RUSSIANOTE ON SOURCES OF INFORMATIONFor the purposes of this report it has been deemed advisable to select, from the mass of material available upon the present status of the Jews in Russia, only evidence based upon:1. Official and semi-official reports of the Russian government published in its official daily newspaper, “Pravitelstvenny Viestnik,” in its semi-official organ, “Novoe Vremya,” or in its several military organs.2. Debates and Proceedings in the Imperial Duma and in the Council of the Empire, particularly evidence furnished by non-Jewish deputies or evidence of Jewish deputies that has passed unchallenged or has been challenged unsuccessfully by the Right benches.3. Statements in the Liberal Russian press and the Jewish press published in Russia, all of which have been rigorously censored.4. Protests and manifestoes of non-Jewish organizations, parties and leaders against the anti-Jewish policy of the government. These protests have been made publicly and have passed unchallenged by the Russian Government.In brief, the present report is based exclusively upon evidence furnished by the Russian government itself, officially in its own press, or countenanced by reason of the revision applied, through its military and civil censorship, to the opposition press, or in public speeches and declarations that have passed the government benches in the imperial legislative chambers unchallenged.RUSSIAINTRODUCTIONRussia acquired the great bulk of her Jewish population through the partitions of Poland, from 1773 to 1795. Strongly medieval in outlook and organization as Russia was at that time, she treated the Jews with the exceptional harshness which the medieval principle and policy sanctioned and required. By confining them to those provinces where they happened to live at the time of the partitions, she created a Ghetto greater than any known to the Middle Ages; and by imposing restrictions upon the right to live and travel even within this Ghetto, she has virtually converted it into a penal settlement, where six million human beings guilty only of adherence to the Jewish faith are compelled to live out their lives in squalor and misery, in constant terror of massacre, subject to the caprice of police officials and a corrupt administration—in short, without legal right or social status.Only twice within the last century have efforts been made to improve the condition of the Jews in Russia; and each interval of relief was followed by a period of greater and more cruel repression. The first was during the reign of Alexander II; but his assassination in 1881 resulted in the complete domination of Russia by the elements of reaction, which immediately renewed the persecution policy. The “May laws” of Ignatieff (1882) which enmesh the Jews to this day, were the immediate product of this régime. The second period, a concomitant of the abortive revolution of 1904–5, was followed by a “pogrom policy” of unprecedented severity which lasted until the outbreak of the present war.THE PALE OF SETTLEMENTAt the beginning of the war the number of Jews in the Russian Empire was estimated at six million or more, comprising fully half of the total Jewish population of the world.Ninety-five per cent. of these six million people were confined by law to a limited area of Russia, known as the Pale of Settlement,consisting of the fifteen Governments of Western and Southwestern Russia, and the ten Governments of Poland, much of which territory is now under the German occupation. In reality, however, residence within the Pale was further restricted to such an extent that territorially theJews were permitted to live in only one two-thousandth part of the Russian Empire.[1]No Jew was permitted to step outside this Pale unless he belonged to one of a few privileged classes. Some half-privileged Jews might, with effort, obtain special passports for a limited period of residence beyond the Pale; but the great majority could not even secure this privilege for any period whatsoever. A tremendous mass of special, restrictive legislation converted the Pale into a kind of prison with six million inmates, guarded by an army of corrupt and brutal jailers.The Recent “Abolition” of the PaleIn August, 1915, the Council of Ministers issued a decree permitting the Jews of the area affected by the war to move into the interior of Russia. This act has been supposed in some quarters to constitute the virtual abolition of the Pale, this interpretation being chiefly attributable to the extensive publicity given the measure by the Russian government; but the evidence, official and otherwise, clearly indicates that far from being agenerous act of a liberal Government toward an oppressed people, it is in reality only a temporary expedient, dictated mainly by military necessity and partly by the need of a foreign loan; it is evident that it was granted grudgingly, with galling limitations which served to emphasize the servile state of the Jews; that it is in practice ignored or evaded at the convenience of the local authorities; and that it has been utilized, if not designed, to mislead the public opinion of the world.Evidence in support of this view will now be considered:1. It is a temporary measure dictated by military necessity. It does not remove any of the disabilities to which the Jews in Russia are legally subject.This is admitted officially in the Minute of the Council of Ministers for August 4 (17), 1915, at which session the abolition decree was promulgated. This Minute reads as follows:“It has been observed, of late, in connection with the military situation, that Jews are migratingen massefrom the theatre of war and are gathering in certain interior governments of the Empire. This is explained, on the one hand, by the endeavor, on the part of the Jewish population, to depart in good time from the localities threatened by the enemy, and, on the other hand,by the order, issued by our military authorities, to clear certain localities in the line of the enemy’s advance.The further concentration of these refugees, whose number has been growing ever greater, in the limited area now available to them, is causing unrest among the local native population and may lead to alarming consequences in the form of wholesale disorders. This excessive accumulation of Jewish refugees also impedes theGovernment seriously in its efforts to provide food, work and medical attention for them. Under these circumstances, deeming it urgently necessary to take prompt measures to avert undesirable possibilities, the Acting Minister of the Interior has made a representation with respect to this matter before the Council of Ministers.“Taking up this immediate subject for deliberation andwithout touching upon the question of the general revision of laws now in force concerning Jews,the Council of Ministers has found that the most advisable way out of the situation created would be to grant the Jews the right of residence in cities and towns beyond the Pale of Settlement. This privilege,established because of the exigencies of the military situation,must not, however, affect the capital cities,[2]and the localities under the jurisdiction of the Ministries of the Imperial Court and the Minister of War.”The appalling facts back of this dry official statement were already known to all Russia.Hundreds of thousands of Jews had been expelled from their homes overnight by act of the military authorities.At a previous session of the Council of Ministers, Prince Shcherbatoff, himself a Conservative, had presented the terrible condition of these refugees. He pointed out that they were perforce driven into forbidden territory, that it was difficult to direct them anywhere, each one naturally seeking some place where he had friends or relatives in the hope of finding some means of livelihood, and that because of the residence restrictions they found themselves outlaws against their will, and poured in petitions and telegrams in tremendous numbers, beggingfor official permission to reside legally in their new homes. These people, he pointed out, cannot be turned away from places beyond the Pale, because they cannot possibly go back to their old homes.