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The Attitudes of Russian Officials in the 1880s Toward Jewish Assimilation and Emigration

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2017

I. Michael Aronson
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Extract

The significance of the reign of Alexander III as a turning point in the history of Russian Jewry is beyond dispute. This reign witnessed a sharp deterioration in the Jews’ economic, social, and political condition. Jewish hopes for emancipation from the prevailing discriminatory legislation were dashed. Instead of emancipation, the Jews were presented with new restrictions, on their residence rights, educational opportunities, economic and professional pursuits, and participation in the institutions of local government. Faced with starvation, many thousands of Jews chose to leave the Russian Empire. Others chose to convert to Christianity in order to throw off the yoke of persecution. Moving in the opposite direction, many Jewish intellectuals who had previously believed in the beneficial results to be achieved by assimilation began to question this assumption. Some began to turn to Zionism. Others turned to active Jewish self-defense.

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Articles
Information
Slavic Review , Volume 34 , Issue 1 , March 1975 , pp. 1 - 18
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies. 1975

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References

1. The author wishes to express his appreciation to the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture for assistance rendered during the early stages of the preparation of this article. with Alexander Zederbaum, the editor of the Jewish journal Hamelitz.” His source for this statement is Rappoport. Byrnes, who carefully gives references for the preceding and the following paragraphs, as well as for almost every other paragraph in the chapter, gives no references for the paragraph in which he cited the “one-third” statement. According to Errera, “The iniquitous saying … is attributed to him [Pobedonostsev]… . But we need not inquire as to whether M. Pobedonostsev did actually pronounce these words or not: the acts which he has inspired and still continues to prompt being unhappily sufficiently eloquent.”

2. Vitte, S. Iu., Vospominaniia: Tsarstvovanie Nikolaia II, 2 vols. (Berlin, 1922), 1: 188–89Google Scholar; Count Serge Witte, Iulievich, The Memoirs of Count Witte, trans, and ed. Yarmolinsky, Abraham (Garden City, N.Y., 1921), p. 376.Google Scholar

3. Kantor, R. M., “Aleksandr III o evreiskikh pogromakh 1881-83 gg.,” Evreiskaia letopis', 1 (1923): 150, 152, 154, 156.Google Scholar

4. Pobedonostsev, K. P., Pis'ma K. P. Pobedonostseva k Aleksandru III, 2 vols. (Moscow, 1925), 1: 344 Google Scholar. Also see Rogger, Hans, “The Jewish Policy of Late Tsarism: A Reappraisal,” Wiener Library Bulletin, 25, nos. 1 and 2 (1971): 44 Google Scholar; Byrnes, Pobedonostsev, pp. 207-8.

5. Dubnow, History of the Jews, 2: 272, 312-14; Gessen, lulii I., “Graf N. P. Ignat'ev i ‘vremennyia pravila’ o evreiakh 3 maia 1882 goda,” Pravo, ezhenedel'naia iuridicheskaia gazeta, no. 30 (July 27, 1908), p. 1632 Google Scholar; Gessen, lulii I., Zakon i zhizn': Kak sozidalis' ogranichitel'nye zakony o zhitel'stve evreev v Rossii (St. Petersburg, 1911), p. 154 Google Scholar; Rogger, “Jewish Policy,” pp. 44-45.

6. Chichinadze, David V:, ed., Sbornik tsirkuliarov Ministerstva Vnutrennikh Del za 1880-1884 gg. (St. Petersburg, 1886), pp. 283–84Google Scholar; Dubnow, History of the Jews, 2: 314-17; Rogger, “Jewish Policy,” p. 44; Rogger, Hans, “Tsarist Policy on Jewish Emigration,” Soviet Jewish Affairs, 3, no. 1 (1973): 29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

