Scholar

2. Typical examples may be found in Bulgarin's Ivan Vyshigan, Gogol's Taras Bulba, and Turgenev's “The Jew”.Google Scholar

3. The newspaper of this name, published in St. Petersburg from 1845 to 1849, and edited by N. V. Kukol'nik, should not be confused with the paper Illiustratsiia to be discussed below.Google Scholar

4. Razsvet, No. 31 (December 23, 1860), 492.Google Scholar

5. Berezina, V. G., et. al., Ocherki po istorii russkoi zhurnalistikii kritiki. Vol. II. Vtoraia polovina XIX veka (Leningrad, 1965), 43.Google Scholar

6. Dement'ev, Aleksandr G., et al., Russkaia periodicheskaia pechat’, 1702–1894; Spravochnik (Moscow, 1959), 362.Google Scholar

7. Illiustratsiia, No. 25 (June 26, 1858), 407.Google Scholar

8. The Karaites were a Jewish sect dating from the 8th century who were characterized by their denial of the tradition of Oral Law which was accepted by rabbinacal Judaism. From 1795, the sect had been accorded special legal privileges by the Russian government, in contrast to rabbinical Jewry. The main Karaite centers in Russia included Troki and Vil'no in Lithuania, the city of Odessa, and the Crimea (where many Karaites were wealthy plantation owners). See the entry “Karaites” in Encyclopaedia Judaica Jerusalem, Israel, 1971), v. 10, 761–786.Google Scholar

9. Illiustratsiia, No. 35 (September 4, 1858), 157.Google Scholar

10. Ibid. 158.Google Scholar

11. Ibid.Google Scholar

12. Ibid.Google Scholar

13. Ibid.Google Scholar

14. Ibid., 159.Google Scholar

15. For a fuller discussion of the development of Russian secular attitudes towards the Jews see John Klier, D., “The Origins of the Jewish Minority Problem in Russia, 1772–1812,” Diss. Illinois (Urbana-Champaign), 1975.Google Scholar

16. For the development of parallel German attitudes towards the Jews see Peter, G. Pulzer, J., The Rise of Political Anti-Semitism in Germany and Austria (New York, 1974).Google Scholar

17. “Russkie Evrei. Po povodu stat'i ob nikh v ‘Illiustratsii’,” Atenei, V (September-October, 1858), 422.Google Scholar

18. Ibid., 424–429.Google Scholar

19. Ibid., 429–432.Google Scholar

20. Ibid, 432–434.Google Scholar

21. Ibid., 438.Google Scholar

22. Ibid., 439.Google Scholar

23. The Maskalim (sing. Maskal) were proponents of Haskalah, the Enlightenment movement within European Jewish society in the second half of the 18th century. While derived from the European-wide Enlightenment movement, it was adapted to more specifically Jewish concerns. See Raisin, Jacob S., The Haskalah Movement in Russia (Philadelphia, 1913).Google Scholar

24. “Sovremennaia Lietopis’. ‘Illiustratsiia’ i vopros o rasshirenii grazhdanskikh prav evreev,” Russkii Viestnik, No. 17 (1858), 133–135.Google Scholar

25. Ibid., 135–136.Google Scholar

26. Ibid., 140–141.Google Scholar

27. The Hatti-Humayun was a reform edict issued by the Ottoman Empire on February 18, 1856. It granted a wide range of equal political, economic, and social rights to the non-Moslem minority of the Empire, and elicited widespread popular dissatisfaction from the Moslem majority.Google Scholar

28. Ibid., 144.Google Scholar

29. “Politika: Rossiia,” Illiustratsiia, No. 38 (September 25, 1858): 193–194.Google Scholar

30. “‘Russkii Viestnik’ i vopros o prilichnom tonie v zhurnal ‘nykh otozyvakh,” Illiustratsiia, No. 42 (October 23, 1858), 270.Google Scholar

31. Ibid.Google Scholar

32. “Dnevnik znakomago chelovieka,” Illiustratsiia, No. 43 (October 30, 1858): 286–287.Google Scholar

33. “Reb“ (literally, “our teacher”) was a term of respect in the traditional Jewish community, where it served as the rough equivalent of “Mister”. Because of its connotations with the traditional, presumably less enlightened communities of western Russia, its insulting intent when used to refer to sophisticated Odessa Jews would be obvious.Google Scholar

34. “Sovremennaia Lietopis’. Pavlov, N. F., ‘Vopros o evreiakh i Illiustratsiia’ ,” Russkii Viestnik, No. 17 (1858): 125–129.Google Scholar

35. Ibid.Google Scholar

36. “Postupok ‘Illiustratsii’ i Protest,” Ibid., 132–135.Google Scholar

37. Gintsburg, S. M., “Zabytaia epokha,” Voskhod, XVI, 4–5 (May-June, 1895), 133.Google Scholar

38. “Sovremennaia Lietopis”’, Russkii Viestnik, No. 18 (1858), 247.Google Scholar

39. Turgenev's sketch describes a Jew, Hirschel, who displays all the stereotyped vices of Polish Jewry. Uncouth and ridiculous, he is also a spy for the enemy. Insinuating and dishonest, he grovels for money to support his family, but is willing to trade his daughter's honor to save his own life.Google Scholar

40. “Sovremennaia Lietopis”’, Russkii Viestnik, No. 18 (1858): 246–247.Google Scholar

41. Kulish, P., “Peredovye zhidy,” Osnova, 9 (1861), 137.Google Scholar

42. Zotov, V., “Otviet literaturnyi protest,” Sievernaia Pchela, No. 266 (December 2, 1858).Google Scholar

43. Ibid., No. 272 (December 10, 1858).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

44. Golos, No. 139 (May 21, 1865).Google Scholar