CONTENTS

CHAPTERPAGE
XXXI.The Accession of Nicholas II.
1.Continued Policy of Oppression[7]
2.The Martyrdom of the Moscow Community[12]
3.Restrictions in the Right of Residence[15]
4.The Economic Collapse of Russian Jewry[22]
5.Professional and Educational Restrictions[26]
6.Anti-Semitic Propaganda and Pogroms[31]
XXXII.The National Awakening.
1.The Rise of Political Zionism[40]
2.Spiritual Zionism, or Ahad-Ha'amism[48]
3.Spiritual Nationalism, or National-Cultural Autonomism[51]
4.The Jewish Socialistic Movement[55]
5.The Revival of Jewish Letters[58]
XXXIII.The Kishinev Massacre.
1.Pogroms as a Counter-Revolutionary Measure 66
2.The Organized Kishinev Butchery[69]
3.Echoes of the Kishinev Tragedy[76]
4.Doctor Herzl's Visit to Russia[82]
XXXIV.Continued Pogroms and the Russo-Japanese War.
1.The Pogrom at Homel and the Jewish Self-Defence[87]
2.The Kishinev Massacre at the Bar of Russian Justice[90]
3.The Jews in the Russo-Japanese War[94]
4.The "Political Spring"[97]
5.The Homel Pogrom Before the Russian Courts[101]
XXXV.The Revolution of 1905 and the Fight for Emancipation.
1.The Jews in the Revolutionary Movement[105]
2.The Struggle for Equal Rights[108]
3.The "Black Hundred" and the "Patriotic" Pogroms[113]
4.The Jewish Franchise[121]
XXXVI.The Counter-Revolution and the October Massacres.
1.The Fiendish Designs of the "Black Hundred"[124]
2.The Russian St. Bartholomew Night[127]
3.The Undaunted Struggle for Equal Rights[131]
4.The Jewish Question Before the First Duma[135]
5.The Spread of Anarchy and the Second Duma[139]
XXXVII.External Oppression and Internal Consolidation.
1.The New Alignments Within Russian Jewry[143]
2.The Triumph of the "Black Hundred"[149]
3.The Third, or Black, Duma[153]
4.New Jewish Disabilities[156]
5.The Spiritual Revival of Russian Jewry[160]
Russian Jewry Since 1911[164]
Bibliography[171]
Index[205]

[CHAPTER XXXI]
THE ACCESSION OF NICHOLAS II.

1. Continued Policy of Oppression

In the course of the nineteenth century every change of throne in Russia was accompanied by a change of policy. Each new reign formed, at least in its beginning, a contrast to the one which had preceded it. The reigns of Alexander I. and Alexander II. marked a departure in the direction of liberalism; those of Nicholas I. and Alexander III. were a return to the ideas of reaction. In accordance with this historic schedule, Alexander III. should have been followed by a sovereign of liberal tendencies. But in this case the optimistic expectations with which the new ruler was welcomed both by his Russian and his Jewish subjects were doomed to disappointment. The reign of Nicholas II. proved the most gloomy and most reactionary of all. A man of limited intelligence, he attempted to play the rôle of an unlimited autocrat, fighting in blind rage against the cause of liberty.

This reactionary tendency came to light in the very beginning of the new reign. During the first few months after the accession of Nicholas II. to the throne—between November, 1894, and January, 1895—the liberal Zemstvo assemblies of nine governments,[1] in presenting addresses of loyalty to the new Tzar, were bold enough to voice the hope that he would eventually invite the representatives of these autonomous institutions to participate in the legislative acts of the Government. This first timid request for constitutional rights met with a harsh and clumsy rebuff. In his reply to the deputation representing the nobility, the Zemstvos, and the municipalities, which appeared in the Winter Palace on January 17, 1895, to convey to him the greetings of the Russian people, the Tzar made the following pronouncement:

In several Zemstvo assemblies there have been heard lately the voices of men carried away by preposterous delusions concerning the participation of the representatives of the Zemstvos in the affairs of the inner administration. Let everybody know that I shall guard the principle of autocracy as firmly and uncompromisingly as it was guarded by my never-to-be-forgotten deceased parent.