[3]As was shown by Duma Deputy Skobelev, “the question of the Pale was brought up in the Council of Ministersonly when the wave of Jewish refugees had already swept away this medieval dam!”[4]Another deputy, an Octobrist, Rostovtzev, declared in the Duma:“What Pale is this you are speaking of? There is no Pale; Kaiser Wilhelm has abolished it!”If any further evidence were needed to demonstrate that the abolition decree was not a voluntary act of emancipation but was forced upon the government by conditions beyond its control, the inspired editorial in the semi-official government organ, the “Novoe Vremya,” of August 9 (22), 1915, supplies this evidence. It declares flatly that the reception of the measure by the general press as “the first rays of a new dawn” is entirely unwarranted; thatthe question of removing all Jewish disabilities was never discussed; it is not particularly important anyway; it was not even worked out for presentation to the Duma.[5]Certain conditions, created by a state of affairs already existing, had made it necessary to modify some of the regulations with respect to the Pale. That is all. No permanent statute will be enacted.2. The decree was issued in the hope of facilitating a foreign loan.Count A. Bobrinski, a Conservative member of the Imperial Council, declared, in a statement to the editor of the “Dehn”:[6]“The conservative members of the Imperial Council raised no objection whatsoever against the recent Government measure granting permission to the Jews to reside outside of the Pale. I believe that we shall have to become accustomed to the idea of seeing the Jews dwell in all parts of Russia after this war is over. There can be no return to the old conditions.“The necessities of the war must lead us also to sanction future concessions toward the Jews whenever the need thereof will be recognized by the Governmentin order to be able to place a Government loan in America.”The attitude of “Kolokol,” the organ of the Holy Synod, reflects this with perfect frankness:“Power has gradually passed from the mailèd knights, from heroes of the battlefield to the counting house, because in gold there is more power than in fearless argonauts. If Germany excels us in armament and was better prepared in every other way it is because her nation is older than ours, older in its culture by several hundred years. Herein lies our weakness. But the Jews are the oldest people on earth. Their cult is the cult of gold and of brains. It does not matter that they have forgotten their glorious epoch of military heroism, have forgotten how they defended their Jerusalem. It does not matter that they are no longer accustomed to bear arms and to decide with the sword their differences and quarrels. This people has learned to draw to itself the gold of the world. It is like a sponge.... It has learned caution and foresight and is organized into a powerful international force. Under the conditions of the present war the Jews are a power not to reckon with which is to be politically blind. Would it not be advantageous to Russia to throw into its scales these nuggets of gold, these billions of the international bankers?...”[7]The naïveté of these statements is ridiculed by the liberal press, led by the Petrograd “Retch,” with thecomment that “It is difficult for the anti-Semites of yesterday to pour new wine into old flasks. The scare-crows of ‘Jewish freemasonry,’ the ‘universal Kehillah’ and other myths still terrify the editors of ‘Kolokol’; but instead of screaming: ‘The Jews are strong; crush them!’ the cry now is ‘The Jews are strong; yield to them!’It does not seem to occur to these new converts that the Jewish question is merely one of elementary civic decency.”[8]The significance of this will be appreciated when it is recalled that the liberal press reflects the ideals of the Russian masses just as “Kolokol” reflects the hopes and fears of the Russian government.3. The measure was granted grudgingly, with galling limitations which emphasize the humiliating position of the Jews.The Jews are even under the provisions of the new decree still debarred from all villages, from the two capitals Petrograd and Moscow, from the vicinities where royal residences happen to be located and from the districts of the Don and Turkestan which happen to be under the jurisdiction of the ministry of war. These restrictions were denounced as senseless by all the liberal elements of the Empire. “Russkoe Slovo,” August 13 (26), 1915, declares:“Hereafter a Jew may live in Kaluga, but is excluded from Tashkent; in Yekaterinodar he may not live; in Nizhni he may. It is very hard to find any sense in such distinctions, even from the point of view of the Black Hundreds. If you should ask Markov 2d [the leader of the Black Hundreds.—Tr.] into what cities we ought to admit Jews—whether into Nizhni, or into Tashkent, he would answer at first, of course, that we ought not to admit them into either; but confronted with ‘dire necessity’ he wouldhardly give preference to Tashkent, already full of alien nationalities.“And yet to whom, except Markov 2d and his kind, would all these exceptions and limitations give any aid or comfort? Suppose we do allow the Jews perfect freedom of travel within the country; suppose we do find villages where so much as a whole Jew—and not a fractional Jew—exists statistically per hundred of peasant population; suppose we do find a Jewish tailor, a blacksmith or a merchant in a Russian village—would that be such a calamity?”4. In practice the act is often ignored or evaded by local officials.The Governor of Smolensk has continued to expel Jews entering his province, entirely regardless of the law. The government of Kiev even refused to permit the publication of the ministerial decree until the middle of September, some six weeks after its official promulgation, and has consistently ignored it since. In practically all the other governments of the Empire the administration of the act is entirely dependent upon the whims of the local governors. Late advices bring reports of the expulsions of Jews from the Caucasus, Tomsk, Vladivostok, Siberia, and many other cities and provinces in which, under the terms of the abolition decree, Jews are permitted to reside.[9]In many places the local authorities have even taken advantage of the new decree to deprive the Jews of rights possessed by them under older statutes. In Saratov, for example, a small number of Jewish merchants, professional men and artisans have been permitted to live and engage in gainful occupations since 1893, under the terms of a special Ukase issued in that year, although the city, being outside the Pale, is closed to Jews in general. The regulations, however, requiredthat the Jews obtain special passports from the police department certifying to their right of residence in Saratov, and special permits from the local license boards, based upon the police certificates, authorizing them to engage in their several occupations. But now that the Pale has been “abolished” the police officials have discontinued the issuing of special certificates, claiming that since all Jews have been granted the right of residence throughout the Empire the need for issuing such certificates to individual Jews no longer exists. Yet the license boards persist in their demand for such certificates from the Jews and have, to date, absolutely refused to grant them the necessary licenses without which they cannot continue in their occupations. In other words, the Jews of Saratov now have the legalright to livein that city, but are denied the legalright to secure the wherewithal to live.