7. See, for example, Pavel Pavlovich Demidoff [Demidov], prince of Donato, San, The Jewish Question in Russia, 2nd ed., trans. Michell, J. (London, 1884), pp. 80–91 Google Scholar; Gessen, lulii I., “Graf N. P. Ignat'ev i ‘vremennyia pravila’ o evreiakh 3 maia 1882 goda,” Pravo, ezhenedel'naia iuridicheskaia gazeta, no. 31 (Aug. 3, 1908), p. 1679 Google Scholar; Gessen, Zakon i zhizn', p. 157; Gradovsky, Nikolai Dmitrievich, Zamechaniia na zapisku kniazei Golitsynykh o cherte osedlosti evreev (St. Petersburg, 1886), pp. 115–16, 155Google Scholar; Subbotin, A. P., Obshchaia sapiska po evreiskomu voprosu (St. Petersburg, 1905), pp. 78, 120-21, 124-26, 130, 140, 151, 193-94Google Scholar; Trudy Vilenskoi Gubernskoi Kommissii, sec. 1, pt. 1 of Trudy Gubernskikh Kommissii po evreiskomu voprosu, 2 parts (St. Petersburg, 1884), pp. 96-98, 104-5, 108 (hereafter TGK) ;, Trudy Vitebskoi Gubernskoi Kommissii, sec. 4, pt. 1 of TGK, pp. 6-7; Obshchaia zapiska Vysshei Kommissii dlia peresmotra deistvuiushchikh o evreiakh v Imperii zakonov (1883-1888) ([St. Petersburg?], [1888]), pp. 119-21, 150-56, 281-82.

8. Peretts, Egor Abramovich, Dnevnik E. A. Perettsa (1880-1883), ed. Sergeev, A. A. (Moscow and Leningrad, 1927), p. Leningrad.Google Scholar

9. Peskovsky, Matvei Leontevich, Rokovoe nedorazumenie: Evreiskii vopros, ego mirovaia istoriia i estestvennyi put’ k razresheniiu (St. Petersburg, 1891), p. 388.Google Scholar

10. Dubnow, History of the Jews, 2: 264-65; Greenberg, Louis, The Jews in Russia, 2 vols. (New Haven, 1944-51), 2: 25Google Scholar. Also see Gessen, Iu. and Pozner, S., “Aleksandr III,” in Evreiskaia entsiklopediia (St. Petersburg, 1906-13), 1: 838 Google Scholar, and Sosis, I. D., “K istorii antievreiskogo dvizheniia v tsarskoi Rossii,” Trudy Belorusskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta v gorode Minske (Pratsy), no. 12 (1926), p. 86.Google Scholar

11. Dubnow, History of the Jews, 2: 285; Greenberg, Jews in Russia, 2: 62. Also see Evr. ents., 1: 838, and Samuel Joseph, Jewish Immigration to the United States from 1881-1910, vol. 59, no. 4, whole no. 145 of Studies in History, Economics, and Public Law, ed. Faculty of Political Science of Columbia University (New York, 1914), p. 68.

12. Dubnow, History of the Jews, 2: 285.

13. G. la. Krasnyi-Admoni, ed., Materialy dlia istorii antievreiskikh pogromov v Rossii, vol. 2: Vos'midesiatye gody, 12 aprel' 1881-29 fevral' 1882 (Petrograd and Moscow, 1923), p. 526.

14. Dubnow, History of the Jews, 2: 306.

15. Dubnow, History of the Jews, 2: 306-7; Greenberg, Jews in Russia, 2: 62.

16. Dubnow, History of the Jews, 2: 414; Evr. ents., 1: 838; Komitet Ministrov, Kantseliariia, Istoricheskii obzor deiatel'nosti Komitcta Ministrov, 5 vols. (St. Petersburg, 1902), 4: 184 Google Scholar; Rogger, “Tsarist Policy,” p. 30.

17. Dubnow, History of the Jews, 2: 377. Also see Evr. ents., 1: 837-38.

18. Dubnow, History of the Jews, 2: 419-21. Also see “Evrei,” in Entsiklopedicheskii slovar' (Moscow, 1911-34), 30: 461; Evr. ents., 1: 838; Joseph, Jewish Immigration, pp. 64, 68, 82-83.

19. Dubnow, History of the Jews, 2: 414-15. Also see p. 417, where the removal of three million Jews in twelve years is mentioned.

20. Davitt, Within the Pale, pp. 65-66; Errera, Russian Jews, p. 18.

21. Davitt, Within the Pale, pp. 49-50. The “May Laws” of 1882, a reflection of Ignatiev's anti-Semitic policies, prohibited Jews from settling anew or acquiring real estate in any rural district of the Pale and from doing business on Sundays or Christian holidays.

22. See notes 9-12 above and Krippe, Leib, “Iz zapisok emigranta,” Evreiskaia starina, 4 (1911): 380–81Google Scholar; Rogger, “Tsarist Policy,” pp. 27-28.

23. Rogger, “Tsarist Policy,” pp. 29-30.

24. A few of those who sat on the 1881 guberniia commissions were not officials, strictly speaking. However, for the purposes of this article this fact may be disregarded. All members on the various commissions were invited to serve by the respective governors (see Dubnow, History of the Jews, 2: 272-73; Greenberg, Jews in Russia, 2: 26-27; Krasnyi-Admoni, Materialy, 2: 385-86, 510-16), which indicates that the members had close ties with officialdom even when they were not officials themselves. In addition, by serving on the commissions the members became officials insofar as they were participating in a formal, albeit marginal, way in the formulation of government policy.

