W85 ,Mr ' CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 924 082 446 364 i DATE :due l'DP^-4- mf-wp juil^^gHII m)t , ^^^68 Si 19 ililAY 3 9 'l siTii-^^iinTir" d)N,,&. ^-?ee^- film •«' *> 1 1 '^^^ ^W^M' ! 'i 5 ft i. .- fl — JjJAHrS- Srirti iJS -¥6-M^ -if;- /IfiAr ^ ^iSS.^ E»m-f»»?w;??^ SW" fe»*i- ^ "tttpvpl i JUL ^^ ^996 i Mflfl?--^' ' l,UWt» PRINTED IN U.S.A. Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://archive.org/details/cu31924082446364 '\^F I N LA N D ':■ .VohfJa o so too aoo English f^/hs o so loo lOO 300 Russian VeTsts MAP OF THE JEWISH PALE OF SETTLEMENT AND RUSSIAN POLAND Practically all the Jews in Russia— 95 per cent, or even more— are confined to the fifteen govern- ments of the Pale and the ten governments of Poland, which altogether constitute only one twenty- third part of the Russian Empire. The vast majority of them are still further restricted to the towns and townlets of the Pale, an area forming a two-thousandth fraction of Russian territory, although in point of actual numbers the ratio of the Jewish population of the Empire is to the Russian as one is to twenty-four. THE LEGAL SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS IN RUSSIA. A SURVEY OF THEIR PRESENT SITUATION, AND A SUMMARY OF LAWS. EDITED BY LUCIEN WOLF; WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY PROFESSOR A. V. DICEY, M.A., K.C., Hon. D.C.L. T. FISHER UNWIN, LONDON: ADELPHI TERRACE. 1912. ' r Mi ^f v:<>s PREFATORY NOTE. The following statement of tlie legal disabilities and sufferings of the Jews of Russia has been prepared under the auspices of leading Jewish Societies in this country and the Continent which concern them- selves with the political and social welfare of their co-religionists in lands where they are still the victims of religious intolerance. For magnitude and gloom the tragical situation it describes has no parallel in history. Some six millions of human beings are unceas- ingly subjected to a State-directed torture which is both destructive and demoralising, and constitutes at once a crime against humanity and an international perplexity. On behalf of the Jewish Societies I have to thank Professor Dicey for his eloquent and luminous summing up of the case of the Russian Jews which he has permitted us to prefix to this book. LUCIEN WOLF. London, April, 1912. Y CONTENTS. MAP OF THE PALE OF SETTLEMENT AND POLAND, Facing Title Page PREFATORY NOTE BY LUCIEN WOLF Facing Contents INTRODUCTION BY PROFESSOR A. V. DICEY, M.A., K.C., Hon. D.C.L. Chap. Page L HOW JEWS ARE TREATED IN THE RUSSIAN ARMY... 1 IL EXCLUSIONS FROM THE STATE SERVICE 9 III. DISABILITIES IN THE SERVICE OF MUNICIPALITIES AND OTHER CORPORATIONS 12 IV. RESTRICTION OF JEWISH EDUCATION 15 V LIMITATIONS IN THE PRACTICE OF THE LIBERAL PROFESSIONS 21 VI. LIMITATIONS OF THE RIGHT TO OWN PROPERTY ... 23 VII. RESTRICTIONS OF THE RIGHT OF RESIDENCE 29 VIII. THE GROWTH OF PAUPERISM AMONG RUSSIAN JEWS 55 IX. THE PRESENT ERA OF LEGALISED PERSECUTION ... 58 APPENDIX: CHRONOLOGICAL SUMMARY OF THE LEGAL RESTRICTIONS IMPOSED UPON THE JEWS IN RUSSIA SINCE THE YEAR 1882 83 INDEX 99 INTRODUCTION. This book ought to command the attention of all Englishmen. It sets forth the gross and patent injustice endured by Russian Jews under the government of the Tsar. This systematic ill-usage of the Tsar's Jewish subjects now — in 1912 — finds no parallel in any other great Christian State of the modern world ; such, for example, as England, France, Italy, Germany, or the American Commonwealth. The wrong wrought upon the Jews under the law and still more under the administrative system of Russia, is all but incredible to Englishmen. Hosts of Russians, as we know, are highly civiUsed and highly humane men ; they are men of eminent talents, who would be the glory of any country in the world. iMore than one Russian writer, moreover, exerts wherever literature is read an immense and deserved influence. It is therefore difficult for us to believe that a State distinguished by such illustrious citizens is the home, as regards at any rate Russian Jews, of cruel despotism. Bur m plain truth, the Russian Empire is not a wholly civilised country. Russian law and Russian officials apply to the treatment of Jews methods of barbarism or of medifevalism, and these methods originate, partly, at any rate, in the fact that many of the inhabitants of the Russian Empire, though, as it is reported, and can well be believed, good-natured and kindly in the main to their neighbours, still look upon the Jews much in the light in which the Jews were regarded during the Middle Ages not only by the people but also by the statesmen of Europe. What may be the precise aim of Russian pohcy in regard to Russian Jews it is unnecessary for us to determine : the effect of this pohcy is absolutely certain. Russian statesmanship forces Russian Jews to make a choice between exile on the one hand and on the other hand either ruin or (what is still more terrible) the permanent degradation of every Jew who inhabits the Russian Empire. This statement, based on a careful study of this treatise, expresses my deliberate conviction. My aim is to justify this conviction by calling attention to three dominant results, the certainty of which is established by the " Legal Sufferings of the Jews in Russia." First. — Russian Jews are deprived of one of the most elementary civil rights enjoyed as a rule by the subjects even of despotic monarchs, namely, the right of choosing in what part of the country to which they belong they and their families shall fix their dweUing place.' About 95 per cent, of Russian Jews are compelled to dwell within the so-called Pale of Settlement.- This Pale makes up about a twenty-third part of the Tsar's dominions. It is a huge Ghetto. The Pale originated mainly in the fact that, as Russia expanded in size, she annexed countries containing a large Jewish population. These branches of the Jewish race could not be destroyed, but they could be shut out from elementary rights of citizenship. An Englishman, however, naturally supposes that within the Pale a Jew may choose his home for himself and is there left more or less free to develop his natural talents and pursue his own hfe undisturbed by any special restrictions. This supposition is, however, a delusion. Russian poUcy expels, or tries to expel, Jews from every village or country district of the Pale, and forces them to reside in some town in the Pale. Since 1882 aU fresh settlements of Jews in a village within the Pale have been prohibited. Only those who before 1882 had been settled in villages are allowed to remain there. A Jew may not even migrate from one village to another. A temporary discontinuance of residence in a village deprives him of his privilege of residing therein. The officials and the police take advantage of every opportunity of expelling a Jew from village life. Jews dweUing in villages have found a difficulty in obtaining ground there even for cemeteries. Places again, which have always been considered as town- lets have suddenly been declared to be villages, and therefore turned into places where a Jew has no right to reside. In addition to these untoward anomalies, every one of which tells against the Russian Jew, the area of the Pale itself has occasionally been curtailed. Thus, in 1887, the in- dustrial district of Rostoff was cut off from the Pale, and a few years later the health resort of Yalta was suddenly declared outside the Pale. The rights of Jews in the Pale, therefore, have gradually been reduced to uncertain privileges dependent mainly upon the wiU of the police. The con- sequence of this state of things has been to drive into the large towns ' See Restrictions of the Right of Residence, Chap. VII., p. 29, post. 2 " A portion of Russia in which Jews are allowed to reside. Unlike other Russian sub- jects, the Je^vish inhabitants do not generally possess the natural right of every citizen to live unrestrictedly in any place in the Empire. Furthermore, they are permitted to leave the Pale of Settlement — that is, to move to another place for permanent or for temporary residence — only under certain conditions defined by law." See Jewish Encyclopesdia, ixf, p. 468. of the Pale all Jews who do not emigrate from Russia. Note, too, a fact which should never be forgotten, that the restrictions, indirect or direct, of the right or rather the power of Jews, e.g., to obtain education, or to pursue Hberal professions, or to hold landed property and thp like, apply as well to the inhabitants of the Pale as to Jews hving outside it. Four classes, however, of Jews possess (nominally, at any rate) the privilege of residing in any part of the Russian Empire. These privileged classes are ; (i) Discharged soldiers i^ (2) Graduates or students of uni- \'ersities and institutions of learning ; - (3) Merchants of the first Guild ; ' (4) Mechanics, e.g., distillers, brewers, and artisans generally.* If these four privileged classes had in reaUty a free and unfettered choice of residence their privileges might considerably alleviate the sufferings of Russian Jewry ; though, in any case, the number of privileged persons does not make up much more than 5 per cent, of Russian Jews. But this privilege of free residence has, as regards each of the above four classes; been in fact so curtailed as to amount to almost nothing, and sometimes to be turned from a blessing into a curse. Two illustrations wiU establish the literal truth of an assertion which sounds hke a paradox. Take first the position of the discharged Jewish soldiers. The Russian army is raised by conscription. The Jews bear, and have borne for years, in proportion to their numbers, an unduly heavy burden in supplpng soldiers for the Tsar." " Until very recently Russian Jews furnished 20 to 35 per cent, more soldiers than their due proportion."" This injustice has been caused or facilitated by the neglect of the Government or its officials to take any account of the immense emigration of Jews to foreign countries, and also by the omission to keep any proper registration of Jewish deaths. To this undue burden of military service must be added the systematic exclusion of every Jew in the Russian Army from every position therein worth having, as well as from every prospect of promotion. In these circumstances, assuredly, no class of Russians can have so strong a claim to choose their home in any part of Russia after having performed their duties as soldiers and obtained a rightful discharge. It is See pp. 31-33. P°^t- ^ See pp. 31, 34-37, post. •' See pp. 31, 33, 34, post. ■■ See pp. 31, 37-40, post. 5 See pp. 32, 33, post. c " According to the official statistics of 1897, the Jews in Russia form 4-13 per cent, of the whole population ; hence , in keeping with this proportion, out of the total contingent of recruits for 1902 and 1903, numbering 318,745 and- 320,823 respectively, they should have furnished . . 13,164 and 13,250 ; whereas in fact they supplied 18,014 and 17,941 soldiers. Not only during these two years, but also in the whole period from 1886 to 1904, did the Russian Jews fulfil their mihtary duties to a much greater extent than the rest of the population." Chap. I., p. 2, post. with indignant amazement that an Enghshman learns that this privilege of free residence is confined to so-called "Nicholas" soldiers and their descendants, and that " Nicholas " soldiers, for this pm'pose, means only those soldiers who have served in the army prior to certain regulations of Nor is the privilege of free domicile worth much to their descendants. For, as decided in 1894, it belongs only to the descendants of those "Nicholas" soldiers who had on their discharge settled outside the Pale, and had regis- tered their children at the place where such soldiers had taken up their residence. The Jews able to claim the one special reward offered to them for faithful service in the armies of the Tsar, are, therefore, rapidly d3dng out. Nor do the grievances of Jewish soldiers end here. They are during the very time of their service stiU, in a sense, tied to the Pale. They must during leave of absence return to the Pale.- Not many years have passed since a provincial governor, one Dumbadse, tried to expel all the Jewish soldiers of the Vilna infantry regiment whilst it was in garrison at Yalta, then declared to be outside the Pale.-' This was possibly the freak of a mad fanatic in a time of revolutionary disturbance. But it is highly characteristic of the position of a Jewish soldier whilst serving in the ranks of the Russian Army. Take another illustration of the mode in which the nominal privilege of free residence is in reality cut down. No one of the privileged classes gains, according to our author,' so much of residential liberty as the gradu- ates or students of universities or other institutions of learning. But their privilege, too, is greatly curtailed. The graduates or students of foreign universities cannot avail themselves of this right. Then, the astounding principle of the so-called " percentage rule " hinders scores of Jews from obtaining education at the places of study where this privilege of free resi- dence is to be obtained. The meaning of this so-called principle has been thus explained by one of my friends, well acquainted with the subject. It means that of the persons who attend a given university, school, or institu- tion, only a certain percentage must be Jews. We may understand its operation if we imagine the effect of an Act of Parhament which laid down that not more than 5 per cent, of the undergraduates matriculating at Oxford or Cambridge should be Jews. This principle is invariably apphed to the hurt and not in any case to the advantage of 'a Jew. Thus, owing to the number of Jews inhabiting the Pale, they may at some places form a ' See p. 32, post. '^ See p. 33, post. ■ See p. 70, post. ' See p. 34, post. very large proportion, or even a maj ority, of the inhabitants ; but they gain no advantage from this fact. Instances have been known in the Pale of schools, maintained largely by Jewish money, where the Jews have, in order to get one other Jew into the school, paid the fees of, say, three additional Christian students, with the object, I presume, of redressing the percentage. In other ways the privilege of free settlement granted to a Jewish student or graduate has been restricted. Thus it has now been limited to the place where he is actually studying or has graduated. The curtailment of the right of free residence has fallen with special severity upon Jewesses. Thus a material restriction upon their privileges was introduced by the police department. " Because certificated private teachers of the female sex had not been specially mentioned in the' law, they forfeited, from 1882 onwards, the universal right of domicile which until then they had enjoyed without interference." Indeed, the privileges of women have, in relation to all the privileged classes, been ever3^where cut down. A Jewish wife enj oys the domihciary freedom (if any) of her husband, but it is a question whether a wife enj oys this privilege when she does not live in the same place as her husband, or whether the widow of a person who has qualified for the domiciliary right by education, can stay outside the Pale after his death. Jewish prostitutes are the only class to whom the whole Empire is open. Jewish girls, it is said, have been driven to accept this hideous privilege in order to acquire the domiciliary freedom necessary to their career as teachers or students, and have taken the " yellow ticket," which is the badge of degradation, and Jewish girls have been cynically banished on the formal ground that instead of abandoning themselves to vice, they were making a living by teaching or by attendance at lectures.' It is unnecessary for my purpose to foUow further the way in which the privilege conceded to merchants and artisans of residing in any part of Russia is, in practice, nullified. It should be noted, however, that artisans are practically in the hands of the police. The limitations and exceptions by which their right of free residence is limited may at any moment involve them in a breach of the law. They have neither the power nor the money necessary for the defence of their limited privilege. It is necessary, as our author himself has felt, to insist at some length upon the denial to a Russian Jew of a right to choose the place in which he may fix a home for himself and his family. This gross outrage upon in- dividual freedom is the very basis of Russian misgovernment ; but, though ' See p. 41, post. it is the foundation, it is nothing- like the whole of the wrongs inflicted upon Russian Jews. Secondly. ~K Russian Jew is in all directions deprived of other rights conceded to a citizen of every large and civilised State. It would be vain to attempt more than a summary of some of his disabilities. Those readers — and I trust they may be many — who wish for more precise information, will find it in the pages of this book. A Russian Jew is, for example, all but excluded from the service of the State,^ and this in a country where a huge bureaucracy exerts an authority utterly unknown to lands such as England or the United States. He can, again, neither vote for a municipal councillor, nor can he be elected to that office. - Within the Pale, and apparently within the Pale alone, a governor may at his pleasure appoint Jewish members of a municipal council ; but Jews must never exceed one-tenth of the councillors. No Jew may in any way be a member of the municipal corporations of St. Petersburg, Moscow, Kieff, etc., and the whole pohcy of the Government is directed to the exclu- sion of Jews from municipal government, even where a large portion of the population is Jewish.'' There are large limitations of his right to own property in land, hence the curious and disastrous result that he is con- stantly excluded as a Jew from many corporations which own land, or desire to own land.' Some liberal professions are nominally open to Jewish talent or ambition f but a Jew suffers from the great difficulty of obtaiiung education, either in the best schools or in the universi- ties. He is at each moment met by the strange " percentage rule," and from many educational institutions he is entirely excluded. From 1889 onwards a regulation has existed that no Jew may be called to the Bar without a special permission from the Minister of Justice. For fifteen years no Minister granted this permission. At the beginning of the constitutional era, 1904, an exception was made in favour of a number of assistant advocates. The appointment of Jewish barristers has since then stopped. It is now rumoured that the matter may be settled by introducing the prin- ciple of the percentage rule. Meanwhile, Jews are by law forbidden to give instruction of any kind in non-Jewish families." The rule applies to women 1 See Chap. II., post. " See Chap. III., post. 3 See Chap. III., post. ■ ■« See Chap. VI., pp. 23-28, post. 6 See Chap. V., pp. 21, 22, post. e " According to the law, Jews Uving in non- Jewish families must not give private tuition. Generally speaking, this prohibition can be enforced only to a very Umited extent, owing to the difficulty in the way of a comprehensive supervision. Even during the strictest re'gi>»« young Jews of both sexes have managed to give lessons in non- Jewish families, often in those of highly placed officials. Now and then, however, the authorities suddenly remember as well as to men, but they have often acted as teachers in the families of highly placed officials. Then suddenly the authorities call the law to mind, and a campaign begins against the employment of Jewish teachers. Here we have an example of the third, and, in reality, the most grievous, of the wrongs inflicted upon the Jews in Russia. Thirdly. — ^The Jews of Russia are subject to the capricious despotism of the Tsar, of his Ministers and, above aU, of the police. Everything in regard to the Russian Jews is full of uncertainty, '' arbitrariness, and oppression. The severity of regular law is, in the long run, preferable to the rule of capricious good nature. The Tsars have changed, and may any day change, their whole policy with regard to their Jewish subjects. Alexander II. exhibited towards them a friendly disposition. He admitted Jews to the limited privilege of residence without the Pale ; he extended freedom of residence through- out Russia to Jews who were university graduates, wholesale merchants, manufacturers and artisans. Though to the mass of the Jews the reforms of 1859, of 1861, of 1865, gave little rehef, his Jewish subjects still look upon him with gratitude as a liberator. His assassination led to a complete change of policy. The "May Laws " of 1882 gave expression within the Pale to the attempt to repress the Jewish population. These laws were passed as mere temporary regulations. They are stiU in force. To them are due most of the severe rules which destroy Jewish freedom of settlement even within the Pale. The treatment of the Jews, again, has wavered between the plan of inducing or compelling them to learn the Russian language, and the opposite plan of keeping them in ignorance of Russian. Ministers have almost unlimited power of interference with Jewish liberty or privileges. Ministerial decrees may change, and have changed, the limits of the Pale ; such decrees may at any moment alter the terms of residence outside the Pale, i.e., within the interior provinces. Practically the daily Hfe of a Russian Jew may depend upon the good-will or the Ul-wUl of the police. Thousands of Jews, for instance, residing outside the Pale, have a doubtful claim, or, from a legal point of view, this prohibition, and a canapaign against Jewish teachers ensues. Then many headmasters in particular — sometimes in consequence of pressure irom above, sometimes on their own initiative — ^find themselves compelled to impress upon their scholars that they must receive no private lessons from Jews after school hours, such as are often given to backward pupils. In some circles this procedure apphes even to friendly assistance in the preparation of the next day's work." (See p. 22, post.) 7 See especially Appendix, pp. 83-97, post, for the endless Umitations and restrictions imposed upon the action of the Jews, and note that the administration of the law depends in reality upon the police. no claim at all to this privilege. Each of these men is at the mercy of police- men. He may be suddenly sent back to the Pale and be prosecuted for having resided without the Pale. This state of things gives to any police- man unlimited power of oppression. One needs no statistics, though they are easily to be found, to prove that the opportunity for tyranny gives rise to corruption and extortion. Every Russian reformer knows, as did Stolypin, that the first step towards removing the grievances of the Jews must, in fact, be to provide for every Jew living outside the Pale security of residence. Yet nothing has been done to relieve such men from the fear of expulsion and punishment. Their liberty, their fortunes, the unity of their family life, their chances of success in any liberal profession, the possibility of carrying on a lawful trade, depend at every moment upon the favour of some policeman. Can anyone believe that tyranny will not constantly be averted by subservience and bribery? Nor has the constitu- tional, or revolutionary, movement, dating from 1904, brought any material benefit to the Jews, who hailed it with dehght. The revolution which promised liberty has, under the influence of re- action, been transformed into a new era of persecution. From 1904 to 1907 some serious attempts were made to improve the position of the Jews. The Stolypin Circular of 22nd May, 1907, ordered that the expulsion of the Jews settled illegally without the Pale should cease. This ministerial ordinance contained certain restrictions as to the Jews settled illegally outside the Pale, but, by a monstrous and characteristic perversion, these conditions have been construed as applying to all Jews settled outside the Pale,and,theref ore,have been used to invahdate the right to free settlement which had undoubtedly been legally acquired. Hence the freedom of every Jew not living in the Pale has been menaced. Men whose title to free residence was legally unassailable have been expelled from the interior provinces, and expelled at short notice, because they were " pohticaUy unreliable." In Kieff, for example, where the Jews were to be reckoned by thousands, the poUce ran amok with their nocturnal raids into the houses of well-known and reputable citizens and hunted after " illegal " shopmen in shops, and hounded particular persons or groups of persons out of the town. In 1910 the police issued orders for the expulsion of 1,150 famihes in Kieff itself, and 238 families in the suburb of Demijevka, and in this case the poHce acted under instructions from St. Petersburg. Note too, that in some cases governors of provinces excited the general popu- lation against the Jews. But it is useless to trouble readers with details they are to be found in plenty throughout the " Legal Sufferings of the Jews in Russia," and anyone who cares to know how tremendous and also how ignominious are these sufferings at the present time, should read and re-read Chapter IX., which describes " the present era of legahsed persecution." ' My object is not to provide a Ust of horrors, but to justify my general charges against the whole system under which the Jewish subjects of the Tsar are misgoverned and degraded. yiy end has now been accomplished. The Jews of Russia may, as I have stated, escape oppression by voluntary exile. The statistics, imperfect as they must be, of Jewish emigration from Russia afford sufficient proof of the truth of this statement.^ The Russian Jews who cling to their native country are on the road to ruin. It hardly needs our author's investigation into the increasing poverty of his fellow countrymen to prove that this allegation is founded on fact, for every restriction on Jewish liberty must, from the nature of things, be an interference with the chance of pros- perity. The Russian Jew is deprived of that freedom of movement which is absolutely essential to the welfare of artisans or smaU traders. The liberal professions cannot, as a rule, even where the Jews are not actually excluded from them by law, be successfully pursued by men whose power to obtain a liberal education is cut short by such a system as that embodied in the " percentage rule," as well as by endless restrictions of the free exercise of their talents. Add to all this that, while the peasants of Russia are a good natured people and in general not malevolent towards their Jewish neighbours, yet they are notoriously liable to mediaeval fanaticism, which gives rise to occasional massacres of a class whose rehgion they abhor. Nor can it be denied that the rulers of Russia have at times stimu- lated rather than repressed the violence of the mob. I have asserted, and do confidently assert, that the worst evil of Russian despotism is that it threatens the Jewish subjects of the Tsar with moral degradation. The existence of the Pale of Settlement; the denial to Russian Jews of the ordinary rights conceded by every civilised government to all its subjects; above aU, the absolute dependence of the Russian Jews on the varying caprice of every person in power, from the Tsar down to the lowest of police constables, degrades, and must degrade, the victims of tyranny. This is a matter on which, if one speaks at aU, it is a duty to speak with plainness. The heroic endurance of persecutions and iU-usage lasting for centuries is the highest glory of Judaism, as the infliction thereof is one of the most painful aspects, not, indeed, of Christianity as taught by Jesus, but of the actual history of Christendom. But no race and no body of men ever ' See p. 58, post. - See p. 5, post, and compare Jewish EncyclopcBdia X., p. 547. as a whole lives up to the level of heroism or martyrdom. The strange discussion of the horrible question,' whether baptism shaJl in Russia save a Jew from the disabilities to which he is there subject, tells its own tale. It tells us that in Russia, as elsewhere, tyranny is producing the most terrible of its hateful results ; despotic power first degrades its victims and then defends its own existence by the plea that its victims are unworthy of freedom or of j ustice. Shall despotism, combined with persecution, not meet with the solemn protest of Enghshmen ? This is the question which " The Legal Sufferings of the Jews in Russia " submits to the consideration of England. She is bound to give an attentive hearing to this inquiry. The persecution of Russian Jews is not a matter which affects Russia alone. It means the compulsory emigration to other lands of thousands of im- poverished and uneducated men and women. It means, therefore, the imposition upon the most highly civihsed countries of a burden of ignorance and poverty which ought not to be imposed upon them. This burden may, in the case of England, be heavy enough to render futile all the sacrifices made (byway of poor relief, of old age pensions, and of insurance against disease) with a view to improving the physical and moral position of her own population. But persecution in Russia works even worse results than this, for it is the revival of a moral enormity which it was supposed had been banished from the world. It is assuredly the concern of every civUised State that the slow and laborious progress of mankind should suffer no retrogression. England has the right to denounce a new outbreak of persecution, just as she would have the right to protest against the renewal in any European country of judicial torture. Every state of the civilised world has authority to guard by way of denunciation, if not otherwise, against the arrest of civilisation. A. V. DICEY. ' See p. 78, post. // we survey the endless list of exceptional laws and restrictive enactments applying to the Jezi's in Russia — they have already furnished the material for' voluminous codes of laws — we find that the most decisive measures relate to : — /. The Army. II. The service of the State. III. The service of corporations. IV Education. V. The liberal professions. VI. The right to possess property. VII. The right of residence. In the following pages these disabilities are set forth and discussed in this order, chapter and verse for the various legal restrictions since 1882 being given in the Appendix. Legal Sufferings of the Jews in Russia. —^^v-^r* CHAPTER I. HO\Y JEWS ARE TREATED IN THE RUSSIAN ARMY. In the life of the Russian Jews mihtary service for well-nigh a century- has formed a chapter of the gravest injustice. The duties which they are called upon to perform far exceed the number which ought rightfully to fall to their share, while the Army as a profession is in all its branches practically closed to them. Their exclusion from the commissioned ranks has not only been de facto carried out, but it has also become part and parcel of the law of the land. Since the year 1887 no one-year volunteer can even be admitted to the examination for officers. The law not only shuts out Jews from all the military schools, but even debars them from attaining the rank of sergeant-major. In addition to these restrictions, there are a number of others which dog the footsteps of the Jewish private, humiliating him in the eyes of his comrades and stamping him as an inferior. Thus, no Jew can be enrolled in the Guards or in the Navy, the frontier or quarantine service, the gendarmerie or the commissariat department, or even as a military clerk. Since 1889 a Jewish soldier may no longer conduct a military band, while the musicians can be recruited from Jews only to the extent of one-third at the very most. A substantial proportion of these restrictions dates from the eighties of last century, i.e.- — from a period when the attitude of the Russian Government towards Jewish soldiers constantly assumed a more insulting and spiteful form. Thus, in the year 1888, the General Staff issued an order by special circular that, in the event of mobilisation, Jewish reservists who had qualified as apothe- 2 LEGAL SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS IN RUSSIA caries should not be appointed as Army dispensers. This circular was then passed into law, it being expressly stipulated that nominations to apothecaries' posts should be confined to vacancies caused by actual warfare. Until recently it has frequently been maintamed that the motives for these restrictions were to be attributed to the fact that the Jews did not contribute a sufficient number of soldiers to the Russian Army. This statement, however, is nothing more than a malicious fabrication, as has since been proved from actual statistics. Indeed, the very contrary is the case, for in consequence of a number of rigorous special provisions, and of the artifices of local authorities, the levies on the Jewish population of Russia fall numerically in a much higher ratio than upon its other citizens, and in spite of aU statements to the contrary it remains a fact that unto very recently Jews furnished 20 to 35 per cent, more soldiers than their due proportion. If, for example, we take the statistics for the two important years immediately preceding the Russo-Japanese war — the years 1902 and 1903 — ^we find that instead of their proper proportion of 13,164 and 13,250 respectively, the Russian Jews actually supphed 18,014 and 17,941 soldiers. Whoever wishes to corroborate this statement has only to work out the following simple arithmetical problem. According to the official statistics of 1897, the Jews in Russia form 4.13 per cent, of the whole population, hence, m keeping with this proportion, out of the total contingent of recruits for 1902 and 1903, numbering 318,745 and 320,823 respectively, they should have furnished the numbers given above — i.e., 13,164 and 13,250. Not only during these two years but also in the whole period from 1886 to 1904 did the Russian Jews fulfil their military duties to a much greater extent than the rest of the population. No less clearly does this fact appear if we take into consideration the number of Jewish troops as established by the statistics of 1897, There were then 1,023,378 non-Jewish and 53,195 Jewish soldiers serving with the colours. On whatever principle the comparison is instituted, the heavier burden wUl always be shown to fall upon the Jews. According to the official proportion of 4.13 per cent., for 1,023,378 non-Jews there should have been only 44,084 Jews— i.e., 9,111 fewer than was actually the case. This disproportionate burden of 20.6 per cent, is raised to 21.9 per cent, if we further take into account the proportion, in 1897, of rnale Jews aged 20 to 29 to the non-Jews of the same age— namely, 415,194 to 9,729,872. In other words, out of every hundred Jews aged 20 to 29, 12.8 soldiers were recruited, and from every hundred non-Jews an average of 10.5. If. LEGAL SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS IN RUSSIA however, this average must be left out of our calculations, and no account taken of the nationalities who, generally speaking, supply no soldiers to the Russian Army — namely, the Mohammedans of the Caucasus and Central Asia — then we have this result : that, while in 1897 the Jewish population® with its 415,194 males, aged 20 to 29, was represented in the Army by 53.195 soldiers, i.e., 12.8 per cent., the rest of the population, numbering 8,746,197 males of a like age (after deducting the nationahties exempt from military service), supplied only 1,023,378 soldiers, or 11. 7 per cent. It cannot, therefore, be denied that after making aJl possible deductions the number of Jewish soldiers exceeded their due proportion of 48,578 by at least 4,617. In some governments this anomaly assumes formidable proportions. For instance, in Vilna the Jews form 12.3 per cent, of the total male population, but in 1891 and 1892 out of 51,575 soldiers they furnished 8,871, i.e., 17.2 per cent. In 1903, the year before the declaration of war, the state of affairs in the various governments was as follows : — Government. Percentage of Jews to whole Total Number of Number of Jewish Percentage of Population. Recruits. Recruits. Jewish Recruits. Bessarabia 11.63 5,844 585 10.01 \\'arsaw 17.48 4>936 942 19.08 Vilna (!) 12.42 4,639 739 15-93 Vitebsk 11.29 4,526 661 14.60 \'olhynia 12.77 9,305 1,494 16.06 Grodno (') 16.61 4,698 1,032 21.97 Ekaterinoslav 473 5,734 284 4-95 Kalisz . . 8.34 2,923 257 8.79 ' Kieff(!) 11.87 11,447 1,911 16.69 Kovno 13.25 3,606 495 13-73 Courland 7-45 1,665 103 6.19 Kielce . . 10.86 2,704 412 15-24 Lomza (!) 14.90 1,819 409 22.48 Lublin (!) 12.74 3,988 697 17.48 Minsk (!) 15-59 7,157 1,397 19-52 *According to the census of 1897, the latest statistics available, the number of Jews inhabiting the Russian Empire was 5,189,400, or 4.13 per cent, of the total population. The percentage of Jews now living in the Pale of Settlement and Poland is 95, as against 5 per cent. in the remainder of European Russia and the Asiatic dominions. LEGAL SUFFERINGS OP THE JEWS IN RUSSIA Government. Percentage of Jews to whole Population. Total Number of Recruits. Number of Jewish Recruits. Percentage of Jewish Recruits. Mohileff 11.77 6,116 920 15-04 Petrikoff 1572 3,868 560 14.48 Hock .. 8.95 1,614 192 11.89 Podolia (!) 11-93 10,028 1,463 14.58 Poltava 3-93 8,742 359 4.II Radom (!) 1344 2,910 537 18.45 Suvalki 9.90 1,496 129 8.62 ^Siedlce (!) 15-15 2,497 599 23-99 Taurida 4.12 3,988 156 3-91 Kherson 12.02 6,675 ,807 12.09 Chernigoff 4.92 6,789 341 5.02 Total for the Poland, & C "Pale," ourland II-5 129,714 17,281 13-32 The numerical proportion of Jews serving in the Army diminished only with the outbreak of the latest pogroms and the immense increase in emigration,* together with the growing numbers of conscripts generaUJ^ Nevertheless, of recent years in the Pale of Settlement! alone they have furnished 17,000 to 18,000 soldiers annually, in spite of the huge emigration^ which far exceeds the preponderance of births over deaths. If the question is asked : how does it come about that the Jews in * In 1902 the emigration of Russian Jews to the United States amounted to 37,846 per- sons, and in the succeeding years the numbers were as follow :— Year. Number. Year. Number. 1903 .. .. 47.689 1907 .. .. 114,932 1904 - • - - 77.544 1908 . . . . 71,978 1905 - ■ - - 92,388 1909 . . . . 57,551 1906 - - - - 125.234 1910 . . . . 