(While credit is given to the author, I have not obtained consent to reproduce or publish this excerpt, and only do so as "fair use," i.e. for our minimal academic purpose. Mass distribution is not intended.)
The Jew in the Modern World, A Documentary History
Compiled and edited by Paul R. Mendes-Flohr & Jehuda Reinharz
(2nd ed., Oxford University Press, 1995)
VIII
The Russian Experience
ALEXANDER I
Statutes Concerning the Organization of Jews
(December 9, 1804) (1)
[NOTE: You may see another translation and some additional material on JewishGen site.]
Numerous complaints have been submitted to us regarding the abuse and exploitation of native farmers and laborers in those provinces in which the Jews are permitted to reside... The following regulations are in accord both with our concern with the true happiness of the Jews and with the needs of the principal inhabitants of those provinces...
I. Education and Language.
1. Jewish children may study in all the public schools, secondary schools and universities in Russia, on equal terms with other children.
2. Jewish pupils will neither be required to renounce their religion now will they be compelled to study subjects which are contrary to their religion...
6. If the Jews refuse, despite all these encouragements, to send their children to public schools, special schools must be built at their expense. For this purpose a special tax will be levied. The study of either Polish, Russian or German must be included in the curriculum...
8. All the Jews residing in the Russian Empire, although free to use
their native language in all their religious and domestic affairs, are obliged, as of January 1807, to use the Russian, Polish or German language in all public documents, contracts, and bills of sale. Otherwise these documents will not be registered...
In accordance with these regulations, Jews who are elected as members of the municipal councils in the former Polish province, shall, for the sake or order and uniformity, dress in the Russian or Polish fashion; whereas Jews elected to the municipal councils in those Russian provinces in which they are permitted to reside permanently, shall dress in the German fashion. As of the year 1808, a Jew who cannot read and write either Russian, German or Polish, may not be elected to the municipal councils...
10. As of the year 1812, a person who is not literate in one of the previously mentioned languages, may not be appointed to a communal position or to the rabbinate.
II. The Status, Occupation and Rights of the Jews.
11. All the Jews are divided into four classes: (a) farmers, (b) manufacturers and craftsmen, (c) merchants and (d) city dwellers...
13. Jews who are farmers, as well as those who are manufacturers, craftsmen, merchants and city dwellers are allowed to purchase and own property in the unpopulated area of the provinces of Lithuania, Byelorussia, Little Russia, Kiev, Minsk, Bolhynia, Podolia, Astrakhan, Caucasus, Ekaterinoslav, Kherson and Tsabaria. They may sell the land, lease it, bequeath it or bestow it as a gift...
18. No Jew will be compelled to engage in agriculture in the aforementioned provinces, but those that do, shall be exempt from payment of taxes for a period of ten years. This exemption, however, does not extend to debts related to the purchase of land. They will receive loans which will be repayable after a few years, on terms under which similar loans are given to settlers from abroad...
20. Jews are permitted to establish factories of all kinds, in those provinces in which they are permitted to settle, with the same freedom and on the same basis as that granted to all subjects of Russia...
23. In the aforementioned provinces, Jewish craftsmen may engage in any craft not prohibited by law. Managers of workshops, or organizations of craftsmen may not interfere in their rights. They [i.e., Jews] are permitted to register as members of a craftsmen's association if it is not in conflict with local regulations...
29. When all the Jews shall evince diligence and industry in agriculture, commerce and manufacturing, the government will take steps to equalize their taxes to those of other Russian citizens.
III. The duties of the Jews According to Their Aforementioned Class.
30. If he is not registered in one of these classes, A Jew will not be tolerated anywhere in Russia. Jews who will not legal form, certifying their membership in a class will be regarded as vagrants and will be treated according to the full severity of the law...
34. As of January 1, 1807, in Astrakhan, the Caucasus, Little Russia and New Russia(2), and the other provinces mentioned, no Jew is permitted to hold rented property in any village or settlement. They may not own taverns, pubs or inns, either in their own name or in that of a monitor...
IV. The Legal Status of Jews.
44. ...No persons may coerce [the Jews], or disturb them in matters of their religious practice, and in civilian life generally, either in word or in deed. Their complaints,
whatever they may be, will be heard before the courts and will be satisfied according to the strict letter of the law as it applies to all the citizens of Russia...
NOTE
From the sixteenth century on, the czars sought to expel and bar the Jews from Russia. As a result of the various partitions of Poland, by which Russia inherited a Jewish population of some nine hundred thousand, this policy was no longer realistic. The czars felt that their new subjects presented a grave problem that required a radical solution. Catherine II, who ascended the throne in 1762, was the first to tackle the "Jewish Problem." In 1772 the czarina enacted legislation that limited the exercise of the rights granted the Jews under Polish rule to the areas in which they lived prior to the partitions; Polish Gentiles were specifically permitted, by the same legislation, to exercise their former rights throughout the Russian Empire. A decree of 1791 barred the Jews from specific areas in the empire. Thus the Pale of Jewish Settlement began to take shape. Alexander I, who reigned from 1801 to 1825, resolved to find a "humane" solution to the Jewish problem. In 1802 he ordered the creation of a Committee for the Amelioration of the Jews, to consider all aspects of the problem. In their deliberations the committee assumed that the Jews were a parasitic element and that the non-Jewish population, especially the peasants of the territories that formerly belonged to Poland, had to be protected from the already rapacious Jews. The committee's proposals - a mixture of restrictions and "liberal" inducements to Jewish self-improvement - were accepted by the czar and embodied in the above legislation, enacted on December 9, 1804. It was the first comprehensive Russian legislation dealing with he Jewish problem.
