History of the Jews in Russia and Poland. Volume 1 of 3. From the Beginning until the Death of Alexander I (1825)

218

[Popular Polish form of the Jewish name Hirsch.]

219

[See p. 85.]

220

See p. 280.

221

[Kollontay (in Polish, Kollontaj) was a radical member of the Polish Chamber. See p. 291.]

222

See p. 272 and p. 273.

223

[Lukov (in Polish, Lukow) is a district town in the province of Shedletz, not far from Warsaw. Castellan is the Polish title for the head of a district.]

224

Chatzki's project is reproduced in his famous book Rozprawa o Zydach, "Inquiry Concerning the Jews" (edition of 1860), pp. 119-134.

225

The Jewish communities of Poland were burdened with enormous debts, representing loans made by them in the course of many years, to pay off their arrears in taxes, to meet extraordinary expenditures, and so on. The creditors of the Jews were the municipal magistracies, the Catholic monasteries, as well as private persons. The question of liquidating these debts cropped up time and again at the sessions of the Polish Diets during the latter half of the eighteenth century.

226

[In Polish, Targowica, a town in the Ukraina.]

227

[See p. 243, n. 1.]

228

[More exactly, Kościuszko, pronounced Koshchushko.]

229

[Berek, or Berko, popular Polish form of the Jewish name Baer. – Yoselovich, in Polish Joselowicz, son of Yosel, or Joseph.]

230

In the province of Zhmud [or Samogitia, corresponding practically to the present Government of Kovno.]

231

That the habits of the Shlakhta were but little changed by the revolution may be gauged from the fact that in 1794 the revolutionary Central Council passed a law ordering the sale of crown lands for the purpose of paying the national debt, but limiting this sale to persons of the Christian faith.

232

[See p. 85, n. 1.]

233

[In Polish, Kock, near Warsaw.]

234

[In 1766 Catherine convened a Commission, consisting of representatives of the various estates, for the purpose of elaborating a new Russian code of laws. As a guide for this Commission Catherine wrote her famous "Instructions" (in Russian Nakaz), outlining the principles of government, largely in the spirit of Montesquieu.]

235

[This law laid the foundation for the division of the Russian Empire into "Governments," in Russian gubernia (the English term is a reproduction of the French gouvernement). The chief of a Government is called Governor, in Russian, Gubernator. There are also a few Governors-General, in Russian, Gheneral-Gubernator, placed over several Governments, mostly on the borders of the Empire.]

236

[According to this new law, the city population is divided into merchants, burghers, and artisans. The burghers – in Russian (also in Polish, see above, p. 44, n. 2), myeshchanye– are placed below the merchants. The former are those possessing less than 500 rubels ($250); they have to pay the head-tax and are subject to corporal punishment. The merchants are those who have a larger capital, and are privileged in the two directions indicated. The artisans are organized in their trade-unions. Each estate is registered and administered separately.]

237

[See p. 320, n. 2.]

238

It consisted of the Governments of Chernigov and Novgorod-Seversk (subsequently Poltava) and a part of the Government of Kiev.

239

[The present Government of Kovno was constituted as late as 1872. Its territory was up till then included in the Government of Vilna.]

240

This was in direct violation of the pledge given by the Russian Government at the occupation of the Polish provinces. As recently as in January of the same year (1795) the Lithuanian Governor-General Repnin had replied to the application of the Lithuanian Jews, who pleaded for the maintenance of the Kahal tribunal, that the Jews "may retain the same rights they had been enjoying prior to the last [Polish] mutiny [of 1794]."

241

[Zhyd, originally the Slavic form of the Latin Judaeus, has assumed in Russian a derogatory connotation. It is interesting to note that in Polish the same word has no unpleasant meaning, although in polite speech other terms are used.]

242

[See p. 253, n. 1; for "propination" see p. 67, n. 2.]

243

Dyerzhavin's statement, that he had "borrowed his principal ideas from Prussian institutions," refers in all likelihood to the well-known Prussian Juden-Reglement für Süd- und-Neuostpreussen of 1797, which was at that time operative in the whole of Prussian Poland. There are numerous points of contact between Dyerzhavin's project and the Prussian enactment. The latter may be found in the work of Rönne and Simon, Verhältnisse der Juden in den sämmtlichen Landestheilen des preussischen Staates, ed. 1843, pp. 281-302.

244

This is the way Dyerzhavin spells the word Synhedrion, or Sanhedrin, which he evidently had picked up casually.