84,260 The emigrants to other countries ought, however, to be added and these figures increased by 15 to 20 per cent. Thus in the last decade 50,000 Jews emigrated to Argentina alone. t The Pale of Jewish Settlement, which was established in 1791, after the first partition of the Kingdom of Poland, originally included the Polish governments in addition to the South Russian governments. It was enlarged in 1794, and Courland was added in 1799 — after the second and third partitions of Poland respectively — but its area has since been diminished, and neither Russian Poland nor Courland is now included. The Vistula provinces, i.e., Russian Poland, contain a higher proportion of Jews than the Pale oi Settlement itself, and in ordinary parlance Poland is generally treated as forming pait of the Pale. LEGAL SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS IN RUSSIA 5 Russia, who are deprived of all their rights in the Army, have borne a 20 per cent, to 35 per cent, heavier burden than non-Jews during nearly two decades^ — from 1886 to 1903 — and even now are so heavily handicapped in comparison with the rest of the community, the answer is strikingly simple. It is merely because the authorities, who are everywhere ill- disposed to the Jews, take into account neither the inaccurate registration of Jewish deaths nor the immense emigration. Although it is the Russian Government which, by its persecutions, compels the Jews to fly to Trans- Atlantic countries, this fact is quite ignored in the compilation of the lists of conscripts. In the same way, no matter how many of these emigrants may have died since leaving Russia, they are aU credited to the Jewish parishes as both alive and fit for military duty, and the most ridiculous demands are made upon the Jews in consequence. Wherever private persons try to show up this anomaly by means of statistics, and to secure its abolition, the local authorities immediately put a stop to the attempt. A case in point is afforded by a recent sensational incident which may here be recalled. In Kishineff, in October, 1910, the liberal newspaper " Bessarabskaja Schisn " and the local rabbi, a perfervid loyahst, started a campaign agaiijst the characteristic system of calling up dead Jews to the colours. The rabbi drew up a list of aU Jews who had died in Kishineff during the previous twenty years and who, on account of non-registration of cases of death outside Kishineff, would be called upon to perform their miUtary service. The list, which in due course appeared in the aforesaid paper, comprised 240 names, and was to be sent to all Jewish parishes and rabbis, enabling them to check the lists of conscripts in good time, to find out who were dead, and to cancel the names of the latter with due formality. At the same time that this modest beginning was made, it was intended to recommend a similar procedure to the other parishes, in order that a complete list of the Jewish dead throughout aU Russia might be drawn up annually. It might well have been thought that such a natural endea- vour to lessen, in some degree at least, the injustice of the present incidence of conscription upon the Jews, could hardly be opposed by anyone. What, however, did the Kishineff authorities do ? They held this attempt to be fraught with danger to the mother country, and without more ado proceeded to confiscate the issue of the paper in question and to prosecute both editor and rabbi. It is not, however, merely a matter of conscripts' lists — ^on which depends the decision as to the number of soldiers the Jews must provide — 6 LEGAL SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS IN RUSSIA being totally untrustworthy and misleading. The evil goes further than that, and the authorities know full well, by means of other tricks, how to increase the pressure on the Jews. Thus, for the years 1902 and 1903, among the respective totals of 1,017,267 and 1,053,572 youths serving with the colours, there were altogether 56,362 Jews. The percentages of 5.54 and 5.56 instead of 4.13 (the proper proportion to the whole population) show what a number of emigrants and dead persons must have been included. As the regulation states that the Jews must furnish the requisite proportion of soldiers, it remains a mystery to the mere layman why in practice a still larger number of Jewish soldiers was demanded than should be called up, according to the established percentage of conscripts. What with the number of Jews who had died or emigrated, the Jewish youths called out in the two years under review ought to have supphed respectively 17,660 and 17,855 recruits according to the law. The numbers actually requisitioned were 19,705 and 19,911 respectively. By what cunning devices the local authorities managed to work out these figures we need not further discuss. Here, indeed, the whole spirit of the pogroms is so plainly revealed that an investigation of the strange dexterity of the Russian authorities is whoUy unnecessary. We have discussed the case of the years 1902 and 1903 — repeated, both in the preceding years and to some extent also during the years that followed — at some length for the additional reason that it clearly shows the origin of the legend that the Jews in Russia evaded their military duties. Compared with the rest of the population, the Jews, as we have shown, furnished in the two years under review respectively 35 per cent, and 37 per cent, more soldiers in proportion, and their capacity is thus thoroughly exhausted, but the authorities, by reason of their absurd demands upon the Jews, always succeed in making their calculations show a deficit. Not for a moment is it denied that the stream of emigration carries away many a Jew quahfied for mihtary service, and it is just as certain that the Jews, as a whole, have relatively supphed more " food for powder " in the defence of the Russian Empire than any other section of the population. Thus, for instance, the Jewish soldiers who fought in the Russo-Japanese war amounted to the enormous total of some 40,000. In this connection we may here state that for many generations the Jews in Russia have relatively sent more troops to the wars than any other nationality in the Empire. In the levies made in 1854 for the Crimean campaign, there were 19 recruits for every thousand Christian inhabitants of the western provinces, and nine recruits for every thousand Christian LEGAL SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS IN RUSSIA 7 inhabitants of the eastern provinces. The Jews, however, had to supply 30 recruits for every thousand of their population. The difference between then and now consists merely in this : that under Nicholas I. the Russian Government openly avowed the principle of inequality, whereas the present Government attains the same end by circuitous methods. It is quite in keeping with this spirit that on the outbreak of a war the mihtary authorities begin by sending to the seat of hostilities those regiments in which the largest number of non-Christians, especially Jews, are serving. This oppression of the Jews year after year by requisitioning an excess ot recruits natureilly aggravated the position of the Jews in their struggle for existence no less than many of the economic restrictions, and in this case the question of dishonour made it still harder to bear. The Govern- ment, which — instead of their just proportion of 4.13 per cent, of the total number of recruits, according to the officially proclaimed principles ot equaUty — demands from the Jews a proportion of 6.2 per cent, and receives only 5.7 per cent., speaks in its artless way of "deficits" on the part of the Jews, and these " deficits " have a double menace for the accused parties. On the one hand they serve the anti-Semitic Press as convenient ammunition for their scandalous propaganda among the ignorant and undiscerning elements of society, and on the other hand the Treasury, on the strength of this accusation, manages to squeeze many thousands of pounds out of the Jewish population. For, since 1886, the law holds all members of the family responsible for a Jew's liability to military service, and the relatives of a Jew who has not reported himself for service at the proper time — even if he is only a few hours. late — must pay a fine of 300 roubles (£30). This penalty, which perpetually overshadows the Ghetto like some terrible phantom, overtakes most of its victims unawares. With- out a moment's warning a poor Jew will suddenly be informed that he must pay to the State the, for him, unattainable sum of 300 roubles, because some relative, who is dead and buried or who when a mere child emigrated to America, has not reported himself for mihtary service, and even if the innocent delinquent shows proof that the relative in question has left his home or is dead, the penalty is generally insisted upon. It has even happened that a Jew has been fined 300 roubles for his brother's non- appearance although he informed the police of the cause of absence in good time. In this respect, as often happens with Jewish restrictions, the law results in ridiculous inconsistencies. The penalty, for instance, is also enforced when the person hable for service has abandoned Judaism, and -therefore openly violates the sense of joint responsioility upon which the y LEGAL SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS IN RUSSIA principle, dating from medieval times, is based. In innumerable'cases the 300 roubles fine is not only a heavy burden but an irretrievable disaster, which haunts the afflicted victim for the rest of his days. At all events, in the course of years the principle of joint family responsibility has made thousands of poor Jews still poorer, others, again, whose goods and chattels have all been sold to pay the fine, being reduced to absolute beggary. Taken as a whole, this is what military service offers to the Russian Jew : exclusion from every position in the Army worth having, as well as from every prospect of promotion ; an annual additional burden, until recently, of an excess of 4,000 to 4,500 recruits ; severe penalties for non- appearance of emigrants and dead persons ; brutal treatment in the Army in time of peace, and selection for the most dangerous positions in war time. The Russian Jew would not be human if, under these conditions, military service did not appear to him an abomination. LEGAL SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS IX RUSSIA CHAPTER II. EXCLUSIONS FROM THE STATE SERMCE. Theoretically, the Russian Jews as awhole are not debarred from serving the State, but the obstacles placed in the way of all Jews, without exception, are, in practice, tantamount to an exclusion. These restrictions have their comic side, owing to their exacting demands in a land where so frequently the least worthy and most uncultured manage in some underhand way to creep into the State service. Theoretically, a Jew, when he has earned the title of Doctor, Master of Arts or Candidate (bearer of a university diploma), may be employed in any department, and Jewish physicians who have not qualified as doctors may be admitted, in the practice of their profession, to the departments of the Ministry of the Interior (with the exception of St. Petersburg and Moscow) and also of the Ministry of Education. Finally, there is a possibility of Jewish engineers and surveyors with diplomas finding work in their professional capacity in the Survey Depart- ment of the Administration. By virtue of these strictly limited rights, there is, perhaps, in the various Russian Ministries a sprinkling of Jews whose services are utilised on account of their special technical knowledge, but these few officials may be regarded as so many freaks, whose existence has no bearing upon the actual situation. Apart from these few isolated cases, in practice it may be said that, without undergoing the rite of baptism, it is well-nigh impossible for a Jew to fulfil all the conditions preliminary to emplojmient by the State. It might be argued that the Russian Jews only share the lot of the greater portion of their emancipated brethren abroad, but though in some other lands, where the Jews possess equality of rights, the highest offices in the State may still be closed to them, it is only in Russia that the exclusion of the Jews from the State service is interpreted in the widest sense of the term, and, contrary to the Funda- mental Laws, these restrictions have in part been legalised even in respect of the above-mentioned few and privileged categories. ^^'ith regard to the police service, at the time of the anti-Semitic out- breaks the Minister of the Interior informed the provincial governors by circular that Jews must not be appointed as poHce inspectors or in any similar capacity. In point of fact, the vast Russian police machine uses Jews only as spies or informers, thus demoralising those who show any 10 LEGAL SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS IN RUSSIA bent for other phases of pohce activity by making them do all the dirty work, and incurring the consequent obloquy. If we turn to other departments of the State, what do we find ? Legally the Bench is not closed to Russian Jews, but in spite of the large number of Jewish lawyers there is in the whole Empire only one Jewish judge (and his appointment dates from long ago), while the handful of Jews who were formerly employed as examining magistrates or in the Attorney-General's Department belong already to the historic past. The same fate has overtaken Jews engaged in the scholastic profession. Apart from the Jewish schools, with their Jewish religious teachers, not a single Jewish instructor is to be found either in the elementary schools or in the secondary and higher institutions. In the same manner aU the pro- fessors in the universities are free of the Jewish stigma, and the Jewish university lecturers could be counted on one's fingers. Nearly " Jew- free " too is the Department of Railways, for, apart from a few engineers and engine-drivers, no Jew is to be found on its huge staff, although the Jews constructed a large proportion of the Russian railways. StiU worse is the state of affairs in the Post Office, which, from top to bottom, is entirely " Jew-free." In the liberal era of the sixties and seventies of last century a sub- stantial exception was at least made in favour of numerous Jewish surgeons who were appointed to the Army. In the Russo-Turkish war, especially, they distinguished themselves by their devotion to duty and their self- sacrifice, many of them attaining the highest positions, even the rank of surgeon-general. In making this concession, the Russian Government was filling a long-felt want, as in the miUtary department there had, hitherto, been a great scarcity of surgeons. When, however, at the begin- ning of the eighties, the anti-Semitic propaganda, promoted from above, was directing its. deadliest shafts at the Jewish Army surgeons, the Russian Government altered its pohcy. One of the first substantial victories of the Russian anti-Semitic campaign was the mUitary law of April loth, 1882, which fixed the maximum proportion of Army appointments for Jewish surgeons at 5 per cent, of the whole. At the same time an order was issued to the military districts of Vilna, Warsaw, Odessa, Kieff and Kharkoff {i.e., in the whole Pale of Settlement and beyond) that in the meantime no Jewish surgeons should be accepted until the proportion had dropped to 5 per cent. To this restriction of rights insult was added, for the Jewish surgeons already appointed were instructed to choose only Jewish attendants, as Jewish surgeons " exercised a demoralising influence " upon LEGAL SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS IN RUSSIA ii Christian attendants. In consequence of this restrictive measure and its strict interpretation, the number of Jewish surgeons practising in the Army shrank to such small dimensions that, in recent years, a Jewish Army surgeon has become quite a rara avis. When the Russo-Japanese war broke out, ■ however*, the Russian military authorities, regardless of consequences, proceeded to impress hundreds of Jewish surgeons, piitting an abrupt end to the practice of their profession in civil life, and driving them off to the most dangerous posts in the theatre of war, promptly dismissing them as soon as peace was concluded. In all branches of the Russian State service, which employs such immense armies of of&cials of many nationalities, the Jews to-day are generally unrepresented. The Russian Government knows well, however, at the same time how to gain huge sums for the Treasury by the enforce- ment of exceptional laws and restrictive measures. We have already had an instance of this in the chapter upon the Army, and will meet with it again while dealing with the right of residence. LEGAL SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS IN RUSSIA CHAPTER III. DISABILITIES IN THE SERVICE OF MUNICIPALITIES AND OTHER CORPORATIONS. The Russian Government being, as has been shown, opposed to the employment of the Jew in the defence of the mother country save in the lowest ranks, and having further excluded him from the State service, the administration of justice and the teaching professions, so, in like manner, in the municipal service it allows him to do only the drudgery. This intolerable condition of things is only of recent date. In the nine- teenth century, under Nicholas I., there was a brief period when the Russian Jews were on a footing of equality with the other nationalities as regards their participation in municipal affairs. After a lapse of four years, however, the Government changed its tactics, and in the year 1839 decided upon the system of curia, whereby Jews should form at the very most one- third of a municipal council, and be excluded from the position of mayor and a whole number of other important offices. In 1870, under Alexander II., certain modifications were introduced which promised improvement. True, the order remained in force, limiting the Jewish municipal councillors to one-third of the whole, but the abolition of the curia and the introduction of public elections guaranteed to the Jews — at least wherever they were in a majority — ^the possibility of exercising due influence upon municipal government. At the same time many restrictions disappeared. Thus, for example, Jews might henceforth occupy at least the position of vice-mayor. It will be seen that even during the hberal era the concessions granted to the Jews in the department of municipal administration were decidedly moderate in their scope, and even these were withdrawn under Alexander HI. Since the year 1892 a humiUating law has been in force, according to which a Russian Jew can neither vote for a municipal councillor nor be himself elected to that position. The governors, within the Pale only, are directed to appoint at their pleasure from among tne JewisU community several representatives for the municipal council, but the proportion must at the very most be one-tenth of the whole corporation, the rate to be fixed by the Minister of the Interior. Even this miserable make-shift is confined to the Pale, and thus no Jew can be a member of the municipal corporations LEGAL SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS IN RUSSIA 13 of St. Petersburg, :\Ioscow, Kieff, Rostoff, etc., while, in addition, the role of the Jewish representatives appointed in the towns of the Pale is in practice a deeply humiliating one. Probably no other restrictive measure has given such dire offence to the Jews as the one we are now dealing with. Let it be borne in mind that, on an average, Jews form an actual majority in the urban population of the governments of Vitebsk, Grodno, Minsk, Mohileff, Volhynia and Kieff (with the exception of the town of Kieff itself, which ranks with the places outside the Pale), and that there are towns where Jews are in a majority of two- thirds or even three-fourths, as for example, Berditcheff with 78 per cent. Jews, Biaiystok with 63 per cent., Brest-Litovsk with 64.9 per cent., Pinsk with 74.2 per cent, and Slutsk with 71.6 per cent. In these places, notwithstanding their immense preponderance, the Jews, either directly or indirectly, are not allowed to have a word to say with regard to the conduct of municipal affairs, for even the few councillors chosen from their midst by the Administration are, for very good reasons, not regarded by the Jews as their real representatives. In 1905 many Jewish parishes made a declaration to this effect and, as a result of the pressure thus exerted, over a hundred Jewish municipal councillors retired from office. Is it surprising, therefore, that in many towns of the Pale libertines and drunkards rule the roost, their only qualification being that they are Gentiles ? In the two latest decennial periods the Russian Government has carried out a policy of excluding Jews from the administration of public corporations wherever feasible, or restricting them as much as possible in that direction. Since 1890, Jews have been wholly excluded from the Zemstvos, and, as in more important matters, here also we find that the restriction leads to pure chicanery. Again, in the composition of a jury the brilliant principle of the " percentage " holds good, and the amount of Jews impanelled in every circuit is in strict accordance with the ratio of the Jewish to the non- Jewish population, while in every case the foreman must be a non-Jew. In trials dealing with offences against religion or infractions of ecclesiastical laws, however, no Jew is allowed to serve on the jury. Further, according to a special resolution of the Ruling Senate, a Jew must not be elected even as a guardian of an orphan asylum or as president of a school board. The restrictions regarding the elective offices of public corporations have been gradually extended to the Stock Exchange, even in those towns where the principal commerce is in the hands of the Jews. A supreme 14 LEGAL SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS IX RUSSIA decree of March 31st, 1889, fixed the ratio of Jewish stockbrokers in Nikolayeff at one-third of the whole number at the very most, and in the succeeding years the same ratio was fixed for the stock exchanges at •Odessa, Ehsavetgrad, Lodz and a number of other important towns. In the produce exchanges similar restrictions were introduced, and the tragi-comedy reached its limits when Jews were forbidden to act as brokers in certain corn exchanges, considering that these exchanges are concerned principally with Jewish commerce. In like manner, for the exchange com- mittees the order also held good, that Jews must not comprise more than one-third of their membership and be debarred from holding the position of chairman. Even as regards the elective offices of official workmen's corporations, the same hmitations are essentially imposed upon Jews, although in several governments they comprise far more than half the number of artisans, and in numerous towns as much as three-quarters or even four-fifths. In the government of Grodno, for example, in the year 1897 there were 16,726 non-Jewish and 26,515 Jewish artisans, the latter being thus in an average proportion of 61 per cent. — in the villages the ratio was 50 per cent, and in the towns 80 per cent. The same spectacle is offered by most of the other provinces of the Pale of Settlement, and yet only one-third of the corporations' posts are open to Jews, and the president in every case must be a non-Jew. This fatal proportion of one-third, which is designed to paralyse Jewish authority in every pubhc department and to accentuate the national differences, is encountered in many other directions, for instance, in the municipal credit societies, irrespective of whether the Jews are in a majority or not. LEGAL SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS IN KUSSIA 15: CHAPTER IV RESTRICTION OF JEWISH EDUCATION. The one-sided " percentage " principle, which is always put into force when it tells against the Jews and never by any chance when it would bring them some reUef or benefit, has been regarded ever since the middle of the eighties of last century as the alpha and omega of pohtical wisdom as far as the Russian Government's attitude towards the Jews is con- cerned. It is, however, in matters of education that this principle has been applied most consistently. In the year 1886 — in consequence of the resolution of the then Committee of Ministers, ratified by the Emperor — the Ministry of Public Instruction fixed the following maximum ratio for the admission of Jews to the secondary and high schools and to the universities : 10 per cent, within the Pale of Settlement, 5 per cent, in other places, and 3 per cent, in Moscow and St. Petersburg. A few years later the same hard fate overtook even apothecaries' apprentices, for whom the general ratio was fixed by law at 5 per cent. (3 per cent, in Moscow and St. Petersburg). Moreover, a large number of secondary and higher institutions are entirely closed to Jews. Apart from schools for the nobihty and the military schools, we may mention the following important institutions: the Army Medical CoUege, the St. Petersburg Institute of Civil Engineers, the St. Petersburg Electrotechnical Institute, the Kharkoff Veterinary Institute, the Moscow Agricultural CoUege, the Moscow Engineering School of the Department of Communications, the Dramatic Section of the Moscow and St. Petersburg Theatrical Schools, the Irkutsk CoUege of Mines, the Dombroff CoUege of Mines, the Turkestan Training School for Teachers, and a number of girls' colleges, mechanics' institutes, and commercial schools, etc. On the other hand, the order as regards the usual type of commercial school, which in its curriculum resembles the modern school, was relatively mUd. In view of the fact that these institutions are maintained by the GuUd of Merchants, the number of Jewish pupils admitted was, in many places, fixed in the same ratio as the number of Jewish merchants paying the GuUd taxes bore to the non- Jewish, and for nearly a couple of decades the commercial schools offered a place of refuge to Jewish children. 16 LEGAL SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS IN RUSSIA while other educational establishments were closed to them. On the whole, however, the Russian Government has greatly hindered the'mental develop- ment of the Jews, or else diverted it into other channels. A comparison between the years 1881 and 1894 shows that the percentage of Jews in the grammar schools of the first and second rank was 12.5 per cent, for the former year, and 6.2 per cent, for the latter, and in the modern schools 8 per cent, and 5.2 per cent, respectively. This diminution by nearly one- half in the number of Jewish pupils attending the State high schools is all the more striking since within the same period a change in the opposite direction had taken place in the intellectual Hfe of the Jews. In 1881 there was stiU raging between the various parties comprising Russian Jewry a spiritual controversy involving the question of the attendance of Jewish children at the State schools. At that time an immense majority of the Jewish masses was hostile to the non- Jewish schools, while in 1894 the contrary was the case. Coincident with this, the change in the attitude of the Russian Government was most characteristic. Under Nicholas I. and Alexander XL, it had used every endeavour to persuade the Jews of the Ghetto to abandon their traditional schools, even going the length of offering premiums and granting privileges for every case of comphance. And in the midst of its exertions, just when its tactics were crowned with success, came this sudden and far-reaching change of policy ! Towards the middle of the nineteenth century the Russian Govern- ment had books compiled by people in authority pointing out that the acquisition of general knowledge, and especially of the Russian language, was not opposed to the spirit of the Jewish religion, and at the end of the century it forbade the teaching of the Russian language in the Hebrew private elementary schools — ^the so-called " Chedarim " — of which there are some 25,000, with 300,000 pupils, in the Pale of Settlement. However absurd may appear the fact that the State taboos the teaching of the national language, there was, nevertheless, a definite method in this interdict of the Russian Government. It desired to paralyse by every means in its power the aspirations of Russian Jews for a secondary educa- tion, and it now feared that its intention might be frustrated by the " Chedarim," particularly owing to the manifold reforming tendencies which were there spreading in various directions. Russian officialdom was not ashamed to declare, tout court, in the law of 1893 regulating the " Chedarim," that the introduction of instruction in the Russian language for Jews " was precipitate and did not conform with the plans of the Govern- ment." The Government here improved upon its ostensible motive for LEGAL SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS IN RUSSIA 17 closing the Technical Institute of Zhitomir in 1884. In the towns and places of the south-west Pale — so ran the excuse — the Jews still constituted the maj ority of artisans, and thus hindered the development of handicrafts among the "original population;" a special Jewish technical school, in default of a similar institution for the Christian inhabitants of the Pale, was, therefore, " a superfluous weapon in the hands of the Jews for exploit- ing the original population." Here, again, as in the previous instance, the same tendency is to be noted. The Government fears that the Jews could do for themselves what for reasons of State it must accomplish itself, and in its eyes the "protection" of the above-mentioned population means putting a stop to every possibility .of development for the Jews. It aims at oppressing the Jews, both intellectually and economically, to such a degree that they shall sink far below the low level of the average illiterate Russian — for whose backwardness, be it noted, the Jew has to bear the blame. In addition it glosses over the pretext for its positively scandalous prohibitions and restrictions, by branding the poor Jewish artisans as " exploiters," and by stating that teaching the Russian tongue or technical subjects in the Jewish " Chedarim " does not suit the intentions of the Government. It is a notorious fact that the teachers in many Jewish elementary schools have given instruction in general knowledge and also in the Russian language for years past in secret, so training their pupils at the same time, that the latter do not betray themselves to the inspector on his official visits. During all the persecutions, extending through three decades, the Russian Government, for every one of its measures directed against the Jews, used always to invent some laborious justification which it regularly made pubHc some little time before enacting a restrictive law. Then the local authorities would approach the Central Power with a well-timed petition for Jewish restrictions, thus providing the plea of the doctrine of necessitj' for the injustice that invariably followed. Hence in the official declarations made when the principle of the "percentage" became law, it was frequently described as corresponding more or less with the ratio of Jews to non-Jews, and, being a preventive against Jews flooding the educational institutions, it was " a just commandment for the common weal." It is perfectly clear that, quite apart from the ethical aspect of the question, this pretext, afterwards annexed by the Ministry of PubUc Instruction, would not hold water, as in consequence of the limitation of the right of domicile the Jews in Russia are almost exclusively an urban i8 LEGAL SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS IN RUSSIA popvilation, and on the other hand have been totally excluded from many of the professions. In the State service and in the Army, as is well known, no " percentage rule " exists. Yet even the principle of proportional rights is infringed, to the undoing of the Jews at critical moments, when a practical applica- tion is made of the above-mentioned regulations relating to educational affairs. Then, when it comes to calculating the "percentages" the authorities omit all the fractions, representing so many Jews who ought to be admitted to the schools, and these lost fractions, when added together for the whole Empire, make quite a tolerable total. What is much more important than this curtailing of the " percentage rule," however, is the fact that the Jews living beyond the Pale can make only a very restricted use of their proportion of 5 per cent. For before availing themselves of the privilege of sending their children to the State schools, they must possess the right of residence in the districts in question — ^which, it may be noted, form by far the largest part of Russia — and how few there are who can claim this prerogative will be seen in the doleful chapter treating of restrictions of the right of domicile. In the southern and western pro\inces of the Russian Empire, we find, in point of fact, a condition of positive barbarism as far as the State's provision for the education of Jewish children is concerned. In towns where the majority of the inhabitants are Jews, the Jewish children, par- ticularly the boys, are admitted to nearly all the secondary and high schools only in a numerical proportion of 10 per cent., and the scramble after the few vacancies is often disastrous both to parents and children. The struggle for admission to the schools has plunged the Jewish youth into an indescribable atmosphere of hate, degradation and despair, from which they generally emerge broken in both body and soul. The demoral- isation consequent upon the Jewish restrictions, formerly limited to pohce matters, is now creeping more and more over the administration of the educational institutions, and for years the most repulsive scenes have been enacted in countless numbers within the Ghetto. Year after year Jewish children knock in vain at the doors of the State schools, year after year they are severely trained and put through their paces, mechanically crammed with knowledge until they are filled to repletion, in order that they may pass the admission examination brilliantly, while, outside, their parents are striving wildly to work the oracle in various ways, occasionally resorting to such questionable means as bribing the teachers and head- masters, who in some places have a fixed scale of charges. LEGAL SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS IN RUSSIA 19 Thus in the earliest stages of hfe's journey does the Jewish child make acquaintance with the tragedy and injustice awaiting him, and, having had his eyes opened to the brutal facts of life, remains a child no longer. AU this trouble, too, just over the admission to school, which is such an easy matter for the non-Jew, and which illustrates so well the difference between the treatment of the ruling and of the oppressed races ! \\'oe to the Jewish child whose parents are not rich or influential enough to secure for him the necessary favour! He may possess ever so much ability, but as a rule he has to remain outside the school all the same. This is why there are in the Pale of Settlement large numbers of gifted Jewish young men who, during their whole youth and often long after- wards, tomient themselves unspeakably in order to pass the final school examination — so rigorous for a Jew — as "savages," the term applied to external students. Recently, moreover, the Jews have been deprived even of this possibility by a Ministerial circular. One must have persona? experience of the vexations comprised under this head in order to under- stand why the Russo-Jewish youth is so often worn out both in mind and body by the time he has reached the threshold of the university. When the Jewish boy has penetrated thus far, there begins the struggle to gain admission to the university, the second filtration of the Jewish youth through the " percentage rule." Involuntarily the question suggests itself why the percentage principle gives dissatisfaction here when the same method has already been applied in the higher schools, presumably jdelding a corresponding proportion among those who have passed their final school examination. This, however, is not the case for many reasons. First of all, the percentage of scholars attending a high school through the whole course is substantially greater among the "Jews than the non-Jews. Here psychological motives are a determining factor. To have the right to attend a high school is to the Jew a far too precious possession for him to give it up lightly, and upon a possible compensation he is unable to count. Furthermore, added to these is the host of " savages " who have won their certificate (granted to a pupil on passing the final examination at college). On the other hand, allowance must be made for the large number of non-Jews who are satisfied with this certi- ficate and turn to the professions which are closed to the Jews (as teachers in the elementary schools, in the Army service, etc.). Finally, it must be borne in mind that there are a number of universities which admit only non-Jews, and, therefore, substantially diminish the number of non-Jewish candidates admitted to the other universities. After what has been said 20 LEGAL SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS IN RUSSIA it will be clear why the percentage of Jewish aspirants to vacancies in the universities to which they are admitted swells relatively so much in com- parison with the no n- Jewish aspirants, and the "percentage rule" of the high schools comes to grief. Year after year Jewish candidates lose the chance of university vacancies in this manner, and are glad to matriculate after waiting for years. Occasionally, however, there are easier years when, by order of the Minister of Education, exceptions are made to the "percentage rule " in particular cases. Many there are, however — in process of time their number must amount to thousands — ^who, seeing the hopelessness of striving after admission to a Russian university, throw up the sponge and betake themselves to foreign lands, there jto attain their object though under a burden of fresh troubles.* The flight of the Russo- Jewish youth to foreign lands in order to satisfy their desire for learning proved, after the lapse of very few years, to be an inadequate solution of the difficulty. The thousands of students of both sexes, torn from their environment, encountered many other serious obstacles. Many of them, unprovided with sufficient means frpm home, sank into abject poverty, being unable, in their new and strange surround- ings, to find any way of earning a hving by pursuing some occupation in their spare hours. They suffered most of all from the inconvenience of the strange language and the difference in the course of studies, and even after graduating they found themselves, as a rule, far from their goal, which many were able to attain only after further vexatious examinations in Russia. The situation of the Russo-Jewish youth, however, became positively disastrous of recent years, when many of the foreign universities closed their portals to Russian Jews, or began to place insuperable obstacles in their path. According to a calculation made some years ago, there were then at foreign universities alone nearly 2,200 Russo- Jewish students of both sexes, while in iSgq the jfSish s^dents at Russian umyersities numbered only 1,757. To-day there must be at least ?^oo to 5 °oo Russo-Jewish students of both sexes attending universities abroad ^.""" ••" 0.""" LEGAL SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS IN RUSSIA CHAPTER V. LIMITATIONS IN THE PRACTICE OF THE LIBERAL PROFESSIONS. The path of the Russian Jew is a thorny one, even when he enters upon his career in possession of the long fought for and finally secured Russian diploma. Of positions in the State service, which are open to non- Jews but are closed to him, he no longer dreams. He has grown accus- tomed to the idea that he cannot get a situation as a State official, a magistrate or a teacher, and for the most part directs his studies to the restricted sphere of the liberal professions. But even here, after a brief interval of unrestricted activity, a sudden change has taken place. Until the end of the eighties the Russo-Jewish student could apply himself to at least three descriptions of studies — medicine, law, or any technical subject. Whoever turned his attention to any other kind of studies — and there were not a few daring spirits who followed their special bent regardless of consequences — ^did so with the foreknowledge that he would never be able to practise the corresponding profession. This doom of a hopeless future has also overtaken Jewish law students for since the year 1889 there has been an exceptional order in force, which deals a severe blow at Jews taking up the legal profession. The regulation is to the effect that for a Jew to be called to the Bar a special permit from the Minister of Justice is necessary, and since i8go the same rule apphes even to sohcitors.. For fifteen years no Minister of Justice condescended to grant such permission, so that during the whole of that period, no matter how briUiant a lawyer he might be, no Jew was called to the Bar. Only at the beginning of the Constitutional era was an exception made in favour of a number of assistant advocates, and after that the appointment of Jewish barristers came again to a sudden stop. Recently it has been rumoured that the " problem " is to be solved by the introduction of the " percentage rule." The Jews, however, have every reason for fearing that method of solution, for in 1894 an official Commission for reforming the administration of justice in Russia had recommended that the number of Jewish barristers admitted to practise in each circuit should be fixed at a maximum ratio of 10 per cent. To this proposal the Government made 22 LEGAL SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS IN RUSSIA no response, but continued the same tactics. Even, however, if the principle of the percentage had been admitted, the actual situation would in no wise have been altered, for there is only a very limited number of circuits where the total number of barristers amounts to or exceeds ten, and it is just in these circuits that the Jewish barristers have concentrated. Additional appointments of Jewish barristers on account of the "percentage rule "■••■ would, therefore, have been very few and far between. StiU harsher than in regard to the Bar was the conduct of the Govern- ment respecting the appointment of Jews as notaries, which has been entirely suspended for the last two decades. Thus it has not infrequently come about that the petitions of whole sections of society and the com- mercial classes for the nomination of certain persons as notaries have been refused solely owing to their Jewish descent. Among the restrictions which the Russian Government strives to impose upon the activity of Russian Jews must be included a prohibition which strikes at the private teacher. According to the law, Jews living in non- Jewish families must not give private tuition. Generally speaking, this prohibition can be enforced only to a very limited extent, owing to the difficulty in the way of a comprehensive supervision. Even during the strictest regime young Jews of both sexes have managed to give lessons in non- Jewish families, often in those of- highly placed officials. Now and then, however, the authorities suddenly remember this prohibi- tion, and a campaign against Jewish teachers ensues. Then many head- masters in particular — sometimes in consequence of pressure from above, sometimes on their own initiative — find themselves compelled to impress upon their scholars that they must receive no private lessons from Jews after school hours, such as are often given to backward pupils. In some circles this procedure apphes even to friendly assistance in the preparation of the next day's work. *A Renter's telegram from St. Petersburg, under date of March 26, 1912, sliows Uiat the percentage principle, as appHed to barristers, is still being debated. It runs ■ "The Senate, sitting in plenary session to-day, passed a resolution declaring that the special sanction of the Minister of Justice was requisite for the admission of Jews to the ranks of assistant advocates, and that regulation of the percentage of Jews to be admitted was desirable." LEGAL SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS IN RUSSIA 23 CHAPTER \l. LIMITATIONS OF THE RIGHT TO OMN PROPERTY. The professional activity of the Russian Jews has also* been greatly limited by various restrictions in the right to own property. From the time of the notorious M^y Laws® of 1882, no Jew in the Pale of Settlement must either buy or rent land or even manage it in the capacity of steward beyond the precincts of the towns and townlets. It might be thought that this barbarous law had been brought about by the immense accumula- tion of landed estates in the hands of Jews. This legend, so widely dis- seminated and so often repeated by the Russian anti-Semites, has, however, been thoroughly disproved — intentionally or otherwise — by the researches instituted by the official Commission which, under the presidency of Count Pahlen, was appointed by the Russian Goverimient to inquire into the Jewish question. In respect of twelve governments (out of fifteen) in the Pale of Settlement the Commission succeeded in collecting the necessary data, with the following result : In the governments of Bessarabia, Kherson, Taurida, Ekaterinoslav, Chernigoff, Poltava, Kieff, \"olhynia, Podolia, Grodno, Vitebsk and Kovno, in which in the year 1881 the Jews comprised about 10 per cent, of the population, they owned altogether 684,000 dessiatines, or 1,846,800 acres, equal to about 1.4 per cent, of the entire area, and rented 2,000,000 dessiatines, or 5,400,000 acres (3.9 per cent.), j.