25. The text of Ignatiev's circular, dated September 3, 1881, is reprinted in Buel, James W., Russian Nihilism and Exile Life in Siberia (St. Louis, 1883), pp. 525–27Google Scholar; Evr. ents., 1: 827; Gessen, “Graf N. P. Ignat'ev,” pp. 1632-33; Gessen, Zakon i zhizn', p. 154; Krasnyi-Admoni, Materialy, 2: 512-13.

26. Trudy Volynskoi Gubernskoi Kommissii, sec. 5, pt. 2 of TGK, pp. 561, 569-70, 598, 608-9, 622, 655-56.

27. Gradovsky, Zamechaniia, p. 113. Gradovsky, like other proemancipation officials, generally emphasized the role played by legal restrictions on the Jews in creating “abnormal Jewish-Christian relations.” He thought that even the Volynia Guberniia Commission recognized this role but, bowing to its own and Ignatiev’s anti-Jewish prejudices, preferred to portray the Jews’ harmfulness as being willful on their part.

28. Trudy Khersonskoi Gubernskoi Kommissii, sec. 9, pt. 2 of TGK, pp. 124-25

29. F. S. Golitsyn and N. N. Golitsyn, O cherte osedlosti evreev (n.p., 1885) ; Gradovsky, Zamechaniia, pp. 2-3, 55-57, 191, 205-6, 229.

30. Trudy Ekaterinoslavskoi Gubernskoi Kommissii, sec. 2, pt. 2 of TGK, pp. 338-43, 359, 393-94, 398-401.

31. Vilna Trudy, pp. 5-10, 13, 17.

32. Trudy Mogilevskoi Gubernskoi Kommissii, sec. 5, pt. 1 of TGK, pp. 1-41.

33. For examples see Gradovsky, Zamechaniia, pp. 132-33; Trudy Grodnenskoi Gubernskoi Kommissii, sec. 3, pt. 1 of TGK, p. 32; Trudy Kovenskoi Gubernskoi Kommissii, sec. 2, pt. 1 of TGK, pp. 13, 22, 30; Trudy Podolskoi Gubernskoi Kommissii, sec. 10, pt. 2 of TGK, pp. 125, 127; Vilna Trudy, p. 3.

34. Kherson Trudy, pp. 1233-35, 1242.

35. For examples see Gradovsky, Zamechaniia, pp. 90, 152-53; Grodno Trudy, pp. 26, 30, 32; Kherson Trudy, pp. 1106, 1108; Trudy Kievskoi Gubernskoi Kommissii, sec. 3, pt. 2 of TGK, p. 410; Kovno Trudy, pp. 13, . 21-23, 30; Podolia Trudy, p. 127; Vilna Trudy, pp. 3-4; Vysshaia Kommissiia, Obshchaia zapiska, pp. 199-200.

36. For examples see Ekaterinoslav Trudy, 251, 268, 271-72, 276; Trudy Khar'kovskoi Gubernskoi Kommissii, sec. 1, pt. 2 of TGK, pp. 97-98; Trudy Odesskoi Gradonachal'stvennoi Kommissii, sec. 8, . pt. 2 of TGK, pp. 996, 1053-54, 1069-71; Podolia Trudy, pp. 88-92, 113; Trudy Poltavskoi Gubernskoi Kommissii, sec. 7, pt. 2 of TGK, pp. 860, 870-71, 921, 964.

37. For examples see Trudy Bessarabskoi Gubernskoi Kommissii, sec. 6, pt. 2 of TGK, pp. 735-36, 777; Ekaterinoslav Trudy, p. 238; Gradovsky, Zamechaniia, pp. 90-93; Grodno Trudy, pp. 26, 30; Kherson Trudy, p. 1106; Kovno Trudy, pp. 13, 22, 30; Vilna Trudy, pp. 138, 163.

38. Peskovsky, Rokovoe nedorazumenie, pp. 389-90; Subbotin, Obshchaia zapiska, p. 136.

39. Dubnow, History of the Jews, 2: 377, 419-21; Ents. slovar', 30: 461; Evr. ents., 1: 838; Gradovsky, Zamechaniia, p. 200; Joseph, Jewish Immigration, pp. 64, 68, 82-83; Rogger, “Tsarist Policy,” pp. 29-30.

