Ill SSI \. 



lulls to be laid boforo the Finnish Diet, as well 



a- tin- resolutions and petitions of the Finnish 

 Diet, an- ti l>e communicated to the Governor- 

 < inn-nil in the Kussiaii language instead of in 

 iln- native tongue. AiKillit-r ordinance directs 

 that inily llii ians who have graduated at a 

 universiiy ur Finlandcrs who havr had a superior 

 education and thoroughly understand tin- liu- 

 Man language .shall be appointed to posts in the 

 ollice of tin- Secretary of State, and in tln-Chan- 



ecllerv of tin- Governor-General. 



Kdicls against the Jews. The Czar in the 



summer of 1890 issued edicts against the Jrwi.sh 

 hucksters, money-lenders, and liquor-sellers in 

 the interior of Russia, which were carried out 

 with much harshness for a time, after which he 

 delayed for some months his decision regarding 

 the revival of the old law forbidding Jews to 

 acquire a permanent resilience outside the gov- 

 ernments on the western border. In the begin- 

 ning of 1891, on the recommendation of a com- 

 mis-ion appointed to inquire into the relations 

 between the .Jews and the state, he decided that 

 the edict of removal should he carried out. In 

 the beginning of February all the Jewish traders 

 of the city and district of Novgorod were ordered 

 to leave with their families. Newspapers which 

 remonstrated against the policy of the Govern- 

 ment were suppressed. The first guild of mer- 

 chants in St. Petersburg had a legal right of 

 residence, and the privilege of maintaining any 

 number of Jewish servants, but holders of cer- 

 tificates of the guild who had no business of 

 their own were expelled in April, and a general 

 clearance of the Jewish population in the cities 

 of central and eastern Russia was begun. They 

 were expelled even from the trans-Casm'an 

 provinces and from the Caucasus. In Kieff 

 Count Ignatieff banished artists and musicians. 

 The decree for St. Petersburg included artisans, 

 chemists, merchants of the second and third 

 guilds, and money-changers. The sudden ban- 

 ishment of many thousands of Jews from Moscow 

 and the decree ordering a great many more to 

 leave within a month caused severe distress and 

 suffering and a commercial crisis that involved 

 all the Christian merchants. The Jews had to 

 sell all their property for almost nothing. 

 Hundreds applied for baptism in order to evade 

 the decree. They were surrounded in their 

 houses by soldiers and hurried off to the rail- 

 road, chained together sometimes like Siberian 

 exiles. The authorities were at a loss whither 

 to send a large proportion of them, for a great 

 many families had lived in Moscow for genera- 

 tions and had no other domicile. Children were 

 in many instances separated from parents and 

 husbands from wives. It was only in Moscow 

 that scandalous cruelties were practiced, and 

 this was because the chief of police, after the 

 removal of Prince Dolgorukoff, who had carried 

 out none of the edicts, wished to rid the city of 

 as many Jews as possible before the arrival of 

 the Grand-Duke Sergius as Governor-General. 

 But elsewhere laws were more strictly enforced 

 than before. The law prohibiting Jews from 

 owning or leasing land or acquiring manu- 

 factories was extended to the whole empire 

 outside the pale. In Kiel!. < >de>>a, and othercom- 

 mercial towns where the trade is principally in 

 the hands of Jews the authorities herded the 



poorer Hebrews scattered over the di.-tr 

 the ghettoH, which U-nunu w> cr<wd<d as to 

 cause an exodus to Turkey and other countries. 

 In the latter part of May a general ordt r f.-r the 

 expulsion of all foreign Jews from M.uthi-rn 

 I wa.s ivMied. in ci-n.-rqti.-ncc of which the 

 lews of Odessa and of the whole j.r. 

 of Kherson and of the Crimea and many in 

 moderate circumstances rcali/ed what money 

 they could in order to emigrate. In all tin- 

 forcible expulsions the police used their dis- 

 cretion as to what Jews Miould i ack to 

 the pale, their orders being not to mo!, 

 spcct able persons following useful . 

 but to rid the towns of the destitute and in- 

 efficient, and of usurers and petty traders and 

 th..M- engaged in disreputable pur.-uits. The 

 manner in which the decrees were carried out by 

 corrupt officials produced a panic, and 1< d to 

 the emigration of great numbers bc^ido those 

 notified to depart. The regulations against tin- 

 Jews were relaxed in July, but, owing to t la- 

 crowding of them within 'the pale and the im- 

 pending famine, the emigration continued. The 

 German and Austrian authorities refused to 

 admit such as were destitute: some were sent 

 back as pauper immigrants from the United 

 States; the Turkish Government would allow- 

 none to land at Jaffa or Beyrut who were likely 

 to become a burden on the community; and the 

 British consular agents gave warning that there 

 was no work for them in England. Baron 

 Ilirsch. the Vienna capitalist who built the 

 Turkish railv\ys, offered to give $15,000,000 to 

 aid the exiles in finding new homes and especially 

 to establish agricultural colonies, selecting the 

 Argentine Republic as the most favorable country. 

 Arnold White, who went to Russia to s-tudy the 

 subject and report to him, found the Russian 

 ministers anxious to further the plan of pro- 

 moting emigration, and willing to countenance 

 the formation of committees to supervise and 

 direct the movement. At his instance they 

 removed the regulation requiring every emigrant 

 to go to the place in which he is inscribed as a 

 resident and procure a passport, for which he 

 had to pay a fee of 10 rubles. Mr. White \i.-it< d 

 the Hebrew agricultural colonies planted by the 

 Czar Nicholas in the Government of Kh< 

 where he found that Jews, contrary to the view 

 officially adopted in Russia, are capable of be- 

 coming industrious and skillful farmers. Baron 

 Ilirsch bought 7,000,000 acres of the best agri- 

 cultural land in Argentina, on which he intends 

 to settle 4,000 or 5.000 families of expatriated 

 Iiuss<'an Hebrews. He made an experiment with 

 400 picked subjects, who showed such aptitude 

 that he is convinced that a taste for agriculture 

 can be developed among people of his race. 

 Every family will receive 150 acres of land, on 

 which they will be supported for a year, and for 

 which after another year they must |>ay a small 

 rent. No member of the community will In- 

 allowed to trade or to sell anything except the 

 products of his toil. 



The persecution of the Jews was only part of 

 the general policy instituted by M. Pobiedon- 

 o>t-ctT. Chief Procurator of the Holy Synod 

 and other members of the Old Russian jwrtv 

 who have the ear of the Czar, of harrying and 

 crushing all foreigners and all dissenters from 



