-73
-
self-injuries to evade military service on the part of the Jews are all the more striking considering
that it was already the beginning of the 20th century.
As previously mentioned, the influx of Jews into public schools, professional schools and
institutions of higher learning had sharply increased after 1874 when a new military charter
stipulating educational privileges came into force. This increase was dramatic. While calls to
restrict Jewish enrollment in public education institutions were heard
from the Northwestern Krai
even before, in 1875, the Ministry of Public Education informed the government that it was
impossible to admit all Jews trying to enter public educational institutions without constraining
the Christian population.
It is worth mentioning here the G. Aronson’s regretful note that even D. Mendeleev of St.
Petersburg University showed anti-Semitism. The
Jewish Encyclopedia summarizes all of the
1870s period as “a turnaround in the attitudes of a part of Russian intelligentsia which rejected
the ideals of the previous decade especially in regard to the Jewish Question.”
An interesting feature of that time was that it was the press (the rightist one, of course)
and not governmental circles that was highly skeptical and in no way hostile towards the project
of full legal emancipation of the Jews. The following quotes are typical: “How can all the
citizenship rights be granted to this stubbornly fanatical tribe, allowing them to occupy the
highest administrative posts? Only education and social progress can truly bring together Jews
and Christians. Introduce them into the universal family of civilization, and we will be the first to
say words of love and reconciliation to them.”
“Civilization will generally benefit from such a rapprochement as the intelligent and
energetic tribe will contribute much to it. The Jews will realize that time is ripe to throw off the
yoke of intolerance which originates in the overly strict interpretations of the Talmud. Until
education brings the Jews to the thought that it is necessary to live not only at the expense of
Russian society but also for the good of this society, no discussion could be held about granting
them more rights than those they have now.”
“Even if it is possible to grant the Jews all civil rights, then in any case they cannot be
allowed into any official positions’where Christians would be subject to their authority and
where they could have influence on the administration and legislation of a Christian country.”
The attitude of the Russian press of that time is well reflected in the words of the
prominent St. Petersburg newspaper
Golos: “Russian Jews have no right to complain that the
Russian press is biased against their interests. Most Russian periodicals favor equal civil rights
for Jews; it is understandable that Jews strive to expand their rights toward equality with the rest
of Russian citizens; yet some dark forces drive Jewish youth into the craziness of political
agitation. Why is that only a few political trials do not list Jews among defendants, and,
importantly, among the most prominent defendants? That and the common Jewish practice of
evading military service are counterproductive for the cause of expanding the civil rights of
Jews; one aspiring to achieve rights must prove beforehand his ability to fulfill the duties which
come with those rights” and “avoid putting himself into an extremely unfavorable and dismal
position with respect to the interests of state and society.”
Yet, the
Encyclopedia notes, “Despite all this propaganda, bureaucratic circles were
dominated by the idea that the Jewish Question could only be resolved through emancipation.
For instance, in March 1881 a majority of the members of the Commission for Arranging the
Jewish Way of Life tended to think that it was necessary to equalize the Jews in rights with the
rest of the population.” Raised during the two
decades of Alexandrian reforms, the bureaucrats of
that period were in many respects taken by the reforms’ triumphant advances. And so proposals
-74
-
quite radical and favorable to Jews were put forward on several occasions by Governors General
of the regions constituting the Pale of Settlement.
Let’s not overlook the new initiatives of the influential Sir Moses Montefiore, who paid
another visit to Russia in 1872; and the pressure of both Benjamin Disraeli and Bismarck on
Russian State Chancellor Gorchakov at the Berlin Congress of 1878. Gorchakov had uneasily to
explain that Russia was not in the least against religious freedom and did grant it fully, but
religious freedom should not be confused with Jews having equal political and civil rights.
Yet the situation in Russia developed toward emancipation. And when in 1880 the Count
Loris-Melikov was made the Minister of the Interior with exceptional powers, the hopes of
Russian Jews for emancipation had become really great and well-founded. Emancipation seemed
impending and inevitable.
And at this very moment the members of Narodnaya Volya assassinated Alexander II,
thus destroying in the bud many liberal developments in Russia, among them the hopes for full
Jewish civil equality.
Sliozberg noted that the Czar was killed on the eve of Purim. After a series of attempts,
the Jews were not
surprised at this coincidence, but they became restless about the future.