Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 November 2018
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.
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