%., in aU 5.3 per cent, of the whole land in these provinces. The effects of the May Laws on the agricultural life of the Jews are manifold in their nature and can hardly be estimated. Most callings in which Jews are to be found were more or less affected, but the extent of land owned or leased by Jews, which even before the promulgation of the May Laws was very small compared to the percentage of the Jewish population, is diminishing so rapidly that by 1900 it had already shrunk to a quarter of the figures quoted above. This process becomes particularly evident when the official figures for 1881 in respect of the twelve govern- ments in question are compared with the corresponding statistics for 1900. According to these, in the governments of Bessarabia, Kherson, Taurida, *See Appendix for text of " Temporary Regulations," or May Laws. ^4 LEGAL SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS IN RUSSIA Ekaterinoslav, Poltava, Chernigoff, Kieff, Podolia, Volhynia, Vitebsk. Grodno and Kovno, there were :■ — In the year 1881. In the year igoo. Decrease in dessiatines. Dec. percent. Owned by Jews Leased by Jews 683,893 dess.* 1,998,658 „ 2,682,551 dess, 378,393 dess. 290,719 „ 669,112 dess. 305,500 1,707,939 44-7 85.1 Total 2,013,439 74.8 *A dessiatine is nearly equivalent to 2.7 EngUsh acres. Most characteristic is the decrease in tenant farmers, for giving up a farm on the termination of the lease is naturally an easier matter than selling one, but the decline in Jewish landed property by 44.7 per cent, within a period of nineteen years testifies to the unprecedented perturbation which the May Laws caused in the Pale of Settlement. A few years later the same exceptional measure, which at first was enforced only in the fifteen governments of the Pale, overtook the Jews in Russian Poland®, as far as agricultural land was concerned, and finally, in 1903, it applied in full force to the major part of the whole Empire— the land outside the Pale- where, however, the right to buy land had been vested only in the domiciled merchants belonging to the first Guild and in those persons possessing a university degree. Thus do the restrictive regulations exclude the Jews from the use of the soil, for the only possibility of acquiring real estate, namely, the purchase of non-agricultural land in the ten Pohsh governments, plays a relatively unimportant part in the hfe of the Jewish community in Russia. The prohibition to buy or lease land has at the same time quite crippled all attempts on the part of the Russian Jews to develop a Jewish peasantry in Russia. This is all the more noteworthy as it was just at the beginning of the eighties that the Russian Jews were working with particular zeal towards this end, and, in spite of the partial prohibitions already in force, *The Jews of Poland long enjoyed exceptional privileges. Thus, thou-h prior to tS6- they were not permitted to own real estate, subject to certain restrictions all classes ot Jews possessed the right of domicile and were Iree to engage in any occupation On May 24th, 1862, they were granted full nghts.^but, as stated above, their privileges have again been restricted, and expulsions of Jews have now begun. See " Darkest Russia " LEGAL SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS IN RUSSIA 25 had made considerable progress. Under the influence of an extensive propaganda, the first foundations of a special agricultural fund had been laid shortly before the May Laws came into existence. Poliakoff, who was then at the height of his financial success, had for this purpose con- tributed a sum of 200,000 roubles (£20,000), and other subscriptions were being collected. Then came the May Laws, which put a sudden end to these endeavours to convert a substantial proportion of the Jewish com- munity into peasants by developing the old and founding new Jewish agricultural colonies in the Russian Empire. The 192,721 Jews who, according to the statistics of 1897, are engaged in agriculture have nearly all been so employed for generations, and only a small number among them are recruited from those engaged in gardening within the precincts of the towns. In spite of all legal hindrances, the percentage of Jews engaged in agricultural pursuits is still considerable, and in certain branches their achievements are remarkable. We need recall only the fact that tobacco culture in Bessarabia is principally — -to the amount of 62 per cent. — -the work of Jews, and that of the labourers employed there in the tobacco plantations 92.3 per cent. — 3,431 out of 3,720— are Jews. These labourers, however, are just as far as the rest of their comrades within the Pale from any prospect of being able some day to call some plot of ground their own, unless, indeed, they happen to find a piece within the precincts of a town. In consequence of the May Laws a complete change took place in the position of the Jewish peasants in the agricultural colonies, which had been founded by the Government itself and had long been the object of its solicitude, however iQ-advised this may have been. The popu- lation of these colonies, numbering 75,885— of whom 5i,539 are employed solely in agriculture— disposes of 113,000 dessiatines of land in all, of which 78,792 dessiatines are common land and part leasehold. Although large tracts of the land assigned to the Jewish colonists are very poor in quality, according to the May Laws they must neither acquire additional land nor even lease it ; indeed, the land held on leases granted prior to these decrees has under the same pretext been simply taken away from them. For a number of these colonies the law as it now stands means gradual ruin, and this ruin is only accelerated by the constant under hand dealings of the Administration and the lawsuits to which they give rise. And, while owing to the restrictive laws the Jewish peasantry of every kind find their progress and activities obstructed by an artificial barrier, the Russian anti-Semitic Press continues to indulge in mahcious 26 LEGAL SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS IX RUSSIA comments upon the small proportion of Russian Jews who devote themselves to agriculture ! The ;\Iay Laws have gradually called into being an endless chain of further restrictive regulations and oppressive measures. The wonderful wording of the law to the effect that the Jews are excluded from all usufruct or enjoyment of the land whatsoever, "beyond the precincts of the towns and townlets," has conjured up problems which to the uninitiated must appear to be pure fabrications. For instance, under the May Laws can the Jewish communities acquire a piece of land outside the town for a cemetery ? No ! certainly not ! Then what is to be done if no suitable spot is to be found within the precincts of the town ? In the villages, where such Jews as still remain are also forbidden to purchase a plot of land within the parish boundaries, the categorical answer to the question is as follows : they must just transport their dead to the towns and bury them there. Such, at least, was the stipulation of the authorities in a number of places for many years, until the Senate decided, against the strict letter of the law, that Jewish communities might acquire land in the country for la3dng out burial-places. These, however, are trifling vexations, immortalised though they may be in large numbers in the reports containing the decisions of the Senate. A far-reaching result of the same exceptional law is found in the material restrictions introduced into clauses in the articles of association of joint- stock companies and partnerships, with the object of preventing Jews from acquiring landed property by such " circuitous methods." Since the year 1890 this practice applies for aU newly-founded companies, regardless of whether they are agricultural or industrial in scope. From that date there have been three categories of societies. To the first category belong all those whose articles whoUy exclude Jews from holding shares or taking any part in the conduct of the business, even as salaried officials, or else admit Jews in a minimum proportion, and then into the bargain a clause is inserted in the articles, debarring them from holding positions corre- sponding to their interests in the enterprise. ]\Iany industrial and com- mercial companies take this course in order not to be deprived of all possibility of purchasing for their requirements even a small piece of land in the country. Less precise are the regulations concerning the second category, for though they contain the same restrictions, their application is contingent upon the company in question desiring to acquire land beyond the town boundary. It is evident that these companies are closely related to those of the first category, as the state of oscillation between admission LEGAL SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS IN RUSSIA i- and exclusion is hardly calculated to tempt many Jews to participate. If, however, an industrial or commercial joint-stock company desires a free hand as to the admission of Jews, it must unconditionally limit the scope of its activity by declaring in its articles of association that the pur- chase or lease of landed property outside the precincts of towns is forbidden. This category of joint-stock companies and societies is, as a matter of fact, much the strongest numerically. A list, brought up to July ist, ig02, contains 1,189 joint-stock com- panies and associations of the thira category {i.e., containing the article forbidding the purchase or lease of landed property) and respectively 324 and 170 of the first and second categories (i.e., with exclusion or material restriction, and with conditional exclusion of Jewish participa- tion respectively). This exceptional law is further coupled with degrading formalities relating to Jews. Thus, in order to prevent " misunderstand- ings," shares in companies which wholly exclude Jews must have a corre- sponding mark stamped upon them. In this manner the Jew in Russia is stigmatised by the Government on innumerable business papers which circulate on the Stock Exchange. Those non-Jewish speculators who do not see therein the verification of a moral defect or a doubt cast upon Jewish trustworthiness, must at least be aware of the obstacles in the way of co-operation in enterprises promoted by Jews. How greatly, under this psychological tension, must the mutual relations of Christian and Jewish business men suffer ! How much direct as well as indirect material damage must accrue to the Jew as a result of his disqualification by the official stamp ! Meanwhile, there are still other limitations in the right of possession which weigh heavily upon the Russian Jew. By Clause II. of the May Laws the Jew is in essentials deprived of all participation in the mining industry. There are in existence special restrictive regulations. In the Polish governments Jews are straightway forbidden to take part in any form whatever in coal mining. In the same manner the exploita- tion by Jews of gold mines or naphtha wells, especially the latter, is hampered in every possible way. The law runs that the acquisition or exploitation of oil-fields in the Caucasus by Jews can be allowed only by special permission of the Ministers of Agriculture and Finance, as well as of the Minister of the Interior and the Caucasian Commander-in-Chief. In the oil-fields belonging to the Kuban and Terek Cossacks, even this right has been withheld from the Jews since 1892. Many other restrictions of the right of property have been read into 28 LEGAL SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS IN RUSSIA the laws. A terrible and, at the same time, characteristic interpretation of the exceptional law was furnished by the Senate vis-a-vis the Jewish artisans. The latter, as will be seen later, are accorded the right of residence throughout nearly the whole Russian Empire, with the exception of a few regions which have been closed to them in the course of years. On the other hand, the purchase of real estate is forbidden them outside the Pale even in the towns. The Senate based its decision on the fact that the common right of residence appertained to the Jewish artisan only as long as he followed his handicraft, and as soon as he gave this up he would forfeit his domicihary privilege. Accordingly, a Jewish artisan, who outside the Pale counts only as a " temporary " inhabitant of a place, may acquire no real estate there — not even a hut — in the whole course of his Hfe. LEGAL SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS IN EUSSIA 29 CHAPTER VII. RESTRICTIONS OF THE RIGHT OF [RESIDENCE. No disqualitication has wrought such havoc in the hves of the Russian Jew as the exceptional [legislation | affecting residence and temporary sojourn. This bureaucratic horror has degraded him, both physically and mentally, to the condition of a pariah. As such, he is already branded both in his identification papers and in his passport, which, besides specifying his rehgion — in itself sufficient, one would imagine — contains the statement, in a particularly prominent position, that the Jewish bearer may reside only in those regions which are open to the Jews. For, if a Jew in Russia does not belong to one of the privileged classes mentioned below, the greater portion of the Empire is closed to him, and only a fixed territory is allotted to him for settling or sojourning in for any length of time. This Pale of Settlement embraces, outside Russian Poland, the governments of Bessarabia, Kherson, Taurida (with substantial restrictions for Sebastopol), Ekaterinoslav, Poltava, Chernigoff, Kieff (except the city of Kieff itself, where, on the whole, the exceptional regulations for the provinces outside the Pale are enforced), Podolia, Volhynia, Minsk, Moluleff, Grodno, Vilna, Vitebsk and Kovno, together constituting only one twenty-third part of the Russian Empire. On the other hand, the thirty-five remaining govern- ments of European Russia, the Caucasus with its eleven governments, Siberia with its nine provinces and the nine provinces of Central Asia, all belong to the regions which are closed to Jews as a whole. There is in aU Russia no other nation which is so greatly hampered in its freedom of movement as are the Jews. Whoever cares to enquire into the problem, why it happens to have been just these governments which were selected for absorbing the virus of Judaism, will find the brutal reason written large in history. Russian Tsardom, in former centuries, had acknowledged most unwillingly — or not at all — the existence of Jews within the Russian Empire, although it is an estabhshed fact that there have been Jews in the Empire at least since the Middle Ages, that they had settled in Southern Russia before the Russians themselves, and have been living in the Caucasus for two thousand years. After the terrible Jewish massacres which in the seventeenth century claimed several hundred thousands of innocent victims — a well-known Russian savant estimates 30 LEGAL SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS IN EUSSIA the number at nearly a million — the watchword of Russian State policy, to tolerate no more Jews in the Empire, was actually confirmed. When, in 1743, it was demonstrated to the Empress Ehzabeth what damage Russian commerce was suffering through the consistent segregation of Russian Jews, she wrote with her own hand on the margin of the report of the Senate : " From the enemies of Christ I desire no profit." It was only with the extension of the Empire that the watchword could no longer be hterally obeyed, especially as the regions which were annexed to Russia in consequence of the partition of Poland contained immense numbers of Jews. The command of Russia's rulers, so often repeated up to that time, that the Jews were to be hunted out of the country one and all, proved to be impossible of execution unless it was intended to strike at the very foundations of economic existence in the newly occupied provinces. Indeed the Empress Catherine II., who then ruled the Empire, began by proclaiming — under the influence of the opinions spread by the forerunners of the French Revolution — that the Jews should rank pari passu with her other subj ects, and that equal rights should be granted to them throughout the whole Empire. In a letter from the same Empress to the Administration of White Russia, she is even rumoured to have stated that the principles of legal equality were to hold good '.'without distinction of faith or nationality." Nevertheless, this Empress soon proved unfaithful to her abstract principles, and in her attitude towards the Jews she returned to the old system. The ancient formula was, however, now- replaced by another which had a certain semblance of justice : namely, that there should be allotted to the Jews those regions generally where the Empire had found them. This was the historic origin of the Pale of Settlement, and to the same policy must be ascribed the domiciliary privileges existing in three other portions of Russia, in every case, it will be noted, near the boundary of the indigenous Jewish groups absorbed by conquest or annexation : namely, in Courland and in parts of Livonia for a certain number of Jewish families established there for many generations, in the Caucasus f or the so-caUed "mountain"* Jews, and finally in Turkestan. As, therefore, in each instance the Jews had not been turned out of their ancient dwelling-places, the Government was always able to show that it had merely endeavoured to maintain the status quo. The Government, nevertheless, intentionally overlooked the historical *Tliis designation is applied to the descendants of Jews who were Uving in the Caucasus at the time of its conquest by Russia half a century ago. They claim that their forefathers were deported there by Nebuchadnezzar after the destruction of the First Temple in 587 b.c. LEGAL SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS IN EUSSIA 31 fact that for ages, in spite of all prohibitions, there had been isolated Jews in the interior provinces of the Empire. We will, however, waive this point, and for the moment, too, leave out of account the later important departure from the status quo in excluding Jews from the villages. But the whole ideology of Russian officialdom was fundamentally only a shameful deprivation of rights. Between the different regions of one and the same empire the economic relations become so intimate within a few decades of their unification that the exclusion of a given nation from the empire as a whole and its segregation in one particular region must be tantamount to its complete ruin. With the abolition of the boundaries of an annexed territory, the non-admission of part of its inhabitants to the other provinces — ^without a similar regulation applied to all nationalities — is surely an act of the harshest subj ugation. Little by little this perception was borne in even upon those who were wont to appeal to the historic basis of the Pale of Settlement, and this resulted in certain modifications in the right of domicile, carried out during the liberal era of Alexander II. Since that time there have been several classes of Jews who possess the privilege of residence in every part of the Empire or in a large portion thereof, but these prerogatives, on account of subsequent abridgements and the manner in which they have been interpreted by the Russian authorities, benefit only a very insignificant fraction of Russian Jewry. The following Jewish categories were invested with the privilege of domicile throughout the Empire : — 1. Discharged soldiers, after serving their full time. 2. Merchants of the first Guild (paying a business licence of 800 to 1,000 roubles) after having paid that tax within the Pale for five con- secutive years, and if they still belong to the first Guild after settling outside the Pale. According to the law also, the merchants may each " take with them " one Jewish clerk and domestic servants (up to four persons). 3. Graduates of universities and higher institutions of learning in general, as well as students in these institutions, apothecaries and apothe- caries' assistants, certificated dentists, non-graduate surgeons, and mid- wives, with their respective assistants and students in these branches. 4. Mechanics, distillers, brewers and artisans generally while pur- suing their own callings, as well as artisans' apprentices serving their time, but in order to obtain their passport, which has to be renewed periodically, they must produce a certificate of their vocation in accordance with the rules established by law for that purpose. When the official anti-Semitism gained the upper hand, however. 32 LEGAL SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS IN EUSSIA these privileges— dating, for the most part, from the sixties of last century, and intended to inaugurate a regime of further legal equalisation for the Russian Jews — were so greatly trenched upon by new provisions or interpre- tations, that they failed to fulfil their original purpose of distributing the Jews gradually over the whole Empire. Even the idea that at least those Jews who had completed their severe mihtary service or, as artisans, were producing commodities of value, should be attracted more and more to the interior governments, was abandoned during the era of persecution, and the whole trend of Senatorial decisions and Ministerial circulars, as well as the dispositions of the local authorities, made a mockery of the alleviations pertaining to this category. The discharged soldiers fared worst of all, for in 1885 a circular issued by the Minister of the Interior declared that the privilege of universal domicile applied to none but the category of the so-called " Nicholas " soldiers, and only to those who had served in the army prior to the regula- tions of 1874. "*■ As the number of " Nicholas " soldiers is gradually melting away, a whole category of Jews possessing the privilege of universal domicile is doomed to extinction owing to the dishonest interpretation of a law. For although the privilege of domicile belonging to the " Nicholas " soldiers is inherited by their children, so many formalities have to be gone through that few even of this small group are able to avaU themselves of it. After many actions had been fought by interested parties in the law courts, the Council of the Empire decided, in 1894, that the privilege of universal domicile appertained only to the descendants of those " Nicholas " soldiers who on their discharge had settled outside the Pale of Settlement, and at the same time had registered their children in whatever place they had chosen for their residence. Thus, with a stroke of the pen, the privilege was withdrawn from most of those who had a claim to it. It may be added that in the course of time the few still surviving " Nicholas " soldiers have seen their domicihary right materially curtailed. Thus, in spite of their universal privilege, they gradually lost their right in the Don Territory in the provinces of Kuban and Terek, in the government of Moscow (including the town of Moscow itself), and finally in all the villages, unless they had been in residence prior to May 3rd, 1882. StUl more definite, as we have seen, was the verdict as regards soldiers who have served in the Army since 1874. A sad spectacle is here pre- *Under the former conscription, statutes long service was the rule, and during the earlj reign of Nicholas I. Jewish soldiers remained 25 years with the colours. LEGAL SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS IN ETJSSIA 33 sented to our gaze. Some 18,000 Jews are annually called up for military service in Russia, so that the Jewish soldiers by themselves constitute a goodly army, and the census of 1897 showed that there were then altogether 53.195 Jews serving with the colours. But all these thousands, who as recruits are sent to the interior of Russia, must return to the Pale immediately they take their discharge after several years' service. The plight of these discharged soldiers, who after many internal struggles have accustomed themselves to life in another milieu, and perhaps have severed all connection with their former place of residence, is often painful in the extreme, but the disqualifying ordinance is insisted upon to the letter, so that not infrequently Jewish soldiers on furlough have been obliged to leave the place where they were serving their time because it was situated outside the Pale of Settlement. For, since i8g6 the regulations issued by the Military Council contain a clause stipulating that Jewish soldiers if not already belonging to the privileged categories must not while on leave hve ■outside the Pale. Many Jewish soldiers forego their furlough solely on this account. It is truly characteristic that the important problem of the right ■of domicile of Jewish soldiers when on leave should occupy the attention ■of the Military Council, and that that august body should find it necessary to give a decision in the negative. The contrast between the duties and rights of the Russian Jews is here illustrated in a very forcible manner. The Russian Government did not proceed quite so consistently in the ■case of the remaining three privileged groups as it did with the discharged soldiers, but the former had and still have to endure such a plenitude of lestrictions and annoyances that their privilege generally becomes a martyrdom for them. Thus the law relating to the merchants of the first Guild is unfortunately so worded as to read that they may " take with them " their clerks when moving to the provinces outside the Pale. This awkward •expression was not heeded at first, since the meaning of the law was clear. For several decades the privileged merchants outside the Pale continued at their pleasure and without interference to employ Jewish clerks, which ipso facto imphed the right of domicile for them, until one fine day the authorities began to expel the latter, pointing to the fatal expression " take with them." By this, they opined, it was in no wise "to be understood that merchants vested with the universal right of domicile should take with them Jewish clerks and domestics some time after moving to an interior government, or replace those who had then accompanied them by others from the Pale. In vain was it pointed out that the expression " to take with them " could be easily explained by the fact that at the time the law 34 LEGAL SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS IN KUSSIA was enacted (in 1859) there were practically no Jews outside the Pale of Settlement. The legislator who facihtated the settlement of Jewish mer- chants in the interior provinces thought unconsciously of these merchants " taking with them " Jewish clerks and servants, without suspecting for a moment what disastrous consequences the inexact wording of the law would subsequently entail. In the long and weary struggle over the correct interpretation of the law the Jews were worsted as far back as 1886, the courts of highest appeal agreeing with the interpretation of the local authorities. With the disqualification of their clerks and servants the privilege granted to merchants of the first Guild was reduced to a minimum. The conduct of the Government affected most of aU St. Petersburg, Moscow and Kieff, where until then the law had provided for important modifica- tions, for in these places every Jewish merchant of the first Guild might have a whole staff of clerks according to his requirements. The official commentators of the eighties, relying upon a clause in the law, decided, however, that the governors-general of the three towns in question must lay down in each particular case how many clerks of a privileged merchant should be granted the right of domicile. Thereupon the high officials believed that they were carrying out the intentions of the Central Govern- ment in allotting to the privileged Jewish merchants a ridiculously small number of clerks (one or two) in proportion to their business dealings. The Jews of Kieff were hit the hardest by this measure, which at the beginning of the nineties, when it was first enforced, meant nothing less than an absolute calamity for the hundreds of Jewish merchants settled there. Many hundreds of their clerks lost their right of residence in Kieff, and were persecuted by the police if they did not leave the town, while the- merchants themselves were as a rule quite unable to manage with the few clerks allowed them. In this instance wilful chicanery was added to- inhumanity. The privileged merchants of the first GuUd experienced meanwhile yet other restrictions which materially cramped their freedom of movement. Thus the Government further withdrew the right of domicile from whole portions of the Empire — namely, the Don Territory and the Caucasian provinces of Kuban and Terek. Most tolerable of all, perhaps, was the position of those possessing the privilege of domicile as graduates of the universities and higher insti- tutions of learning or as students in these institutions. But even this category, which includes only a very hmited number of Jews, had to suffer with the others. When the incisive and restrictive measure was- LEGAL SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS IN RUSSIA 35 enacted, determining the " percentage rule " for the admission to the universities of Jewish scholars who had passed the final examinations of the high schools, and incidentally creating a whole army of Russo-Jewish students in foreign countries, the Senate hastened to explain, in a resolu- tion, that Jews who had graduated in universities outside Russia did not belong to the privileged class possessing the right of domicile through- out the Empire, and must, therefore, not settle outside the Pale of Settle- ment. Another Senatorial resolution intimated that the domicihary privilege appertaining to Jewish students at the Russian universities applied only to the actual places where they were prosecuting their studies, and that they must not betake themselves to any other place in the interior governments, even for a few weeks. This harsh Senatorial decree was occasioned by a case which at the time— it happened during the liberal period early in the reign of Nicholas II.— caused some dismay in Russian society, passive though it remained in the full consciousness of its impotence. The case concerned a consumptive student who visited the health resort of Yalta for medical treatment. In the midst of the " cure " the patient, whose illness was far advanced, was hounded out of the place, despite the entreaties of his doctor, because he was not possessed of the right of domicile, although only a few years before the health resort itself had belonged to the Jewish Pale. The Senate approved of the conduct of the Yalta authorities and thereby sanctioned the principle that Jewish students also, with the exception of their university town, were chained to the Pale. This restriction bears very hard upon the Jewish student in the holiday season, when he is in the habit of utilising his spare time by giving lessons or doing some other work in order to earn enough for his needs. Another material restriction affecting those who had qualified by study for the privileged category was introduced by the Police Depart- ment long before this. Because certificated private teachers of the female sex had not been specially mentioned in the law, they forfeited from 1882 onwards the universal right of domicile, which until then they had enjoyed without interference. To certificated midwives, on the other hand, who in Russia, it may be remarked in passing, receive in special institu- tions a more thorough training than falls to the lot of their sisters in Western Europe, the same ruling did not apply, as they were exempt from the law in view of the scarcity of women practising their profession in the interior governments. The Minister of the Interior, however, issued an order that a Jewish midwife outside the Pale must not have 36 LEGAL SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS IN EUSSIA her children with her unless her husband was a privileged person. This enactment meant for the Jewish midwives a perceptible limitation of their right of residence, since many of them, being mothers, were forced to give up their domicile. During the height of the reactionary period, in spite of the clearly formulated law granting the universal right of residence to those included in the educated category, a further territorial limitation for many of them came into force. In the provinces of Kuban and Terek, as well as in the Don Territory, the right of domicile is accorded only to the Jews who possess a university diploma, being withdrawn from apothecaries, dentists, etc. And these exceptional measures and ambiguous methods are not the only ones which have overtaken privileged persons on the grounds of their degree of education or the nature of their studies. For years the, Russian legal authorities debated the question whether a Jew who had graduated and was following another profession than the one for which he had studied could enjoy the universal right of domicile. The Senate was not afraid to proclaim for certain categories the decision of " professional compulsion " in case they would not leave their domiciles outside the Pale of Settlement. In the year 1902, the Senate passed a resolution that dentists, surgeons and midwives who were not engaged in their own professions, should be expelled from the interior governments. What does a Russian legal authority care for the unwritten economic laws which are so often dictated by hunger ? When a surgeon or midwife through necessity, or rather through want of cases, takes to another profession, then away with the violators of the holy principle of domiciliary right ! The merciless Senatorial ruling, which was entirely at variance with several former Senatorial decisions, was not, as a matter of fact, put into execu- tion, but ever since then the numerous Jewish dentists, surgeons, etc., are a prey to never-ending anxiety, for, whether they follow their own professions or not, the prospect of constant official control is as galling as it is degrading. Moreover, the same question is always arising afresh and is now on each occasion decided in the sense of the Senatorial resolu- tion of 1902, so that its actual enforcement will presumably not be long in coming. For the past year a permanent panic has prevailed in these circles on this account. In the meantime, other problems in reference to the ' certificated category have cropped up. When someone possesses the universal right of domicile, his family enjoys the same privilege. The Russian exceptional law recognises this fact. But does the wife of a privileged person possess LEGAL SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS IN RUSSIA 37 the same prerogative even when she doe's not hve in the same place as her husband ? May the wife of a person who has quahfied for the domiciliary right by education stay on in a place outside the Pale after the death of her husband? If the last problem is generally solved in the charitable sense, the contrary is the rule for the children of privileged persons, and they are generally allowed to remain with their parents only until they come of age, unless in the meantime they have independently gained the right of domicile for themselves. All these questions, which are here touched upon briefly, have occasioned contests which have been waged with an energy worthy of a better cause, and the vacillating attitude of the authorities has often enough aggravated the condition of the persons implicated or affected. Notwithstanding aU that has been said, the condition of the category of persons privileged on account of their education is idyUic in comparison with the severity to which the artisans outside the Pale are exposed when they desire to take advantage of the right accorded to them. Before moving to an interior government they must provide themselves with special documents which are difficult to obtain, and they have to pass a species of examination, the result depending entirely upon the capricious judgment of officials who are generally badly disposed towards them. In their new place of residence they are inspected to see that they are following their own trade and no other, and this supervision is as degrading as it is expensive, not to mention the arbitrary acts to which such a system gives rise. At the same time the Jewish artisans live in constant fear of expulsion, which may overtake in the night even those who have been settled in the same place for many years. The reasons for banishing a Jewish artisan from the interior governments are manifold. If it is brought home to one of them that he has given shelter for a single night to a non- privileged Jew, even if the latter is a near relation, he must expiate his " crime " by a fine in the first instance, and, on a repetition of his offence, he is liable to banishment. Another motive for expulsion is when an artisan leaves his own calling, even temporarily, and follows another occupation. To deal in any commodity during his hours of leisure is strictly forbidden, and at one time numerous Jewish artisans were entered on the proscription list just because in the course of their daily avocation they sold goods which were only indirectly connected with their business. Watchmakers were banished because they had watch-chains for sale, bakers because in their confectionery business they sold coffee. Kosher butchers because they sold meat to non-Jews, and so forth. This harsh 38 LEGAL SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS IN RUSSIA interpretation of the laws, as exemplified in the above-mentioned cases, was afterwards over-ruled by the Court of Highest Appeal; but every conflict of this nature meant ruined lives, and filled with unrest and anxiety the atmosphere in which the Jewish artisan lives. The haunting fear of expulsion gave and stiU gives rise to incessant denunciation, which the crafty pohce know how to turn to good account. There have even been cases of expulsion which the pohce formally based upon the " bad behaviour" of the persons concerned. Other artisans were refused by the authorities admission to their guild, and therewith also the right of domicile, for the reason that there were already enough artisans. The fact that the artisan does not possess a hfe-long but merely a "temporary " privilege of domicile, that he may " reside " without the Pale only so long as he follows his voca- tion, robs his life of aU sense of security and engenders much discord. If he loses his health or becomes weak with advancing years, he must engage upon a long and weary contest with the police authorities over the right of domicile in the place where he has hved, perhaps, for many years. It is true that the Senate has decreed more than once that a Jew in this condition must not be banished, but the police have first to decide whether he is capable of work or whether he is reaUy iU. Here is one example out of many : An old man of eighty-two, who had spent forty years as an artisan in Sarapul, had to fight in the courts for the right to remain in that place until his case reached the Senate, and it was only then that he was granted the " permission " he sought. Even, however, while the Jewish artisan is able-bodied, the temporary nature of his domiciliary right is ever hanging before his eyes in an intolerable manner, owing to the special certificates relating to his skill and irreproachable conduct which he must possess. We have already explained how everything the Jewish artisan does can be twisted into a violation of the law, or be made to serve as the ground of his expulsion. There are, however, other trammels which cramp the movements of the Jewish artisan in Central Russia, and render nugatory all his attempts to rise in the world. One of the most absurd regulations is perhaps that which forbids a Jewish artisan to sell the products of his handi- craft outside the town where he lives. In Brj ansk the authorities went so far as to extend the apphcation of this prohibition to the Bjeschitza factory, which stood outside the town boundary. Another regulation belongs to the same category. Changing from one handicraft to another entails the loss of the right of domicile. The Jewish artisan desirous of starting on another career must, therefore, return to the Pale for a season, pass an examina- LEGAL SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS IN RUSSIA 39 tion in his new trade, provide himself with fresh certificates and once again tread a path strewn with legal obstacles, which only the strongest and most energetic are able to surmount twice in a lifetime. So when an artisan happens to have acquired special knowledge and skill in some other handicraft and sees a good opening for their employment in the place where he lives, as a rule he renounces the thought of making the promising but at the same time hazardous change. In addition to this, as already stated, according to a Senatorial decision, the Jewish artisan, on account of his " temporary " right of domicile, may possess no real estate outside the Pale of Settlement. Should he, indeed, succeed, by dint of many years' hard work, in saving a Uttle money, his position of pariah must on no account be altered. Only his work is to be tolerated, not his presence. So there is no settled residence for him, and his gaze must ever be directed towards the Ghetto. Besides these vexations of a legal, economic or personal nature, the Jewish artisan who decides to avail himself of his privilege of domicile has to face other troubles which embitter his existence. The legal position of a Jewish artisan's family in the interior provinces of Russia is so deplor- able that it is simply wonderful that there are actually Jewish artisans to be found who venture to migrate to these regions. Thus, as soon as the sons of one of these settlers have grown up, they are obliged to leave the paternal roof and