RUSSIA. 



735 



1881, the project of representative institutions 

 elaborated by Count Loris Melikoff, which 

 would have been signed by the late Czar if the 

 murderous arm of the Nihilist had been stayed 

 for a few days, was approved by a majority of 

 nine against five. Pobodonoszeff and the other 

 defenders of the autocratic principle prevailed 

 upon the Ozar to reverse the decision of the 

 Council. Ignatieff, as the representative of 

 pure Russian ideas, was called to the place of 

 the defeated Melikoff. He did not differ, how- 

 ever, from the rest of the leading statesmen 

 upon the question of the necessity of introduc- 

 ing self-government. The Russian people that 

 is, the eighty millions of serfs lately emanci- 

 pated were reduced to the verge of that state 

 of misery which leads to anarchy and revolt. 

 The political disorders of Russia are of long 

 standing, but the conversion of a nation of 

 slaves into freemen has brought graver dis- 

 orders of a social nature. The country has 

 retrograded economically since emancipation. 

 The emancipation was imperfect, like all such 

 acts. The rural economy and the distribution 

 of land could not be adapted to the new con- 

 ditions of labor, while the laborers themselves 

 were naturally demoralized by their sudden 

 freedom. Thriftlessness, indolence, and drunk- 

 enness are the national vices of the Russians. 

 The peasants received their lands with the 

 obligation of paying for them in a term of 

 years. The peasants have fallen into the pow- 

 er of money-lenders; agriculture has gone 

 backward; idleness and vodka-drinking have 

 increased ; live-stock and implements have dis- 

 appeared ; and dishonest merchants have in- 

 jured the market for the produce of the land 

 and labor by mixing different grades of wheat. 

 At the same time the burden of the Govern- 

 ment has increased. The debt, which is the 

 heritage of many wars and generations of ex- 

 travagance and corruption, has grown to larger 

 proportions. The country is again flooded 

 with a fluctuating, debased paper currency. 

 The Government is unable to borrow more 

 money abroad. All sections of the educated 

 class call for radical changes in the system of 

 government, while socialists proclaim all accu- 

 mulated wealth to be applicable to the needs 

 of the people. Count Ignatieff appointed many 

 commissions to inquire into the grievances of 

 the people. In combating those which arose 

 from social and economical causes he had the 

 approval of the Czar. The socialist doctrines, 

 apart from their political and revolutionary 

 tendencies, agree with the theory of the czar- 

 dom. The responsibility of the Czar for the 

 happiness of the people was confirmed in the 

 manifesto of May 10, 1881, written by Pobo- 

 donoszeff, in which the Czar asserted the prin- 

 ciple of the autocracy, and swept away the con- 

 stitutional doctrines involved in the proposi- 

 tion of Loris Melikoff. Ignatieff, in view of the 

 financial straits of the Government, the agita- 

 tion against the bureaucratic system, and the 

 impoverishment and misery of the people, saw 



the necessity of calling trusted representatives 

 of the people into counsel, in order to relieve 

 the bureaucracy of some of the odium, and 

 avert a revolutionary catastrophe. True to 

 the Slavistic ideas of which he was the repre- 

 sentative, and, as such, obtained the confidence 

 of the Czar, he elaborated a scheme for the re- 

 vival of an ancient Slavic institution, the repre- 

 sentative body called the Zemski Sobor, which 

 the Czars before Peter the Great convoked for 

 consultation. 



The anti-Jewish agitation was connived at 

 under the administration of Ignatieff. The 

 liquor-sellers, who catered to the drunken hab- 

 its of the peasantry ; the usurers, who profited 

 by their distress ; and the merchants, who prac- 

 ticed deceits from which they suffered, belonged 

 to the Jewish race. Count Ignatieff allowed 

 the peasantry full license in their barbarous 

 excess, with the design of ridding the country 

 of the Jews, who with all their faults were a 

 useful and necessary class. The Jews peti- 

 tioned for months to have a ukase issued for- 

 bidding the persecutions. The local officials, 

 taking their cue from their superiors, in many 

 cases permitted the outrages to take place un- 

 hindered. Jews were punished for defending 

 themselves with weapons, while their assailants 

 went free. The regulations restricting their 

 rights of residence and free migration, which 

 had long been inactive, were strictly enforced, 

 as also the laws requiring them to close their 

 shops on Sundays and Christian holidays. The 

 atrocities were exaggerated in the reports pub- 

 lished abroad, but they were sufficient to drive 

 thousands of families out of the country, and 

 seriously unhinge mercantile business in many 

 parts of Russia. The worst excesses occurred 

 in Little Russia, or the Ukraine. A false ukase 

 was read in some towns, declaring that the Czar 

 gave up the Jews to the people for pillage. 

 The belief that the persecutions were approved 

 by the Government was generally prevalent. 



The Israelites of Europe made efforts to ob- 

 tain diplomatic intercessions for their brethren 

 in Russia, but none of the Governments ven- 

 tured to make representations on the subject. 

 Sir Charles Dilke stated in the English Parlia- 

 ment that consular inquiries corroborated only 

 one case of murder in Balta, a town in South 

 Russia principally inhabited by Hebrews, where 

 shocking riots occurred at Easter, 1882. Pres- 

 ident Arthur was freer in his promises than 

 the heads of European Governments, declaring 

 that he would exert himself as far as possible 

 to induce the Russian Government to effectual- 

 ly protect the Jews, and that the minister in 

 St. Petersburg had been instructed to protect 

 the rights of American Jews in Russia. 



There were five committees in European 

 countries and one in America organized for 

 the relief of the Jewish refugees. The number 

 aided during the year 1881 was about 25,000, 

 of whom some 15,000 were settled in the United 

 States, 2,000 were dispersed over Europe, and 

 8,000 were sent back to Russia. The exodus 



