History of the Jews in Russia and Poland. Volume II | Page 3

Pogrom Policy 312 3. Disabilities
and Emigration 318
XXV. INNER UPHEAVALS. 1. Disillusionment of the Intelligenzia
and the National Revival 324 2. Pinsker's "Autoemancipation" 330 3.
Miscarried Religious Reforms 333
XXVI. INCREASED JEWISH DISABILITIES. 1. The Pahlen
Commission and New Schemes of Oppression 336 2. Jewish
Disabilities Outside the Pale 342 3. Restrictions in Education and in the
Legal Profession 348 4. Discrimination in Military Service 354
XXVII. RUSSIAN REACTION AND JEWISH EMIGRATION. 1.
Aftermath of the Pogrom Policy 358 2. The Conclusions of the Pahlen
Commission 362 3. The Triumph of Reaction 369 4. American and
Palestinian Emigration 373

XXVIII. JUDAEOPHOBIA TRIUMPHANT. 1. Intensified Reaction
378 2. Continued Harassing 382 3. The Guildhall Meeting in London
388 4. The Protest of America 394
XXIX. THE EXPULSION FROM MOSCOW. 1. Preparing the Blow
399 2. The Horrors of Expulsion 401 3. Effect of Protests 407 4.
Pogrom Interludes 411
XXX. BARON HIRSCH'S EMIGRATION SCHEME AND
UNRELIEVED SUFFERING. 1. Negotiations with the Russian
Government 434 2. The Jewish Colonisation Association and Collapse
of the Argentinian Scheme 419 3. Continued Humiliations and Death
of Alexander III. 423



CHAPTER XIII
THE MILITARY DESPOTISM OF NICHOLAS I.
1. MILITARY SERVICE AS A MEANS OF DE-JUDAIZATION
The era of Nicholas I. was typically inaugurated by the bloody
suppression of the Decembrists and their constitutional demands, [1]
proving as it subsequently did one continuous triumph of military
despotism over the liberal movements of the age. As for the
emancipation of the Jews, it was entirely unthinkable in an empire
which had become Europe's bulwark against the inroads of
revolutionary or even moderately liberal tendencies. The new despotic
regime, overflowing with aggressive energy, was bound to create, after
its likeness, a novel method of dealing with the Jewish problem. Such a
method was contrived by the iron will of the Russian autocrat.
[Footnote 1: See Vol. I, p. 410, n. 1.]

Nicholas I., who was originally intended for a military career, was
placed on the Russian throne by a whim of fate.[1] Prior to his
accession, Nicholas had shown no interest in the Jewish problem. The
Jewish masses had flitted across his vision but once--in 1816--when,
still a young man, he traveled through Russia for his education. The
impression produced upon him by this strange people is recorded by
the then grand duke in his diary in a manner fully coincident with the
official views of the Government:
[Footnote 1: After the death of Alexander I. the Russian crown fell to
his eldest brother Constantine, military commander of Poland.
Accordingly, Constantine was proclaimed emperor, and was recognized
as such by Nicholas. Constantine, however, who had secretly abdicated
some time previously, insisted on resigning, and Nicholas became
Tzar.]
The ruin of the peasants of these provinces [1] are the Zhyds. [2] As
property-holders they are here second in importance to the landed
nobility. By their commercial pursuits they drain the strength of the
hapless White Russian people.... They are everything here: merchants,
contractors, saloon-keepers, mill-owners, ferry-holders, artisans....
They are regular leeches, and suck these unfortunate governments [3]
to the point of exhaustion. It is a matter of surprise that in 1812 they
displayed exemplary loyalty to us and assisted us wherever they could
at the risk of their lives.
[Footnote 1: Nicholas is speaking of White Russia. Compare Vol. I, pp.
329 and 406.]
[Footnote 2: See on this term Vol. I, p. 320, n. 2.]
[Footnote 3: See on this term Vol. I, p. 308, n. 1.]
The characterization of merchants, artisans, mill-owners, and
ferry-holders as "leeches" could only spring from a conception which
looked upon the Jews as transient foreigners, who, by pursuing any line
of endeavor, could only do so at the expense of the natives and thus
abused the hospitality offered to them. No wonder then that the future

Tzar was puzzled by the display of patriotic sentiments on the part of
the Jewish population at the fatal juncture in the history of Russia.
This inimical view of the Jewish people was retained by Nicholas when
he became the master of Russian-Jewish destinies. He regarded the
Jews as an "injurious element," which had no place in a Slavonic
Greek-Orthodox monarchy, and which therefore ought to be combated.
The Jews must be rendered innocuous, must be "corrected" and curbed
by such energetic military methods as are in keeping with a form of
government based upon the principles of stern tutelage and discipline.
As a result of these considerations, a singular scheme was gradually
maturing in the mind of the Tzar: to detach the Jews from Judaism by
impressing them into a military service of a wholly exceptional
character.
The plan of introducing personal military service, instead of the
hitherto customary exemption tax, [1] had engaged the attention of the
Russian Government towards the end of