return to the Ghetto, unless they themselves have earned the right of domicile ; and his daughters who have married " non-privileged " husbands may not even make a temporary stay in the paternal home. His wife, too, and his children who are under age, possess the right of domicile only so long as they live with him. The death of the head of the family deprives them therefore of the right, and the law is so interpreted as to make an exception only in favour of widows carrying on their husbands' "business. The domicihary privilege, which the Russian Government granted to Jewish artisans from politico-economic motives, has been deprived of its comprehensive scope by quantitative restrictions. When, in 1865, the Russian Government made it possible for Jewish artisans to migrate from the Pale of Settlement to other parts of the Empire, the Minister of the Interior based this measure on the fact that Western Russia had a superfluity of artisans, while there was a scarcity of them in every other part of the realm. Taking two neighbouring ■ governments, like Kursk and Kieff, where the conditions were fairly similar, he showed that the proportion of artisans per thousand of the population for the tormer govern- 40 LEGAL SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS IN RUSSIA ment was .8, and for the latter, which is in the Pale, 2.6, and he claimed that the admission of Jews to the interior provinces would contribute towards regulating the supply and demand of labour, and restricting the overproduction of manufactured articles in the Pale of Settlement, while at the same time hastening the development of the rest of the country in that direction. Fiscal reasons, too, influenced the Government in passing the same measure, in which distillers and brewers are specially mentioned, for the authorities were crying aloud for Jewish distillers, and the Ministry of Finance declared on its side that upon the admission of Jewish distillers, brewers, mechanics, etc., to the whole Empire depended the ultimate success of a most important legislative proposal — namely, a new system of excise for alcoholic liquors. In addition to all these considerations, there was another reason, namely, the Government saw in the Jewish artisans the most productive element in Russian Jewry, and felt all the more that it must grant them the domiciliary privilege, since this had already been accorded to the other categories. This point of view was at first also responsible for the Government's action in fixing the limits for the operation of the handicrafts law. The definition of handicrafts was to be as wide in its scope as possible, and to include many other productive trades, so that besides members of the workers' corporations there were many experienced wbrkmen who could bring certificates from factory owners, and therewith gain the universal right of domicile. In this liberal manner did the Government under Alexander II. interpret the law, but it was reckoning without the watch-word of the "gradual" emancipation of the Jews. How changedwas the position of this category in the anti-Semitic era ! Little by little the Senate then declared a large number of trades to be non-privileged which formerly had ranked as handicrafts, or were placed on an equality with them as far as the right of domicile was concerned. Thus, although they surely did not belong to the " exploiting " elements, the tobacco-workers, piano-tuners, fish-curers, butchers, golosh menders, compositors (concerning whom, however, there is another Senatorial decision), surveyors' assessors, grain, flax and hemp sorters, stone-masons, bricklayers, carpenters, stucco-workers, plasterers, navvies, carters, gardeners, as well as unskilled labourers and household servants, all lost the privilege of domicile and were sent back to the Ghetto. How great a number of persons were disquahfied by Senatorial decrees cannot be ascertained, but some idea may be gained from the fact that the census of occupations, in 1897, showed that the Jewish population merely LEGAL SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS IN RUSSIA 41 under the heading of " personal services " (i.e., day-labourers, domestics, etc.), numbered 175,732 workers- — including 113,740 women, chiefly servants- — or 334,837, including non-workers dependent upon them. As may be seen from the foregoing instances and parenthetical remarks, the female population among the Jews is hit harder than the men. The barbaric restrictions imposed upon the Jews in Russia admit, however, in one department a characteristic exception in favour of Jewish women — to Jewish prostitutes the whole Empire stands open. The police, with shameless cynicism, keep strict watch to see that a Jewess who has pro- claimed herself a prostitute, and on the strength of this is enjoying the domiciliary right outside the Pale, is really following her degrading pro- fession. Jewish girls have been banished on the formal ground that instead of abandoning themselves to vice they were making a living by teaching, or were attending lectures, neither of which pursuits earned them the right of domicile. Who can realise the torments of those Jewish girls who in their despair have resolved upon such a humiliating line of conduct in order to avoid the persecution of the police, and yet have been discovered and driven forth from their domiciles ? Modest and virtuous girls having to label themselves officially as prostitutes, in order to have peace and quiet — one might well take this statement to be the fabrication of an over- excited imagination, if these diabolic happenings were not confirmed by the authorities themselves ! True, only isolated cases of this kind have come to the knowledge of the public, since surely very few Jewish girls can have taken refuge in such sad self-degradation, but these instances suffice to depict the lot of the Russian Jew and to brand the system of Russian bondage to all eternity. Let us, however, turn from this sad theme, which forced itself upon us spontaneously, back to our craftsmen, not, however, with the intention of enumerating aU the facts which make the life of the Jewish artisan beyond the Pale an anomaly. We must content ourselves with the essentials, but to be reckoned among these are surely the territorial restrictions which stand in sharp contradiction to the mitigating measures. For the 'Russian Government, by way of addition, has closed to the entire Jewish artisan class whole districts of the Empire besides the villages— the Don Territory, with Taganrog and Rostoff, Yalta, the government of Moscow (including the city of Moscow itself, of supreme importance to Jewish artisans) as well as Siberia and part of the Caucasus. This situation was very Uttle altered by the law of 1904, which partly removed the territorial restrictions for the artisans and at least gave them access to the villages. As a result 42 LEGAL SUFFERINGS OP THE JEWS IN RUSSIA of the oppressive conditions surrounding them in every direction, out of more than half a million competent Russo-Jewish artisans only some 10,000, scarcely 2 per cent., have succeeded in finding their way from the Pale of Settlement to the interior governments, and this, too, at a time when the same classes were sending hundreds of thousands of emigrants to Transatlantic countries. The prerogative of certain categories has been a blessing for only very few Jews, to most of them it has proved a curse, for the curtailments of privileges and the nearly always unfavourable interpretations of the law have entailed a huge amount of chicanery, uncertainty and tragedy. Once again in the interior governments of Russia groups or, at least, considerable numbers of Jews are being formed who are wholly without rights. He who to-day goes about his business happy in the possession of his residential right may have to pay dearly for his presumption to-morrow. There is always, too, as a matter of fact, a constant accession of really " unlicensed " Jews, who from economic motives are compelled to break through the artificial territorial barriers, for the economy of a whole Empire cannot abide by provincial boundaries. Then ensues a battle royal between the authorities and the Jews who have settled in " forbidden " places contrary to the law, or have continued to remain after losing their domiciliary privilege. The police, who are thoroughly demoralised by the system, employ against these victims sometimes mild and sometimes harsh measures^ — according to the prevailing sentiment of the moment. They wring huge sums out of the better-off Jews, who are then allowed to linger on in fear and trembling, while their poorer comrades are driven out in the most heartless manner. When, under Alexander II., a number of these unlicensed Jews collected outside the Ghetto boundary, the Government at first closed its eyes and for a long time did not trouble itself over the viola- tions of the law committed from one motive or another by the local authorities. It was not until April, 1880, that the Minister of the Interior, spurred on by the ever-turbulent anti-Semitic Press, drew the attention of the respective governors to this unlawful state of affairs in a special circular, and instructed them to prevent further settlements of non-privileged Jews, ordaining at the same time, however, that all those who before the date of the circular had settled anywhere outside the Pale of Settlement were to be allowed to remain where they were undisturbed. Exactly the opposite tactics with regard to " unlicensed " Jews were followed by the Government under Alexander III. Not only did it perse- cute most severely aU the newcomers who did not possess the right of LEGAL SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS IN RUSSIA 45 domicile, not only did it issue the most stringent orders against all those Jews who, through want of means, had ceased paying the Guild tax before they had made at least ten annual payments,* but it finally also made the above-mentioned circular of the year 1880 retroactive, and thus banished thousands who had a prescriptive right at least to the local privilege of domicile. Sometimes there occur particularly critical moments, when the expulsions assume to some extent the character of an epidemic. An historic instance is the practically simultaneous expulsion from Moscow of some ten thousand who, as artisans or discharged " Nicholas " soldiers, had a legal right to the privilege of domicile. In this case, in the year 1891, at the instigation of the Grand Duke Sergius the existing law was simply suppressed in the government of Moscow, a procedure which the Government has repeatedly employed in a well-nigh capricious manner. It suddenly takes a special interest in certain localities, and then proceeds to render them almost completely inaccessible to privileged Jews. Thus, for instance, the Don Territory is practically open only to Jews possessing a university degree. Similar principles are in force since the nineties of last century in the provinces of Kuban and Terek. Siberia, too, was included among these exceptional regions, and for some time the view prevailed that no more Jews should be admitted there, while the old settlers who had been partly placed there by the Government itself under Nicholas I., and were partly recruited from the descendants of exiles, were nearly all interned in the places where they had registered themselves as citizens. The example of Moscow seemed to be contagious, and called forth further critical moments. Thus in 1893 came another harsh decree. In the whole territory outside the Pale of Settlement aU the "unlicensed" Jewish * The law of 1859, granting the right of domicile to merchants of the first Guild, contained a clause to the effect that a merchant must first pay the Guild tax within the Pale for five years, and then pay the same tax for a further term of ten years without the Pale before he could qualify for the universal right of residence. If, however, anyone failed to pay the tax during the ten-year period, then he must be sent baci; to the Ghetto within a twelve- month (or within two years if he owned real estate). This severe enactment, however, was not put into force until the reign of Alexander III. At that period it was even the rule that only after pajonent of the Guild tax for fifteen consecutive years could the universal right of domicile be obtained, and that every suspension of payment meant starting afresh from the beginning. This cruel enactment was put an end to only by a manifesto of Nicholas II. On the other hand, the question is still undecided as to whether those merchants who have paid the tax of the first Guild for five consecutive years within the Pale, and ten years without, possess the domiciliary right for the whole Empire or only in those towns where the Guild tax was paid. An awkwardly worded passage in the law gave rise to this problem at the height of the anti-Semitic agitation, and resulted, in 1898, in a Senatorial decision which was unfavour- able to the Jews. Later on the opposite interpretation won the upper hand, to give place again lately to a. more narrow-minded exposition. To chain merchants of the first Guild to appointed towns of the Pale of Settlement is surely almost equivalent to cancelling the second half of their privileges ! 44 LEGAL SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS IN RUSSIA inhabitants were to be discovered and hunted forth by a given date, whereby, as already mentioned, those also were affected who were protected by the prescriptive principle guaranteed by the circular of 1880. These were veritable catastrophes, which in their extent recalled the persecution of the Jews in the Middle Ages, but in the course of time numerous other places have witnessed hundreds and thousands of these expulsions " in the name of the law," and every place is famiUar with such persecutions on a smaller scale. In quite recent times this administrative method has not cried a halt even at children and infirm old people. In view of what has been said, is it to be wondered at that the privileged categories of Jews in Russia have on the whole made, or been able to make, only a relatively slender use of their privileges during the latters' half century of existence ? The same Jewish masses who have sent roughly one and a-half million souls from the Pale of Settlement to America and other foreign countries contribute only a quarter of a million inhabitants to the Russian provinces without the Pale, and amongst these are reckoned the Jews who were taken over with the conquered and annexed territories in Courland, Livonia, the Caucasus and Turkestan. Thereby arises the strange anomaly that while the Russian Jews within the Pale of Settlement and in Russian Poland number 11. 5 per cent, of the entire population, in a few particular provinces, such as Lomza, Minsk, Petrikoff and Siedlce, 15.7 or 15.8 per cent, and in the governments of Grodno and Warsaw as much as 17.3 and 18. i respectively, the proportion in the thirty-five interior governments of European Russia is only .25 per cent., in the Caucasus .63 per cent., in Siberia .6 per cent, and in Russian Central Asia no more than .16 per cent. Besides the economic distress, which we wiU discuss in another place, this state of things has given rise to a series of social-psychological pheno- mena which poison the Hfe of the Jews. The perpetual expulsions lower them in the eyes of their feUow-citizens, and strengthen the "pogrom" atmosphere which always encompasses Russian Jewry. Especially degrading are the nocturnal raids — " oblawas " — ^which in numerous places are made upon non-privileged Jews, raids which are carried out in such humiliating conditions that they produce a most painful effect upon all persons of decent feeling, while foreigners are positively horror-stricken. Nothing more repulsive could well be imagined than the constantly re- curring spectacle of a troop of innocent Jews, whose only crime consists of their possessing no right of residence, being driven by a cordon of pohce through the town in the early hours of the morning. Worse than the more LEGAL SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS IN RUSSIA 45 direct results of such raids is the panic which they spread among the Jewish population, and the despondent frame of mind which they engender, robbing life of all its joy. Innumerable non-privileged Jews residing without the Pale live in a constant state of fear, lest in the coming night they may fall victims to an " oblawa." For this means being confined with criminals and then hounded out of the town, or else being punished in a still more hurtful manner. Thus, for instance, during a period when the of&cial atmosphere was disturbed by an anti-Semitic cyclone of particular violence, the over-zealous local authorities proceeded to make an example of isolated non-privileged Jews captured in the police raids, by sentencing them to terms of imprisonment. This happened particularly at the time when the protectors of law and order in various " first-class " places were in the habit of arresting in broad daylight Jews or persons " of Jewish physiognomy " and investigating their domiciliary rights. Richest of all in such sad experiences is Kieff , a town which from the beginning was predestined to become a centre of Russo- Jewish life by reason of its position in the midst of the Pale of Settlement and its close connection with the surrounding governments of Kieff, Volhynia and Podoha, aU thickly populated with Jews — to an aggregate amount of about 1,200,000. And it was just for this town, which owes its development very largely to Jewish energy and activity, that the Russian Government enacted a special measure differing very little from those restrictions which are imposed upon Jews outside the Pale of Settlement. But, unfortunately, Kieff, because of the administrative authorities and legal institutions centrahsed there, as well as on account of the important part it plays in the crafts and industries of the whole south-western region of Russia, is simply indispensable to hundreds of thousands of Jews in the neighbour- hood. Thus there arises this absurdity : that an immense population is bound to a town both administratively and economically, and yet legally, with the exception of privileged persons, is debarred from any access to the place. No wonder that Jewish tenacity, driven by the hard necessities of hfe, treats this unnatural law as if it were non-existent ! No Jew looks upon the domiciliary prohibition for Kieff as an incontestable and morally binding law, and new outlaws wander daily into Kieff, to taste the bitterness of the domicihary oppression. With these outlaws are associated those masses who forfeit their privilege of residence — generally in consequence of some disingenuous interpretation of the law. The history of the Jews of Kieff is a particularly chequered one, from the days of Kieff's ancient glory up to the most recent times. In the 46 LEGAL SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS IN RUSSIA nineteenth century alone there were four well-defined periods in this section of Russo-Jewish life — first of all, a period of unrestricted right of residence, which lasted until the reign of Nicholas I. ; then, under that Tsar, a season of complete proscription at the instigation of envious trade competitors of pure Russian extraction ; thirdly, during the hberal era of Alexander II., a time of abnormal admissions— only of the privileged categories in theory, but in actual practice of many others as well ; and finally, for the past thirty years, a never-ending oppression of the privileged classes and the rigorous banishment of the non-privileged. When, in the sixties, the measures of reform had been passed, the Government, besides the privileges estabhshed in the interior governments for the four classes already mentioned, granted a few further alleviations, and as a natural consequence a considerable number of Jews assembled in that town, Kieff becoming a focus of Jewish enterprise, but a focus also of Jewish suffering. The persecutions of masses of Jews in Kieff on account of illegal resi- dence have become, since the first pogrom periods, a standing rubric in the chronicles of this town, and as early as the twelvemonth from October ist 1881, to October ist, 1882, 4,400 Jewish families had already incurred the penalty of expulsion. Here the institution of the above-mentioned " oblawas " has been brought to the highest pitch of perfection,* and here, too, wholesale expulsions are nearly always the order of the day. For the Kieff authorities strive with an ardent and unholy zeal to render iUusive aU the privileges and alleviations granted to the Jews. A couple of in- stances may be quoted to illustrate the state of affairs under Alexander III. * The " oblawas " generally take place in the middle of the night, though the most recent instances have occurred more frequently in the early hours of the morning (5 to 6 a.m.). A posse of policemen force their way with tremendous noise into a number of Jewish dwellings, waken the sleepers in the roughest manner, pulling the slumberers out of their beds and demanding the domiciliary permits of all the inhabitants, regardless of age or sex. Whoever cannot there and then establish his right documentarily, is dragged off straightway to the police .station with dozens of other victims, the band of fellow sufCerers being marched along the streets like a gang of convicts, to the accompaniment of the policemen's shouts and the mockery of the mob. It is not until a few days later that some are set at liberty while the others are punished. The terror of the" oblawa " has already had many tragi- comical and tragic consequences. A shocking incident of the latter nature was reported in the Kiefi newspapers some years ago. Several non-privileged Jews who were living in a house together were raided by the police, and hit upon an ingenious plan of circumventing, the latter just as they were entering the dwelling. Laying on the floor a young girl who belonged to their circle, they hastily enveloped her in a shroud, surrounded her with burning candles, and began in a loud voice to repeat the prayers for the dead. At this moment the police broke in, examined the girl and her environment with a critical eye for some time, and then quickly withdrew. The Jews were delighted. How cleverly they had outwitted the myrmidons of the law, how wonderfully the young girl had simulated death ! But why did she continue the deception now that the police had departed ? The reason was soon evident. The ostensible corpse was now a corpse in very deed, smothered by the windini,, sheets in which her comrades had wrapped her. LEGAL SUFFERINGS OP THE JEWS IN RUSSIA 47 The Government, in order to expedite the process of Russiiication, had granted to the Jews as a bait this privilege : that those among them whose children entered a State school, should enjoy the local right of residence. In the eighties, however, when, with the volte face in the Governmental policy, the attendance of Jewish scholars at the State schools had become a thorn in the side of the authorities, they solved the dilemma which confronted them by the simple method of directing the scholastic administration of Kieff to admit only those Jewish children whose parents already possessed the right of domicile. Perhaps no exposition on the part of the Govern- ment was so thoroughly characteristic of the swing of the pendulum as this truly Solomon-like decision. Another instructive example of what the Kieff Jews have to endure dates from the nineties of last century, when a conflict arose between the local authorities and the Jewish artisans who had settled in Kieff on the strength of their right of domicile, over the question whether the wives of the latter might engage in a retail business in the market-places. The point at issue concerned the wives of poor artisans who sold milk, bread and so forth, in order to relieve their most pressing necessities. The Governor-General decided that, being the wives of Jewish artisans, who, as " temporary " inhabitants, must not meddle with trade in Kieff as weU as outside the Pale generally, the poor women should be turned away from their stands. ApaJ;hetic though local non-Jewish society may generally be, from a feeling of shame it strove to oppose this immeasurable hatred of the bureaucratic circles, but the potentate held to his ruling, and in 1893 the Senate decided against the tradeswomen. What a problem, and what a refreshing fountain of humane sentiments ! Whoever is disposed to the belief that at least the Pale of Settlement, where 95 per cent, of all the Russian Jews live, is free from such vexations, makes a grievous mistake. The Ghetto proper, which the Russian Govern- ment created for its Jews, might possibly be less intolerable if at least there they possessed complete freedom of movement. It is, however, merely a fiction that the twenty-third fraction of the realm, comprising the Pale of Settlement, is free to the Jews. In practice, it is only in a minimum portion — about a two-thousandth — ^that the Jews possess absolute and unrestricted freedom of domicile. For since the May Laws of the year 1882 within the very territory assigned to the Jews — i.e., the Pale of Settlement — aU fresh settlements of Jews in the villages are prohibited, and since 1887 they are not even allowed to migrate from one village to another, so that the immense majority of them are forced into the towns. The Russian 48 LEGAL SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS IN RUSSIA Jew must keep to the town, no matter what his calling may be, or how much he may long for village life ; only those who had settled in the villages prior to 1882 are allowed to remain there, and with what chicanery is this " privilege " enveloped ! If on the one hand the dwellers in the towns must remain where they are, on the other hand the rest of the Jews are tied to the. villages. The temporary discontinuation of his residence in a village is sufficient to deprive a Jew of this privilege, and as a rule the women forfeit the privilege on their marriage. With all their strength and by means of all kinds of legal trickery the local administration, acting on superior instructions, carries on the noble work of hounding the Jews out of the villages into the towns, and for some time matters were pushed so far that Jews who had gone to the nearest town to attend the synagogue were prevented by the police from returning to their villages, the ingenious pretext being alleged that the people in question had left the villages in which they hved, and thus ceased to come under the category of exceptions provided for in the May Laws. Others were overtaken by the same hard fate because the pohce had not registered them in time, in the year 1882, as inhabitants of villages, and in the case of innumerable victims all the testimonies of neighbours proved of no avail. Many provincial pohce officials adjudged Jewish householders in the village settlements the right of residence only l^cause further leasing of real estate — including the renting of house property — outside the towns and townlets was forbidden according to the May Laws. This ridiculous, though hterally correct, consequence of the May Laws affected, in the eighties, some 10,000 Jews in the government of Chernigoff alone, and in spite of the Senate's subse- quent decision in the contrary sense, the greater number of these Tews were utterly ruined during, and as a result of, the period of persecution Others again incurred the penalty of expulsion because, in their innocence, they had moved from one part of their viEage to a more remote part, which technically belonged to another village. In their new domicile the pohce would declare them to be unhcensed newcomers ; whilst in the village they had inhabited they were looked upon as Jews who had emigrated and so forfeited their privilege. At length the Senate enacted the wise resolution that a Jewish villager might be free to settle, without fear of molestation, anywhere within a circuit of which the radius was three versts (nearly two miles). For whole decades, however, similar conflicts continued between the Jewish village dwellers and their official tormentors and as soon as one question was settled, another promptly cropped up' To these were added other annoyances for this section of Jewish societv LEGAL SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS IN RUSSIA 49 Thus, as has already been rfelated, the Jews dwelling in villages could not even acquire the ground necessary for cemeteries, since the acquisition of land outside the town boundaries runs counter to the May Laws, and so they were often compelled to drag their dead to some far-distant town. The stringent Russian legislation thus operated symbolically ; even in the grave the Jewish villager had no peace, no right to a few feet of soil ! The Jewish village population, which on an average comprises the intellectually weakest section, and for the most part is hardly able to support itself, is upon another account quite unfitted to of er effective resistance to the campaign of extermination. The strenuous authorities, wedded to the idea that every discovery of a pretext for the expulsion of fresh victims is an heroic act, often availed themselves of the weakness of the Jewish vUlagers and of their inexperience and ignorance of the laws in order to attain their ends. Very many of the exiles bowed to the inevitable and accepted their fate in a most resigned spirit. The injustice of it all was too great, too oppressive, for a simple-minded man of the people to beheve in the possibility of a triumph for legality on a small scale. But little by httle, with the assistance of those who had studied the law, there began a struggle against the arbitrary measures which sometimes this and some- sometimes that governing body systematically substituted for the usual restrictions. It is characteristic of the whole situation of the Jewish village population that it was not until dozens of separate cases had been fought out before the Senate that that body repudiated the very common practice of declaring absence for compulsory miUtary service to be tanta- mount to a discontinuation of residence, entaiUng the loss of the right of domicile in the village, and that thousands of discharged soldiers were consequently freed from a perpetual menace. Although the first of these cases had been decided by the Senate in the sense indicated as far back as the year 1885, the highest Court of Appeal in the Empire was called upon on several occasions in the nineties, even as late as the year 1898, to consider the same question. The prohibition of further Jewish settlements in the vUlages was the cause, several years after the measure came into force, of a specially serious catastrophe, which overwhelmed the Jews in several hundred small towns. The question concerned a long list of places which were enumerated as " townlets " in the official " compilation of the urban settlements," and for several decades were known only as such both to the authorities and to the Jews. However, for the reason that they had preserved the rural form of government, the local bureaucracy, at the beginning of the nineties, so LEGAL SUFFEEINGS OP THE JEWS IN RUSSIA suddenly applied the settlement prohibition to these places. This measure took by surprise the people concerned, and they carried on a long and weary struggle for their rights, but even the Senate decided against them. With its sanction hundreds of places were one after another marked down as village parishes, and thus fell under the ban of the May Laws, which hit the Jews in the governments of Chernigoff and Poltava particularly hard. The whole procedure was so monstrous that even Plehve eventually attempted to tone down its severity, and qualified some at least of the afflicted places (about two hundred) as towns, thus throwing them open to the Jews. But his orders were not issued until ten years after the event, when the consequences of the harsh and trenchant measures could hardly be averted. Meanwhile, in the villages which after this lapse of time had been raised to the rank of towns, all Jewish life and activity had long since to all intents and purposes been destroyed, most of those who had been banished had gone under, and there were few left to avail themselves of this new administrative relief, while those who had managed to remain on had suffered materially from the change. From many of the places con- cerned, however, Plehve's concession was eventually withheld. In the course of the fairly uniform era of persecution — from the death of Alexander II. until the Constitutional movement — virtually only one alleviation of the domiciliary right was granted to Russian Jewry : namely, the abolition of the fifty- verst zone in the year 1904. Under Nicholas I. the strip of territory running along the western frontier for a distance of fifty versts (33 miles), which had been inhabited by Jews for centuries, was withdrawn from the Pale of Settlement. Later on, the Government decided that those Jews who, prior to the year 1858, had been included in the local communes, or had acquired real estate there, should be allowed to live on unmolested. On the other hand, to aU remaining Jews, even the privileged ones, this part of the Pale of Settlement was to remain closed. In the eighties a terrible persecution began, directed against whole masses of the Jewish inhabitants who during the two previous liberal decades had assembled in the boundary zone " in an unauthorised manner," and also against a number of those Jews who were unable to establish their pre- scriptive rights. In some years the expulsions assumed terrible proportions ; for instance, in 1887 this fate overtook 5,000 persons in the district of Boltz in Bessarabia. The persecutions of Jews in the boundary zone endured until the beginning of the present century, and formed one of the worst contributions to the history of administrative cruelties in Russia. These persecutions were not free from the strange anomaHes so characteristic LEGAL SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS IN RUSSIA 51 of the whole treatment of Jews in Russia. Thus there were some towns of which one part would be open to Jews while the remaining portion, being included within the boundary zone, was cleared of Jews in the most rigorous manner. Finally the Government put an end to the exhausting struggle by abolishing the boundary zone restrictions, but it retained them in the Far East, along the Chinese frontier — and in this case the distance is fixed at 100 versts (66 miles). As a general rule the whole policy of the Russian Government with regard to the domiciliary right of the Jews was directed towards this end : to coop up in the large towns of the Pale of Settlement all the Jews who, under the burden of insupportable legal disabihties, did not emigrate from Russia, and this aim met with a full measure of success. In the fifteen governments of the Pale of Settlement proper (i.e.,' not including Russian Poland) only one-fifth of the Jews live in the villages, four-fifths being domiciled in the towns or townlets. Hence the enormous percentage of Jews among the whole (Jewish and non-Jewish) urban population, which amounts to an average of 41 per cent, for the whole Pale of Settlement, including Russian Poland. In the governments of Kieff (exclusive of the town of Kieff itself), Mohileff, Minsk, Vilna, Kovno, Grodno, Siedlce, Suvalki, Lomza and Radom, the percentage of Jews in the towns amounts to over a half, whilst in the provinces of Minsk and Grodno they form as much as 61.2 and 65.3 per cent, respectively of the total population of these places, a number of individual towns, in consequence of their two- thirds majority of Jews, bearing a distinctly Jewish aspect. On the basis of the figures quoted above, it is not difficult to imagine the terrible struggle for existence that must prevail amongst these millions of Jews who are crowded together in the towns, strictly limited in their proprietary and professional rights, with no reserves in the way of a rural population to draw upon. When, in addition, the Pale of Settlement is actually curtailed — as happened in the year 1887 through the exemption of the commercially and industrially important district of Rostoff, and of the township of Taganrog, and again in 1893 through the separation of the health resort of Yalta — then such a feeling of insecurity takes possession of the Jews in Russia that at such moments their whole tottering economic fabric threatens to crumble to pieces. Only by means of their inborn tenacity on the one hand, and the withdrawal by emigration of large sections of the population on the other, are they able to outlive the many catastrophes which overtake them, and to continue their hard struggle for a miserable existence. Under these conditions does the Jew Uve in Russia, when he is a 52 LEGAL SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS IN RUSSIA Russian subject. When, however, he is a foreigner, the Russian State takes on the whole no cognisance of him. The law relating to foreign Jews, even if they are citizens of the largest and most important towns, is, indeed, so strict, that of the large numbers formerly living in Russia only very few, after hard and ineffectual struggles, still remain behind. Accord- ing to regulations of the year 1891, the following are the orders, still in force, which apply to the domiciliary rights of this class : Foreign Jews, if they are representatives of well-known commercial firms, may obtain through a Russian Consulate abroad permission to reside in Russia for three months, and subsequently their visit may be prolonged for another three months. All other foreign Jews may visit the Empire only with the special authorisa- tion of the Minister of the Interior. As regards the permanent settlement of foreign Jews in Russia, according to the same regulations this permission is granted only to the following categories : i. Medical men and rabbis, but in both cases only when they have been invited to come to Russia by the Russian Government (an eventuality which, as may well be imagined, is a somewhat rare phenomenon) ; 2. Jews who intend to establish factories ; and 3. Skilled workmen and foremen who have been called to Russia from abroad for manufacturing work. The two last-named categories, however, have to surmount great official obstacles, and in point of fact are very few and far between. Particularly characteristic of the position of the foreign Jews in Russia is it that whoever among them desires to engage in trade must first procure a special authorisation from three Ministers — of the Interior, of Finance, and of Foreign Affairs — and pay the tax of the first Guild. So far does the provident care of the Russian Government extend that even the Jewish capitalists of foreign countries cannot " acquire dominion over Russia and exploit Russia's natural wealth." Yet she is willing enough to let herself be exploited by some of those she has kept at a distance, as soon as she finds the State coffers empty ! How the " patriotism " of the Russian Government imposes further special regulations and restrictions upon the Jews we need not discuss in detail any further. After aU, they play only a subordinate part in the life of the Russian Jew. We have given the outlines of the most important exceptional measures and restrictions of rights, and it is these which have reduced Russian Jewry to its present state of unparalleled misery. After our exposition and analysis of the whole body of exceptional laws and measures directed against the Jews, it is a simple matter for any- one to reaUse the unhappy conditions that must inevitably result. In regard to the legal enormities that have been depicted, what misery has LEGAL SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS IN RUSSIA 53 been entailed by such crowding together of Jews in certain places and their limitation to so few careers, what demoralisation of the Russian bureau- cracy has ensued, and what an atmosphere of pogroms has resulted ! For those elements of Russian society which are filled with hatred of the Jew are roused and egged on to deeds of cruelty by nothing so much as by the knowledge that the Jews are outlaws, and ther^ could be no stronger evidence of the fact that Jews are outlaws than the acts of official iUegaUty and injustice, which in a way constitute a perpetual reminder of the possi- bility of pogroms. When the law can at any moment bring about the economic ruin of ten thousand Jews — and of none other than Jews — ^why should a collective raid upon the whole Jewish population be unlawful ? When the police authorities, without any reason, can hound whole masses of Jews out of their homes and expose them to the greatest horrors, why should they object to private enterprise of a like nature ? Herein lies the root of that creduhty with which the non- Jewish masses who are hostile to the Jews lend a wiUing ear to every rumour that permission has been granted from exalted quarters to plunder, iU- treat and even kill the Jews during a certain period. To be sure, the incentive to pogroms may come about through other causes, but the pogrom possibility is formally sanc- tioned by the exceptional law. The armies which radical anti-Semitism manages to call into being are in this manner trained in a certain direction. For in the end the exceptional law is only a legalised violation of the law, which as a logical sequel breaks its bounds and leads to still further violations. The masses in general are, however, not so much influenced by this absence of right as are the Russian official classes themselves, in whose minds the collective impressions are condensed, generating, besides a propensity for pogroms, an impulse to the systematic fleecing of the Jews. Thus, during a whole century, Russian Jewry was nothing but a plaything in the hands of the administrative powers, who extorted immense sums from the Jews both on account of their outlawry and their fear of pogroms. When Prince Urussoff, the subsequent Deputy-Minister and famous un- masker of pogroms, was Governor of Bessarabia, he