245

The following sentence in Dyerzhavin's "Opinion" is typical of this mixture of medieval notions with the new system of "enlightened patronage": "Inasmuch as Supreme Providence, in order to attain its unknown ends, leaves this people, despite its dangerous characteristics, on the face of the earth, and refrains from destroying it, the Governments under whose scepter it takes refuge must also suffer it to live; assisting the decree of destiny, they are in duty bound to extend their patronage even to the Jews, but in such wise that they [the Jews] may prove useful both to themselves and to the people in whose midst they are settled."

246

See p. 330.

247

See p. 318.

248

The insistence on Hebrew in the latter case is connected with the rabbinical form of promissory note, the so-called Shtar Iska [a form of partnership agreement which was designed to obviate the difficulties arising out of the Biblical prohibition to lend money on interest. A similar legal fiction was introduced by the medieval Church].

249

See Nikitin, "The Jewish Agriculturists" (in Russian), St. Petersburg, 1887, p. 16.

250

[See p. 347.]

251

See p. 340.

252

[The word is used here in the sense of leader of partisan, i. e. irregular, troops. Davidov attained to great fame during the War of 1812, in which he interfered effectively with the communications of the French.]

253

Compare the prohibition barring Jews from registering in the mercantile guilds of Moscow and Smolensk, p. 315.

254

See p. 286 and p. 287.

255

See pp. 337, 339, 349.

256

One of these Tzaddiks, Rabbi Solomon (Shelomo) of Karlin, lost his life, according to Hasidic tradition, during the riots of the Russo-Polish confederate troops in the district of Minsk.

257

[The title of the work is Likkute Amarim, "Collected Discourses." It is called Tanyo from the first word.]

258

Among the incriminated ideas was that of the presence of the Deity in all existing things and in all, even sinful, thoughts, and the concomitant mystical theory of "raising the sparks to the source," i. e. extracting good from evil, righteousness from sinfulness, and pure passion from impure impulses.

259

See pp. 339, 349.

260

[In the Government of Vilna.]

261

["The Holiness of Levi."]

262

Likkute Maharan, "Collected Sayings of MaHaRaN" [abbreviation of Morenu Ha-Rab Rabbi Nahman], and others.

263

[See p. 300.]

264

See p. 301.

265

[The Hebrew periodical Ha-Me´assef ("The Collector"), which was founded in Berlin in 1784, and appeared until 1811.]

266

See p. 331.

267

[In Podolia.]

268

[In Russian, Tzarstvo Polskoye. The names Congress-Poland and Russian Poland are also frequently used.]

269

The statistics of the period are far from being accurate. They are nevertheless nearer the truth than those of the preceding age. The official "revisions" of 1816-1819 brought out the fact that a large number of Jews had not been entered on the lists, and the Government took severe measures against those evading the census. Relying upon official information, Jost (see his Neuere Geschichte der Israeliten, ii. 122) computed, in 1845, the total number of Jews in Russia, including those of the Kingdom of Poland, at 1,600,000, but he was careful to point out that, in his opinion, the actual number of Jews was considerably larger.

270

[See p. 359.]

271

[See p. 359.]

272

[Alexis Arakcheyev (b. 1769) had been prominent in Russian military affairs under Paul and Alexander, and had attained to fame on account of his iron discipline. Beginning with 1814, he gradually gained the complete confidence and friendship of Alexander. He died in 1834.]

273

It was written in French, under the title Mémoires (sic!) sur l'état des Israélites.

274

According to subsequent accounts the date was 1806.

275

[In the original, Zhydovskaya, adjective derived from Zhyd. See p. 320, n. 2.]

276

[A town in the Government of St. Petersburg.]

277

[Police inspector.]

278

[See next note.]

279

[In Russian, Dyekabristy, the name by which the revolutionaries of that period are generally designated. They first organized themselves into a secret league consisting of Russian army officers in the latter part of Alexander I.'s reign. Their open revolt took place in December (hence the name), 1825, immediately after the accession of Nicholas I. The league was divided into a "Northern Society," led by Nikita Muravyov, and a "Southern Society," of which Paul Pestel was the head. The latter wrote "The Russian Truth," a work in which he expounded the revolutionary program.]

280

Pestel evidently has in mind the Tzaddiks, whom he had occasion to observe specifically in Tulchyn, his Podolian place of residence, and more generally in the territory controlled by the "Southern Society."

281

It has been conjectured that Pestel was influenced by his fellow-Decembrist Gregory Peretz, a son of the converted tax-farmer Abraham Peretz in St. Petersburg (see p. 333 and p. 388). Peretz advocated on numerous occasions the necessity of organizing a society for the purpose of liberating the scattered Jews and settling them in the Crimea or in the Orient, "in the shape of a separate nationality."