By means of this hollow, liberal-sounding phrase, which did not involve the slightest obligation, the diplomats managed to rid themselves of this vexatious problem, even the perfunctory attention given to it at the Congress having been prompted by no other motive than consideration for the Russian Emperor. For the rest, every one of the three allied Governments which had distributed Poland among themselves went on to handle "its" Jews according to the requirements of its domestic policy, which was frankly reactionary, and was not even disguised by the fictitious label of humanitarianism.
The same domestic policy continued in Russia. The Tzar, who abroad had listened benevolently to Way's appeal for the civil emancipation of the Jews, irrespective of the future salvation of their souls, decided, when at home again, to leave everything untouched, looking for a partial solution of the Jewish problem to the fantastic endeavors of the Society of Israelitish Christians. Undeterred by the fact that the solemn appeal issued by the Tzar in 1817 had, during the three years since its promulgation, failed to attract a single group of converts, for the simple reason that such groups were not in existence, there being only rare isolated instances of baptism, prompted in most cases by questionable motives, the Government set aside, in 1820, a large tract of land in the Government of Yekaterinoslav for a future settlement of "Israelitish Christians." It even appointed a special official, with the title Curator, to take charge of it.
But year after year passed by and the empty land was waiting in vain for settlers, while the idle Curator was just as vainly on the lookout for someone to take care of. At last, in 1823, an obscure group of "Israelitish Christians" appeared on the scene. It consisted of thirty-seven families from Odessa, who expressed their willingness to accept the free lands with all the manifold rights and privileges attached to them. Subsequent inquiries from the office of the Governor-General of New Russia revealed the fact, however, that the claimants to the public pie, though confessing the Greek Orthodox faith, did not possess certificates of baptism, and could not even produce passports, with the result that the application of the adventurers was denied.
At last, realizing the impracticability of the whole missionary scheme, Count Golitzin advised Alexander I., in 1824, to dissolve the mythical Society of Israelitish Christians with its Board of Trustees, which by that time carried a whole staff of Government officials on its budget. The Tzar refused to liquidate by official action an undertaking which had been heralded so solemnly, and the society without a membership, administered by trustees without a trust, continued to figure on the lists of Government institutions until 1833, when Nicholas I. issued a curt ukase putting a sudden end to this bureaucratic phantom. The new ruler had in the meantime discovered entirely different and by no means fantastic contrivances for driving the Jews into the fold of the Orthodox Church. These contrivances were the military barracks and the institution of Cantonists.
3. "Judaizing" Sects in Russia
While the Russian authorities were dreaming of a wholesale conversion of Jews to Christianity, their attention was diverted by the ominous spectacle of huge numbers of Christians embracing a doctrine closely akin to Judaism. The Russian officials disclosed the existence of a sect of "Sabbatarians" and "Judaizers" in the Governments of Voronyezh, Saratov, and Tula, all of them without Jewish residents, who might otherwise have been suspected of a missionary propaganda among the Greek Orthodox. The new "Judaizing" heresy first engaged the attention of the central Government in 1817, when a group of peasants in the region of Voronyezh addressed a petition to the Tzar in which they naively complained of "the oppressions which they had had to undergo at the hands of the local authorities, both ecclesiastic and civil, on account of their confessing the law of Moses." Acting under Imperial instructions, Golitzin gave orders "to examine most rigorously" the origin of the "sect," for the purpose of preventing its further spread and bringing back the renegades into the fold of Orthodoxy.
The Greek Orthodox Archbishop of Voronyezh reported, in substance, as follows:
The sect came into existence about 1796[274] "through natural Jews." It afterwards spread to several settlements in the districts of Bobrov and Pavlovsk. The essence of the sect, without being directly an Old Testament form of Jewish worship, consists of a few [Jewish] ceremonies, such as Sabbath observance and circumcision, the arbitrary manner of contracting and dissolving marriages, the way of burying the dead, and prayer assemblies. The number of avowed sectarians amounts to one thousand five hundred souls of both sexes, but the secret ones are in all likelihood more numerous.
To exterminate the sect, the Archbishop of Voronyezh proposes various measures, to be carried out partly by the ecclesiastic authorities and partly by the police, among them the deportation of the soldier Anton Rogov, the propagandist of the heresy.
Similar reports from the ecclesiastic authorities of Tula, Orlov, Saratov, and other Great Russian Church districts were soon received by the Synod. The "Judaizing heresy" spread rapidly to the villages and cities, appealing alike to peasants and merchants. Whenever taken to task, the sectarians declared that they longed to return to the Old Testament and "maintain the faith of their fathers, the Judeans."