made an inquiry into the venality of his subordinates, and estimated that in his government alone the pohce officials managed annually to extort as " perquisites " the sum of one million roubles (£100,000)— mostly from Jews. This practice prevailed in all the provinces of the Pale and in stiU greater measure without the Pale wherever Jews were gathered together, as naturally the limitations in the right of residence, with all the confusion, coriflicts and ' difficulties which they imply, offered a most fertile field for exactions of 54 LEGAL SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS IN RUSSIA every kind. On the basis of the Bessarabian data, it may be assumed that Russian Jewry as a whole has paid to the police authorities every year not less than twenty to twenty-five million roubles for a slight relaxation in the application of the restrictive laws, and for warding off pogroms. We refrain from a detailed statement of these semi-official methods of exploit- ing administrative practices, which degrade the martjnrdom of the Russian Jews, but it may here be pointed out that all the " evasions of the laws " and other favours granted by the officials to the Jews — such as were observed by Prince Urussoff — are exclusively those which among non-Jews would be accorded without further ado, or would not come into application. On the day when the Jews are granted equality before the law, aU these per- quisites of the police wiU be suppressed as senseless impositions or as under- hand extortions. But for this reason alone how the Russian bureaucracy must struggle against the emancipation of the Jews ! LEGAL SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS IN EUSSIA CHAPTER VIII. THE GROWTH OF PAUPERISM AMONG RUSSIAN JEWS. The central and provincial governments have worked hand in hand to bring about the economic ruin of the Russian Jews. The exceptional law and its application have given rise to social and economic anomalies, which neither the Jewish masses concerned nor the Russian State itself are able to tolerate. The desolation wrought in this manner may best be illustrated by a few examples from the lives of Jewish artisans, who comprise nearly one-third of the total Jewish population. According to the census of 1897, over a quarter million Jews were employed in the clothing industries, but how do these tailors, shoemakers, hatters and so forth hve ? A careful and extended investigation, carried out at the end of last century, showed that for the ten Russo-Polish governments the maximum earnings in 80 per cent, of the towns under review amounted to less than 6 roubles (12s.) a week, and that in many places the sum was only 2 to 2^ roubles. For the same district the annual earnings of a master shoe-maker fluctuated between 150 and 250 roubles (£15 and £2^) in 65 per cent, of all the towns reviewed. That, however, represents the elite of the artisan class, and the condition of the subordinate categories is very different. A seamstress in the same region can earn only 100 roubles (£10) a year, and the lace-makers in the government of Radom actually make only 45 roubles (£4 los.) in the same space of time. Much the same — and to some extent still worse — are the data for the other provinces. Thus the average annual earnings of a master tailor in the north-west governments are 200 to 250 roubles, and in the south-western governments 150 to 300 roubles, while in the district of Grodno they drop to 80 roubles, and in a number of towns in the government of Chernigoff they amount to not more than 50 roubles. The seamstresses in the governments of Kieff and PodoHa, and the stocking-knitters in the whole south-western region, Ukewise make as a rule only 50 to 100 roubles a year. Still more distressful appears the condition of the Jewish artisan in the government of Volhynia, where the annual earnings of a Jewish master tailor vary from 120 to 200 roubles in 35 towns out of 69, where in 12 towns a master shoe-maker earns only lOO roubles, and where, in 13 towns out of 48 visited by the nvestigators, a seamstress gains from 25 to 50 roubles a year. 56 LEGAL SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS IN RUSSIA Essentially the same is the condition of the immense majority of small shopkeepers, to say nothing of the unemployed. The proportion of the rich and well-to-do classes is so small that they can assist only the most pressing cases of poverty, and are unable to alleviate the general misery of the masses. Nowhere are such claims made upon the charity of the well-to-do as among the Russian Jews, and nowhere else does pauperism assume such terrible dimensions. The above-mentioned in- vestigation held in the year i8g8, which was carried out in 1,200 places, showed that at the Passover festival 19 per cent, of the Jewish population had been assisted by the public offerings, and in many places this propor- tion was exceeded, the figures for Ekaterinoslav being 25.4 per cent., for Kovno 25.8 per cent., for Elisavetgrad and Kremenchug 26.7 per cent., for Poltava 27.8 per cent., for Nikolayeff 28.7 per cent., for Zhitomir 29.5 per cent., for Dvinsk 30.9 per cent., and for Vilna 37.7 per cent. ! A special enquiry made in Odessa in the year 1900 further showed that, out of 150,000 Jews residing there, 48,549 had applied for relief to the Jewish public charities. One-third of the Odessa Jews is thus recruited from beggars ! The most dangerous phenomenon, however, is the rapid increase of pauperism among the Russian Jews. On the basis of the number of persons making a claim upon the public charities at the Passover festival, it appears that in the Pale of Settlement the increase of pauperism amounted to 27.9 per cent, within four years (1894-1898) ; while in the governments of Ekaterinoslav, Bessarabia, Petrikoff (including Lodz), Chernigoff, and Siedlce there was actually an increase of 41.9 to 46.8 per cent. Now this period — 1894 to 1898 — covers the introduction of the State hquor monopoly, which deprived 27,500 Jewish tavern-keepers of their livehhood, not even a fraction of the persons in question having found positions as employees in the pubhc-houses belonging to the State monopoly. But such catas- trophes occur in the lives of Russian Jews more than once in every four years. Let us recall for a moment only the most important events : in 1881-2, the gigantic pogroms ; in 1882, the May Laws (exclusion from villages and possession of real estate) ; in 1886-9, the restrictions regard- ing education and the legal profession ; in 1887, the separation of the town and district of Rostoff, together with Taganrog, from the Pale ; in 1891 and the following years, the banishment of ten thousand privileged and non-privileged Jews from the town and government of Moscow ; in 1893-5, the expulsion of all those without the Pale, whose domiciliary rights were founded on the " prescriptive " circular of 1880 ; in 1894-6, the economic LEGAL SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS IN RUSSIA 57 catastrophe following the introduction of the spirit monopoly ; in 1903-6, the pogrom period in Kishineff, Homel, Zhitomir, Homel again (" October pogrom "), Bialystok, Siedlce ; in 1908-11, frequent expulsions of large masses of Jews. And between-times we must reckon isolated cases of pogroms ; partial restrictions imposed upon privileged persons ; con- tinual expulsions from the boundary zone, Kieff, the interior govern- ments and Siberia ; as well as such matters as property disqualifications (relating to shares in joint-stock companies, etc.), disqualifications in the professions, exceptional measures with regard to military service, the complete exclusion from municipal government, and all the other innumer- able direct or indirect hindrances and annoyances. What nation could emerge from such persecutions hale and whole ? And what mental, moral and economic powers must perish in such a struggle for j ustice and against the exceptional law ! Ever fighting poverty and degeneration with all the means at its command, the Jewish nation in Russia involuntarily constitutes the strongest protest against serfdom and inequality, but ever and again it has to bow beneath the sledge-hammer of Reaction. 58 LEGAL SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS IN RUSSIA CHAPTER IX. THE PRESENT ERA OF LEGALISED PERSECUTION. Russian Jewry has again felt quite recently and most severely. the whole pressure of the reactionary elements, for the behaviour of the Russian Government and the local administration towards the Jews has also of late conformed in every respect to the prevailing political tendency. In compliance with the general policy, this era was not ushered in with Jewish persecutions, but with fair promises in favour of those who had so long been neglected. As early as December, 1904, a ukase was issued command- ing the revision of the restrictions imposed upon the Jews. Only those were to remain in force " necessitated by the most vital interests and the welfare of the State." On July 8th, 1905, the Committee of Ministers appointed a commission to summarise and state precisely the most impor- tant components of the Russian Jewish problem. M. Witte's report of October 17th, 1905, to the Tsar concludes by mentioning " the necessity of equalising the civil rights of all Russian subjects without distinction of nationality or faith." In their jubilation the Jews went so far as to interpret this promise as a formal declaration of their equality before the law. Then came a season of vacillating utterances on the part of the Government, but even after the dissolution of the first Duma the Govern- ment announced that " in the matter of the Jewish question an investiga- tion will be held without delay to decide which restrictions, as causing irritation and being antiquated, can be removed immediately, and which, as affecting essentially the relations of the Jewish people to the original population, concern the public conscience, so that a premature decision would embarrass the future work of the legislature." In accordance with these promises, the Council of Ministers, on October 27th and 31st, and December ist, 1906, was engaged on the task of alleviating Jewish disqualifications by means of provisional orders, before going further into the question. How this came about we learn from the report destined for the Tsar, upon the sittings in question, in which these words occur : " Of late the Jewish question has become aggravated, the discontent with the present situation, which is full of difficulties for the Jews compared to the rest of the population, and also LEGAL SUFFEEINGS OF THE JEWS IN RUSSIA 5.; the accompanying disaffection to Russia and the Russian Government, having reached their extreme hmit. Thereby the Jews have been forced into a desperate struggle against the existing order of the State, so as to obtain by this means a revision of the restrictions in their civil and pro- prietary rights which weigh so heavily upon them* Inasmuch as the Council of Ministers has obeyed the behest of your Imperial Majesty to follow the path of State reconstruction and the restoration of the estab- hshed order, which had been destroyed by the revolutionary movement, It could not neglect the pressing question of an immediate improvement in the condition of the Jews, as far as it did not interfere with normal legislation." The Stolypin Cabinet did not have the courage, on this occasion either, to recommend the radical emancipation of the Jews, and even M. Kokovzeff, the Minister of Finance, who in this respect advanced the strongest claims, did not decide upon a definite volte face from the " historic principles" of statutory limitations for the Jews, but pleaded only for a series of alleviations in the domiciliary, proprietary and commercial restrictions wherever these were particularly oppressive. In the end the Ministerial Cabinet acceded only to a few of M. Kokovzeff's proposals, by partially removing the domiciliary restrictions. In the main, the pro- posals of the Ministry amounted to this, that all domicihary restrictions within the Pale should be allowed to lapse, so that Kieff, Yalta and Sebastopol, as well as the village settlements in the territory, should be free to the Jews. The only positive result of the Ministerial deliberations, therefore, was the oft-quoted Stolypin circular of May 22nd, 1907, ordering that the expulsion of Jews settled iUegaUy without the Pale should cease. The governors and chief officials in the towns were instructed that pending the revision of the Jewish question by the Legislature, all Jews domiciled in forbidden places before August ist, 1906, should be allowed to remain where they were, provided that (i) they had originally possessed the right of residence and subsequently forfeited it, and (2) they had a family or * From the same considerations several statesmen had already advocated a change of policy vis-a-vis the Jews. Even Plehve, who all his life was a rabid hater of Jews, had taken up a contrary attitude towards the end of his abruptly terminated Ministry. As was ofiScially stated in the report mentioned above, in the year 1904 both "for considerations of justice as well as on account of the general order of the State " he had declared it expedient to free at least some categories of Jews from the restrictions to which they were subjected. Even if this appeal of Stolypin's Cabinet to Plehve's authority was made with the design of influencing the Tsar and the Court circles, the fact at least remains, and is corroborated from other quarters. 6o LEGAL SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS IN RUSSIA a domestic establishment in the place in question. As a preliminary condition, however, the authorities, before allowing a Jew to remain, must be convinced that he was not inimical to the social order, and that he would not stir up discontent among the people in whose midst he was allowed to live. This alleviation, however, soon proved to be a two- edged sword, for the official frame of mind changed, and turned against the Jews with the utmost severity. From the end of 1907, and especially from 1909, the legal persecution of the Jews assumed terrible dimensions. From that moment every of&cial who wished to parade his loyal, reactionary sentiments, seized upon the simplest, easiest and most evident means of accomplishing his ends — i.e., the expulsion of Jews, which accordingly gradually increased throughout the land. During the year 1910 alone there came, from one place after another, sad tidings of expulsions from Kursk, Tula, Tambof , Kieff (wholesale), Toropetz (goverimient of Pskoff), Aluschta, Rostoff, Livonia (especially Riga), Tiflis, Tashkent, Kosloff (government of Tamboff), Tomsk, Irkutsk, and from Siberia generally, Vologda, Vladivostok, Harbin, the Smolensk district, Potschink and Stolodistsche (government of Smolensk), St. Petersburg, Ekaterinburg, ^''iatka, Morschansk (government of Tamboff), Libau, Yalta, Moscow, the government of Tver, the province of Syr-Daria, Bokhara, Tiumen, Sebastopol, Kharkoff, in addition to the numerous villages in the Pale of Settlement, the villages in the Verchnednieprovsk district, — from which, in spite of Stolypin's circular, all Jews domiciled up to the year igo6 were hounded out — Lissitschansk, the Stscherbin mines, Turboff (Berditcheff district), numerous villages in the Akkerman district, Tilnia (government of Podoha), Pavlograd district, Orlovstschina (government of Ekaterino- slav), Popelnastoj e, Travskoje, Kielce, Veselyj e-Kerny, the villages in the Balta district and so forth, and finally from a whole series of holiday and health resorts which formerly, in spite of their village character or their situation in the interior governments, had been free to the Jews for residence during the summer months. The above-mentioned Stolypin circula,r of May 22nd, 1907, proved indeed a veritable calamity to the Jews, and before long it began to serve as a weapon against those who were legally domiciled. Many over-zealous administrators troubled themselves very Httle about the fundamental principles of the circular, and from the very start made the most of the appendix— in which the minimum of requisite Jewish qualifications was stated— by exacting these quaUfications in a number of cases from Jews who possessed the common right of residence according to the law. Thus, LEGAL SUFFERINGS OP THE JEWS IN RUSSIA 6i in the spring of 1909, the pohce informed several famihes in the village settlement of Slavjanka (government of Ekaterinoslav) that they must leave the place within a month. The Jews in question had already been living in the place for forty-five years, and on that account had not fallen victims to the domiciliary prohibition relating to villages, which was issued in 1882. Their right of residence was, therefore, unassailable. Upon what, then, did the authorities base their decree of banishment ? They explained their behaviour simply in this way ; that the persons concerned were pohtically " unrehable," and therefore did not conform with the requirements of Stolypin's circular, that the Jews under consideration must not be inimical to the prevailing social order ! The police quite forgot that Stolypin's circular was intended for the alleviation of those who did not possess the right of residence, and had nothing to do with the Jews in whom this privilege was already vested. The announcement of the " political unreliabihty " of the intended victims was moreover a pure fabrication and a ridiculous pretext. Among those banished were the seventy-year-old widow B., who had settled in Slav] anka fifty years before, and her three sons born there, together with their famihes, nine- teen persons in aU, who carried on business in manufactured goods and as corn-chandlers. Just as dangerous as these shop-keepers was another exile, K., a clerk in a Russian export firm, who also had been born in Slavjanka and hved there aU his life. With him were also expelled his octogenarian father (after a forty years' residence in the village) and his sixty-year-old mother, who was an invalid. These arbitrary and quite illegal acts, to which Stolypin's circular gave rise, were imitated in other quarters. A similar fate to that of the Jews of Slavjanka overtook their brethren in Grigorjevka (also in the government of Ekaterinoslav), where the administration gave the following naive reason for the expulsion of a certain Manus Stsch .: that it was true there had been no proceedings against him, nor had he been the object of an inquiry, but he possessed no moral quahties and was pohtically un- rehable, though it was difftcult to prove aU this. Of the same mind was the vUlage head man, who opined that Stsch. was detrimental to the social order and caused discontent among the local population, although he had not been caught in the act. The outcome was the official order of expulsion. In both the instances cited the Senate subsequently annulled these arbitrary interpretations of the law, but not everywhere were those con- cerned able to make a fight for their rights. The fatal passage stating that 62 LEGAL SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS IN RUSSIA the Jew possessing no domiciliary right must, in 'order to be left in peace, cause no local discontent, was utilised by various police officials, even in places to which the circular did not apply, to invite Christians to draw up petitions for the expulsion of Jews. In a telegram which the Jewish deputy Friedmann read out to the Imperial Duma in February, 1910, the Jews of Bendery informed him that a Prist aff^ or rural police com- missary, in the Akkerman district (government of Bessarabia) was notifying the peasants of a " secret circular " of the Minister of the Interior calling upon them to hand in communal petitions demanding the expulsion of those Jews who still possessed the right of residence in the villages. A later report from several villages in the Akkerman district — viz., Korkmasy, Pharaonovka, Popovka and Tolmasy — testified still more definitely that the Pristaff (probably the one above mentioned) had called together, in the official building belonging to the Volost or rural community, the police- men, communal officials and a number of peasants, and read out to them a secret Ministerial circular ostensibly putting it to them that they should draw up petitions for the expulsion of the Jews from the villages. In spite of the protests of several peasants, the local police made out a list of their names on the spot, and under the pressure of this summons a communal assembly called together on the following day decided to petition for the immediate banishment of several Jews. With reference to the same passage in Stolypin's circular, the Ispravnik, or district chief, ofToropetz, in the government of Pskoff, petitioned on his own responsibility for the expulsion of first a hundred and afterwards of at least forty Jewish families, who, he pretended, were detrimental to the native population. It was only in consequence of resolutions to the contrary by the local nobihty, various Zemstvo repre- sentatives, mayors and prominent merchants, that the Ministry of the Interior stopped the order of expulsion issued on the strength of the Ispravnik's mendacious report. A similar course was followed by Dumbadse, the notorious tyrant of Yalta. He, on his side, decided to expel the Jews from Aluschta, situated close to Yalta and belonging to the Pale of Settlement, on the ground that they harmed the local native population. He declared in his ukase, namely, that the Jews of Aluschta, of whom there are in all forty- two families, had captured the whole trade of the place. Now the Jews, in the complaint which they preferred against him, were able to point to the fact that of the seventy-nine business firms in the place only fourteen were in the hands of Jews, and that over 50 per cent, of the Jewish popu- LEGAL SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS IN RUSSIA 63 lation lived by the work of their hands, as artisans, while altogether only five viUas were rented by Jews. But what does Dumbadse care for such remonstrances? He wanted, in his own domain at least, to strike a decisive blow at the Jews, in order to translate into deeds the agitation of the Union of the Russian People, in the Yalta branch of which he holds the seat of honour. Had not the mischief-making monastery of Potschaj eff , some time previously, in a circtilar letter signed by the Archimandrite Vitah, solemnly exhorted all the branches of the Union to send the Tsar in all haste, and from every part of Russia, telegrams imploring him to order the expulsion of the Jews from the villages, and how could Dumbadse remain inactive under such incentive ? Even where the expulsions carried out on the ground of Stolypin's circular were revoked, the affected persons suffered much annoyance and trouble, brought about by the provincial administration, acting on its own initiative. Meanwhile the Central Government took good care that the blessing which was intended to proceed from the circular should be changed into a curse. According to the original wording of the circular, every Jew living without the Pale or in a village, who laid claim to the domiciliary privilege, should show proof : (i) that he had been established prior to August 1st, 1906 ; (2) that he had a family and domestic establishment there ; and (3) that he intended no harm to the local native population. As, however, the reactionaries increased in power, the wavering Ministry of the Interior, in the year 1909, issued a supplementary circular — which strictly speaking, cancelled the former one. To the three preliminary con- ditions mentioned above there was added a fourth — viz., that a Jew desirous of availing himself of the circular of the year 1907 should furnish proof that he had forfeited his right of residence prior to August ist, 1906, In practice this meant that a Jew who, contrary to the law, had settled somewhere on July ist, 1906, might remain where he was, whereas on the other hand another Jew was expelled although he had lived, quite legally, without the Pale for thirty years, but had not forfeited his privilege until after August ist, 1906. Thus, as a result of Stolypin's circular, countless Jews feU into a trap. They had understood — as indeed anyone would do — that every one of them who had been settled an5nvhere prior to August 1st, 1906, could not be disturbed so long as he remained where he was. Many among them thus ceased to worry about the retention of the personal right of domicile which was theirs according to the law ; many artisans who had previously enjoyed the domiciliary right by reason of 64 LEGAL SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS IN RUSSIA the practice of their craft, but were not able to make a Hving from their business, now turned to other occupations ; small shopkeepers, who, with the greatest difficulty, had paid their Guild taxes only for the sake of the domiciliary right, breathed more freely in the year 1907, and believed that they might now dispense with that payment, which often exhausted all their remaining funds ; in short, all those Jews who had resided in the forbidden places prior to August ist, igo6,in most cases for many years, experienced a sense of relief and security, flattering themselves that no longer need they always be worr5dng about their privilege, or live in the eternal fear of being driven from their homes. Then came the new and supplementary circular, which once again plunged them into the abyss of illegality, and awakened all the energies of their official tormentors. In many of the above-mentioned places the new circular furnished the longed-for pretext for expulsions. It operated worst of all in Kieff, where the Jews thus deprived of their rights were to be reckoned by thousands. In the first place the police ran amok with their " oblawas," or nocturnal raids, forcing their way at night into the houses of well-known and reputable citizens, surprising hotels, hunting after "illegal" employees in the shops, and hounding particular persons or groups out of the town. In the spring of 1910, in compliance with instructions from St. Petersburg, the police issued orders of expulsion to 1,150 families in Kieff itself and 238 families in the suburb of Demijevka. This was one of those measures of which the echoes were heard in foreign countries, but in Kieff itself it had an effect even upon the Christian commercial community, notwithstanding that they were naturally ill-disposed towards their Jewish competitors. The official corporation of merchants addressed telegrams to the Premier, the Minister of Finance and the Governor-General, petitioning them to stop the expulsions, and another group of commercial men and house- owners appealed to the Governor-General in the same sense. In their petitions they dwelt upon the economic mischief which would result to the whole population of KiefE and its neighbourhood by the execution of the announced measure. The Jews, on their side, also sent a deputation to Stolypin, to endeavour to dissuade the Government from their draconic policy towards the Jews. All these proceedings caused immense excite- ment and had a certain ef ect even upon official circles. It became par- ticularly disagreeable to the Russian Government when the alarming news began to occupy the attention of the foreign Press, and it then, in face of LEGAL SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS IN RUSSIA 65 the severe attacks made upon it, sought to justify its methods in the semi- official Press, having previously sent a special commissioner to KiefE. The result, however, was disappointing. That official struck off only an inconsiderable fraction, comprising about one hundred persons, from the lists of proscription, while for the remaining thousands— in Kieff and Demijevka some 1,200 heads of famihes and their households, together with a few isolated individuals — -the order of expulsion still held. No respite, no days of grace, were granted to the banished persons, and in the course of a month the work was compleite. Whoever had not acquired the domiciliary privilege through payment of the Guild tax — and only ■very few had the means to do this — -was obliged to leave Kieff or Demijevka .on the spot. Among the exiles were those who could have complied with Stolypin's second and supplementary circular, but were unable to produce written •evidence of their rights. The demand for documentary proof was just as absurd as the whole tenor of the circular, which, as it were, gave the -preference to transgressors of the law. Whoever happened to be staying in Kieff during the early summer of 1910, had ample opportunity for ■observing the whole range of " true-Russian " contrariety, both in its tragical and comical aspects. In a number of instances poHce and Jews -came into conflict and frequently changed their roles. The banished Jew ■endeavoured to prove that on August ist of the year 1906 he had possessed no right of domicile, so that he ought to be reckoned among the privileged persons caUed into 'being by Stolypin, while the police, on the contrary, did their utmost to show that the complainant on that date was legally quahfied to be in residence there. Who, indeed, could make use of •Stolypin's aUeviating circular in Kieff, when the poHce attached to its application the condition that the Jew concerned, in order to show proof ,of residence during 1906, must produce the receipt for his house or flat duty? Thus on the one side they demanded evidence of iUegal residence, and on the other, production of a paper proving the contrary, as if it never occurred to the poUce that those not possessed of the domicihary right generaUy lived in the town without making their presence known. The absurdity of the whole proceeding was carried to such a pitch that the net result of Stolypin's alleviation was that only a few fortunate persons, who had forfeited their permanent or temporary Pnvikg^jf !^t ^he appointed moment stated in the circular, were left undisturbed. Other- Ss^e from some pretext or another, the expulsions held good, and they 66 LEGAL SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS IN RUSSIA were partly carried out in a high-handed manner and under humihating- circumstances *. Even then the sufferings of the Jews of Kieff did not cease, and the wholesale expulsions of May and Jun'e, 1910, were followed continually by individual deportations. Pretexts for further ejections were found in abundance by the Kieff authorities, and quite recently the pohce have been disputing the domicihary right of two hundred Jewish artisans, ostensibly because they were carrying on a trade in addition to their handicraft. As in the case of the Kieff catastrophe, all the other expulsions are merely the result of definite orders or of hints from St. Petersburg. Thus, in the summer of 19 10, the Central Government instructed the governors- and chief officials of the towns to re-examine the residential rights of the Jews settled in those places, and this order was carried out with the utmost despatch. If it happened, however, that some head official did not do his- duty in this respect, he received a special warning. The Governor of Livonia, for example, was notified from exalted quarters of his " indiffer- ence concerning the question of the domiciliary right," whereupon he soom found the necessary victims. In the same manner the Rostoff adminis- tration suddenly changed in its behaviour towards non-privileged Jews,, and began daily raids upon hotels 3-nd restaurants in search of them,, many Jews, privileged ones among them, thus coming under the ban. Most of the authorities got to work at once, and in their over-zeal forgot both justice and decency. Among several dozen Jews ordered to leave- Tula by the police were four old women — aged from 60 to 80 — ^who had long been settled in the place. In order to avoid the terrible ordeal, they contracted fictitious marriages with old " Nicholas " soldiers, and so were * The estimate of 1,461 as the number of persons expelled from Kieff — ^the figure which- was also given in the foreign Press — falls far short of the actual number. This statement concerns the bulk of those who did not leave the town of their own accord. But there were other Jews previously expelled from Kieff, and a further considerable number who moved from Kiefi without waiting till the appointed day. There is no doubt whatever that as a Consequence of Stolypin's circular about 5,000 Jews in Kiefi incurred the decree of expulsion, and if a fraction of that persecuted host succeeded, by making immense material sacrifices, in obtaining a fresh domiciliary privilege through payment of the Guild tax or by similar means, the general result is not materially affected. Most of the persons expelled from Kieff went voluntarily to Odessa, Warsaw, Cracow, Lemberg or to America. In one instance a girl, whose mind was affected by what she had gone through, threw herself from the train in which she was travelling to Odessa, and put an end to her life. A number of other persons suffered loss of health through the expulsions and the manner of their execution. LEGAL SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS IN RUSSIA 67 left alone ; but all banished persons cannot resort to such heroic measures. To reach their goal the sooner, the Government authorities employed extra- ordinary means, and in Vologfia a special commission of Tchinovniks (officials) was appointed to do full justice to the noble task. This commission, accompanied by the police, went round from house to house, often penetrating into Christian dwelhngs, and inquired of each "suspect" if he were a Jew and whether he possessed the right of residence. As regards the Christians thus visited (among whom was Baron Morgenstern) there were no further annoyances, but the result for the Jews was the expulsion of still more of them, including some whose right of domicile was incontestable. The more remote governments took stronger measures than the central parts of the Empire as regards the expulsions. Especially in Siberia and the other Asiatic provinces did the authorities behave in a most arbitrary manner. In Tashkent the forty families under notice to go were allowed by the police only three days' grace. Of the 3,000 Jews settled in the district of Syr-Daria, of which Tashkent is the chief town, 423 were driven out in the summer of 1910 alone. In the neighbouring town of Bokhara hundreds of Jews shared a similar fate. Here the Chief of the Transcaspian territory proceeded in a weU-nigh fanatical manner, persuading the Governor of Turkestan, in the summer of 1910, to include in the expulsions those Jews who had embraced Mohammedanism, which added 573 famiHes to the hsts of proscriptions in Transcaspia alone. In Tomsk, also, the authorities expelled a considerable number of Jews possessing the right of residence, among them being a dentist who had practised there since 1906. Although his domicOiary right was indisputable, he was ordered to leave the town within four days. • In mid-winter, 1909-10, with the thermometer in the neighbourhood of zero, dozens of families were driven out of Irkutsk, some to the far distant Pale of Settlement, some to the villages to which they were assigned. For the few Jews stiU remain- ing in Siberia are attached more and more to fixed points and are not allowed to move on. Among those, expelled from Irkutsk were artisans, tradespeople and schoolboys, together with children and aged persons. In Vladivostok the Governor decreed that each expulsion from the chief town should be reported to every town in the province, so that not one proscribed Jew should find a lodging in any of them. The petty spirit evinced in these procedures penetrated as far as Harbin, where a Jew, by moving from one house to another, gave the pretext for another expul- sion. It was explained to him that Harbin was " a continuation of 68 LEGAL SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS IN RUSSIA Siberia," so that the same regulations were in force in that town as in Siberia ! According to the practice of recent years, Siberia in particular is ta be protected against the " invasion " of Jews. Some little time ago the Central Administration enjoined upon all the governors of Siberia to exercise the greatest severity towards the Jews. In the circulars of the Minister of the Interior to his Siberian satraps it is stated that even Jews possessing a university education (doctors, lawyers, etc.), are to be deprived of the right of residence. During the latest era of persecution the Russian Government has not been able to proceed in other parts of the Empire as rigorously as in Siberia against Jews possessing the right of universal domicile by reason of their education, but it found pretexts all the same for a partial campaign against them. In recent years it has made a dead set at apothecaries, dentists and midwives especially. Having discovered that many Jews pass their examinations as dentists' and apothecaries' assistants merely in order to enjoy the right of domicile^ the Government, in order to repress this terrible crime, recently appointed a commission to devise special measures against Jewish apothecaries not following their profession, and Dratschevski, the Prefect of St. Peters- burg, sohcited the head of the Medical Board to prevent apothecaries' assistants being registered for the sake of acquiring the right of domicile. The Sanitary Board of Terek went even further, and notified the local apothecaries that they were to employ no more Jewish apprentices or as- sistants. The then Minister of Education, Schwartz, declared, in answer to an inquiry, that apothecaries were not to be regarded as persons possessing a university education and that consequently, as in the case of artisans, they possessed the right of domicile only while engaged in their particular occupation. True, the Senate has decided against Schwartz's declaration, but the struggle still continues. It must be remembered in this connection that, on account of their caUing being overcrowded, numbers of apothecaries are unable to find work in their own hne for perhaps a long period of time, and are thus obliged to apply themselves to other vocations. While others, again, on account of the limited local demand for what they deal in, are obhged to eke out a livelihood by earning money in an additional occupation, i.e., in giving lessons, and so forth. All these people would be brought face to face with ruin by such a decision as the Ministry has been asked to give. Granted that there are in reahty many Jews who study pharmacy in order that they may qualify for the right of domicile, regardless of the loss of time LEGAL SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS IN RUSSIA 69 and opportunity that such study entails, then this surely is only one more proof of the absurdity of the Russian laws relating to Jews.* The decision of the Administration in this regard is exceedingly narrow-minded. If an apothecary's assistant, failing to find the most suitable opening for his activities, opens a druggist's shop, for which he is by training well adapted, this ostensible change of occupation may result in the loss of the right of domicile, as has already happened in various places. In Kieff, at the beginning of 1911, some 200 apothecaries' assistants found themselves in this pHght, having opened druggist's shops or become employees in one. Their shops will have to be closed very shortly, and they themselves must leave the town unless they find employment in apothecaries' dispensaries. As, however, the latter are either in the hands of persons hostile to Jews, or are already overcrowded with assistants, the fate of these innocent law-breakers is not difficult to foretell. During the past year the pohce authorities have been able to settle with the Jewish artisans the easiest of all. As belonging to the productive industries they are, it is true, privileged in the eyes of the law, but they never understand how to defend themselves when their privileges are threatened, or even how to draw pubhc attention to the calamity that has overtaken them. In a number of towns — such as Tula, Ekaterinburg, Balaschoff, Viasma, Morschansk, Libau, Sebastopol, etc. — expulsions of artisans have been proved to take place under the modest pretext that they were not engaged in their proper avocation, and thus had forfeited the domiciliary privilege. In the government of Smolensk, in 1910, a con- flict of this kind broke out which concerned 129 artisans' families. In St. Petersburg this course of procedure is regularly followed, and the official gazette of the St. Petersburg Prefecture has a standing headline under which appears, from day to day, the list of Jews excluded from the workers' guilds or expelled from the town. The extent to which this process is carried may be gauged from the fact that in October, 1910, 65, and in the following month, loi Jewish artisans incurred expulsion in St. Petersburg alone. But it is always brave Dumbadse of Yalta who sets the fashion. He issued a violent decree against the Jewish artisans of Yalta, subjected * From this absurdity has sprung the great trial of 307 dentists, which will shortly take place before the Moscow tribunal. The accused are charged with having obtained their diplomas as dentists without having first gained the requisite knowledge. The prosecution, however, is placed in an awkward predicament, since the diplomas have not been used in the unauthorised exercise of their profession, but have merely served the purpose of pro- tecting their possessors against expulsion. The judges may perhaps formally pass sentence upon the accused on that account, but in so doing they must of necessity condemn the shameful system of Jewish restrictions. 