[10]5. The promulgation of the abolition act, designed to mislead the public opinion, and thereby to win the sympathy, of the civilized world, has not misled the people of Russia.This is clearly indicated by the typical expressions of editorial opinion which follow; and at this point it may be well to remind the American reader again that in Russia, more than in any other country, the press must weigh its words carefully, since editorial missteps have serious consequences.The “Russkoe Slovo,” August 13 (26), 1915, condemns the measure as a half-way measure, as a substitution of one Pale for another, “even though it be granted that the new Pale is larger than the old.” It demandsthe full abolition of the Pale—“that greatest misfortune of Russian life.”“Unfortunately,” it continues, “we tend to repeat our mistakes only too often. When we do ‘submit’ to the demands of life we do so either too late or with such indecision and so grudgingly that in the end, instead of evoking real satisfaction, we not infrequently evoke a feeling of misunderstanding or produce an effect which is the very opposite of the one intended. Yet an act can be valid and precious and achieve its highest aim only when it is done in good time, cheerfully, frankly, straightforwardly and with decision—as befits a government that is strong and sure of itself.”The Petrograd “Retch,” the great liberal daily, August 20 (September 2), 1915, points out that the measure is merely tentative and must be legalized by statutory enactment within six months. It hopes that this enactment will not preserve the absurd limitations of the original decree.“If it has at last been recognized as expedient to remove that shameful blot, the Pale, we ought to leave not even a small speck of it. From a moral point of view,—and even an empire must have a point of view—it matters little whether a man is held by a long chain or a short one.There should be no chains at all....”This is echoed by the Petrograd “Courier”:“If there is only one corner of Russia left to which Jews may not be admitted, the Pale still remains, no matter what arguments may be used, and no matter what promises of future ‘privileges’ may be made. A principle cannot be measured quantitatively. The step taken so far is merely a beginning, and life demands that it should be completed. Besides the ‘right to live’ there are other rights derived from it:—the right to attend school, to do business, to own property, to choose one’s occupation freely.”[11]Even the extreme reactionary organ, “Kolokol,” which has hitherto been most insistent in its demand that “True Russians” be protected from Jewish competition by the confinement of Jews to the Pale, now declares:“Abolish the Pale entirely. Even now it is, in fact, nothing but a sieve. All of real ability in Jewry, every Jewish facultysharpened for the struggle for existence, easily escapes the Pale. But this constant necessity for circumvention of the law only corrupts the Jews and exasperates them.”[12]The persons most affected, the six million Jews of Russia, received the “Emancipation Act” with deep mistrust. They were chiefly concerned lest the news of this act should deceive their co-religionists abroad. At a national conference of Jewish publicists and relief workers at Petrograd these resolutions were adopted:“We are unwilling that our brethren in other lands shall gain a false impression from our attitude toward the abolition measure.... The permission to reside in cities outside of the Pale in no way remedies the evil, nor does it relieve the pressing needs of our times, nor does it affect in any way the legal restrictions in force against Jews.... In expressing our profound indignation at the humiliation and persecution to which the Jews have been subjected since the beginning of the war, we declare that the State can do justice to the Jews and prevent further persecutions only by the total and unconditional repeal of all special restrictions.”The leading Russian Jewish Weekly, “Evreyskaya Zhizn,” of August 23 (September 5), 1915, declared editorially:“If this measure had been passed in July or August of 1914 we would have met it with faith and joy. Then the Jewish people were ready to appreciate any political measure of relief and looked upon everything as the beginning of a new era. That new era came, but, alas! of what a different nature! Periods of accusations and horrors, of Kovno expulsions and Kuzhi[13]slanders came and the people grew desperate. This half measure of the Ministers, in spite of its practical importance, cannot vitalize the Jewish people, and the main reason lies in the fact that this measure does not carry with it any new view upon the real subject matter of the Jewish question. This measure is only a slight relief in the conditionof citizens who have no rights and who remain without rights.... The Jews are considered, in the new order, as citizens of the second class. We remain the same pariahs, from whom something has to be kept back, to whom the villages must be closed with fear, and to whom the chosen centers must be closed with a feeling of loathing.... The element of distinction between Jews and other citizens remains and is even more emphasized.The principle of equality of rights for Jews has not been realized and without it no material benefits promised by the new act will find their way to the soul of the people. Only acknowledgment of the right of Jews to all rights of Russian citizenship will melt the ice of that cold disappointment which has seized all Russian Jews.”Finally, the eminent Jewish historian, Simeon Dubnov, in an impassioned article in “Evreyskaya Nedelya” (September, 1915), denounced the hypocrisy of the government and demanded the immediate abolition of all Jewish restrictions:“It is fully a year since the terrified faces of the ‘prisoners’ appeared through the bars of that gigantic prison known as ‘the Jewish Pale.’ Part of the prison was already enveloped in the flames of war, and the entire structure was threatened. The prisoners, in deathly terror, clamored that the doors be thrown open. They were driven from one part of the prison to another part that seemed in less danger, but the prison doors remained shut. The warden’s answer to their prayer was that it was impossible to ‘release them,’ even in war time, because later it would be difficult to ‘recapture’ them!“Ultimately the keepers were compelled to open the doors slightly and to let out a part of the dazed and half-asphyxiated inmates; but even then they were quarantined within three governments, which were immediately congested with refugees; and only now, when the largest section of the Pale, with a Jewish population of two million, has become foreign country—only now are the gates of the overcrowded prison thrown wide open and the prisoners cautiously permitted to leave....“Should our further emancipation proceed at the same pace, we shall attain full freedom only after our complete annihilation.... The sop is thrown to us under conditions internal andexternal which sharply emphasize its enforced character. This measure is not one of restoration; rather it is like a rag thrown to the victim after his last shirt has been taken from him. This belated, partial, privilege must remind the Jew that of all nationalities in Russia—not excepting the semi-savage tribes—he alone neededsucha favor.