40. Examples of this negative view of the Russian people abound in the sources which reveal the antiemancipation officials’ views.

41. Gradovsky, Zamechaniia, pp. 205-6, 220-23, 229; Kiev Trudy, pp. 421, 424-25; Mogilev Trudy, pp. 10-12; Rogger, “Jewish Policy,” p. 50; Rogger, “Tsarist Policy,” p. 30; Vilna Trudy, pp. 9-10, 96-97, 100, 115; Vitebsk Trudy, pp. 41-42, 55-56; Vysshaia Kommissiia, Obshchaia zapiska, p. 24.

42. Gradovsky, Zamechaniia, p. 259; Kiev Trudy, pp. 421, 426; Peskovsky, Rokovoc nedorazumenie, pp. 389-90; Subbotin, Obshchaia zapiska, pp. 136, 140-41. For proemancipationists labeling the policy of expulsion “nonsense” see: Gradovsky, Zamechaniia, pp. 18-19, 198; Leskov, N. S., Evrei v Rossii: Neskol'ko zamechanii po evreiskomu voprosu (Petrograd, 1919), p. 26 Google Scholar; Peskovsky, Rokovoe nedorazumenie, p. 388; Subbotin, Obshchaia zapiska, p. 198; Vitte, Vospominaniia, 1: 188-89; Witte, Memoirs, p. 376. All the factors listed above, along with the state’s traditional unwillingness to loosen the reins on society, even by granting the right of free movement across the borders, must have played a part in deflecting the government away from the more moderate policy of legalized, regulated, and unhindered emigration. See Rogger, “Tsarist Policy,” pp. 27, 33-35.

43. Byrnes, Pobedonostsev, p. 207. Also see Rogger, “Jewish Policy,” p. 48.

44. Among antiemancipation officials see Ekaterinoslav Trudy, p. 359; Kherson Trudy, pp. 1233-34; Kovno Trudy, p. 22. Among proemancipationists see Poltava Trudy, pp. 953-54; Peskovsky, Rokovoe nedorazumenie, p. 391.

45. See especially the antiemancipationists in Kherson Trudy, p. 1227, and the proemancipationists in Vysshaia Kommissiia, Obshchaia zapiska, p. 286. For antiemancipation officials see also Judith Ellen Cohen, “Count Dmitrii Andreevich Tolstoi as Minister of the Interior, 1882-1889” (M.A. thesis, Columbia University, 1961), pp. 54-55, 67-68; Ekaterinoslav Trudy, pp. 340-42, 359, 388; Gradovsky, Zamechaniia, pp. 191, 230; Grodno Trudy, pp. 32-33; Kharkov Trudy, pp. 49, 97-98; Kherson Trudy, pp. 1227, 1231-34; Kiev Trudy, pp. 412-13; Kovno Trudy, p. 21 ; Krasnyi-Admoni, Materialy, 2: 371; Odessa Trudy, pp. 995, 1059-62, 1069, 1073; Podolia Trudy, pp. 88-92; Vilna Trudy, pp. 6-8, 13-15, 22, 27-28, 127; Volynia Trudy, pp. 564-65, 615-16; Vysshaia Kommissiia, Obshchaia zapiska, pp. 90-91; Obzor postanovlenii Vysshci Kommissii po peresmotru deistvuiushchikh o evreiakh v Imperii sakonov (1883-1888): Prilozhenie k “obshchei zapiske” Vysshei Kommissii ([St. Petersburg?], 1888), p. 158; Judith Cohen Zacek, “Champion of the Past: Count D. A. Tolstoi as Minister of the Interior, 1882-1889,” The Historian, 30 (May 1968): 419-20, 424.

For proemancipation officials see also Ekaterinoslav Trudy, p. 303; Gradovsky, Zamechaniia, pp. 23, 33-34, 47-49, 151-52, 165, 199, 230-34, 242-44, 252-56, 259-61; Leskov, Evrei v Rossii, pp. 74-76, 96; Peskovsky, Rokozoe nedorazumenie, pp. vi-vii, 380, 391; Poltava Trudy, pp. 789-90, 953-57; Trudy Tavricheskoi Gubemskoi Kommissii, sec. 4, pt. 2 of TGK, pp. 516-17; Vilna Trudy, pp. 186, 188; Vitebsk Trudy, p. 13; Vysshaia Kommissiia, Obshchaia zapiska, pp. 252, 264, 274-76, 286; Vysshaia Kommissiia, Obzor postanovlenii, pp. 34-36, 57-58, 62-63, 68-69, 133.