70 LEGAL SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS IN RUSSIA them to his inquisitorial methods, and hounded a number of them out of the place. When, in their extremity, some Jews were about to undergo the rite of baptism, Dumbadse declared that not even this step would save them from expulsion. In his hatred of the Jews the same Dumbadse resorted to frantic measures, expelhng all the Jewish soldiers in the Vilna infantry regiment while it was in garrison in Yalta. Here folly united with despotism, for •only a Dumbadse could introduce the principle of miUtary expulsions, and cast aspersions upon the competence of the Army authorities, without incurring condign punishment. In Horschelmann, the Governor-General of Moscow, Dumbadse, however, found an ingenious and spirited rival. When the former was master of Moscow he ordered children out of the town because they did not independently possess the right of residence. In one instance the reason for such an absurdity was as follows : A certain Reitzyn, as clerk to a merchant of the first Guild, obtained the right of domicile, but only for his own person. Then his wife arrived, and she, as a certificated midwife, also possessed the universal right of residence, but only for herself. The Moscow authorities were unable to deprive either the husband or wife of this privilege, but they turned the children, aged four, eight and ten respectively, out of the town, with the sanction of the Ministry of the Interior. Not less ridiculous was the Judeliovitch case. In this instance the person concerned was a midwife, who also was forbidden to have her children with her in Moscow. In the case of non-compliance with his orders, threatened Horschelmann, she herself would have to go. His successor follows the same recipe. After expelling the four- year-old son of a midwife named Hausner, he turned his eyes upon the two children, aged seven and eight respectively, of a Jew named Bolchovski and his wife, a Parisian Roman Catholic. The husband having died, his widow married an orthodox Russian, a privy councillor, but is bringing up the children in the Jewish faith, according to the dying wish of their father. The police now want to take her children away from her because they possess no right of domicile in Russia. In the two cases first cited the Senate intervened, though it is not particularly tender-hearted, or weU-disposed to the Jews. It revoked the Moscow decisions and in doing so gave a reminder that it was not only the right but the duty of parents to have their children with them. This ruling, however, was not to the liking of the Ministry, and in the Reitzyn case it was some time before it gave up the fight. At the present moment crowds of Moscow children are in imminent danger of expulsion. LEGAL SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS IN RUSSIA 71 The question of the Jews' right of sojourn in the summer and health resorts forms a chapter by itself. Sometimes the hatred of the Jews wins the upper hand, and at other times considerations of an economic nature are victorious^there is surely no greater folly than to subject to vexations and annoyances Jews who, like other visitors, go to summer and health resorts as consumers and are, therefore, welcomed by the local population. Yet in July, 1909, the Ministry of the Interior felt itself compelled to issue a decree to the effect that the sojourn of Jews in summer resorts, situated beyond the boundaries of towns or townlets, is not to be considered as of that brief and temporary character which alone the law permits. This stand- point was defended in the Senate, shortly before the opening of the 1910 season, by the Deputy-Minister Kryschanowski, who pressed for an immediate decision. When, however, he perceived that the opinion of the Senate was divided on the matter, and that possibly this resolution would prove to be contrary to his desire, he himself proposed an adjourn- ment of the question. In the meantime, however, the governors-general and governors had learnt the real views of the Administration, and with the beginning of the summer a varying, but for the most part very oppres- sive, pohcy began. Government preferred to proceed whoUy in the spirit of Kryschanowski, but the non-Jewish villa-owners raised a hue and cry, complained that the faUing-off of their Jewish customers meant utter ruin for them, and sent petitions and deputations to Stolypin and the local authorities. Finally, towards the end of May, the Ruling Senate issued a decision that the sojourn of Jews in the holiday resorts during the hot weather was to be regarded as of a temporary character, was not harmful to the local population, and did not run counter to the May Laws. When it reahsed that it had been snubbed by the Senate, the Government left it entirely to the local administrators to act according to their own judgment. Hence the decisions fell out in a purely arbitrary manner. The Governor-General of Kieff gave the Jews access to the summer resorts of Bojarka, Motovilovka, Pustscha-Voditza and Dachnovka, but at the same time forbade them to stay at Svj atodchino, Butscha,' Vorsel, Nemes- chajevka, Zlodievka, etc., while the local authorities in Goronki, acting without superior orders, refused on their own responsibility to allow the Jews to enter the place. The Governor of Chernigoff was vacillating from the very start, and, after a careful weeding-out process, began by allow- ing some twenty Jewish families to frequent Darnitza, a place whose reputation had^been made by the Jews, but later on he deprived them of the very permission he himself had granted. Further expulsions were 72 LEGAL SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS IN RUSSIA announced from the government of Kharkoff ; from Datschen, near Moscow, where numerous apothecaries' assistants, dentists, etc., were the victims ; from Orlovstchina, in the government of Ekaterinoslav, whence one Saturday morning in the gray dawn, a number of invahd Jews, who had received permission direct from the Administration, were driven forth in spite of the petitions, telegraphic and otherwise, of the villa proprietors. Little do the authorities care that a great part of the Jewish visitors to the summer resorts consists of invalids and convalescents, to whom the refusal of permission to stay in a country place is equivalent to the loss of all opportunity to regain health. The authorities, indeed, are strongly inclined to shut out Jews from all the health resorts as well. By an order from the highest quarter, the Caucasian medicinal springs were opened to the Jews for temporary use in summer time, but soon humiliating conditions were attached to this permission. As the doctors Turbiner and Futran have openly announced, Jews visiting Pjatigorsk to undergo a " cure " had first to submit themselves to a medical examination by a special commission, which, it is true, consisted of three official doctors, but was presided over by a military officer assisted by a secretary. This commission altered at its good pleasure the directions of the doctors who had been treating the patients in question, and examined invalid women in the presence of the officer and his secretary. In other health resorts the state of affairs was still worse. Thus, in 1910, at the watering-place of Stachiro, in the government of Yeniseisk, no Jews were at first admitted. It was not until the local administration had complained to the Ministry of the Interior that of the usual number of 2,000 visitors barely one half had put in an appearance during the summer, that the Minister Krivoschein ordered the unrestricted admission of Jewish patients, but this decision came too late. Also in Bilderlingshof and Edinburg, on the Riga coast, as well as in Pogulianka, the Administration allowed the Jews to come in, but only after a thorough " filtration." Is it to be wondered at that the ruling powers in the government of Smolensk, so skilled in all matters relating to the oppression of the Jews, should instruct the Chief of Police and the district chiefs, in view of the fact that several non-privileged Jews had been received in a private nursing home, to bind under hand and seal aU doctors who took in private patients, so that they should in future refuse all non-privileged Jews ? Truly, for the Russian authorities there is no barrier which humanity can set. In its treatment of the Jews the Russian Government has lost all sense of shame. To such an extent has it carried its persecutions that it LEGAL SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS IN RUSSIA 73 forbade Jewish scholars and students to stay for a day or two in such places as Moscow, Sebastopol, etc., when, with their Christian comrades, they were taking part in excursions organised and conducted by State teachers or professors ; that it would not allow Jewish pianists and composers to live in St. Petersburg while competing for the international Rubinstein prize, unless they possessed a special privilege of domicile ; that when Mr. Oscar Strauss, then United States Ambassador in Constantinople, was desirous of visiting Russia, the requisite document was worded in an unusual manner, with the result that he abandoned his projected j ourney through Russia ; and that finally a British ofificer,^ordered by his War Office to the Far East, was refused permission to travel by the Siberian Railway because he was a Jew. From top to bottom, all ranks of officialdom are animated by the same spirit, and this spirit finds a characteristic illustration in an occurrence which sounds like an invention, but is nevertheless true in every detail. In the village of Popelnasti (government of Ekaterinoslav) the district chief suddenly put in an unexpected appearance and declared that the number of Jews established there was " too large," and that their ranks must be thinned. As, however, most of the Jewish inhabitants of this village had been settled there over thirty years, no legal pretext for expulsion was forthcoming. The district chief, however, hit upon an ingenious plan. He let it be decided by lot who was to be expelled, and, as a result of this lofty principle, half of the Jewish population of the affected place had to emigrate. The panic-stricken Jews sent a deputation to St. Petersburg, but all their endeavours were fruitless. The unhappy victims were given a week's grace to settle their business and private affairs, and then had to leave the village for ever. In respect both of the motive for and the manner of the expulsions of Jews, not a few places distinguished themselves greatly. Smolensk in particular tackled the problem in a truly savage manner. It started, in the winter of 1909, quite mildly, by inquiring into the professional activities of the dentists, of whom twenty-eight were subsequently expelled. Then began the police raids upon the Jewish quarters, followed by another series of expulsions, a considerable number of artisans being thus sum- marily cleared out. In the accompanying decree it was stated that their petitions for the bestowal of the right of domicile had not yet been examined, but that provisionally, until the matter was settled, they must in any case leave the town. The Governor then turned his attention from the town to the province and, on his instructions, the Chief of the Criminal Police 74 LEGAL SUFFEEINGS OF THE JEWS IN RUSSIA •despatched a staff of agents all through the government of Smolensk, with orders to hunt out the Jews who were not possessed of the domiciliary right. When a number of " outlaws " were brought to light in one district, the Governor immediately expelled them and dismissed the indulgent Pristaff. On May 15th the pohce agents visited the Jelnin district, and a couple of days later a division of mounted police surrounded the townlet of Potschinok, containing some 200 houses. Under the direc- tion of Tkatschoff, the Chief of the Criminal Police, a house to house in- vestigation of a most searching nature was undertaken, but the harvest was a poor one — only ten " outlaws," who were evicted on the spot. At that moment some one informed Tkatschoff that a number of Jews had concealed themselves in the neighbouring woods. A police cordon was at once drawn round the forest and a regular Jew hunt was instituted. The signals rang out, and here and there shots were fired for purposes of " intimidation." Then the police plunged into the woods and soon began to bring before the Chief their trophies of the chase. The sport continued late into the night, and in the end the " bag " amounted to eighty souls, principally young men of the clerical class, Potschinok being a commercial centre of some activity. As a result of this sudden decimation of the ranks of their employees, several wholesale houses were obliged to stop business for the time being. From Potschinok the valiant little army next marched upon the village of Stodolistsche, where a perquisition yielded only eight captures, but the remaining Jews, weary of being driven from pillar to post, abandoned their possessions, hastened to the railway station, and, taking the first train that came along, bade their native village an eternal farewell. The discovery of these " nests of criminals " caused considerable unpleasantness between the Ispravnik and a Pristaff of Jelnin on the one side and the Governor on the other. This energetic gentleman sent another posse of Criminal Police to the districts of Roslawl, Viasma and Dorogobuschsk, and they continued the good work at their discretion. In some localities the police hit upon the idea of stopping incoming Jews before they could get a footing in the town. In this matter, too, the pride of place must be awarded to General Dumbadse. At Yalta he would allow no Jews to land from the steamers. A doctor, who by virtue of his profession belonged to the first class of the privileged cate- gories, was stopped by Dumbadse on arriving at Yalta and commanded to leave for Theodosia by the first steamboat, and his request to be granted at least permission to travel to Eupatoria was refused on the ground that this would have necessitated his spending the night in Yalta. Here LEGAL SUFFERINGS OP THE JEWS IN RUSSIA 7^ was no question of some incendiary or disturber of the peace masquerading as a physician. On the contrary, the doctor concerned possessed an official attestation of his pohtical trustworthiness, he had distinguished himself In the recent war, serving at the front practically as long as the campaign lasted, and he still belongs to the Army Reserve. But all this was- immaterial to the capricious tyrant. His distinguished service in the Russo-Japanese campaign availed this unfortunate doctor no more than it did in the case of the Jewish corps of volunteers who took part in the- defence of Port Arthur. Although a ukase of the year 1904 granted to the Jewish soldiers who had done well in that war the universal right of residence (which, however, was carried into effect in very few instances) the Senate, in a decision dated January 15th, 1910, deprived the aforesaid' volunteers of this privilege. Yet, when General Stoessel called out the whole male poptdation for the defence of the fortress, these men went into barracks with the other soldiers, fought side by side with them in the most dangerous positions, and suffered as much in killed and wounded as the other branches of the Army. When Port Arthur surrendered to- the enemy, some forty or fifty of these volunteers, including many invahds, remained behind, and this little handful of defenders of the fatherland' was the cause of the legislative machine being set in motion, with the- result that they have been disqualified and hounded out of their domiciles. Dumbadse's regulation concerning steamers stopping at Yalta was- apphed by the Governor of Irkutsk to the railway trains arriving in the town under his command. All Jewish travellers are examined as to their right of domicile immediately on their arrival at the Irkutsk railway station itself, or at the Innokentjevskaia station, this important function being discharged by the town or district police, or else by the gendarmerie. Whoever cannot produce a special permit for a sojourn in Irkutsk has. his passport marked with the significant words " Residence in Irkutsk is forbidden," and then, with more firmness than politeness, he is invited to return the way he came. In its etiquette the Russian bureaucracy, as has already been indicated,, is not over-fastidious. In Kieff for some time past the authorities have not only been surprising Jews in their dwellings in the dead of night, but they have taken to arresting them in the open street as well. Quite lately it was reported that the Kieff police had made a raid upon Jews in the broad daylight and in Krestschatik, the most frequented street in the town, handling the Jewish shopkeepers there in a shameful manner. In Baku the authorities proceeded still more craftily. One fine day, a whole 76 LEGAL SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS IN RUSSIA array of watchmen and police officials, led by Baron Nolken, the Deputy Pristaff, took up a position before the entrance to the Stock Exchange, and every Jew who came that way was seized, conducted to the police station, and there examined as to -his right of residence. Then a rush was made upon the Jews who happened to be wandering about in the neigh- bourhood, and quite a fine haul was the consequence. Many were taken into custody, amongst others being privileged merchants belonging to the first Guild, engineers, and old men who were born in Baku. In many places, indeed, privileged and non-privileged Jews are now subjected to much the same annoyances. Sometimes the manner of expulsion reaches the height of barbarism. Thus, only the other day, it was announced from the district of Surasch that, in ejecting the Jews from the villages there, the police were employing the simple method of removing both windows and doors from the houses, a temperature of 30 degrees of frost acting as a sufficient stimulus to make the' unfortunate people wander forth. This news item was officially denied, but no denial was given to the fact that in a family ordered out of St. Petersburg the children, though ill with measles, had to leave their home immediately, their parents' entreaties for a respite until the children were restored to health having proved of no avail. In addition to domiciliary restrictions, the hatred and hostility of the bureaucracy against the Jews has found an outlet, of recent years, in the withholding of all educational possibilities. Hardly had Schwartz become Minister of Education when he ordered the observance of the forgotten " percentage rule " with regard to the admission of Jews to the high schools and universities, and in order that there should be no doubt in the matter and to prevent the practice from being interfered with by individual favours, he had the " percentage rule " passed into law. In January, 1909, there were in Russia altogether thirty- two higher educa- tional institutions, of which the Pale of Settlement contains four. The " percentage rule " is, however, so determined, that in St. Petersburg and Moscow, where 55 per cent, of aU the students are to be found, Jews are admitted only in the proportion of 3 per cent, at the very most, a figure which is raised to 5 per cent, for the other places without the Pale •of Settlement and to 10 per cent, for the universities of the Pale. This indefensible state of things induced the Committee of Ministers, in the summer of 1909, to raise the " percentage " for the universities and high schools to 5, 10 and 15 per cent, respectively. This modification ■of the restrictive measure having been madejn opposition to Schwartz's LEGAL SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS IN RUSSIA 77 desire, however, he did not make it pubhc until September 22nd, 1909, when the admission of students was over for the year. The following year the old "percentage" was restored, and was observed with the utmost severity in the admission of scholars to the universities, gymnasia (grammar schools). Real-schools (modern schools), etc. A supplementary enactment of the Minister Schwartz was, it is true, modified by himself, or, to speak more precisely, its execution was post- poned, but nevertheless it was partly put into practice and helped to aggravate the situation. This was the regulation compelhng the university authorities to matriculate Jewish candidates not in their proportion to the number of new students, but to base the ratio on the total number of Jewish students, which, during the years of freedom, had been allowed to exceed the " percentage " by a considerable amount. Wherever this regulation came into force there was generally no room for Jews at all, but even otherwise, where admissions were based upon the "percentage" the results were most calamitous. In this respect, indeed, the spectacle offered in the autumn of 1910 was worse than at the height of the judicial persecutions of the Jews in the eighties of last century. A number of high schools and universities closed their doors in the faces of Jewish aspirants, while others grudgingly conceded to them a ridiculously small number of vacancies. Quite apart from those higher institutions which for whole decades past have not dared to admit Jews, in that year, in view of the "percentage" which had been exceeded during the years of liberty, no Jews were enrolled in the M'arsaw University, the St. Petersburg College of Mines (with 120 vacancies), the St. Petersburg Institute of Civil Engineers, the Kieff Polytechnic, etc., while the Odessa University admitted only 23 Jews ; the St. Petersburg Polytechnic, 4 Jews (and 1,260 Christians) ; the Technical Institute, '8 Jews (and 275 Christians) ; the Academy of Arts, only i Jew (and 60 Christians) ; the School of Forestry, 3 Jews (and 100 Christians) ; the Women's Higher Institute of Medicine, 7 Jewesses (and 250 Christians) and so forth ; the few universities which matriculated a higher proportion of Jewish students were Kieff, 90 Jews ; Moscow, 63 Jews (and 3,000 Christians) ; St. Petersburg, 54 Jews (and 1,820 Christians), while the most frequented institution for women admitted 48 Jewesses. Under the new system the recently-opened commercial high schools suffered most of aU, for until a twelvemonth ago the " percentage rule " did not apply to them. Jews flocked in particular to the commercial high schools at Kieff, situated in the centre of the Pale of Settlement, so that they 78 LEGAL SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS IN RUSSIA numbered 1,014 persons out of a total of 1,931 students of both sexes ; i.e., 52 per cent. And now the stringent " percentage rule " applies also to these establishments ! In addition to bringing about the migration of immense numbers of Russo-Jewish youths to foreign lands, the enforcement of the " percentage rule " at the universities resulted in numerous baptisms, which in par- ticular localities assumed the character of an epidemic, and exercised a most demoralising influence by reason of the purely secular motive of the act. In Ekaterinoslav, for instance, in the autumn of 1909, eight Jewish youths, who had just passed their final examination at the local grammar school, underwent the rites of baptism. On the arrival of a Protestant clergyman in Irkutsk he was positively besieged by the young Jews of the neighbourhood, and without further ado they were admitted into the Protestant Church. In Minsk, all the Jewish youths who had finished the high school course formally debated the question of baptism from the ethical point of view, the majority pronouncing themselves in favour of baptism. Particularly sensational was the conversion to Islam of thirty Jewish lads at the beginning of the year 1909. The new devotees of Mohammed had at first to be admitted to the universities, until the Government issued new regulations which put an end to the " nuisance." Its decision regarding baptised Jews was not so easily reached. The " patriotic " administration of the Odessa University deemed it its duty to extend the " percentage rule " to the Jews who had become Christians, and at first, in the summer of 1910, this step met with the warmest approval on the part of the Minister of Education, but eventually, under pressure from the collective authorities of Odessa University, he had to announce that no obstacles would be placed in the way of baptised Jews. It cannot, however, be denied that the first-named body had represented more consistently the ostensibly national idea underlying the restrictions imposed upon the Jews. As in the universities, so did it happen with the other educational and technical institutions. Many of them, which had previously been exempt from the " percentage rule," now feU victims to its desolating methods. It became the rule in the schools of surgery, midwifery, and dentistry, which, in many places, fell into decay in consequence, as well as in numerous private institutions, both Jewish and non-Jewish, for which the " percent- age rule," introduced in the autumn of 1910 or a year later, spells utter ruin. Latterly, too, the admission of Jewish children to the elementary schools has been surrounded by many restrictions and impediments. Of LEGAL SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS IN RUSSIA 79 trenchant significance, however, are the machinations of the Minister of Education against the commercial schools, which are similar in character to the " Real-schools." Thousands of Jewish scholars have taken refuge in these schools on account of their being allowed admission in the pro- portion of 50 per cent., or else in the same ratio as the Jewish merchants of the first Guild bore to the non-Jewish members. Thus, the statistics for the year 1908 show that of 33,056 pupils attending the 142 commercial schools, 11,611, or about one-third, were Jews, while in the primary schools, of 22,006 pupils, 6,274, or 28.5 per cent., were Jews, the figures for the private schools being respectively 11,050 and 4,887 (42.2 per cent.). Since the autumn of 1909 a Ministerial circular has been in force, which orders the adoption of a maximum "ratio" of 15 per cent, for these institutions as well. In vain did the then Minister of Commerce, Timirj- aseff, protest in the Council of Ministers against this decree, imploring his colleagues to exclude his department at least from the restrictive regulations ; the fanatical intervention of the Minister of Education triumphed here once more. It was no mere chance, therefore, that this very measure, which was well adapted to occasion further disturbances in the educational life of the growing Russo-Jewish youth, should call forth angry protestations from the non-Jewish commercial and industrial world. It was clear to everyone that the consistent adoption of the " percentage rule "would reduce to utter ruin the commercial schools of the Pale — founded chiefly with Jewish money and frequented mostly by Jewish pupils — and that the body of Russian merchants would suffer in com- mon with the Jews. The recognition of this fact compelled even extreme Conservatives and notorious Jew-haters, such as Sinadino of Kishineft", Bobrinski, and others, to make a stand against the cruel and reckless ordinance, and to memorialise the Council of Ministers to reconsider or postpone the measure. Without the co-operation of the Jews, several municipal corpora- tions and stock exchange committees took similar steps, and the mercantile community in many places called extraordinary meetings, passed resolu- tions, and sent deputations to plead the cause of the commercial school. Thus the municipality of Mohileff, in Podolia, decided unanimously to prefer a complaint against the enactment of the Minister of Commerce in refer- ence to the introduction of a 15 per cent. " ratio " in the local commercial school, as the school in question had been built by Jews and was main- tained by the fees of Jewish scholars. The directors of the Minsk commercial school handed the Minister of Commerce a memorial, drawing attention So LEGAL SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS IX RUSSIA ■to the fact that to Umit the number of Jewish scholars would result in the closing of the institution, as the school could exist only on the basis of the admission of Jews in the proportion of 60 per cent. The directors of the commercial schools in Bialystok and Krivoi-Rog, the merchants of Kishineff and many towns in the governments of Vitebsk, Volhynia, Kieff, etc., also laid stress upon the ruin of these schools as the inevitable result of the new regulation. Finally, the non-Jewish corporations' took collective action, joining in a strongly worded protest against the intro- duction of the 15 per cent. " ratio " in the commercial schools. Thus, for this purpose, there met in St. Petersburg on January 20th, 1910, an assembly of deputies of the stock exchange committees and merchants' corporations, called together by the " Council of conferences of industrial and commercial representatives." On this occasion the otherwise reaction- ary representative of the Kie.ff mercantile community, the above-named Sinadino, made a strong speech against the illegal action of the Ministry, laying particular emphasis upon the fact that the constitution of the Kishineff commercial school (and of most of the others as well) could not be modified by a Ministerial circular. The meeting then resolved to send deputations to the Premier, the Minister of Finance and the Minister of Commerce. When, a few days later, a general conference of representa- tives of the commercial and agi-icultural interests sitting in St. Petersburg brought up this same question for debate, they were stopped by the Minister of Commerce, and the President was unable to allow the discussion, initiated by the representative of the Kieff exchange, to continue, where- upon the deputy of the Nikolaye.ff Stock Exchange Committee, in the name of the third section of the Conference, which had concerned itself with this matter, expressed his regret, inasmuch as the consequences must inevitably run counter to the interests of commerce. The Government, however, could not prevent twenty official repre- sentatives of the commercial schools, who had met in St. Petersburg for the same reason, from drawing up a j oint memorandum on the whole question, as well as on the inevitable crisis in the financial affairs of the educational establishments, and handing it to the " Council of conferences of industrial and commercial representatives " as material useful to the deputation sent by them to the various Ministries. The deputation itself was com- posed of the presidents of the said conferences, namely, M. Avdakoff (a member of the Imperial Council), M. Jassjunkevitch, M. Nobel, Count Bobrinski and Count Jassjuninski. On March 27th, 1910, Stolypin received the two chief representatives of this strange deputation, Avdakoff and LEGAL SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS IN RUSSIA 8i Bobrinski. The pleaders on behalf of the Jews did not speak in the name of humanity— a theme which possibly did not appeal to them— but they supported their demands with statistical data concerning the financial condition of the commercial schools. Their argument was that most of the commercial schools in the Pale of Settlement were maintained by the corporations of merchants, the Jews contributing most of the funds, and by the school fees, which as a rule were also paid almost entirely by Jews. The two deputies, following their instructions, then proceeded to point out the illegality of the Government's procedure. The appearance of the deputation, coupled with the effect that the protestations of the merchants had already had upon him, drew from Stolypin the pledge that in the meantime the circular relating to the commercial schools would not be put into force, but, he added, the Council of Ministers would in principle concern itself with the liberation of the schools in question from a preponderance of Jews. He went on to speak' of a provisional admission of Jewish pupils to the commercial schools to the amount of 45 per cent. In reality, however, the directors of the com mercial schools had, partly at least, to comply with the circular of tht Minister of Commerce, and the resultant distress was soon evident. Thus, to give only one example, in the commercial school at Minsk, a town with an immense majority of Jews, only seven Jews were admitted in the autumn of 1910, and similar reports were sent in from other provinces. The Ministry endeavours to introduce the 15 per cent. " ratio " particularly in those schools which are endowed with full rights, while in the case of other private schools it does not proceed in such a thorough-going manner. In any event it is certain that in this direction a severe trial awaits the Russo- Jewish children in the coming autumn. The facts which, in the preceding pages, we have adduced from recent years by no means exhaust the list of disabilities and restrictions under which the Jews labour. We have dealt in detail with only two branches of the Jewish persecutions of 1908-1911, and even in these have omitted many characteristic features. But there are many other matters, as, for instance, the passport system, in which the Jews are subjected to endless annoyances and humiliations. The plaything of a heartless bureaucracy, the natural prey of all the savage elements of society, loaded with fetters in one place and, in another, driven out Hke some wild beast, the Russian Jew finds that for him, at least, life is composed of little else than bitterness, suffering and degradation. APPENDIX. CHROXOLOGICAL SUMMARY OF THE LEGAL RESTRICTIONS IMPOSED UPON THE JEWS IN RUSSIA SINCE THE YEAR 1882. The reign of the Tsar Alexander II., which in many departments of Russian Hfe was an era of freedom and emancipation, partook necessarily of the same character as regards the Jewish question. In Russia the authorities are not given to proclaiming ideal views of man- kmd and their incontrovertible rights, still less to putting the latter into operation, and so naturally the Jews could expect no radical change in their position. Justice, however, demands the acknowledgement that during this reign the Jews were permitted to have a share in pubhc and national hfe and to benefit by the revolution in civil rights. They were granted the right to enjoy unrestricted tuition in all the schools throughout the Empire, and to enter the service of the State. They could take part in local self-government and acquire real estate in all places where they resided. They exploited oil-fields, and participated in industrial undertakings of every kind. The victory, however, was not complete. Jewish dwellers in the small towns and merchants of the second Guild were still, as formerly, deprived of the right to settle outside the Pale of Settlement or to acquire plots of land beyond the confines of their place of residence. jiany antiquated restrictions, some of a humiliating nature, still remained on the Statute- book. And, most terrible of all, still, as heretofore, they were looked upon as citizens of the second rank. Nevertheless, everything pointed to the fact that the Russian Government had the fixed intention gradually to place the rights of the Jews on a footing of equality with those of the other inhabitants of Russia. Suddenly came the bolt from the blue — the assassination of Alexander II. on March 13th, 1881. From that moment dates the systematic campaign against the Jewish people, proclaimed in the highways by the destruction of Jewish property and often, too, of Jevrish hves, and in legislation by a series of special and restrictive measures, of which this appendix gives a chronological synopsis, taken for the most part from an article by A. Linden in Part I. of " Die Judenpogrome in Russland," Cologne and Leipzig, 1910. It will be seen that every year brought in its train fresh calamities for the Russian Jews. The year of the death of Alexander II. was of the nature of a stormy prelude to the radical changes which the Legislature was later on to introduce. Officially, everything for the time being remained as of yore, but the pogrom epidemic raged on every side, and the new spirit was already to be seen at work in the redoubled zeal with which the already existing laws were enforced. In Kieff and in Orel the Administration overstepped the traditional hmits of legality and created a merciless and arbitrary code of its own. During the pogrom panic in Kieff the " oblawas," or police raids, on Jews not possessed of the right of domicile assumed unheard-of dimensions, and innumerable expulsions resulted. In Orel the local authorities completely forgot the Ministerial ordinance of April, 1880, according to which all Jews who had settled outside the Pale of Settlement before that date were to be left undisturbed, and took proceedings even against the privileged categories of Jews. From that town alone goo Jewish famihes were obUged to wander forth, end contemporary accounts give a vivid portrayal of the heartrending scenes that occurred at the last religious service which the poor exiles held before leaving the town. In the government of KharkofE there arose the question — destined to become a pressing one in St. Petersburg in 1882 — as to whether Jewish apothecaries, who, as regards the right of domicile, belong to the privileged classes, should be allowed to own a pharmacy in their place of residence beyond the Pale. In general, the year 1881 was one of ferment, and its conclusion found no fewer than sixteen Government Commissions discussing as experts the Jewish problem by order of the Tsar. The anti-Semitic vapours which were the principal result of these deUberations gradually accumulated over the Jewish Ghetto Uke black and angry clouds, to break forth into the storm of the following year. 1882. . This twelvemonth represents a fatal culminating point in the existence of the Russian Jews. The month of May, 1882, brought about more disorder and ruin in their economic hfe than all the pogroms of the period together. Quite apart from the May Laws, which 84 LEGAL SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS IN RUSSIA resulted in the terrible congestion of Jews in the towns, one blow after another wasTdealt the Jewish nation in Russia during this year. The following are the most important restric- tive enactments and Senatorial decisions of 1 882 in order of date : — A. January 30th. — An order of the Ministry of Finance to the effect that Jewish artisans must not live beyond the Pale of Settlement in cases where they own workshops in which machines worked by hand are in use, such workshops ranking as factories. Artisans are to be accorded the right of residence in the interior governments only on condition that they engage in their particular handicraft and none other. The term " handicraft " is to be understood as applying solely to those pursuits in which manual labour alone is requisite. B. March 15th. — A Senatorial decision setting forth that no Jew must be elected to a vacancy on the board of an orphan asylum. C. April loth. — An Army order fixing the maximum proportion of Jewish military surgeons at 5 per cent, of the total. The mihtary districts of Vilna, Odessa, Kieff and Kharkoff [i.e., the whole of the Pale of Settlement and a part beyond) were thus compelled to appoint no more Jewish surgeons until their ratio had fallen to 5 per cent. The admission of Jewish students to the Army Medical College was likewise restricted to a maximum of 5 per cent., and later on they were entirely prohibited from entering. D. April 20th. — A law forbidding non-Christians to manufacture or sell ikons, crosses and other objects of Christian veneration. Subsequently the prohibition was extended even to church candles, and, in addition, considerable penalties were annexed to the contravention of these ostensibly pietistic ordinances. E. May 3rd. — " Temporary Regulations " proposed by Count Ignatieff and issued by the Council of Ministers with the sanction of the Tsar — to be enforced only in the Pale of Jewish Settlement. These are the notorious " May Laws," and though fraught with such disastrous and far-reaching consequences for the Russian Jews the text is so brief that we give it in its entirety : — 1. As a temporary measure and until a general revision is made of the legal status of the Jews, they are forbidden to settle anew outside of towns and townlets (boroughs), an exception being made only in the case of existing Jewish agricultural colonies. 2. Until further orders, the execution of deeds of sale and mortgages in the names of Jews is forbidden, as well as the registration of Jews as lessees of real estate situated outside of towns and townlets, and also the issuing to Jews of powers of stewardship or attorney to manage and dispose of such real property. 3. Jews are forbidden to transact business on Sundays and on the principal Christian festivals, the existing regulations concerning the closing on such festival days of places of business belonging to Christians to apply in future to Jews as well.* These regulations, it wUl be seen, were intended to be only temporary, but although a revision of the laws was duly drafted by a special Commission under presidency of Count Pahlen, no further action has been taken in the matter, and the May Laws, thirty years after their enactment, are still in force, with a mass of additional restrictive " explanations " and interpretations, and with no immediate prospect of their repeal. F. May 22nd. — A decision of the Imperial Police Department that private teachers of the female sex, though possessed of a diploma, are to be reckoned among the non- privileged categories, i.e., must be penned up within the Pale. This measure is one of the most characteristic legal interpretations of the period. The letter of the law rather than its spirit makes an irresistible appeal to the authorities, ever desirous of inventing fresh pretexts for the oppression of the Jews. G. December 22nd. — A circular of the Minister of Finance and a Senatorial decree introducing rigorous restrictions concerning Jews engaged in the liquor traffic. The following regulations were applied to Jewish tavern-keepers : i. The sale of spirituous ♦ The third clause of the May Laws is not to be compared in importance with the two others, which strike so radically at the rightof domicile and the possession or leasingoE landed property, but this wholly unjustifiable measure works in an exceedingly oppressive manner in the towns, where the Jews, even although forming the majority o£ the inhabitants, have to refrain from all business transactions for two days out of every seven. LEGAL SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS IN RUSSIA 85' bv^heri,' ^wt'^^r.