“At this time of profound mourning, upon the graves of thousands of our brothers who have fallen victims not only to the sword of the enemy, but because of outrage within our own borders, amidst the ruins of our cities, our weary hearts cannot rejoice over the beggarly dole tossed out to us. In silence shall our people accept the miserly gift from those from whom it is accustomed to receive only blows; but, as ever, it will demand aloud that those rights of which it has been deprived should be restored to it.”It is apparent, therefore, that the legal status of the Jews in Russia has remained substantially unchanged by the war.The restrictions normally imposed upon the Jews of Russia (with the exception of certain specially designated—and numerically negligible—fractions) subject them to the following principal disabilities:1. Other Residence Restrictions(a)Within the Pale.Although originally granted the right to live anywhere within the Pale, the privilege was gradually restricted until the Jews were, in effect, confined to the cities and larger towns. By the law of May 3 (15), 1882, the Jews were forbidden to settle in the villages of the Pale. By the law of December 29, 1887 (January 10, 1888), they were forbidden to move from one town to another. By judicial and administrative interpretation “towns” were often designated as villages and the Jews expelled from them overnight. The net result has been the congestion of the Jewishpopulation in the cities and larger towns. Although they constitute only 12 per cent. of thetotalpopulation of the Pale, they form 41 per cent. of theurbanpopulation. As this congestion tended to create a ferocity in competition which reduced incomes and standards to the lowest limits, many Jews of necessity attempted to escape into the interior of Russia. But their illegal stay was possible only with the connivance of a corrupt police. Even then the numerous police raids at midnight or early dawn (oblavy—literally “hunts”), accompanied by an excess of brutality, made the life of these illegal residents one of fear and torment.(b)Outside the Pale.The privileged five per cent. that was granted the theoretical right of free travel and residence throughout the Empire, was also continually harassed by arbitrary police and judicial measures which practically nullified their privilege. This class comprises:Artisans, permitted free residence by the law of 1865; but constant restrictions and new interpretations of the term have reduced the number of Jews enjoying this status to a bare fraction of the Jewish population.Merchants of the First Guild, allowed to leave the Pale after five years’ membership in their guild, and on condition of the payment of an annual tax of 800 roubles ($400) for ten years, after removal from the Pale. Numerically insignificant to begin with, this class was further reduced by police blackmail until it became almost negligible.Jewish graduates of Russian institutions of higher education.The operation of the “percentage” rule, however, reduces these to a minimum. (See pp.33–34.)Prostitutes.Jewish women who have become prostitutes are permitted to live outside the Pale.2. Occupational RestrictionsThe public service of the Empire, or of any of its political subdivisions, is practically closed to Jews. Jews may not be teachers (except in Jewish schools), or, as a rule, farmers. These artificial restrictions operate to drive the Jews into the occupations permitted to them, chiefly trade and commerce, thus overcrowding the ranks of tradesmen and artisans.3. Property RestrictionsJews may not buy or sell, rent, lease or even manage land or real estate outside the Pale or outside of the city limits within the Pale. The artisans privileged to practise their handicraft outside the Pale may under no circumstancesowntheir homes. The ownership, direct or indirect, of property in mines or oil fields is also forbidden to Jews.4. Fiscal BurdensThe Jews pay, in addition to the normal taxes, a candle tax, designed for the support of Jewish schools, and a meat tax, originally destined for Jewish religious purposes; but in practice these funds are diverted to general, non-Jewish, purposes, and even used, in part, for the enforcement of police measures against the Jews.5. Educational RestrictionsJews are not admitted to the secondary or higher educational institutions and universities, except in proportions varying from 3 to 15 per cent. of the entire number of non-Jewish pupils. (For high schools: 10per cent. within the Pale and 5 per cent. outside the Pale, except in the two capitals St. Petersburg and Moscow, where it is only 3 per cent.; and for universities all over the Empire, about 3 per cent.)A ministerial decree issued in August, 1915, permits the children of all Jews actively connected with the war to enter any educational institution in the country regardless of the percentage norm; but in practice this decree, like the decree abolishing the Pale, is entirely subject to interpretation and modification by the local authorities, who have, so far, virtually ignored it.The result of the percentage norm applied to the admission of Jews to secondary schools and universities is that in the towns to which the Jews are restricted by the domiciliary regulations and where they constitute in many cases a very large proportion of the population,the great majority of the Jewish youth are denied the means of a higher education.In Warsaw, the Jews constitute 36.30 per cent. of the population; in Lodz, 47.59 per cent.; in Lomza, 39.42 per cent.; in Kovno, 54.60 per cent.; in Vilna, 40 per cent.; in Grodno, 52.45 per cent.; in Bialostock, 65.62 per cent.; in Brest Litovsk, 78.81 per cent.; in Pinsk, 80.10 per cent.; in Berditcheff, 87.52 per cent., etc., yet in all these towns only the stipulated percentage of Jewish students may be admitted.In addition to this restriction, many secondary schools (School of Military Medical Hygiene, School of Railroad Engineering, School of Electricity, etc.), are entirely closed to Jews. Even commercial schools, maintained by Merchants’ Guilds, admit Jews only in proportion to the Jewish membership of the Guilds.The Government also restricts the establishment of higher schools under Jewish auspices.In 1884, it closedthe Technical Institute of Zhitomir (founded in 1862), on the ground that, in the southwestern Pale provinces, the Jews contributed a majority of the artisans, and a special Jewish technical school would increase this disproportion. In 1885 it closed the Teachers’ Institute (a noted center of Jewish learning) because “there was no further need for it.”As a consequence of these limitations and restrictions there has been a scramble among Jews to gain admission to these institutions. Parents have employed every expedient to have their children enrolled. Another consequence is that many Jewish young men emigrated to Switzerland, Germany and France, to obtain a higher education, and thereafter to return to Russia to enter professional life. A recent calculation shows that about 3,000 Jewish students from Russia annually exile themselves in order to attend foreign universities.6. Military ServiceThe Jews constitute only 4.05 per cent. of the population of the Empire, but the proportion of Jews in the annual army contingent was estimated, at the outbreak of the Japanese war, at 5.7 per cent. This is due to the fact that a great many exemptions which the law provides for non-Jews are made inapplicable to Jews.In the army the Jews can achieve no rank higher than that of corporal.A penalty of 300 rubles ($150) is placed upon each Jewish defection, and the whole family, including parents and relatives by marriage of the person accused, is held responsible therefor.The results of these repressions and persecutions are known. Politically outlawed, socially and economically degraded, the Jewish population imprisoned in thePale has festered in misery. The merchants have been obliged to resort to fearful competition. Workingmen, overcrowding their industries, have been compelled to work for starvation wages. Most of the Jewish homes in Russia are miserable hovels, with little air or light. In the great cities, the proportion of paupers approximates a fifth of the Jewish population. In Odessa in 1900, of a population of 150,000 Jews no less than 48,500 were supported by charity; 63 per cent. of the dead had pauper burials, and a further 20 per cent. were buried at the lowest possible rate. In the Governments of Ekaterinoslav, Bessarabia, Pietrikov, Chernigov and Siedlets, the number of charity cases at the Passover festival increased from 41.9 per cent. to 46.8 per cent. in four years.
