In this manner Elizabeth Petrovna cleared these provinces of their Jewish population, where—for better or for worse—it had lived long before their annexation by Russia. A contemporary historian calculates that up to his time (1753) some 35,000 Jews had been banished from Russia.
The fanatical Empress searched with the vigilance of an inquisitor for the slightest trace of Judaism in her Empire. Since 1731 there had lived in St. Petersburg a learned physician, by the name of Antonio Sanchez, evidently a Sephardic Marano, who professed Judaism in secret. Originally invited from Holland, Sanchez occupied in St. Petersburg the post of body-physician at the courts of Anna Johannovna and her successors, and he was at the same time in charge of the medical department of the army. He subsequently became a member of the Academy of Sciences, and wrote a number of medical works, which drew the attention of the scientific world to him. In 1749 Sanchez was suddenly dismissed from the Academy of Sciences, and compelled to transfer his abode to Paris. It seems that Empress Elizabeth had found out the secret "crime" of her body-physician, which was none other than his loyalty to Judaism. "As far as I am aware"—the president of the Academy, Razumovski, wrote to Sanchez—"you have not been guilty of any wrong-doing against her Imperial Majesty or against any of her interests. But she finds it contrary to her conscience to tolerate in the Academy a man who has deserted the banner of Christ, and has joined the ranks of those who fight under the banner of Moses and the Old Testament prophets." When the famous mathematician Euler heard of Sanchez' expulsion, he wrote: "I doubt whether amazing actions of this kind will contribute towards the reputation of the Russian Academy of Sciences."
There was no one perhaps in the contemporary Government circles of Russia who was so ready to condemn this malicious policy, inspired by Byzantine clericalism, as that cultured "Westerner," Empress Catherine II. (1762-1796). Nevertheless in the first years of her reign she found herself unable to change a policy which had already been hallowed by tradition, and was regarded as "national" and truly Russian. Catherine II., in endeavoring to justify the dethronement of her husband, the Prussophil Peter III., was bound, in the first years of her reign, to act against her own convictions and pose as a national ruler, anxious to follow in the footsteps of her Orthodox predecessors. We derive our knowledge of this fact from her own memoirs, in which, speaking of herself in the third person, she makes this confession:
On the fifth or sixth day after her accession to the throne, Catherine II. arrived at the Senate. It happened that on the agenda of that session was the question of the admission of Jews into Russia. The Senators unanimously declared that their admission was useful, but Catherine, in view of the circumstances at the time, found it difficult to give her assent. The Senator Count Odoyevski came to her aid. He rose up and said: "Before making a decision, perhaps your Imperial Majesty will consent to see the autograph decision which on a similar occasion was rendered by Empress Elizabeth." Catherine ordered the documents to be brought, and she found that Empress Elizabeth, prompted by piety, had written on the margin, "From the enemies of Christ I desire neither gain nor profit." It is necessary to observe that less than a week had passed since Catherine's accession to the throne. She had been placed on it for the defense of the Greek Orthodox faith; she had to deal with a pious people and with a clergy to which its estates had not yet been returned, and which, in consequence of this ill-fitting measure, had nothing to live on. The minds, as is always the case after such a great upheaval [the violent death of Peter III.], were in a state of great excitement. To begin her reign by the admission of Jews would not at all have helped to pacify their minds; to declare it as injurious was also impossible. Catherine acted simply: when the Procurator-General collected the votes and approached her for her decision, she said to him, "I desire that this matter be postponed for another time." Thus it often happens that it is not enough to be enlightened, to have good intentions, and even the power to realize them.
In this way, in spite of the unanimous opinion of the Senate, that the admission of Jews was beneficial to Russia, and in spite of her own liberal frame of mind, Catherine II. left the Jewish question in its former state, being afraid of arousing against her the resentment of the reactionary element of the Russian people. In the very same year, on December 4, 1762, the Empress, in issuing a manifesto permitting all foreigners to travel and to settle in Russia, added the fatal formula, kromye Zhydov ("except the Jews").
Two years later, in 1764, Catherine II. received a petition from the Little Russian nobles and elders, who, together with the hetman, pleaded for the restoration of the autonomous "ancient rights" of Little Russia, which had been grossly violated by the Russian Government. Out of the twenty clauses of the document, one refers to the Jews. The representatives of the Little Russian people declare that the law barring Jews from entering their province had inflicted great damage on the local trade, because the Jews, "being inhabitants of a neighboring state, take a very large part in Little Russian commerce, buying the goods of Little Russia at a much larger price, and the foreign goods at a smaller price, as compared with that now prevailing." The petition concludes with these words:
That the above-mentioned Jews be granted domicile in Little Russia, with this we dare not trouble your Imperial Majesty. All we do is to plead most humbly that, for the sake of promoting Little Russian commerce, the Jews be allowed to visit Little Russia for free commercial transactions.
The petition was not granted, for even Catherine II. "dared not" repeal the inquisitorial resolution of Elizabeth Petrovna against "the enemies of Christ."
It was amidst conditions such as these that the event which marks a critical juncture in the history of the Jewish people took place. Starting with the year 1772, Russia began to acquire the inheritance of disintegrating Poland. The country which had stood in fear of a few thousand Jews was now forced to accept them, at one stroke, by the tens of thousands and, shortly afterwards, by the hundreds of thousands. Subsequent history will show in what way Russia endeavored to solve this conflict between her anti-Jewish traditions and the necessity of harboring in her dominions the greatest center of the Jewish Diaspora.