^^ J''"? ™.*^'^ *°'''''' ^"'l townlets of the Pale except in houses owned leasehoW fo?HWf .1 °° '^"J^ ^^'"^ ''^'°"S^ *° tl^«°^- Even when a Jew possesses a ' Bevond tW T. *.^^S^°""d °" ^^'hich his house stands, he must not retail liquor there, the addftion.1 P'"'"'^^*^ °f towns and townlets the same regulation holds good, with have been i^ ^IT'° ^*'^*; T^^'"'' ^^^ exception applies, the house in question must inherits a ho^Jh°" °J-^}^ tavern-keeper before May 3rd, 1882. 3. If a Jew residence in th^tpla'^e.^ ' '^"°' *''"" °"'^ '"^ '^' '^"'^"* °' ^'' possessing a righ^ of These restrictions are a sequel to and extension of the May Laws. referred''to'X' t°r°>' ^^f ^^distinguished by administrative persecutions, and the reader is Peterlbur^ ef. ^^ °^ 1^'' '^°? ^°" <^"*^"^ ^= *° ^^^ numerous expulsions from Kieff St. as soon af'th^?; .^^^^ J^^^^^o had been banished for political offences were compelled,- wished tnV„! ™.°^ punishment was ended, to leave their place of exile whether they was not untn IV °°*' s^^'^.^^'^T l^''^ ^° ^^^ overcrowded Pale of Settlement, although it From TSsf 1 Tf 'fu^ that the Senate gave a definite and adverse decision on this olint. rec^ii\ Ir: ^l^X^""^^^ th« o-^der of the Ministry of War forbidding the admission of Jewish Trn^^ nuUrZ ^^^^'■J°''^''^TS ^^"^ *^^ frontier service, and allowing Army surg.ons to "^verH.o^i^ Jewish.attendants, for the reason, as related elsewhere, that Jewish physicians- ■v«^ +S T ^ demorahsnig influence " upon Christian attendants. On March 8th of this- i-h M !- ^P^"^^ sanction was given to the order prohibiting the admission of Tews to the Knariiot. Veterinary Institute and limiting the number of Jews admitted to the Veterinary institutes at Kasan and Dorpat. This was the beginning of the " percentage " principl^ wnich.. as will be seen, received such extensive application in the years that followed 10 summarise the endless insults, annoyances, arbitrary acts and petty restrictions of every kind which embittered the lives of the Russian Jews during this calamitous year is nere impossible, and we must content ourselves by quoting one instance of administrative tyranny which at the time made a. deep impression on Russian Jewry; namely the attack of the bt. Petersburg authorities upon the Jewish apothecaries of that town. Fourteen of these, who owned or leased dispensaries in the capital, were prohibited from pursuing their vocation m the spring of 1882, by order of the Governor-General of St. Petersburg, the alleged pretext being that certificated Jewish apothecaries, while enjoying the right of residence beyond the Pale, have no right to possess real property or to lease the same. This enigmatic interpretation of the domiciliary privilege, which betokened a wholly illegal invasion of professional life, produced something like a panic among the Jews, not so much on account of the fate of the fourteen apothecaries, but because of the official imprimatur given to the prevailing bureaucratic belief that the Jews are outlaws. In the end the Senate was compelled to resci .d this measure — one of the few reassuring events of this- \eritable year of terror. 1883. In contradistinction to the preceding year, 1883 was relatively a lenient one as regards legislation concerning the Jews. The anti-Semitic organs raged according to their wont, preparing the way for the successful campaign that was to follow against the ever-increasing number of Jews attending educational establishments, and their participation in the liberal professions, but the Commission — under the presidency of Makoff, then Minister of the Interior — appointed in this year to inquire into the Jewish problem,! seems for the time being to have soothed the anti- Jewish spirits among tihe higher bureaucracy. Thus the only noteworthy additional restrictions of Jewish rights were the following : — A. March 3rd. — A decision of the Police Department ruling that Jews attending free lectures at the universities possess no domiciliary privilege. This decision affected practically all Jewish free students, as, with the exception of Odessa and Warsaw, the university towns are situated beyond the Pale, while the students in question nearly all belong to the non-privileged classes. B. May 3rd. — A Senatorial decree forbidding the appointment of Jews to positions in the municipal police administration. ' The official classes were still surfeited with the mass of legal restrictions enacted during the previous year, and in 1883 they were fully occupied in putting into operation the measures t After the death of Makoff in 1883. Count Pahlen took over the presidency of this historic Commission, and hence t is generally known by the latter's name. 86 LEGAL SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS IN RUSSIA of 18S2. The year 1883 was indeed an anti-Semitic harvesting time, the seed planted during the preceding twelvemonth having now shot up and reached maturity. The situation was thus well summed up by a prominent Jewish writer : " The very air we breathe seems to be poisoned, our fellow-citizens are full of mischief and greed, the authorities are launching forth in the policy of so-called Nationalism, the most honourable and upright men are impotent or indifferent, we Jews ourselves are reduced to despondency and helplessness. Desperation and hopelessness — there you have the prevalent and overwhelming state of mind among the Jews in the year 1883 " The enforcement of the May Laws of the previous year became henceforth the main scourge of the Jews, but ancient and absurd laws which had long lain in oblivion were also unearthed and put into execution — for example, the law forbidding Jews to employ Christian domestics, under which, in the year 1883, no fewer than 270 Jews were prosecuted in a few districts of the government of Chernigoff alone. As regards the expulsions of Jews not possessed of the right of residence, of whom a considerable proportion had already been driven from their domiciles in the preceding years, somewhat more forbearance was shown, but the " battue " was by no means at an end. The cleansing of St. Petersburg from Jews assumed terrible proportions, and non-privileged families, who had lived in the capital for many years, were generally accorded a respite of only 24 to 48 hours. In Astrakhan, too, where the Jews, thanks to the non-interference of the local authorities, had built up the flourishing fishing industry, the orders of expulsion were scattered broadcast, and in spite of their twenty-five years' residence the Jewish dealers were suddenly hounded out of the place, their wares being confiscated and sold without further ado. It was, however, in the village settlements that the authorities proceeded in.^the most rigorous fashion, the phrase in the May Laws " to settle anew outside of towns and townlets " giving rise to different interpretations and endless misunderstandings, and becoming a prolific source of official abuse. Thus a Jew, on returning to his village after a few days' absence, was refused admission to his home on the pretext that he was a " new-comer," while, on the other hand, if he wanted to move from one house to another in the same settlement, he was met with the reminder that he was contemplating " leasing real estate situated outside o^ towns and townlets " in glaring defiance of the May Laws.- These arbitrary decisions, it is true, were usually cancelled on an appeal to the Senate, but this involved the expenditure of time and money, and in the meantime the parties concerned were frequently ruined beyond recall. Many instances of the tyrannical procedure of the local authorities will be found in the chapter dealing with Jewish restrictions in the right of residence. This year, too, the St. Petersburg College of Mines decided, on its own initiative, to restrict the proportion of Jewish aspirants to 5 per cent, of the total number of students admitted. 1884. Xo new laws of fundamental import were enacted this year, but their absence was fully atoned for by various aggravations of, additions to, and further interpretations of the existing exceptional laws, as well as by individual acts of administrative tyranny. Of the enactments placed upon the Statute-book we may mention : — A. January 28th. — A resolution of the Committee of Ministers to close the Technical Institute and the industrial schools owned or kept by Jews in the town of Zhitomir. The curious reason for this procedure is quoted in the chapter dealing with Jewish disqualifications in educational affairs. B. March 14th. — A Senatorial decree — based on a report of the Governor-General of Kieff — to the effect that the domiciliary privilege enjoyed by Jewish artisans, mechanics, etc., does not apply to navvies, plasterers, J bricklayers, masons, carpenters, stucco- workers, carters, gardeners, domestic servants, and unskilled labourers, all of whom possess no right of residence outside the Pale of Settlement. On May i6th, in response to a petition from non- Jewish competitors in Kieff, a similar Senatorial decision over- takes butchers, while in the following years several other occupations are one after another struck out of the privileged categories. C. June 5th. — Jews serving on juries in the governments of Bessarabia, Kherson, Taurida, Ekaterinoslav, Poltava, and Chernigoff are subjected to the same limitations as have obtained in the other governments of the Pale of Settlement since the year 1877. The chief restrictions are that Jews are prohibited from acting as foremen, and that in each judicial circuit the Jewish jurymen must bear the same proportion to the Christian t .^s regards plaster wprkers, there were several varying Senatorial decisions in the years that followed. LEGAL SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS IN RUSSIA 87 jurymen as the Jewish population does to the total number of inhabitants ; while hence forth no Jews are permitted to serve on iuries in cases dealing with offences against religion or with infractions of ecclesiastical ordinances. ^- v.^' J"'?' ^^^^'^/^ circular of the Minister of Education instructing the directors of higher schools beyond the Pale of Settlement not to admit Jewish children unless proof is shown that their parents possess the right of domicile. Hereby an old and long- forgotten regulation is enforced, and in a similar form is extended even to those establish- ments which rank immediately above the secondary schools. Thus regulations of the Police Department dated October i8th and November 24th, make admission to the Imperial School of Music and the teachers' course in the Froebel Institute dependent on the production of a certificate of the right of domicile, so closing the doors of these two institutions to the great mass of the Jews. On November 26th a Senatorial decree applies the same regulation to the schools of dentistry outside the Pale of^Settlement. In addition to these measures, further restrictions were enforced by the local authorities, but these are fully dealt with elsewhere. Wherever a Jew still remained in the State service lie vvas hounded out, however humble the capacity in which he served. As a typical instance •of this cleansing process, showing how anxious were the provincial bureaucrats to fulfil their duty m this respect, it may be mentioned here that the Governor of Kovno, finding several Jews among the clerks employed in the Police Department, had them promptly turned out of the of&ce. This year, too, several workmen's corporations — in Moscow, Smolensk, etc. refused Jewish artisans admission to their guilds, thus causing the latter to forfeit their residential right. At St. Petersburg the workmen's corporation adopted difCerent tactics, and, by order of the Governor-General, began to spy upon Jewish artisans to see that they were " pursuing their vocation." 1885. As far as legislation goes, this year was a continuation of its forerunner, and showed no •great inventive powers on the part of the highest authorities. The most thoroughgoing Je^vish restrictions were : — A. June 7th. — An Imperial command limiting the admission of Jews to the Kharkoff Technological Institute to 10 per cent, of the total number of students.? B. October 3rd. — A Senatorial decision that the prohibition of Jewish settlements in villages applies also to the privileged categories, although they possess the right of residence throughout the Empire, as well as to discharged soldiers (even of the old regime), and to artisans generally. C. November nth. — A circular of the Minister of the Interior explaining that the right of universal residence which had been granted to discharged soldiers referred only to a former category (the " Nicholas " soldiers) and not to those who had served in the Army since the conscription regulations of 1874, a whole class of privileged persons being thus swept out of existence. D. December 13th. — The rules of the Nikolayefi Stock Exchange have a clause added to the effect that non-Christians can at most form only one-third of the Com- mittee. This became the standard ratio for most of the Stock Exchange committees, except where still further limitations were introduced. E. December i8th. — A declaration of the Ministry of the Interior setting forth that a midwife as such has only gained the universal right of residence for her own person, and that, if her husband does not possess the domiciliary privilege, she is forbidden to have her children with her outside the Pale of Settlement. Of the local restrictive measures the most prominent were the persecutions of the non- privileged Jews in the Baltic provinces, while in other places beyond the Pale the Adminis- tration carried on an active campaign against Jewish artisans. As a result of what mfght ■well be called " freak " legislation, the Moscow tribunal expelled a Jewish confectioner because he dispensed coffee in his shop and consequently was not " following his vocation," § The new university statutes contained an important restriction concerning Jews — namely, tlie official decision that they are not allowed to hold university scholarships deiived from the Public Treasury and can enjoy only eholarships derived from public endowments. 88 LEGAL SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS IX RUSSIA while under tlie same pretext a most respected Jewish watchmaker in Samara was drivem out of the town, and all his goods were confiscated merely because he had sold watch chains- which he had not himself manufactured. Curiosities of a similar nature occurred nearly everywhere, until after some j'ears the mischief was put an end to by the Senate. 1886. This was a year of innovations of an oppressive character. On the one hand the policy of restricting the educative facilities open to Jews, which had long been the hard-fought-for aim of the anti-Semites, now found vent in a series of calamitous measures ; on the other hand, like some damn^sa hev: rlitas, there cropped up the principle of joint family responsibility for a Jew's liability to the fulfilment of his military service. The following were the most noteworthy enactments of the year : — A. April 12th. — Various restrictions proposed by the Imperial Council with regard to military matters receive the Imperial assent. Among these is the order that the family of a Jew who has evaded his military service must pay a fine of 300 roubles, the word " family " in this connection being held to include not only parents, but also- grandparents, brothers and other relations, from the nearest to the most distant. As a pendant to this, we may mention the order issued by the Army authorities in the same year to the effect that henceforth no Jewish recruits must be enrolled in the commissariat department or as clerks, B. September 17th. — A noteworthy Senatorial decision — thoroughly characteristic of the spirit of the time — concerning merchants of the first Guild. As related at length elsewhere, when, under Alexander II., these merchants had been accorded the right, after paying the Guild tax for a certain number of years, to migrate to the governments beyond the Pale of Settlement, and to remain there in their capacity of merchants of the first Guild, they were also given permission to " take with them " clerks and domestic servants. The Senatorial interpretation in question follows the strict letter of the law, a.nd mles that only at the moment of moving to the governments beyond the Pale have merchants of the first Guild the right to " take with them " clerks and domestic servants, and that thereafter they must not increase the number or replace them by others. C. December 5th. — The Imperial sanction is given to the resolution of the Committee of Ministers that the Ministry of Education shall fix the proportion of Jewish students admitted to the secondary schools, high schools and universities, as follows : within the Pale of Settlement, 10 per cent, of the total ; in other places, 5 per cent. ; and in St. Petersburg and Moscow, 3 per cent. This percentage, which is without regard to the proportion of Jews to the general population in any one place, is not always adhered to, and a number of the institutions are entirely closed to Jews. In the chapter on the educational restr.ctions of Jews the most important of these are named. Of the other troubles which befell the Jews in the course of this year, the most serious were experienced by the inhabitants of the fifty-verst boundary zone. The ambiguously worded enactments relating to this region were now interpreted by the governors of the boundary zone in such a manner that they not only expelled the Jews who had settled there subsequently to the year 1858, but also those who, while having been settled there for many generations, had temporarily left their places of residence since 1858. 1887. Events in 1887 moved in a disastrous crescendo, the distinguishing feature of a year filled with bitterness for the Russian Jews being the loss to the Pale of Settlement of a flourishing region, as well as further restrictions imposed upon the Jews still remaining in the village settlements. The principal measures were : — A. January 21st. — A Senatorial resolution to the efect that Jews who have graduated in a university outside Russia do not belong to the privileged class possessing the universal right of residence by virtue of their diplomas, and therefore must not settle outside the Pale of Settlement.^ ^ It is something more than a mere coincidence that this Senatorial resolution should come so soon after establishing the percentage of Jewish scholars to be admitted to the higher educational institutions, when an increase in the number of Jewish students attending foreign universities was naturally to be looked for. LEGAL SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS IX RL'SSIA 89. B. January 30th. — A Senatorial decision ruling that Jews who have been exiled to places beyond the Pale of Settlement must not remain there on the expiration of their term of banishment, but immediately return to the Pale. C. February i6th, — A law forbidding all Jews in Siberia to engage in the distiUing or sale of alcoholic liquors. This law was made retrospecti\-e in its ef:ects, and thus all distilleries owned or rented by Jews in Siberia were abolished. A similar enactment appUed to Turkestan, where, in the provinces of Ferghana, Samancand, and Syr-Daria, Jews- who had emigrated from the iiterior governments were forbidden to work as distillers. Ii this case, however, an exception was made in favour of the original Jewish inhabitants. D. March 27th. — A Senatorial decision to the ctiect that even discharged soldiers of the old regime {i.e.. prior to 1874), though belonging to the pri\'ileged classes, have no- right of residence in the Don Territory. The special restriction of 1880 relating to this province had actually mentioned, only other privileged categories, but on this occasion the Senate did not abide by the letter of the law. The same fate overtook the privileged class of apothecaries' assistants, dentists, surgeons, and midwives. E. May igth. — A decree of the Imperial Council, sanctioned by the Sovereign, removing the district of RostofI and the township of Taganrog from the government of Ekaterinosla\' (in the Pale of Settlement) and annexing it to the Don Territory. All Jews already settled in this region may continue there, all others are amenable to the regulations already in force in the Don Territory, where, according to the law of 1880 and the later Senatorial interpretations, the only Jews privileged to remain in residence are those possessing a university diploma, or who are employed by the State or are owners of real estate. F. December 29th. — An order deciding in the negative the vexed question whether a Jew inhabiting a village has the right to remove to another village. This is a further restrictive interpretation of Clause I. of the May Laws, affecting all those Jews who were already settled in villages when these laws were promulgated and hitherto were thus exempt. Many other judicial oppressions were added to the intolerable burden of the Jews during this year. According to a Senatorial ruling of May 19th, it was decided that the daughters of privileged merchants lose their right of residence on marriage. This point, however, is of trifling importance in comparison with the effects of the Senatorial decisions relating to the boundary zone. These restrictive resolutions had been growing in volume since 1884,, and this year the Senate decided that the privileged classes of artisans, merchants of the first Guild, and others enjoying the universal right of residence, were also to be excluded from the boundary zone. The expulsions from the boundary zone attained terrible proportions during this year, wliich also brought further restrictions concerning the right of Jews to- prosecute mining enterprises on uncultivated land belonging to the State, while the admission of Jewish students to the Institute of Ci\'il Engineers at St. Petersburg was limited to 3 per cent, of the total. In another direction the most noteworthy restriction relates to the Jewish one-year volunteers, who from 1887 onwards were not admitted to the examination for officers. This limitation of rights, however, for obvious reasons, cannot ha%e af.ected many Jews. 18SS. The labours of Pahlen's Commission appointed to settle the Jewish question came to a. close in the spring of this year. The majority pronounced themselves in favour of sub- stantial alleviations, but the Russian Government paid no attention to their finding. The year 1888 was chiefly a period of executive activity, and it added little to the legal disabilities of the Jews. The most important restrictions were ; — A. March 21st. — A circular of the General StafC directing that Jewish reservists who have qualified as apothecaries are not to be employed as Army dispensers in the event of mobilisation. B. June 2ist. — The Imperial sanction is given to the enactment prohibiting Jews from settling in Finland. C. August 6th. — A Senatorial decision to the ef.'ect that the purchase of real estate 90 LEGAL SUFFEBINGS OF THE JE^YS IN RUSSIA outside the Pale of Settlement is iorbidden to Jewish artisans, although they possess the right of residence there. D. August 2 1 St. — An ordinance forbidding the admission of Jews to the Theatrical Schools of St. Petersburg and Moscow. E. October 19th. — A Senatorial resolution to the eCect that outside the Pale of Settlement a Jew may adopt a co-reUgionist as his child only when the latter already possesses the universal right of residence. F. November 12th. — A circular of the Minister of the Interior instructing the governors of provinces that Jews must not be employed as police inspectors or in any similar capacity. A practice which had long been observed thus received the official sanction. As in the previous twelvemonth, the expulsions from the boundary zone were carried ■out with the utmost rigour during 1888. According to a decision of the Senate, ratified on February 22nd, the right of residence in that region belonged only to those Jews who had been registered in the local communes prior to the year 1858. This decision was specially directed against Jews who possessed landed property in the boundary zone. 1889. This year was marked by the rigorous exclusion of Jews from the legal profession, the other measures here noted paling into insignificance when compared with this restriction : — A. February 13th. — An ordinance forbidding the admission of Jews to the Dombroff CoUege of Mines. B. March 31st. — A decree limiting the number of Jewish stockbrokers in Isikolayeff to one-third of the total. In the following year this regulation is applied to many other stock exchanges (Odessa, Elisavetgrad, Lodz, etc.). C. May 23rd. — A decision of the Imperial Council prohibiting the acquisition or leasing o; landed property by Jews in Turkestan, an exception being made in favour of descendants of the original Jewish inhabitants.]] D. November 8th. — A law to the ef!ect that for Jews to be called to the Bar a special permit from the Minister of Justice is necessary. Later on a special permit is required from the Minister of Finance in the case of solicitors. Tliis new regulation, which on paper loses its full significance by the reference to possible permissions, resulted in practice in not a single J ew being admitted to the barristers' profession during fifteen years. Only of late years have occasional exceptions been made. E. November 27th. — A Senatorial decision ruling that the wi\es and children of Jews possessing both the right of residence and the right to acquire real estate outside the Pale are^excluded from the enjoyment cf the latter right. This year is distinguished^by many further curtailments of rights, as,' lor instance, the ■decision that artisans outside the Pale, though provided with the right of domicile, must not engage in trade. Another interpretation of the Senate deprived Jews of the right to be elected presidents of school boards, whether in district or provincial towns. The extent of these judicial persecutions may, perhaps, best be gauged from the fact that henceforth Jews were not allowed to conduct a military band, and that they could form at the most one- third of the number composing such a band. By the Law on Military Duty (January 31st, 1889) Jews were finally deprived of the right — enjoyed by all other Russian subjects — to hnd a substitute (a brother or other relatiA e) when called out . or military service, and this year, too, a stop was put to the admission of Jewish students to the Army Medical College and the Institute of Civil Engineers. >■ 1890. Of the oppressi\e measures which became law in the course of this year we give the following : — A. May 8th. — A Senatorial decision referring to the hundred-verst boundary zone II It must not be forgotten that the May Laws apply only to the Pale of Settlement, and therefore the interdict on the purchase or leasing of real estate outside of towns and townlets did not aflect Jews living to the north or east of the Pa e. The privileged classes, in point of fact, availed themselves of this, and bought or leased landed property in the interior governments. This " concession," which only benefited a small number of Jews, underwent however, continual abridgments, until it was finally withdrawn in 1903. One of these abridgments is that relating to Turkestan ; others affecting different portions of the Russian Empire are chronicled elsewhere. LEGAL SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS IN RUSSIA 91 on the Chinese frontier — which, like the western fifty-verst boundary zone, is also closed! to Jews — rules that the children of persons banished to Siberia as well as privileged artisans- must not settlelthere. B. June 12th. — The ratification of a proposal made by the Imperial Council to the effect that henceforth no Jew may take part in the Zemstvo elections or attend th& deliberations of these assemblies, nor can they be elected to any ofSce in these bodies. This wholly excludes Jews from any form of local self-government except municipal, and even then, as is stated below, their number is limited to one-tenth' at the most, and in practice the concession avails little. C. October 3rd. — A Senatorial " explanation " ruling that Jewish artisans, though enjoying the right of residence throughout the Empire, are deprived of this privilege- in Siberia (Law of June 26th, 1891). This year saw the beginning of the strenuous campaign against Jews living in places which, though officially designated as " townlets," had preserved the rural form of govern- ment. Elsewhere it is related how hundreds of these places were declared to be village- parishes, in which, according to the May Laws, no fresh settlements of Jews could be per- mitted, while all Jews who had moved there since 1882 had to leave. Another restriction imposed upon the Jews, which is also dealt with in the body of this work, was the order of the Governor-General of Kieff forbidding the wives of poor artisans to sell milk, bread, and. other commodities in the market-places of that town. Particularly noteworthy were the important restrictions which this year were introduced' into the rules and regulations of joint-stock companies and partnerships, with the object of preventing Jews from acquiring landed property in this roundabout way. In accordance with the May Laws, Jews may neither becdme directors of companies possessing real property situated outside of towns or townlets in the Pale of Settlement nor own the majority of shares in such companies. Full particulars of these restrictions -will be found in the chapter dealing with Jewish limitations in the right to own property. 1891. This year resembles 1882, inasmuch as it forms another culminating point in the legislative- measures directed against the Russian Jews. It was a year of lamentation and panic, the- fears aroused by the wholesale expulsions from Moscow causing no fewer than 76,000 persons to seek refuge in the United States. The follo\ving were the most important restrictions introduced during this year : — . A. March 14th. — The restrictions of previous years relating to the sojovirn of foreign Jews in the Russian Empire are reduced to law and receive the Imperial assent. According to the " alleviating regulation " of this year foreign Jewish repre- sentatives of important business firms may receive permission from the Russian Consulates abroad to sojourn in Russia for three months, and may afterwards have- this period extended to six months at the most. All other foreign Jews can visit Russia only with the sanction of the Minister of the Interior. (See chapter on right of residence.) B. March 25th. — An order forbidding " non-Christians " to acquire real estate in the provinces of Akmolinsk, Semipalatinsk, Semirietchensk, Uralsk and Turgai. C. March 28th. — An order depriving the privileged category of artisans, mechanics, etc., of the right of residence in the government of Moscow (including the town of Moscow as well). The Jews of this category settled there, numbering with their families ten thousand souls, are expelled without delay. D. April 3rd. — A Senatorial interpretation decides that Jewish soldiers who have qualified as surgeons during their period of miUtary service do not possess the right of domicile, in contradistinction to those who have graduated in a school of surgery. E. June nth. — An Imperial order, following a proposal of the Imperial Council, forbidding Jews to buy, lease or administer agricultural land in the ten Polish govern- ments. This transfer of one of the main points of the May Laws from the Pale of Settle- ment to the Vistula Territory is the first encroachment upon the equality of rights- enjoyed by the Jews in Russian Poland since the year 1862. F.__The withdrawal of the right of the Jewish merchants of the first Guild in Kieff to employ Jewish clerks according to their requirements and to obtain for them the right 92 LEGAL SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS IN RUSSIA of residence in Kieff. The Governor-General of Kieff is instructed to fix in every case the number of employees allowed. Hundreds of families thus forfeited their right of domicile and were immediately expelled from Kieff, the Governor-General proceeding in a most arbitrary manner and allowing only one or two clerks to each Jewish merchant. During 1891 the struggle with the bureaucracy continued e^•er5^vhere — in the villages, in the boundary zone, and in the governments outside the Pale of Settlement. Places were discovered which were situated half in the boundary zone, and therefore only the other half was open to Jews. The exclusion of butchers from the privileged category of the artisans, Avhich had been practicalh' already decided by the Senate in 1884, was this year, on April 8th, finally settled for good and all by a Senatorial interpretation applying to the whole Empire. 1892. The wellnigh complete exclusion of Jews from municipal self-government was the chief ■e\"ent of this year, but, as ^Wll be seen from the following list, many other remnants of their sadly curtailed rights were also swept away : — A. February 17th. — In accordance with a proposal of the Imperial Council, the mining industry in Turkestan is closed to Jews. B. April 22nd'. — A Senatorial resolution decides the " struggle for the townlets '' in the government of Chernigoff in a sense unfavourable to the Jews. As related elsewhere, the question at issue concerned a number of places which, in the official " compilation of the urban settlements " had figured as townlets and long been known only as such, but which had preserved their rural form of govern- ments. Under this pretext they were proclaimed to be villages, and thus were included among the places prohibited to Jewish settlement by the May Laws. C. June 3rd. — An Imperial order, following a proposal of the Imperial Council, to the effect that throughout the governments of Tifiis, Kutais, Baku and Elisavetpol, as well as in the State domains and privately ovmed lands in the provinces of Kuban and Terek, the acquisition or exploitation of oil-fields by Jews, as well as their administra- tion, shall be allowed only by special permission of the Minister of Agriculture in agree- ment with the ^Ministers of the Interior and of Finance, as well as of the Caucasian ■Commander-in-Chief. This decision practically excluded the Jews from participating in the naphtha industry in these regions. D. June nth. — A decision of the Imperial Council that Jews shall not take part in municipal elections and that they shall be excluded from municipal administrative positions. Within the Pale, however, the Administration excepts a certain number of Jews who are eligible for election as municipal councillors, but their number must not exceed one-tenth of the whole body, and is to be iixed by the Minister of the Interior. E. June iSth. — A law establishing a special right of residence for the provinces of Kuban and Terek. The indigenous Jews may remain in the places where they are registered, but only in these places, their liberty of movement being thus restricted. All other Jews, with a few exceptions, are forbidden to settle in these provinces. Even the four privileged categories lose their right here almost entirely, being replaced by the following small groups : possessors of university diplomas. State officials, and owners or leaseholders of landed estates until their alienation or the termination of the lease respectively. At the same time those Jews who are allowed to remain are forbidden to acquire or rent further property. October 15th. — Withdrawal of the right of residence in the government of Moscow (including the town itself) from soldiers of the old rigime (the so-called " Nicholas " soldiers, many of whom had served for 25 years). How anxious the Russian Government was to get rid of the Jews is shown by its refusal, shortly before this date, of Baron Hirsch's offer of twenty milhon roubles (/2, 000,000) to be applied to the higher and technical education of Russian Jews in the Pale of Settlement, and its sanction, shortly afterwards, of the work of the Jevrish Colonisation Association in Russia. The government of a country in which emigration is officially forbidden thus sanctions a society whose aim is nothing more or less than to remove the whole Jewish nation from the country, and grants this new departure considerable privileges I LEGAL SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS IN RUSSIA 1893- 93 There in no rest, no peace, for the Russian Jew. This year the right of residence again suffered further curtailments, but, as will be seen, there were limitations in other directions as well : — -"1 A. January 14th.. — ^A circular of the Minister"" off the Interior cancels the orders of the former Ministers Makofi and Tolstoi (April 3rd, 1880 and June 21st, 1882) estab- lishing the principle that all Jews who had settled outside the Pale prior to April 3rd 1880, should be left undisturbed. This circular was the cause of many thousand expulsions from places where the authorities had followed the former regulations. It is true that the Jews were usually given a respite until June ist, 1894, and in extreme cases to June ist, 1895, but the measure none the less meant utter ruin for most of them. B. January 27th. — A Senatorial decision in a sense unfavourable to the Jews in reference to " the struggle for the townlets " in the government of Poltava, as in the case of the government of Chernigoft the previous year. C. May 24th. — ^An order excluding the health resort of Yalta (the favourite summer residence of the Imperial family in the Crimea) from the Pale of Settlement. D. October 6th. — A circular of the Medical Department fixing the " percentage rule " for apothecaries' apprentices : at 3 per cent, of the total number in St. Petersburg and Moscow and at 5 per cent, in all other places. During this year many additional decisions of the Senate were given against the Jews. For example, wine and corn sorters and several other artisans' occupations were excluded from the privileged categories. Most characteristic, however, is the fact that even the Senate could not see its way to afford any relief to the poor artisans' wives of Kieff, who had been forced by the local authorities to abandon their petty trading in milk, bread, etc. When, in the year 1893, the question came before the Senate, that body gave the Solomon-like judg- ment that the wives of Jewish artisans might trade in the market places of Kieff, but only in commodities produced by their husbands. This, of course, meant that the prohibition ■still held good. This year, too, the teaching of the Russian language was forbidden in the "Chedarim " or Hebrew private elementary schools. The official reason for this regulation will be found in the chapter dealing with education. In many places the Jews this year suffered much annoyance through their names being changed.. They were ordered to give up using the names which many had borne for years, and to adopt once more the humiliating Ghetto denominations (such as Joschko, Moschko, etc.) under which they had been registered in the official records. There were, it must be admitted, many Jews who bore their Ghetto brand with pride and almost with joy. 1894. Of the codified restrictions imposed upon the Jews in the course of this j'ear the "following may be noted ; — A. November 30th. — A Senatorial decision to the effect that the Jews of Kieff cannot become merchants of the first Guild until they have paid their licence in some part of the Pale of Settlement for at least a year. This interpretation overtook the Jews of Kieff at a moment when, persecuted owing to their want of the right of residence, many of them, though poorly off, had sought refuge in the payment of the Guild tax in order to qualify for the residential right, only to find that in consequence of this fresh measure they were burdened with a double tax before attaining their goal. B. December 23rd. — A circular of the Minister of the Interior decreeing that Jews who have graduated as veterinary surgeons in a veterinary college are no longer to be admitted to the service of the State. Among the many other vexatious measures of this year may be mentioned the Senatorial decision forbidding midwives- — -who belong to the privileged categories — to keep their parents with them, however old and infirm they may be, outside the Pale of Settlement. The effects of the expulsions occasioned by the circular of the Minister of the Interior the previous year were now felt in their full force, and thousands of Jews continued to wander forth, amongst them being many who possessed a double right of domicile, as belonging both to the pre- scriptive category and to the artisan class. 