For the purposes of this report it has been deemed advisable to select, from the mass of material available upon the present status of the Jews in Russia, only evidence based upon:
1. Official and semi-official reports of the Russian government published in its official daily newspaper, “Pravitelstvenny Viestnik,” in its semi-official organ, “Novoe Vremya,” or in its several military organs.
2. Debates and Proceedings in the Imperial Duma and in the Council of the Empire, particularly evidence furnished by non-Jewish deputies or evidence of Jewish deputies that has passed unchallenged or has been challenged unsuccessfully by the Right benches.
3. Statements in the Liberal Russian press and the Jewish press published in Russia, all of which have been rigorously censored.
4. Protests and manifestoes of non-Jewish organizations, parties and leaders against the anti-Jewish policy of the government. These protests have been made publicly and have passed unchallenged by the Russian Government.
In brief, the present report is based exclusively upon evidence furnished by the Russian government itself, officially in its own press, or countenanced by reason of the revision applied, through its military and civil censorship, to the opposition press, or in public speeches and declarations that have passed the government benches in the imperial legislative chambers unchallenged.
RUSSIA
Russia acquired the great bulk of her Jewish population through the partitions of Poland, from 1773 to 1795. Strongly medieval in outlook and organization as Russia was at that time, she treated the Jews with the exceptional harshness which the medieval principle and policy sanctioned and required. By confining them to those provinces where they happened to live at the time of the partitions, she created a Ghetto greater than any known to the Middle Ages; and by imposing restrictions upon the right to live and travel even within this Ghetto, she has virtually converted it into a penal settlement, where six million human beings guilty only of adherence to the Jewish faith are compelled to live out their lives in squalor and misery, in constant terror of massacre, subject to the caprice of police officials and a corrupt administration—in short, without legal right or social status.
Only twice within the last century have efforts been made to improve the condition of the Jews in Russia; and each interval of relief was followed by a period of greater and more cruel repression. The first was during the reign of Alexander II; but his assassination in 1881 resulted in the complete domination of Russia by the elements of reaction, which immediately renewed the persecution policy. The “May laws” of Ignatieff (1882) which enmesh the Jews to this day, were the immediate product of this régime. The second period, a concomitant of the abortive revolution of 1904–5, was followed by a “pogrom policy” of unprecedented severity which lasted until the outbreak of the present war.
At the beginning of the war the number of Jews in the Russian Empire was estimated at six million or more, comprising fully half of the total Jewish population of the world.Ninety-five per cent. of these six million people were confined by law to a limited area of Russia, known as the Pale of Settlement,consisting of the fifteen Governments of Western and Southwestern Russia, and the ten Governments of Poland, much of which territory is now under the German occupation. In reality, however, residence within the Pale was further restricted to such an extent that territorially theJews were permitted to live in only one two-thousandth part of the Russian Empire.[1]No Jew was permitted to step outside this Pale unless he belonged to one of a few privileged classes. Some half-privileged Jews might, with effort, obtain special passports for a limited period of residence beyond the Pale; but the great majority could not even secure this privilege for any period whatsoever. A tremendous mass of special, restrictive legislation converted the Pale into a kind of prison with six million inmates, guarded by an army of corrupt and brutal jailers.
The Recent “Abolition” of the Pale
In August, 1915, the Council of Ministers issued a decree permitting the Jews of the area affected by the war to move into the interior of Russia. This act has been supposed in some quarters to constitute the virtual abolition of the Pale, this interpretation being chiefly attributable to the extensive publicity given the measure by the Russian government; but the evidence, official and otherwise, clearly indicates that far from being agenerous act of a liberal Government toward an oppressed people, it is in reality only a temporary expedient, dictated mainly by military necessity and partly by the need of a foreign loan; it is evident that it was granted grudgingly, with galling limitations which served to emphasize the servile state of the Jews; that it is in practice ignored or evaded at the convenience of the local authorities; and that it has been utilized, if not designed, to mislead the public opinion of the world.
Evidence in support of this view will now be considered:
1. It is a temporary measure dictated by military necessity. It does not remove any of the disabilities to which the Jews in Russia are legally subject.
This is admitted officially in the Minute of the Council of Ministers for August 4 (17), 1915, at which session the abolition decree was promulgated. This Minute reads as follows:
“It has been observed, of late, in connection with the military situation, that Jews are migratingen massefrom the theatre of war and are gathering in certain interior governments of the Empire. This is explained, on the one hand, by the endeavor, on the part of the Jewish population, to depart in good time from the localities threatened by the enemy, and, on the other hand,by the order, issued by our military authorities, to clear certain localities in the line of the enemy’s advance.The further concentration of these refugees, whose number has been growing ever greater, in the limited area now available to them, is causing unrest among the local native population and may lead to alarming consequences in the form of wholesale disorders. This excessive accumulation of Jewish refugees also impedes theGovernment seriously in its efforts to provide food, work and medical attention for them. Under these circumstances, deeming it urgently necessary to take prompt measures to avert undesirable possibilities, the Acting Minister of the Interior has made a representation with respect to this matter before the Council of Ministers.
“Taking up this immediate subject for deliberation andwithout touching upon the question of the general revision of laws now in force concerning Jews,the Council of Ministers has found that the most advisable way out of the situation created would be to grant the Jews the right of residence in cities and towns beyond the Pale of Settlement. This privilege,established because of the exigencies of the military situation,must not, however, affect the capital cities,[2]and the localities under the jurisdiction of the Ministries of the Imperial Court and the Minister of War.”
The appalling facts back of this dry official statement were already known to all Russia.Hundreds of thousands of Jews had been expelled from their homes overnight by act of the military authorities.At a previous session of the Council of Ministers, Prince Shcherbatoff, himself a Conservative, had presented the terrible condition of these refugees. He pointed out that they were perforce driven into forbidden territory, that it was difficult to direct them anywhere, each one naturally seeking some place where he had friends or relatives in the hope of finding some means of livelihood, and that because of the residence restrictions they found themselves outlaws against their will, and poured in petitions and telegrams in tremendous numbers, beggingfor official permission to reside legally in their new homes. These people, he pointed out, cannot be turned away from places beyond the Pale, because they cannot possibly go back to their old homes.[3]
As was shown by Duma Deputy Skobelev, “the question of the Pale was brought up in the Council of Ministersonly when the wave of Jewish refugees had already swept away this medieval dam!”[4]Another deputy, an Octobrist, Rostovtzev, declared in the Duma:“What Pale is this you are speaking of? There is no Pale; Kaiser Wilhelm has abolished it!”