NICHOLAS I
Statutes Regarding the Military Service of Jews
(August 26, 1827) (3)
I. General Rules applying to the Jewish People.
1. Upon being called to military service, Jews shall fulfill their obligation in a manner identical to that of other citizens who are members of that class which is required to serve in the armed forces...
II. Manner of Fulfilling Military Draft Obligations.
6. If, at the time of the call to service, it is generally permitted a sum of money for a recruit, this privilege shall be extended to Jews under the following conditions: (a) The Jewish community owned no back taxes to the government; (b) The community is not in debt to other communities or individuals...
8. Jews presents by the community for the purpose of military service must be no younger than twelve and no older than twenty-five years of age...
[III.]
13. The Jews of each province must fill their quota of recruits independently of the Gentile population thereof...
[V.]
24. The responsibility for fulfilling the military obligations falls upon the Jewish community themselves. They shall follow the dictates of the appropriate provincial authority...
Exemptions:
58. In addition to merchants, rabbis also are exempt from military service. They must show proper documents proving their title...
62. Jewish youths who are enrolled in general schools for a minimum of three years and who perform adequately and those apprenticed to Gentile artisans are exempt from military service for the duration of their studies...
64. Jews who have settled and who work upon the land designated for agricultural purposes are exempt...
X. The Assignment of Jews to Various Branches of the Military
74. Jewish minors - those under 18 shall be sent to preparatory institutions for military training [i.e., cantonist units].
75. Jews from the age of eighteen and upward shall be assigned to active military duty according to their physical conditions, as ordered by the military command.
XI. Jews Evading the Draft
87. Whoever discloses the names of those who hide a Jew escaping the draft, shall receive a reward in the sum of one hundred rubles from the treasury...
90. For the purpose of release from the draft, only time spent in active duty after the age of eighteen shall be taken into account.
91. Jews in active military duty are permitted to observe their religious customs during the spare time. This is in accordance with the law of the land concerning accepted religions. Commanding officers shall protect the Jews from disturbances or abuses which may be caused by their religious affiliation.
NOTE
The reign of Czar Nicholas I (1825-1855) is a dark chapter in the history of Russian Jewry. The above legislation is indicative of his policy to solve the Jewish problem through coerced assimilation or Russification. In addition to a general conscription of Jewish adult males, who served for a period of twenty-five years, the legislation decrees the recruitment of Jewish boys from the ages of twelve to eighteen as cantonists (the Russian term for juvenile conscripts). The cantonists underwent a trough regime of military drill and Russian education; at the age of eighteen they were drafted to the regular army where they served the full twenty-five-year term. The objective of this system was to alienate the Jewish youth from their families and religion; they were forbidden to practice Judaism, speak their native Yiddish and were obliged to attend classes in Christian dogma and ritual. The government imposed on the Jewish communal leaders the task of supplying a quota of cantonists. To meet this quota the leaders - often rabbis - were obliged to dispatch khapers (Yiddish for "kidnappers") to seize Jewish children, often as young as eight, from their parents. Needless to say, this institution weakened the moral authority of the traditional leadership - precisely what the government desired. Before the law was rescinded in 1859, it is estimated that between forty and fifty thousand Jewish minors were conscripted into cantonist units.
ALEXANDER III
The May Laws
(May 3, 1882) (4)
The Council of Ministers, having heard the presentation made by the Minister of Internal Affairs, regarding the execution of the Temporary Regulations regarding the Jews has concluded as follows:
1. As a temporary measure, and until a general re-examination of the laws pertaining to the Jews takes place by set order, it is henceforth forbidden for Jews to settle outside the cities and townships. Existing Jewish settlements which are engaged in agricultural work are exempt [from this ban].
2. The regulation of property and halted temporarily; the approval of the leasing by Jews of real estate beyond the precincts of the cities and townships is also to be halted temporarily. Jews are also prohibited from administering such properties.
3. It is forbidden for Jews to engage in commerce on Sundays and Christian holidays...
4. The regulations contained in paragraphs one through three apply to those provinces in which the Jews permanently reside.
FOOTNOTES
1. Alexander II, who reigned from 1855 to 1881, adopted a milder Jewish policy than his father, pursuing the Russification of the Jews in a more liberal fashion. He abolished the cantonist system and offered special rewards for "useful" Jews, namely, allowing them to reside outside the Pale of Settlement. This right was extended to wealthy merchants in 1859, university graduates in 1861, and certified craftsmen and all medical personnel in 1865. The Jewish communities outside of the Pale, which developed in this period, particularly in Moscow, and St. Petersburg, became a major factor in Russian Jewish life. Moreover, a great number of Jews now began to participate in Russian intellectual and cultural life. The assassination of Alexander II by revolutionaries in March 1881 led to a sudden shift in Jewish fortunes. In the period of political unrest that followed, widespread pogroms against Jews broke out. Czar Alexander III set up a commission to investigate the cause of the disturbances. In its report the commission underscored the alleged failure of the liberal policies of Alexander II and pointed to "Jewish exploitation" as the principal cause of the pogroms. Based on this report, the Temporary Laws were promulgated in May 1882. Excerpts from these so-called May Laws are presented above. In effect they constituted a contraction of the Pale of Settlement. They were repealed in March 1917 by the revolutionary provisional government.
2. "Little Russia" - Chernigov and Poltava, "New Russia" - Yekaterinoslav (a/k/a Dnepropetrovsk), Kherson and Taurida.
3. Source: P. Levanda, Polnyi khronologicheskii sbornik zakonov i polozhenii kasaiuschikhksia evreev [complete chronological collection of laws and ordinances relating to Jews] (St. Petersburg, 1874), pp.360-63. Trans. here by L. Sachs.
4. Source: Nedelnaya kronica voskhoda, no. 20 (May 15, 1882), pp. 534-34. Trans. here by R. Weiss.
|