94 LEGAL SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS IN RUSSIA During this yeai", too, the sufferings of the Jews in Siberia were increased — without regard to whether they were exiles, banished thither for poKtical or criminal offences, or descendants of those persons who had been transplanted co Siberia by Nicholas I. and con- sequently had been declared to belong to the privileged classes. The Administration now began to interpret the law in such a fashion as to make it appear that the privileged persons of the latter category possessed the right of,idomicile only in the places where they had been registered. [ 1895- From this year onwards some improvement was to be perceived in the behaviour of the Kussian Government with regard to special measures against the Jews. Until the year 1903 no fundamental innovations were forthcoming, but at the same time the exceptional laws of earlier years were gradually extended in their scope. Thus the first year of the reign of Nicholas II. was responsible for the following measures : — ■ \. January i8th. — A Senatorial decision'that rabbis possess no right of residence beyond the Pale of Settlement. B. January 27th. — A Senatorial decision depriving Jews of the right of residence in the fifty-verst boundary zone, even though they are possessed of diplomas procuring them the universal privilege of domicile, unless they are descendants of Jews who have been settled there from time immemorial. The same ruling had been made as far back 13 1887 in the case of artisans and merchants of the first Guild. The Senatorial decisions in question were mitigated on June 21st of this year by an Imperial order to the effect that all Jews who (in spite of the expulsions) still remained in the boundary zone on this date were to be exposed to no further persecutions. C. A circular of the Minister of War instructing the Cossack authorities in the Caucasus and the Don Territory that Jews visiting the Don, Kuban and Terek provinces for the sake of the medicinal waters are to be turned back. D. September 13th. — -A Senatorial decision depriving even Jewish agriculturists of the right to rent land outside the precincts of the towns and townlets. A similar decision of a somewhat later date applies to artisans. Both the last-named decisions are an unavoidable result of the May Laws, but thev bear witness to the spirit animating the expounders of the law. Here there is not even a pretence of justice such as is evinced in the principle of the percentage. With regard to the latter, a far-reaching innovation of a liberal character is to be noted in the new commercial schools, the admission of Jewish scholars to these institutions being in many places in the same proportion as the Jewish merchants bear to the non-Jewish. A relatively temperate year for the Jews in Russia, yet we have to chronicle : — A. March gth. — A regulation of the Military Council ordering that Jewish soldiers, unless they belong to the privileged categories, must not spend their furlough outside the Pale of Settlement. B. NovemberVzgth. — -A Senatorial decision overtakes the golosh-menders, who are declared not to belong to the artisan class and therefore must be included among those who do^not possess the^right of residence. EvenVduring this"year of exceptional mildness the Administration was persecuting Jews in many places ; in Kiefi, for example, where privileged and non-privileged suffered alike. The campaign against Jewish artisans, constantly resumed on the ground of some irritating and senseless formahty, was even directed against old men who had belonged to this class all their lives, and many of them were reduced to beggary in consequence. On the whole, conditions during this twelvemonth were very tolerable for the Jews, but one heavy economic blow was dealt them, for the introduction of the Government spirit monopoly in Western Russia deprived thousands of Jews of iheir means of Uvelihood. and, urlike their Christian colleagues, they could not find work in a similar capacity under the State, newish society and the Jewish Press were dehghted that Jews could no longer engage in an ipiominious trade, but those who had been drivenmit of their employment went to swell the ever-growing mass of the despairing proletariateTT LEGAL SUFFERINGS OP THE JEWS IN RUSSIA 95 1897. While the Russian Jews this year were agitated by great political movements, the legal pogrom continued as before :— A. January 31st. — A Senatorial decision to the effect that soldiers of the old regime possess no right of residence in the Caucasian provinces of Kuban and Terek. B. January 31st. — -A Senatorial decision according to which ink-makers are not to rank as artisans and consequently do not possess the universal right of domicile. A later interpretation applies the same ruling to tobacco workers. C. March 26th.^ — A Senatorial decision that outside the Pale of Settlement students as such (unless they possess a special domiciliary privilege) are entitled to the right of residence only in the university town where they are studying. D. March 26th.- — A Senatorial decision that local Jews belonging to the merchants' corporation of Riga are not entitled to transact business in the district of Riga. E. June 2nd. — A law to the effect that the admittance of Jewesses to the Women's Higher Institute of Medicine in St. Petersburg is to be hmited to 3 per cent> of the total number of students. F. November 13th. — -An Imperial order depriving Jews and Jewesses studying pharmacy, or attending schools of surgery and midwifery respectively, of the right to reside in the town or government of Moscow for this purpose. The thorough cleansing of Moscow from the hated Jew still occupied the attention of the authorities. This year, as is fully related elsewhere, they went so far as to expel from Moscow merchants of the first Guild, and to arrest persons " of Semitic physiognomy " in the streets"? in broad daylight, handing them over subsequently to the police to be deported. Some \ conception of the devastation wrought among the Jewish community of Moscow may be formed from the fact that of five synagogues only one remained, and that the Jewish school, or " Talmud Thora," had been compelled to close its doors. In Siberia, too, where the domicihary right of the privileged Jews had been questioned or curtailed, the bureaucracy fumed and fretted, and wholesale expulsions were the rule. In Tomsk alone some 800 Jewish families who possessed real estate were on this account victimised and driven out. 1898. If few restrictions of any importance occurred this year, the amount of cases of appeal with which the Senate had to deal increased enormously**, and even when the issue was a happy one the interval of waiting was always a time of trial for the Jews concerned. In this year we may note the following restrictive measures ; — A. February i8th, April 14th, and December 8th. — A Senatorial decision to the effect that fish-curers, piano-tuners and land surveyors do not belong to the privileged artisan categories, and are therefore declared to be of non-privileged occupations, thus possessing no right of residence beyond the Pale of Settlement. B. According to an earlier law, merchants of the first Guild, after paying the Guild tax outside the Pale of Settlement for ten years consecutively, gained the universal right of residence even when they ceased to belong to the Guild. On February 27th a Senatorial interpretation of the law limits this privilege to the town where the Guild tax has been paid. C. March i8th. — A Senatorial decision extends the restrictions relating to the right of residence in Kuban and Terek also to all artisans who have not been assigned to this region. Two years later (January i8th, 1900) a similar decision is applied to merchants of the first Guild. D. November 25th. — -A Senatorial decision decides that Jews who are natives of Rica are not entitled to live in Livonia, but only in Riga and its suburbs. E. December iSth.- — A Senatorial decision stating that the^ right of residence throughout the Empire which has been granted to various categories doe? iiot epitei^d to Siberia. »*The total number of Senatorial decisions regarding the rights o£ Jews cannot be ascertained, but even in Losina- Losinsky's work we find for the year under review over 1,900 cases quoted. H 96 LEGAL SUFFERINGS ' 'Ot' 'tHlf JEWS IN ■' RC8SIA Among the local persecutions this year we must particularise the extraordinary severity shown in the district of Kiefl, several hundred Jews being expelled who had been settled there for years. Proscriptions, however, were everywhere the order of the day, 'and at such a time what did it matter that this year the Senate decided that Jews with '€he rank of officer had not, as such, earned the right to employment in the service ot the State ? ■ This year saw' the f611owing restrictions added to the Code <— * A. January 22nd.^ — An Imperial order to the edect that in the government of ■Moscow -'Jews can' I be registered as merchants of the Guild only by permission of the Minister of Fin'ance 'and of the Governor-General of Moscow: ■■ ' ■ ■ ; j B. M ay I gth. — A Senatorial decision to the effect that the' manufacture of mineral water, not being a handicraft, ranks amongthe non-pri-vileged occupations and, therefore, does net confer the right of residence outside the Pale of Settlement. C. 'May '■28th. T— A Senatorial decision that outside the Pale of Settlement the right of residence is vested billy in those Jewish domestic servants whose masters possess university diplomas. No other categories of privileged Jews can 'transfer their domi- ciliary right to their servants. : ■ . , . , D. October 6th. — A Senatorial decisioti stating that cerfjiioates gained by Jewish artisans in Courland are not valid for the rest of the Empire, thus depriving of their right of residence all Jewish artisans from Courland, unless they care to undergo the long and weary.prOcess of earning fresh certificates — an impossible task for most of them. E. October i4ih. — A Senatorial decision g.ccording to which artisans living beyond -J the Balj^ of Settlement are not entitled to sell their own, products in any other place than wher^,t:hey are domiciled. Amongst the other vexatious 'measures of this year- we may chronicle the Senatorial decree of December ist forbidding Jewish villagers to remove to a neighbouring village even ill 'the sarne' parish, 'unless the new village is distant from the old less than three versts. Anottifet ordfer trenching upon the domiciliary privilege was to the effect that attendance at a "School of dentistry confers no right of residence upon the students. About this period the last remaining elective offices were closed to the Jews. Thus, on December 20th, the Imperial Council declared that Jews must not accept positions as representatives of a municipal bank. 1900-1902. These were relatively mild years for the Jews of Russia, and we have only the fdUoiwing important measures to place on record : — A. May 28th, 1900. — An Imperal order forbidding the entry, in the Government register of nobles, of Jews who have acquired a hereditary title of nobiUty. B. June 5th, 1900. — A Senatorial decision runniiig counter to earlier Senatorial decisions and ruling that cpmpositors,, as not belonging to the artisan class, possess no right of residence beyond the Pale of Setfleihent. C. Npyeipber 28th, 1901. — A Senatorial decision to the effect that a Jew inheriting ;,, , a title of nobility does not on that account possess the right to serve the State, unless he ., , is also the'possessor of a university degree. " ' ' ' ^ D. December 19th, 1901. — A Senatorial decision that descendants ot Jews exiled to Siberia, a,s ,well as descendants of persons transplanted there by Nicholas I., may not , settle in any part of Siberia tfiey choose, but pnly in that particular district where they ' have been registered. E. November 29th, 1902. — A Senatorial resolution according to which dentists, surgeons and midwives possess the right of residence beyond the Pale only while they are exclusively engaged in their own callings. ' . ,' ' ' -During thesfe three years numerous ■" percentage " regulations (from 5-' per cent, to 50 per cent.) were introduced into a. number of newly founded schools, especially commercial institutions. In the latter a frequent apphcation was made of the principle already men- tioned, i.e., fixing the percentage in the same ratio as the Jewish merchants bore to the whole number, or according to the proportion of both parties paying the Guild tax. The " per- centage " principle became more and more the rule in the municipal credit societies. LEGAL SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS IN RUSSIA 97 1903 10 THE Present Day. The year of the Kishinefi pogrom, together with a belated and therefore ahnost useless aueviatioii in reference to a number of townlets which years before had been degraded to Milages brought a fatal exceptional law, which extended the appUcation of a most important part of the May Laws from the Pale of Settlement to the rest of the Empire. By an order 01 may loth, 1903 Jews were forbidden to purchase, lease, or manage estates beyond the i-aie. ims was the final stroke in the exclusion of Jews from the possession and eniovment of real property m any part of Russia beyond the towns and townlets of the Pale. ihe foregoing summary gives the most important and characteristic events during the era of persecutions, which lasted from the death of Alexander II. until well into the present century, without attempting to give an exhaustive list, much less the consequences that ensued from these restnctions. The period that followed has been as fluctuating and full of chan<^e in tlus respect as m every department of Russian h.fe since the outbreak of the revolution. ^ +^"^r-^^ ^^°^' ^ '^orumission was once more appointed to inquire into the Jewish question, and tlie Government held out a piom se of revising the legal status of Russian Jews and minimising the terrible disablKties under which they labour, but the high hopes raised in the Ghetto by this announcement were soon dashed to the ground. Even the oft-quoted Stolypm circular of May 22nd, 1907, ordering that the expulsions of Jews settled without the Pale should cease, became in the hands of an ill-disposed bureaucracy a powerful weapon against the Jews. Both the original circular and the " supplementary " circular of 1909 — with their ambiguous wording, so characteristic of Russian legislative enactments — were interpreted in such a manner as to intensify the persecution of the Jews. A riot of expulsions ensued, and these increased with every year, culminating in the wholesale proscriptions of 1 910, which overtook the Jews in every part of the Empire, and continued well into the following year. Thus the very measure designed for the relief and protection of the Jews turned to their undoing and only added to their woes. The insistence of the authorities upon privileged artisans and others " pursuing their vocation " and none other, has undergone no relaxation, and only a year ago 200 apothecaries' assistants fell under the ban for the crime of opening druggists' shops in KiefE, while over 300 dentists are shortly to be tried in Moscow for obtaining their diplomas " without having first gained the requisite knowledge." In 1909, restrictions were placed upon Jews frequent- ing summer and health resorts, and frequent expulsions followed, many invalids being among the victims of this senseless tyranny. AU these restrictions, however, pale into insignificance in comparison with the universal extension of the iniquitous " percentage rule," which in 1910 was applied to schools of surgery, midwifery and dentistry, with their resultant decay and ruin. Recently it has overtaken the commercial schools, well-nigh the last line of defence in Jewish education. In the autumn of 1909 the proportion of Jewish admissions to these schools, many of them founded and maintained by Jewish money, was fixed at a maximum of 15 per cent. At the present moment this limitation is being enforced with merciless severity, in spite of the angry protests of Russians as well as Jews, and it bids fair to reduce to ruin all the commercial schools of the Pale. For full particulars of this educational pogrom the reader is referred to the concluding pages of the book itself. Side by side with the many mitigating measures on paper, to which, as a rule, the local bureaucracy pays no heed whatever, the old restrictive policy continues, and, although it is rendering only the barest justice to the persecuting zeal of the local officials to say that they surely needed no fiUip of the kind, the Senate, as recently as 1908, issued an order command- ing the rigorous observance of the restrictive enactments relating to the domiciliary right of the Jews. 'With the reaction, indeed, the outlook became dark with the menace of further exceptional laws. Sometimes the clouds have parted for a moment and a'lowed a transient glimpse of a happier and more hopeful future, but only to roll together again and cast once more their dark shadows over Russian Jewry. INDEX. Agriculture : Effect of May l,aws on Jewish, 23 et seq. Number of Jews employed in, 25 Agricultural College, Moscow, closed to Jews, 15 Agricultural Colonies, Jewish, Decline of, 25 Akkennan district : Expulsion of Jews from, 60, 62 Strange conduct of a Prisiaffoi, 62 Alexander II. : Abnormal admission of Jews to Kieff under, 46 Concessions in municipal administration to Jews by, 12 Encourages Jews to frequent non-Jewish schools, 16 Liberal treatment of Jewish artisans and others by, 40 Modifies domiciliary restrictions, 31 Alexander III., Persecution of Jews under, 42 e/ scq. , 4.6 ct scq. Aluschta, Expulsion of Jews from, 60, 62 .^nti-Semitic myths concerning — Accumulation of landed estates by Jews, 23 Agricultural colonies of Jews, 25 ct scq. Evasion of military duties by Jews, 7 -Anti-Semitic propaganda against — Jewish Army doctors, 10 Settlements of non-privileged Jews, 42 Apothecaries, Jewish : Privilege granted to, 31 Restrictions imposed upon, i ct seq., 15. 36, 68, 85, 89, 93 Army, The Russian : Dead Jews called to the colours, 5 etseq. Disabilities of Jewish soldiers, i et scq., 87 Evasion of military duties by Jews : A myth, 2 et seq. Family responsibility for, 8 Excess of Jewish recruits, 2 et seq. Exclusion of Jews from commissioned ranks, i Levies of Jewish soldiers in Crimean War, 7 Port Arthur, heroic conduct of Jewish soldiers at, 75 Soldiers, Jewish, obliged to return to Pale when on furlough, 33, 94 Statistical figures, 2 et seq., 33 Surgeons, Jewish. See Doctors Army, The Rnssia.n—(co/iii/med): War services of Jews, 7, 75 What the Armv offers the Russian Jew, 8 See also Army Orders, Discharged soldiers, " Nicholas" soldiers Army Medical College, St. Petersburg, closed to Jews, 15, 90 Army Orders affecting Jews : Apothecaries excluded from Army dispensaries, i et scq., 89 Bandmasters prohibited, i, 90 Family responsibility for military service, 8 Musicians restricted to one-third, i , 90 Surgeons restricted to 5 per cent., 10, 84 .•\rtisans, Jewish : Branded as " exploiters " of the Moujik, 17 Compelled to follow their vocation, 38 et seq. Expulsions of, from interior govern- ments. Reasons for, 37 ei seq. Forbidden to purchase real estate outside Pale, 28, 39, 89 et seq. Poverty of, 55 Privilege granted to, 31 Proportion of, settled beyond the Pale, 42 Restrictions upon, 37 ei seq., 84 et seq. Baku, Police raids on Stock Exchange at, 75 et seq. Baptism. Rite of: Inadequate to save Jews from expul- sion, 70 Necessary preliminary to State employ- ment, 9 Undergone by Jewish youths to gain admission to the Universities, 78 Berditcheff: Expulsions of Jews from, 60 Preponderance of Jews in, 13 Bessarabia, Government of: Expulsion of Jews from Boltz district, SO Poverty of Jews in, 56 Statistics of population and Army recruits in, 4 Tobacco culture by Jews in, 25 Venality of police in, exposed by Urussoff, 53 IIMI INDEX Bialystok, Preponderance of Jews in, 13 Bokhara, Expulsion of Jews from, 60, 67 Boundary zone. See Fifty-verst boundary zone Brest-Litovsk, Preponderance of Jews in, 13 Brewers, Jewish : Privilege granted to, 31 Reason for, 40 Catherine II., Attitude of, towards Jews, 30 Caucasus, The : " Mountain " Jews permitted to remain in, 30 Practically closed to other Jews, 29, 41 Restrictions upon Jews frequenting health resorts in, 72 Ratio of Jewish inhabitants of, 44 Cemeteries, Jews forbidden to purchase land for, 26 Central Asia : Practically closed to Jews, 29 Proportion of Jewish inhabitants in, 44 " Chedarim " (Hebrew elementary schools) regulated by law of 1893, 16 et seq. Chernigoff, Government of: Expulsion of Jewish villagers from, 48 Poverty of Jews in, 56 Statistics of population and Army recruits in, 4 Children, Jewish, expelled from Moscow, 70 Christian domestics, Jews forbidden to employ, 86 Clerks, Jewish, Restrictions imposed upon, 33 "t s«9- Coal mining in Poland, Jews excluded from, 27 Colleges of Mines, DombrofF and Irkutsk, closed to Jews, 15 Commercial Schools ; Proportion of Jews admitted to, IS, 79 Rigorous application of " percentage rule" in, 79 et seq., 97 Status of Jews attending, 79 Companies, Joint Stock, Jewish restrictions relating to, 26 el seq., 91 Confectioners, Jewish, banished for selling coffee, 37 Corn Exchanges, Jews forbidden to act as brokers in, 14 Courland, Government of : Formerly included in Pale of Settlement, footnote 5 Jewish privileges in, Reason for, 30 Restrictions imposed upon Jews in, 96 Statistics of population and Army recruits in, 4 Credit Societies, Municipal, Percentage principle applied to, 14, 96 Crimean War : Distinguished conduct of Jewish sur- geons in, 10 Excess of Jewish recruits called up for, 7 Degradation of Jews resulting from curtail- ment of residential right, 29 et seq. Demijevka, suburb of Kieff, Police raids in, 64 et seq. Demoralisation caused by restrictions upon Jewish education, 18 et seq. Dentists, Jewish : Expulsions of, from Smolensk, 73 Privilege granted to, 31 Restrictions upon, 36, 68, 89, 96 Trial of, at Moscow, footnote 69 Dessiatine, Definition of, footnote 24 Discharged soldiers, Jewish : Expulsions of, from Moscow, 43 Privilege granted to, i, 31 Restrictions imposed upon, 32 et seq. Distillers, Jewish : Privilege granted to, 31 Reason for, 40 Restrictions imposed upon, 89 Doctors, Jewish ; Admitted in theory to Ministries of Education and the Interior, 9 Excluded from Siberia, 68 Insults offered to, in Army, 10 et seq., 85 Ratio of, in Army restricted to 5 per cent., 10, 84 Sec also Crimean War, Russo- Japanese War, and Surgeons Domiciliary right of Jews. See Right of residence Don Territory : Closed to Jewish artisans, 41 ; to soldiers and others, 89 Domiciliary rights restricted to Univer- sity graduates in, 36 Merchants of first Guild deprived of right of domicile in, 34 "Nicholas" soldiers excluded from, 32 Dumbadse, the Jew-baiter : Decree of, concerning baptism, 70 Expulsions ordered by : Artisans from Yalta, 69 et seq. Doctor from Yalta, 74 et seq. Shopkeepers from Aluschta, 62 etseq. Soldiers from Vilna garrison, 70 Dvinsk, Poverty of Jews in, 56 Educational affairs : Jewish disqualification in. See Chapter IV. Sad results of restrictions on Jewish scholars, 18 Educational establishments ; Ijist of, closed to Jews, 15 See alio Commercial schools Ekaterinburg, Expulsions of Jews from, 60, 69 Ekaterinoslav ; Government : Expulsion of Jews from, 60 Statistics of population and Army recruits in, 4 INDEX 101 Ekaterinoslav — (continued) : Town : Jewish youth of, seek protection in baptism, 78 Poverty of Jews in, 56 Blectrotechuical Institute, St. Petersburg, closed to Jews, 15 Elisavetgrad : Poverty of Jews in, 56 Stock Exchange restrictions concerning Jews of, 14, 90 Elizabeth, Empress, Dictum of, regarding Jews, 30 Emigration of Jews to — Foreign Universities, footnote 20 United States, /ooteo/e 5, 44 Engineers, Jewish, in Survey Department, 9 Engineering School, Moscow, closed to Jews, 15 Exceptional laws relating to Jews : See Appendix for Chronological Sum- mary. Plxpulsions of Jews from — Akkerman district, 60, 62 Aluschta, 60, 62 Astrakhan, 86 Berditcheff, 60 Boltz, 50 Bokhara, 60, 67 Boundary Zone, 50 Chernigoff, 48 Ekaterinburg, 60, 69 Ekaterinoslav, 60 Grigorjevka, 61 Harbin, 60, 67 Interior Governments, 60 et ssq. Irkutsk, 60, 67 Kharkoif, 60 Kieff, 46 et seq., 60, 64 et seg., footnote 66, 96 Kielce, 60 Kursk, 60 Libau, 60, 69 Ivivonia, 60 Morschansk, 5o, 69 Moscow, 43, 60, 70 Orel, 83 Podolia, 60 Pskoff, 60 Riga, 60 Rostoff, 60 St. Petersburg, 60, 69, 86 Sebastopol, 60, 69 Siberia 60, 67 Slavjanka, 61 Smolensk, 60, 69, 73 Tamboflf, 60 Tashkent, 60, 67 Tiflis, 60 Tinmen, 60 Tomsk, 60, 67, 95 Toropetz, 60, 62 Tula, 60, 69 Expulsions of Jews {rom- -{continued) : Turkestan, 67 Tver, 60 Viatka, 60 Viasma, 69 Vladivostok, 60, 67 Vologda, 60 Yalta, 60, 69 et set/. Fifty-verst boundary zone : Abolished in 1904, 50 Anomalies in, 51 Established by Nicholas I., 50 Expulsions from, 50, 88 et seq., 94 Fines imposed upon Jews for evasion of military duties, 8, 88 Finland closed to Jews, 89 Foreign Jews, Status of, 52, 91 Gold-mining. Jews discouraged from, 27 Grammar-schools, Reason for dwindling attendance of Jews at, 16 Grigorjevka, Expulsion of Jews from, 61 Grodno, Government of: Percentage of town Jews in, 51 Proportion of artisans in, 14 Jewish inhabitants in, 44 Statistics of population and Army recruits in, 4 Urban population of, mainly Jews, 13 Guild tax : Insufficient protection afforded by, 64 Regulations regarding, footnote 43 Harbin, Expulsions of Jews from, 60, 67 Health resorts, Restrictions upon Jews frequenting, 71 e/ seq , 94 Hirsch, Baron, offer to assist Jews, declined by Russian Government, 92 Horschelmann, Governor-General of Mos- cow, rivals Dumbadse as Jew-baiter, 70 Hundred-verst boundary zone on Chinese frontier, 51, go et seq. Ignatieff, May Laws proposed by, 84 Ikons, The manufacture of, by Jews, for- bidden, 84 Institute of Civil Engineers, St. Petersburg, closed to Jews, 15, 90 Invalid Jews expelled from health resorts, 35,72 Irkutsk : Expulsion of Jews from, 60, 67 Jewish youth of, seek protection in baptism, 78 Rigorous methods in force in, 75 Jews in Russia : Clerks, Restrictions imposed upon, 33 et seq. Dead, called to the colours, 5 et seq. Demoralisation of, in Police Service 9 et seq. 102 INDEX Jews in Russia — (continued) : Distribution of, 44 Emigration to United States, footnote 5 Exclusion from — Commissioned ranks of Army, i Municipal Affairs, 12 ct seq. State service, 9 Use of soil, 23 et seq. Peasantry, Attempts to develop a, crippled, 24 Population, footnote 3, 44 Poverty. See Chapter VIII. See also Artisans, Merchants, Soldiers, and other headings Jewish Colonisation Association, 92 Jewish massacres of the XVIIth Century, number of victims, 29 et seq. Jew-baiting, by police in Smolensk, 74. See also Dumbadse Joint-stock Companies, Jewish restrictions relating to, 26 et seq. Juries : Exclusion of Jews in ecclesiastical trials. 13,87 Foremen must be non-Jews, 13, 86 Percentage principle, application of, 13 Kalisz, Government of, statistics of popula- tion and Army recruits in, 4 Kharkoff, Military district of : Expulsions of Jews from, 60 Jewish surgeons in, restricted to 5 per cent., 10, 84 Kherson, Government of, statistics of popu- lation and Army recruits in, 4 Kieff: Government : Proportion of Jewish artisans in, 39 «' seg. Statistics of population and Army recruits in, 4 Urban population of, mainly Jews, 13.51 Military District : Jewish surgeons restricted to five per cent., 10, 84 Town: Abnormal admission of Jews to, under Nicholas I. and Alex- ander II., d5 Apothecaries' assistants persecuted in, 69 Artisans' wives prohibited from selling food in, 47, 91, 93 Centre of Russo-Jewish life, 45 Expulsions of Jews from, 46 £< s«;., 60, 64 et seq., footnote 66, 96 Historical importance to Jews, 46 Merchants, Jewish, of. Restrictions imposed upon, 34, 91 Municipal Council of, Jews excluded from, 12 et seq. Kieff: toyin— [continued): Police raids upon Jews, 46, 64 ct seq., 75 et seq. Ranks as a place without the Pale, 13 School privileges granted to Jews of, 47 Kielce, Government of: Expulsion of Jews from, 60 Statistics of population and Arm}- recruits in, 4 Kishineff ; " Bessarabskaja Schisn " newspaper of, 5 et seq. Dead Jews called to colours at, 5 ct seq. Kokovzeff, Minister of Finance, Attitude of, towards Jewish question , 59 Kovno, Government of: Poverty of Jews in, 56 Statistics of population and Arm}- recruits in, 4 Kremenchug, Poverty of Jews in, 56 Kryschanowski, Deputy-Minister, attempts to restrict freedom of Jews in summer and health resorts, 71 Kuban, Province of: Domiciliary rights restricted to Univer- sity graduates in, 36, 92 Merchants of first Guild deprived of right of domicile in, 34, 95 'Nicholas" soldiers excluded from, 32, 95 Oil-field closed to Jews in, 27, 92 Kursk ; Expulsion of Jews from, 60 Proportion of Jewish artisans in, 39 et seq. Laws affecting Jews. See Appendix for Chronological Summary Lawyers, Jewish . Excluded from Bench and Bar, 10, 90 from Siberia, 68 Legal profession closed to Jews, 21 ctseq. Legal restrictions imposed upon Jews. See Appendix for Chronological Summary Libau, Expulsions of Jews from, 60, 69 Liquor Traffic, The : Restrictions upon Jews in, 84 et seq., 89 See also State Liquor Monopoly Livonia : Expulsion of Jews from, 60 Jewish privileges in, Reason for, 30 Lodz, Stock Exchange restrictions concern- ing Jews of, 14, 90 Lomza, Government of: Proportion of Jewish inhabitants in, 44 Statistics of population and Army recruits in, 4 Lublin, Government of, Statistics of popula- tion and Army recruits in, 4 INDEX lOS May La\vs,or "Temporary Regulations," of 18S2 ; Effect of, on agricultural life of Jews, 23 ct seq. Restrictions imposed on Jews by, 23 ct scq., 47 et seq. Text of, 84 Mechanics, Jewish. See Artisans Merchants of first Guild, Jewish : Privilege granted to, 31 Restrictions imposed upon, 33 ct scq., 88 ct seq., 91, 93, 95 et scq. Mid wives, Jewish : Privilege granted to, 31 Restrictions imposed upon, 35 ct seq., 68, 87, 89, 93, 96 Military Laws. See Army Orders, also Appendix for Chronological Summary Military Schools, Jews excluded from, i Military Service in Russia : Family responsibility for Jewish evasion of, 8 What it offers to the Jews, 8 Sec also Army, Army Orders Mining Industry, The, Jews excluded from, 27 Minister of Interior, Proportion of Jewi.sh municipal councillors fixed b}', 12, 92 Ministry of Education (Public Instruction) ; Jewish physicians admitted to, in theory, 9 Percentage of Jewish admissions to schools fixed by, 15 See also Schwartz Ministry of Interior : Decree of, restricting freedom of Jews in summer and health resorts, 71 Jewish physicians admitted to, in theory, 9 Percentage of Jews in commercial schools fixed at 15 per cent, by, 79 Minsk, Government of: Percentage of Jews in towns of, 51 Proportion of Jewish inhabitants in, 44 Statistics of population and Army re- cruits in, 4 Urban population of, mostly Jews, 13, 51 Mohammedans, Jewish youths become, to gain admission to Universities, 78 Mohileff, Government of: Statistics of population and Army re- cruits in, 4 Urban population of, mainly Jews, 13, 51 Moscow : Government : Artisans, Jewish excluded from, 41 " Nicholas" soldiers excluded from, Restrictions upon students in, 95 Town : Artisans, Jewish excluded from, 41 Children, Jewish, expelled from, 70 Educational establishments closed to Jews in, 15 Moscow : 'tovin— [continued) : Expulsions of Jews from, 43, 60, 70, 95 Merchants, Jewish, in, Restrictions imposed upon, 34 Municipal Council of, Jews debarred from, 12 et s q. Restrictions upon students in, 95 Schools and University of, Jewish admission limited to 3 per cent, in, 15, 76 Treatment of Jewish students when visiting, 73 " Mountain " Jews, term explained, /t)ofao/e 30 Municipal Service, Exclusion of Jews from. Sec Chapter III. Navy, Exclusion of Jews from Russian, i, 85 " Nicholas " soldiers, 32 and footnote Nicholas I. : Boundary zone withdrawn from Pale by, 5° Conscription regulations of, footnote 32 Encourages Jews to frequent non- Jewish schools, 15 Proscription of Jews from Kieff under, 46 .Status ofjews in municipal affairs under, 12 Treatment of Jews in Crimean War under, 7 Nikolayeff : Jewish stockbrokers of, limited to one- third of total number, 14, 87, 90 Poverty ofjews in, 56 " Oblawas," or police night raids, 44 et seq. footnote 46, 64 Odessa : Military District : Jewish snrgeons restricted to 5 per cent, in, 10, 84 Town : Stock Exchange restrictions con- cerning Jews in, 14, 90 Treatment of baptised Jews by University of, 78 Oil-fields in Caucasus, restrictions upon Jews relative to, 27 Orphan Asylums, Jews ineligible as guar- dians of, 13, 84 Pahlen Commission appointed to inquire into Jewish question, 23, 84 ct scq., 89 Pale of Settlement, The : Definition of, 29 Expulsions from villages in, 60 Historical origin of, footnote 5, 29 et seq. Land owned and rented by Jews in, 23 May Laws, effect of, on agricultural life in, 23 et seq. {For te.xt see 84) Municipal Councillors' appointments in, 12, 92 Population of, footnote 3 101 INDEX Pale of Settlement, the— {continued) : Proportion of Jews in, 44, 47 ,, ,, in towns of, 51 ,, „ in villages of, 51 Restrictions imposed within, 47 et seq., 84 et seq. Schools of, proportion of Jews admitted to, 15 Statistical table of Jewish recruits in, 4 Struggle for existence in, 51, 55 ctseq. Partnership, Jewish restrictions relating to, 26 Pauperism, Growth of, among Russian Jews. See Chapter VIII. "Percentage rule" limiting Jewish eligi- bility : Applied to — Apothecaries' apprentices (5 percent.), 15 Army surgeons (5 per cent.), 10 Educational institutions, 15 et seq., 88 In Pale (lo per cent.) Outside Pale (5 per cent.) St. Petersburg and Moscow (3 per cent.) Commercial schools (15 per cent), 79 Credit Societies (ssj per cent.), 14 Juries, 13 Municipal Councils (10 per cent.), for Pale only, 12 ct seq. Schools of .surgery, midwifery, and dentistry, 78 Stock and produce exchanges (33^ per cent.), 13 et seq., 87 Workmen's Corporations (33-1- per cent.), 14 Rigorous application of, in schools anil Universities, 76 Petrikoff, Government of : Poverty of Jews in, 56 Proportion of Jewish inhabitants of, 44 Statistics of population and Army recruits in, 4 Physicians, Jewish. Sec Surgeons, Doctors Pinsk, Preponderance of Jews in, 13 Plehve — Belated efforts of, to avert disastrous " townlet " decision, 50 Changed attitude of, towards Jews, foot- note 59 Plock, Government of, statistics of popula- tion and Army recruits in, 4 Podolia, Government of: Expulsion of Jews from, 60 Statistics of population and Army recruits in, 4 Pogroms, Incentives to, 53 Poland (Vistula Provinces) : Coal-mining in, closed to Jews, 27 Formerly included in Pale of Settlement, footnote 5 Jewish inhabitants, high proportion of in, footnote 5 Poland (Vistula Provinces - (continued) : May Laws partially applied in, 24 Partition of, footnote 5 Poverty of artisans in, 55 Statistics of population and Jewish recruits in, 4 Status of Jews in, footnote 24 PoliakofF, Jewish agriculture encouraged by, 25 Police decrees relating to Jews. See Appen- dix for Chronological Summary Police Department ; Demoralisation of Jews in, 9 et seq. Exclusion of Jewish inspectors from, 9, 90 Jewish women teachers deprived of domiciliary right by, 35, 84 Jew-baiting by, in Smolensk, 74 " Political unreliability," a pretext for expulsion of Jews, 61 Poltava, Government of : Poverty of Jews in, 56 Statistics of population and Army recruits in, 4 Port Arthur, heroic conduct of Jewish soldiers at, 75 Post Office, Russian, entirely "Jew-free," 10 Poverty of Russian Jews. See Chapter VIII. Private tuition by Jews not allowed in non- Jewish families, 22 Privileged classes of Jews ; Definition of, 31 Excluded from Siberia, 68 Expulsions of, (xietseq. Laws relating to. Strange anomalies in, 36 ct seq. Restrictions imposed upon, 33 et seq., 87 Professions, Jewish limitations in the prac- tice of the liberal. 5fe Chapter V. Property, Jewish limitations in right to own. See Chapter VI., also May Laws, 84 Prostitutes, Jewish, only class to whom all Empire is open, 41 Pskoff, Government of. Expulsion of Jews from, 60 Radoni, Government of, Statistics of popu- lation and Army recruits in, 4 Railway Department, Exclusion of Jews from, 10 Railways, Russian, constructed largely by Jews, 10 Residential right of Jews. See Right of residence Restrictions imposed upon Jews. Sec Appendix for Chronological Summary Riga, Expulsion of Jews from, 60 Right of domicile. See Right of residence Right of residence. The : Anomalies in operation of law relating to, 36 et seq. Expulsions of Jews possessing, 61 et seq. INDEX 105 Right of Residence, Th^— {continued) ■ Indispensable for admission to State schools, i8, 87 Privileged classes entitled to, 31 Jewish restrictions in. See Chapter VII . also 84, 90, 95 Kight to own property, Jewish limitations m the, 23 ct seq., 84. 07 Rostoff: ^ Artisans, Jewish, debarred from, 41 Excluded from Pale in 1887, 51 Expulsion of Jews from, 60 Municipal Council at, closed to Jews, 12 et seq. Police raids at, 66 Russian Army, Jews in. See under Army Russian Empire : Jewish population of, without the Pale, 44 Practically closed to Jews except Pale and Poland, 29 Russo-Japanese War : Concessions to Jewish soldiers granted and then withdrawn, 75 Number of Jewish .soldiers who fought in, 7 Surgeons, Jewish, impressed for, 11 Russo-Turkibh War, Jews in. i'ee Crimean War St. Petersburg : Educational establishments closed to Jews in, 15 Expulsion of Jews from, 60, 69 86 Municipal Council of, Jews excludecj from, 12 ct seq. Restrictions imposed upon Jewish mer- chants in, 34 Schools and University of. Jewish admis- sions limited to 5 per cent, in, 15, 76 Treatment of Jewish students when visiting, 73 School Boards Jews ineligible as presidents of. 13, 90 Schools and Colleges : Jewish Instructors at. debarred, 10 List of. closed to Tews, 15 Re.^trictions on Jewish Pupils at, i8, 87 et seq. See also Commercial Schools, Grammar-schools Schwartz, Minister of Education : Imposes re.strictions upon Jewish Com- mercial Schools, 79 Passes "percentage rule " into law, 76 Severity of, towards Jewish apotheca- ries 68 Sebastopol : Expulsions of Jews from, 60, 6g Treatment of Jewish students when visiting, 73 Senatorial decisions and decrees See Ap- pendix for Chronological Summary. Sergius, Grand Duke, instigates expulsion of Jews from Moscow, 43 Siberia : Expulsions of Jews from, 60, 67 Practically closed to Jews, 29, 41, 95 et seq. Proportion of Jewish inhabitants of, 44 Severity exercised towards Jews in, 68 Siedlce, Government of: Poverty of Jews in, 56 Proportion of Jewish inhabitants of, 44 Statistics of population and Army recruits in. 4 Slavjanka, Expulsions from, 61 Slutsk, Preponderance of Jews in, 13 Smolensk : Government: Barbaric treatment of Jewish inva- lids in, 72 Expulsions of Jews from, 60, 69, 73 Persecution of Jewish villagers in, 73 et seq. Soldiers, Jewish. See Army, Army Orders, Discharged soldiers, "Nicholas" soldiers Special laws affecting Jews. See Appendix for Chronological Summary State liquor monopoly, disastrous effects upon Jews, 56. 94 State service. Exclusion of Jews from. See Chapter II., also 87 Stock Exchange : Percentage rule applied to, 13 et seq. Police raid on, at Baku, 75 et seq. Restrictions of, concerning Jews, 13 el seq. Stoh'pin Circular of May 22, 1907, 59 et seq. Fatal results of supplement to, in 1909, 63 Strauss, Oscar, United States Ambassador in Constantinople, Treatment of by Russian Government, 73 Struggle for existence in Pale, 51. See also Chapter VIII. Students, Jewish : Emigration of, to foreign Universities, 20, and footnote Privilege granted to, 31 Restrictions imposed upon, 34 et seq., 95 Treatment of, when visiting Moscow, etc., 73 Undergo baptism or become Mohamme- dans to gain admission to Universities, 7S Summer resorts. Restrictions upon Jews frequenting, 71 et seq. Surgeons, Jewish : Military : Restricted to 5 per cent., 10, 84 Non -graduate : Privilege granted to, 31 Restrictions upon, 36, 91, 96 106 INDEX Suvalki, Governineiit of, Statistics of popu- tion and Army recruits in, 4 Syr-Daria, Expulsion of Jews from, 60, 67 Taganrog : Artisans, Jewish, debarred from, 41 Excluded from Pale in 1887, 51, 89 Tashkent. Expulsion of Jews from, 60, 67 Taurida, Government of, Statistics of popu- lation and Army recruits in, 4 Teachers, Jewish ; Cainpaign against private, 22 Exclusion of, from schools and Univer- sities, 10 Restrictions upon private. 35, 84 Tenant-farmers, Jewish, Decrease in, 24 Terek, Province of : Domiciliary right restricted to Univer- sity graduates in, 36 92 Merchantsof first Guild deprived of right of domicile in. 34, 95 " JSIicholas " soldiers excluded from, 32, Oil-iields closed to Jews in 27 92 Theatrical Schools, St. Petersburg and Mos- cow, closed to Jews, 15,90 Tobacco culture by Jews in Bessarabia. 25 Tomsk Expulsions of Jews from, 60, 67, 95 Toropetz, Expulsions of Jews from, 60, 62 " Townlets " converted into villages with deplorable results to Jewish inhabitants, 49 ef seq. Trades declared non-privileged by Senate, 40 el seq. Training School for Teachers (Turkestan) closed to Jews, 15 Treasury, The, ''squeezes " the Jews, 8 Tsar, Fictitious Telegram sent to, demand- ing expulsion of Jews, 63 Tula, Expulsions of Jews from, 60, 69 Turkestan : Acquisition of land in, forbidden to Jews, 90 Expulsions of Jews from, 67 Former Jewish privileges in, Reason for, Mining in, forbidden to Jews. 92 Tver, Government of. Expulsions of Jews from, 60 Universities : Hardships of "percentage rule "imposed on Jews at, 19 et seq. Number of Jewish students at foreign, footnote 20 Professors at, free of Jewish stigTna, 10 Strict application of "percentage" prin- ciple at, 77 University graduates, Jewish : Excluded from Siberia, 68 University graduates, Je-wish —{coniinugd) Privilege granted to, 31 Restrictions imposed upon, 35, 85. 8S " Unlicensed" Jews : In interior Governments, 42 Expulsions of, 43 et seq. Urnssoff, Prince, reveals venality of police 53 Veterinary Institute, KharkofF, closed to Jews, 15 Villagers, Jewish, Persecution of, 48 et seq., 73 et seq , 76, 96 Vilna: Government of. Statistics of population and Army recruits in, 3 et seq. Military district of, Jewish surgeon restricted to 5 per cent, in, 10, 84 Town of. Poverty of Jews in, 56 Vistula Provinces. See Poland Vitebsk, Government of: Statistics of population and Army recruits in, 4 Urban population of, mostly Jews, 13 Vladivostok, Expulsion of Jews from, 60, 67 Volhynia, Government of; Statistics of population and Army recruits in, 4 Urban population of, mostly Jews, 13 Warsaw : Government : Proportion of Jewish inhabitants in 44. Statistics of population and Army recruits in, 4 Military District : Jewish surgeons restricted to 5 per cent, in, 10 Watchmakers, Jewish, banished for selling watchchains, 37 Workmen's Corporations : Exclusion of Jews from, 69. 87 Limitations imposed upon Jews by, 14 Yalta, Health resort of ; Closed to Jewish artisans, 41 Consumptive Jewish student expelled from, 35 Dumbadse, the tyrant of. See separate hcaclins>. Excluded from Pale in 3893, 51, 93 Expulsions of Jews from, 60, 69 e£ seq. Zemstvos, Jews excluded from, since 1890, 13. 91 Zhitomir : Jewish Technical Institute in, closed by authorities, 17, 86 Poverty of Jews in, 56 Printed by Odhams, I,imited, 25, Floral Street, Covent Garden, W.C. ; and Long Acre, W.C. ■'r 1 1