If any further evidence were needed to demonstrate that the abolition decree was not a voluntary act of emancipation but was forced upon the government by conditions beyond its control, the inspired editorial in the semi-official government organ, the “Novoe Vremya,” of August 9 (22), 1915, supplies this evidence. It declares flatly that the reception of the measure by the general press as “the first rays of a new dawn” is entirely unwarranted; thatthe question of removing all Jewish disabilities was never discussed; it is not particularly important anyway; it was not even worked out for presentation to the Duma.[5]Certain conditions, created by a state of affairs already existing, had made it necessary to modify some of the regulations with respect to the Pale. That is all. No permanent statute will be enacted.
2. The decree was issued in the hope of facilitating a foreign loan.
Count A. Bobrinski, a Conservative member of the Imperial Council, declared, in a statement to the editor of the “Dehn”:[6]
“The conservative members of the Imperial Council raised no objection whatsoever against the recent Government measure granting permission to the Jews to reside outside of the Pale. I believe that we shall have to become accustomed to the idea of seeing the Jews dwell in all parts of Russia after this war is over. There can be no return to the old conditions.
“The necessities of the war must lead us also to sanction future concessions toward the Jews whenever the need thereof will be recognized by the Governmentin order to be able to place a Government loan in America.”
The attitude of “Kolokol,” the organ of the Holy Synod, reflects this with perfect frankness:
“Power has gradually passed from the mailèd knights, from heroes of the battlefield to the counting house, because in gold there is more power than in fearless argonauts. If Germany excels us in armament and was better prepared in every other way it is because her nation is older than ours, older in its culture by several hundred years. Herein lies our weakness. But the Jews are the oldest people on earth. Their cult is the cult of gold and of brains. It does not matter that they have forgotten their glorious epoch of military heroism, have forgotten how they defended their Jerusalem. It does not matter that they are no longer accustomed to bear arms and to decide with the sword their differences and quarrels. This people has learned to draw to itself the gold of the world. It is like a sponge.... It has learned caution and foresight and is organized into a powerful international force. Under the conditions of the present war the Jews are a power not to reckon with which is to be politically blind. Would it not be advantageous to Russia to throw into its scales these nuggets of gold, these billions of the international bankers?...”[7]
The naïveté of these statements is ridiculed by the liberal press, led by the Petrograd “Retch,” with thecomment that “It is difficult for the anti-Semites of yesterday to pour new wine into old flasks. The scare-crows of ‘Jewish freemasonry,’ the ‘universal Kehillah’ and other myths still terrify the editors of ‘Kolokol’; but instead of screaming: ‘The Jews are strong; crush them!’ the cry now is ‘The Jews are strong; yield to them!’It does not seem to occur to these new converts that the Jewish question is merely one of elementary civic decency.”[8]
The significance of this will be appreciated when it is recalled that the liberal press reflects the ideals of the Russian masses just as “Kolokol” reflects the hopes and fears of the Russian government.
3. The measure was granted grudgingly, with galling limitations which emphasize the humiliating position of the Jews.
The Jews are even under the provisions of the new decree still debarred from all villages, from the two capitals Petrograd and Moscow, from the vicinities where royal residences happen to be located and from the districts of the Don and Turkestan which happen to be under the jurisdiction of the ministry of war. These restrictions were denounced as senseless by all the liberal elements of the Empire. “Russkoe Slovo,” August 13 (26), 1915, declares:
“Hereafter a Jew may live in Kaluga, but is excluded from Tashkent; in Yekaterinodar he may not live; in Nizhni he may. It is very hard to find any sense in such distinctions, even from the point of view of the Black Hundreds. If you should ask Markov 2d [the leader of the Black Hundreds.—Tr.] into what cities we ought to admit Jews—whether into Nizhni, or into Tashkent, he would answer at first, of course, that we ought not to admit them into either; but confronted with ‘dire necessity’ he wouldhardly give preference to Tashkent, already full of alien nationalities.
“And yet to whom, except Markov 2d and his kind, would all these exceptions and limitations give any aid or comfort? Suppose we do allow the Jews perfect freedom of travel within the country; suppose we do find villages where so much as a whole Jew—and not a fractional Jew—exists statistically per hundred of peasant population; suppose we do find a Jewish tailor, a blacksmith or a merchant in a Russian village—would that be such a calamity?”
4. In practice the act is often ignored or evaded by local officials.
The Governor of Smolensk has continued to expel Jews entering his province, entirely regardless of the law. The government of Kiev even refused to permit the publication of the ministerial decree until the middle of September, some six weeks after its official promulgation, and has consistently ignored it since. In practically all the other governments of the Empire the administration of the act is entirely dependent upon the whims of the local governors. Late advices bring reports of the expulsions of Jews from the Caucasus, Tomsk, Vladivostok, Siberia, and many other cities and provinces in which, under the terms of the abolition decree, Jews are permitted to reside.[9]
In many places the local authorities have even taken advantage of the new decree to deprive the Jews of rights possessed by them under older statutes. In Saratov, for example, a small number of Jewish merchants, professional men and artisans have been permitted to live and engage in gainful occupations since 1893, under the terms of a special Ukase issued in that year, although the city, being outside the Pale, is closed to Jews in general. The regulations, however, requiredthat the Jews obtain special passports from the police department certifying to their right of residence in Saratov, and special permits from the local license boards, based upon the police certificates, authorizing them to engage in their several occupations. But now that the Pale has been “abolished” the police officials have discontinued the issuing of special certificates, claiming that since all Jews have been granted the right of residence throughout the Empire the need for issuing such certificates to individual Jews no longer exists. Yet the license boards persist in their demand for such certificates from the Jews and have, to date, absolutely refused to grant them the necessary licenses without which they cannot continue in their occupations. In other words, the Jews of Saratov now have the legalright to livein that city, but are denied the legalright to secure the wherewithal to live.[10]
5. The promulgation of the abolition act, designed to mislead the public opinion, and thereby to win the sympathy, of the civilized world, has not misled the people of Russia.
This is clearly indicated by the typical expressions of editorial opinion which follow; and at this point it may be well to remind the American reader again that in Russia, more than in any other country, the press must weigh its words carefully, since editorial missteps have serious consequences.
