The policy of religious intolerance was practiced assiduously during the reign of Elizabeth Petrovna (1741-1761). During the reign of this Empress, who divided her time between church services and court-balls, the persecutions of the adherents of other faiths were intensified. By order of the Holy Synod and the Senate, Greek Orthodoxy began to be disseminated among the pagan nationalities of the East, while those of them who, under the influence of the Tatars, had embraced Mohammedanism, were subjected to fines unless they adopted the religion of the state. In the hope of suppressing the Mohammedan propaganda, orders were given to demolish the mosques in many villages of the Governments of Kazan and Astrakhan. The destruction of the mosques was stopped only by the fear of Turkish reprisals, "in order that this rumor shall not reach those countries in which adherents of the Greek Orthodox persuasion live in the midst of Mohammedans, and that the churches existing there shall not suffer oppression."
The Jews living in the border provinces were subjected to similar treatment: they were expelled with one hand and pushed into the doors of the church with the other. Towards the end of 1741, Elizabeth Petrovna issued a remarkable ukase. Referring to the decree of 1727 concerning the expulsion of Jews, the Empress states that "it has now come to our knowledge that some Jews in our Empire, and particularly in Little Russia, continue to live there under all kinds of pretence, being engaged in business or in keeping inns and taverns, from which circumstance no benefit of any kind, but, coming from such haters of the name of our Savior Christ, only extreme injury, can accrue to our faithful subjects." Hence the Empress "most graciously" commands that
from our whole Empire, both from the Great Russian and Little Russian cities, villages, and hamlets, all Jews of the male and female sex, of whatever calling and dignity they may be, shall, at the publication of this our ukase, be immediately deported with all their property abroad, and shall henceforward, under no pretext, be admitted into our Empire for any purpose; unless they shall be willing to accept the Christian religion of the Greek persuasion. Such [Jews], having been baptized, shall be allowed to live in our Empire, but they shall not be permitted to go outside the country.
The ukase was to be printed and promulgated in the whole Empire, so as to gain wide circulation among the people and to inculcate in the Russian masses the proper sentiments towards "the haters of the name of our Savior Christ."
However, the Empress and her exalted prompters calculated wrongly. The cruel expulsion decree did not draw a single Jew into the fold of the Greek Orthodox Church, while the reason given in the ukase for the expulsion, "the extreme injury" inflicted by the enemies of Christ "upon our faithful subjects," failed to carry conviction to the latter. The ukase had been designed in particular to "benefit" the inhabitants of the two border provinces of Little Russia and Livonia by eliminating the Jews from their midst. These inhabitants, however, speaking through their local representatives, declared that such "beneficence" would only result in ruining them. From Little Russia the Greek contractors of the customs duties complained to the Senate that the repressions against the Jews, which hampered their commercial visits to Poland, had caused great losses to the state revenues by lowering the income from imported goods, that a sudden expulsion of Jews, who were bound up with the Christian merchants by business interests and monetary obligations, would ruin both sides, and that it was therefore necessary to allow the Jews to retain their former right of free admission into Little Russia for business purposes.
Even more energetic representations were sent to the Senate from the Baltic province of Livonia. The gubernatorial administration of the province and the magistracy of the city of Riga stated that, in accordance with the promulgated ukase, the Jews living in the suburb of Riga and in the surrounding district had been ordered to leave within six weeks, but that this expulsion was bound to cause great injury to the exchequer and to spell ruin for the whole mercantile class. For the Polish pans and merchants, who had their Jewish brokers in Riga, would stop buying their goods there, and would prefer to import them, with the aid of their expelled Jewish middlemen, from Germany, so that "trade in Riga would fall off, and commerce might be destroyed entirely," the Russian merchants finding themselves unable to secure customers for "the goods imported by sea." The Livonians therefore pleaded to grant the Jews free admission into Riga for carrying on business, though it be only in the capacity of temporary residents.
Impressed by these representations, the Senate submitted a report to the Empress, in which it endeavored to convince her that for the sake of "promoting commerce," increasing the revenues of the exchequer, and guarding the interests of the Christian population in the "border localities," it was necessary to comply with the petitions of the Ukrainians and Livonians and grant the Jews free admission to both provinces and to other localities on the frontier, so that they may carry on temporary business during the time of the fairs, this privilege having been exercised by them in Little Russia since 1728, by virtue of earlier Imperial decrees. Elizabeth Petrovna read these convincing arguments of the Senate, but, blinded by religious fanaticism, refused to pay attention to them. On the reports submitted by the Senate, she put down, in December, 1743, the following laconic resolution[214]: "From the enemies of Christ I desire neither gain nor profit."
The Senate could do nothing but submit to the despotic will of the Empress. A month later, in January, 1744, an ukase was issued, demanding that immediate steps be taken to detect the Jews in Little Russia, Livonia, and other places, and expel all except those who were willing to be baptized.
Henceforward—the Senatorial decree runs—the above Jews shall not by any means, under any conditions, and for any purpose whatsoever, be admitted into Russia, though it be for the fairs or for a short time only; nor shall any representations concerning their admission be further addressed to the Senate, and the Senate shall be duly informed when all the above [Jews] shall have been expelled.