The mass-movement of the Russian Jews to the United States began in the first year of Alexander III's reign. Though in this year the number of Russian Jews entering this country amounted to a little over three thousand, the immigration grew so rapidly and in such proportions that at the end of thirty years, more than a million Russian Jews had been admitted to the United States. An examination of the figures of the Russian Jewish immigration for the thirty years[63] reveals that it is a movement of steady growth. The Russian Jewish immigration falls practically into two periods; the first culminating in 1892, the second culminating in 1906. Considering it by decades,[64] we find that the movement is one of geometrical progression. In the first decade, from 1881 to 1890, 135,003 Russian Jews entered the country, 12.1 per cent of the total Russian Jewish immigrants. Between 1891 and 1900, 279,811 Russian Jews entered, constituting 25.0 per cent of the total. In the last decade, from 1901 to 1910, there entered 704,245 Russian Jews, or 62.9 per cent of the total. The annual variations are, nevertheless, considerable and largely explainable by the special conditions in Russia that have influenced the lives of the Jews throughout this period. At the beginning of this period, in 1881, the immigration of Russian Jews was small. The _pogroms_ of 1881-2 were reflected in the sudden rise in 1882 to 10,489 immigrants, more than three times the number of the preceding year. The immigration of this year was rather a flight than a normal movement. The great majority of the immigrants were refugees, fleeing from massacre and pillage.[65] In this year Russian Jewish immigration began its upward course. Another high point was reached in 1887 with 23,103 immigrants, when the educational restrictions and the expulsions that followed a strict application of the May Laws indicated a renewal of the policy of the Russian government. The rumors of new restrictions that marked the beginning of the nineties, and the opening of the second decade of Alexander III's reign, were followed by the wholesale expulsions from Moscow. The immigration in 1891 of 43,457 and in 1892 of 64,253 Russian Jews--the latter the highest number reached in two decades--reflects this situation. Nearly a tenth of the total immigration entered in these two years.