The “Russkoe Slovo,” August 13 (26), 1915, condemns the measure as a half-way measure, as a substitution of one Pale for another, “even though it be granted that the new Pale is larger than the old.” It demandsthe full abolition of the Pale—“that greatest misfortune of Russian life.”
“Unfortunately,” it continues, “we tend to repeat our mistakes only too often. When we do ‘submit’ to the demands of life we do so either too late or with such indecision and so grudgingly that in the end, instead of evoking real satisfaction, we not infrequently evoke a feeling of misunderstanding or produce an effect which is the very opposite of the one intended. Yet an act can be valid and precious and achieve its highest aim only when it is done in good time, cheerfully, frankly, straightforwardly and with decision—as befits a government that is strong and sure of itself.”
The Petrograd “Retch,” the great liberal daily, August 20 (September 2), 1915, points out that the measure is merely tentative and must be legalized by statutory enactment within six months. It hopes that this enactment will not preserve the absurd limitations of the original decree.
“If it has at last been recognized as expedient to remove that shameful blot, the Pale, we ought to leave not even a small speck of it. From a moral point of view,—and even an empire must have a point of view—it matters little whether a man is held by a long chain or a short one.There should be no chains at all....”
This is echoed by the Petrograd “Courier”:
“If there is only one corner of Russia left to which Jews may not be admitted, the Pale still remains, no matter what arguments may be used, and no matter what promises of future ‘privileges’ may be made. A principle cannot be measured quantitatively. The step taken so far is merely a beginning, and life demands that it should be completed. Besides the ‘right to live’ there are other rights derived from it:—the right to attend school, to do business, to own property, to choose one’s occupation freely.”[11]
Even the extreme reactionary organ, “Kolokol,” which has hitherto been most insistent in its demand that “True Russians” be protected from Jewish competition by the confinement of Jews to the Pale, now declares:
“Abolish the Pale entirely. Even now it is, in fact, nothing but a sieve. All of real ability in Jewry, every Jewish facultysharpened for the struggle for existence, easily escapes the Pale. But this constant necessity for circumvention of the law only corrupts the Jews and exasperates them.”[12]
The persons most affected, the six million Jews of Russia, received the “Emancipation Act” with deep mistrust. They were chiefly concerned lest the news of this act should deceive their co-religionists abroad. At a national conference of Jewish publicists and relief workers at Petrograd these resolutions were adopted:
“We are unwilling that our brethren in other lands shall gain a false impression from our attitude toward the abolition measure.... The permission to reside in cities outside of the Pale in no way remedies the evil, nor does it relieve the pressing needs of our times, nor does it affect in any way the legal restrictions in force against Jews.... In expressing our profound indignation at the humiliation and persecution to which the Jews have been subjected since the beginning of the war, we declare that the State can do justice to the Jews and prevent further persecutions only by the total and unconditional repeal of all special restrictions.”
The leading Russian Jewish Weekly, “Evreyskaya Zhizn,” of August 23 (September 5), 1915, declared editorially:
“If this measure had been passed in July or August of 1914 we would have met it with faith and joy. Then the Jewish people were ready to appreciate any political measure of relief and looked upon everything as the beginning of a new era. That new era came, but, alas! of what a different nature! Periods of accusations and horrors, of Kovno expulsions and Kuzhi[13]slanders came and the people grew desperate. This half measure of the Ministers, in spite of its practical importance, cannot vitalize the Jewish people, and the main reason lies in the fact that this measure does not carry with it any new view upon the real subject matter of the Jewish question. This measure is only a slight relief in the conditionof citizens who have no rights and who remain without rights.... The Jews are considered, in the new order, as citizens of the second class. We remain the same pariahs, from whom something has to be kept back, to whom the villages must be closed with fear, and to whom the chosen centers must be closed with a feeling of loathing.... The element of distinction between Jews and other citizens remains and is even more emphasized.The principle of equality of rights for Jews has not been realized and without it no material benefits promised by the new act will find their way to the soul of the people. Only acknowledgment of the right of Jews to all rights of Russian citizenship will melt the ice of that cold disappointment which has seized all Russian Jews.”
Finally, the eminent Jewish historian, Simeon Dubnov, in an impassioned article in “Evreyskaya Nedelya” (September, 1915), denounced the hypocrisy of the government and demanded the immediate abolition of all Jewish restrictions:
“It is fully a year since the terrified faces of the ‘prisoners’ appeared through the bars of that gigantic prison known as ‘the Jewish Pale.’ Part of the prison was already enveloped in the flames of war, and the entire structure was threatened. The prisoners, in deathly terror, clamored that the doors be thrown open. They were driven from one part of the prison to another part that seemed in less danger, but the prison doors remained shut. The warden’s answer to their prayer was that it was impossible to ‘release them,’ even in war time, because later it would be difficult to ‘recapture’ them!
“Ultimately the keepers were compelled to open the doors slightly and to let out a part of the dazed and half-asphyxiated inmates; but even then they were quarantined within three governments, which were immediately congested with refugees; and only now, when the largest section of the Pale, with a Jewish population of two million, has become foreign country—only now are the gates of the overcrowded prison thrown wide open and the prisoners cautiously permitted to leave....
“Should our further emancipation proceed at the same pace, we shall attain full freedom only after our complete annihilation.... The sop is thrown to us under conditions internal andexternal which sharply emphasize its enforced character. This measure is not one of restoration; rather it is like a rag thrown to the victim after his last shirt has been taken from him. This belated, partial, privilege must remind the Jew that of all nationalities in Russia—not excepting the semi-savage tribes—he alone neededsucha favor.
“At this time of profound mourning, upon the graves of thousands of our brothers who have fallen victims not only to the sword of the enemy, but because of outrage within our own borders, amidst the ruins of our cities, our weary hearts cannot rejoice over the beggarly dole tossed out to us. In silence shall our people accept the miserly gift from those from whom it is accustomed to receive only blows; but, as ever, it will demand aloud that those rights of which it has been deprived should be restored to it.”
It is apparent, therefore, that the legal status of the Jews in Russia has remained substantially unchanged by the war.
