VIII. POLISH JEWRY DURING THE PERIOD OF THE PARTITIONS 1. The Jews of Poland after the First Partition 262 2. The Period of the Quadrennial Diet (1788-1791) 278 3. The Last Two Partitions and Berek Yoselo 291 4. The Duchy of Warsaw and the Reaction under Napoleon 298 IX. THE BEGINNINGS OF THE RUSSIAN RÉGIME 1. The Jewish Policy of Catherine II. (1772-1796) 306 2. Jewish Legislative Schemes during the Reign of Paul I. 321 3. Dyerzhavin's "Opinion" on the Jewish Problem 328 X. THE "ENLIGHTENED ABSOLUTISM" OF ALEXANDER I. 1. "The Committee for the Amelioration of the Jews" 335 2. The "Jewish Constitution" of 1804 342 3. The Projected Expulsion from the Villages 345 4. The Patriotic Attitude of Russian Jewry during the War of 1812 355 5. Economic and Agricultural Experiments 359 XI. THE INNER LIFE OF RUSSIAN JEWRY DURING THE PERIOD OF "ENLIGHTENED ABSOLUTISM" 1. Kahal Autonomy and City Government 366 2. The Hasidic Schism and the Intervention of the Government 371 3. Rabbinism, Hasidism, and Enlightened "Berlinerdom" 379 XII. THE LAST YEARS OF ALEXANDER I. 1. "The Deputation of the Jewish People" 390 2. Christianizing Endeavors 396 3. "Judaizing" Sects in Russia 401 4. Recrudescence of Anti-Jewish Legislation 403 6. The Russian Revolutionaries and the Jews 409 CHAPTER I THE JEWISH DIASPORA IN EASTERN EUROPE 1. THE JEWISH SETTLEMENTS ON THE SHORES OF THE BLACK SEA From the point of view of antiquity the Jewish Diaspora in the east of Europe is the equal of that in the west, though vastly its inferior in geographic expansion and spiritual development. It is even possible that the settlement of Jews in the east of Europe antedates their settlement in the west. For Eastern Europe, beginning with Alexander the Great, received its immigrants from the ancient lands of Hellenized Asia, while the immigration into Western Europe proceeded in the main from the Roman Empire, the heir to the Hellenic dominion of the East. Among the ancient Jewish settlements in Eastern Europe the colonies situated on the northern shores of the Black Sea, now forming a part of the Russian Empire, occupy a prominent place.