History of the Jews in Russia and Poland, Volume 2 [of 3]: From the Death of Alexander I until the Death of Alexander III (1825-1894)Dubnow, Simon
Religion
History of the Jews in Russia and Poland, Volume 2 [of 3]: From the Death of Alexander I until the Death of Alexander III (1825-1894)
Dubnow, Simon
Jews -- Poland -- History; Jews -- Russia -- History; Poland -- History; Russia -- History
No law will ever be able to check effectively the legal violations
in these hourly acts and common relations of life. It is impossible
to attach a policeman or a public prosecutor or a justice of the
peace to every Jew. And yet it is perfectly natural that, being
restricted in the most elementary rights of a subject--to take as
one instance only the right of free movement--every Jew should daily
attempt to violate and evade such burdensome regulations. This is
perfectly natural and intelligible....
About ninety per cent of the whole Jewish population form a mass of
people that are entirely unprovided for, and come near being a
proletariat--a mass that lives from hand to mouth, amidst poverty,
and most oppressive sanitary and general conditions. This very
proletariat is occasionally the target of tumultuous popular
uprisings. The Jewish mass lives in fear of pogroms and in fear of
violence. It looks with envy upon the Jews of the adjacent
governments of the Kingdom of Poland, who are almost entirely
emancipated, though living under the jurisdiction of the same State.
[1] The law itself places the Jews in the category of "alien races,"
on the same level with the Samoyeds and pagans. [2] In a word the
abnormal condition of the present position of the Jews in Russia is
evidenced by the instability and vagueness of their juridic rights.
[Footnote 1: The law of 1862 conferred upon the Jews of "the Kingdom
of Poland," i.e., of Russian Poland, the right of unrestricted
residence throughout the Kingdom, including the villages (see p.
181). This privilege was practically annulled by the enactment of
June 11, 1891, which severely restricts the property rights of the
Polish Jews.]
[Footnote 2: The Russian Code of Laws classifies the Jews as follows
(Volume IX., Laws of Social Orders, Article 762): "Among the Aliens
inhabiting the Russian Empire are the following: 1) The Siberian
Aliens; 2) The Samoyeds of the Government of Archangel; 3) The
nomadic Aliens of the Government of Stavropol; 4) The Kalmycks
leading a nomadic life in the Governments of Astrakhan and
Stavropol; 5) The Kirgiz of the Inner Ord; 6) The Aliens of the
Territories of Akmolinsk, Semipalatinsk, Semiryechensk, Ural, and
Turgay; 7) the alien populations of the Trans-Caspian Territory; 8)
The Jews."]
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