The restrictions normally imposed upon the Jews of Russia (with the exception of certain specially designated—and numerically negligible—fractions) subject them to the following principal disabilities:
1. Other Residence Restrictions
(a)Within the Pale.Although originally granted the right to live anywhere within the Pale, the privilege was gradually restricted until the Jews were, in effect, confined to the cities and larger towns. By the law of May 3 (15), 1882, the Jews were forbidden to settle in the villages of the Pale. By the law of December 29, 1887 (January 10, 1888), they were forbidden to move from one town to another. By judicial and administrative interpretation “towns” were often designated as villages and the Jews expelled from them overnight. The net result has been the congestion of the Jewishpopulation in the cities and larger towns. Although they constitute only 12 per cent. of thetotalpopulation of the Pale, they form 41 per cent. of theurbanpopulation. As this congestion tended to create a ferocity in competition which reduced incomes and standards to the lowest limits, many Jews of necessity attempted to escape into the interior of Russia. But their illegal stay was possible only with the connivance of a corrupt police. Even then the numerous police raids at midnight or early dawn (oblavy—literally “hunts”), accompanied by an excess of brutality, made the life of these illegal residents one of fear and torment.
(b)Outside the Pale.The privileged five per cent. that was granted the theoretical right of free travel and residence throughout the Empire, was also continually harassed by arbitrary police and judicial measures which practically nullified their privilege. This class comprises:
Artisans, permitted free residence by the law of 1865; but constant restrictions and new interpretations of the term have reduced the number of Jews enjoying this status to a bare fraction of the Jewish population.
Merchants of the First Guild, allowed to leave the Pale after five years’ membership in their guild, and on condition of the payment of an annual tax of 800 roubles ($400) for ten years, after removal from the Pale. Numerically insignificant to begin with, this class was further reduced by police blackmail until it became almost negligible.
Jewish graduates of Russian institutions of higher education.The operation of the “percentage” rule, however, reduces these to a minimum. (See pp.33–34.)
Prostitutes.Jewish women who have become prostitutes are permitted to live outside the Pale.
2. Occupational Restrictions
The public service of the Empire, or of any of its political subdivisions, is practically closed to Jews. Jews may not be teachers (except in Jewish schools), or, as a rule, farmers. These artificial restrictions operate to drive the Jews into the occupations permitted to them, chiefly trade and commerce, thus overcrowding the ranks of tradesmen and artisans.
3. Property Restrictions
Jews may not buy or sell, rent, lease or even manage land or real estate outside the Pale or outside of the city limits within the Pale. The artisans privileged to practise their handicraft outside the Pale may under no circumstancesowntheir homes. The ownership, direct or indirect, of property in mines or oil fields is also forbidden to Jews.
4. Fiscal Burdens
The Jews pay, in addition to the normal taxes, a candle tax, designed for the support of Jewish schools, and a meat tax, originally destined for Jewish religious purposes; but in practice these funds are diverted to general, non-Jewish, purposes, and even used, in part, for the enforcement of police measures against the Jews.
5. Educational Restrictions
Jews are not admitted to the secondary or higher educational institutions and universities, except in proportions varying from 3 to 15 per cent. of the entire number of non-Jewish pupils. (For high schools: 10per cent. within the Pale and 5 per cent. outside the Pale, except in the two capitals St. Petersburg and Moscow, where it is only 3 per cent.; and for universities all over the Empire, about 3 per cent.)
A ministerial decree issued in August, 1915, permits the children of all Jews actively connected with the war to enter any educational institution in the country regardless of the percentage norm; but in practice this decree, like the decree abolishing the Pale, is entirely subject to interpretation and modification by the local authorities, who have, so far, virtually ignored it.
The result of the percentage norm applied to the admission of Jews to secondary schools and universities is that in the towns to which the Jews are restricted by the domiciliary regulations and where they constitute in many cases a very large proportion of the population,the great majority of the Jewish youth are denied the means of a higher education.In Warsaw, the Jews constitute 36.30 per cent. of the population; in Lodz, 47.59 per cent.; in Lomza, 39.42 per cent.; in Kovno, 54.60 per cent.; in Vilna, 40 per cent.; in Grodno, 52.45 per cent.; in Bialostock, 65.62 per cent.; in Brest Litovsk, 78.81 per cent.; in Pinsk, 80.10 per cent.; in Berditcheff, 87.52 per cent., etc., yet in all these towns only the stipulated percentage of Jewish students may be admitted.
In addition to this restriction, many secondary schools (School of Military Medical Hygiene, School of Railroad Engineering, School of Electricity, etc.), are entirely closed to Jews. Even commercial schools, maintained by Merchants’ Guilds, admit Jews only in proportion to the Jewish membership of the Guilds.
The Government also restricts the establishment of higher schools under Jewish auspices.In 1884, it closedthe Technical Institute of Zhitomir (founded in 1862), on the ground that, in the southwestern Pale provinces, the Jews contributed a majority of the artisans, and a special Jewish technical school would increase this disproportion. In 1885 it closed the Teachers’ Institute (a noted center of Jewish learning) because “there was no further need for it.”
As a consequence of these limitations and restrictions there has been a scramble among Jews to gain admission to these institutions. Parents have employed every expedient to have their children enrolled. Another consequence is that many Jewish young men emigrated to Switzerland, Germany and France, to obtain a higher education, and thereafter to return to Russia to enter professional life. A recent calculation shows that about 3,000 Jewish students from Russia annually exile themselves in order to attend foreign universities.
6. Military Service
The Jews constitute only 4.05 per cent. of the population of the Empire, but the proportion of Jews in the annual army contingent was estimated, at the outbreak of the Japanese war, at 5.7 per cent. This is due to the fact that a great many exemptions which the law provides for non-Jews are made inapplicable to Jews.In the army the Jews can achieve no rank higher than that of corporal.A penalty of 300 rubles ($150) is placed upon each Jewish defection, and the whole family, including parents and relatives by marriage of the person accused, is held responsible therefor.
The results of these repressions and persecutions are known. Politically outlawed, socially and economically degraded, the Jewish population imprisoned in thePale has festered in misery. The merchants have been obliged to resort to fearful competition. Workingmen, overcrowding their industries, have been compelled to work for starvation wages. Most of the Jewish homes in Russia are miserable hovels, with little air or light. In the great cities, the proportion of paupers approximates a fifth of the Jewish population. In Odessa in 1900, of a population of 150,000 Jews no less than 48,500 were supported by charity; 63 per cent. of the dead had pauper burials, and a further 20 per cent. were buried at the lowest possible rate. In the Governments of Ekaterinoslav, Bessarabia, Pietrikov, Chernigov and Siedlets, the number of charity cases at the Passover festival increased from 41.9 per cent. to 46.8 per cent. in four years.