he fatal ukase was not officially repealed,
but the Government did not insist on its execution.

In the meantime the "Jewish Committee" kept up a correspondence with the
governors-general in regard to the ways and means of carrying into
effect the third article of its program, the "assortment," or
"classification" of the Jews. The plan called for the division of all
Russian Jews into two categories, into useful and useless ones. The
former category was to consist of merchants affiliated with guilds,
artisans belonging to trade-unions, agriculturists, and those of the
burgher class who owned immovable property with a definite income. All
other burghers who could not claim such a financial status and had no
definite income, in other words, the large mass of petty tradesmen and
paupers, were to be labelled as "useless" or "detrimental," and
subjected to increased disabilities.

The inquiry of the Ministry of the Interior regarding the feasibility of
such an "assortment" met with a strongly-worded rebuttal from the
governor-general of New Russia, Vorontzov. While on a leave of absence
in London, this Russian dignitary, who had evidently been affected by
English ideas, prepared a memorandum and sent it, in October, 1843, to
St. Petersburg with the request to have it submitted to the Tzar.

I venture to think--quoth Vorontzov with reference to the projected
segregation of the "useless" Jews--that the application of the term
"useless" to several hundred thousand people who by the will of the
Almighty have lived In this Empire from ancient times is in itself
both cruel and unjust. The project labels as "useless" all those
numerous Jews who are engaged either in the retail purchase of goods
from their original manufacturers for delivery to wholesale
merchants, or in the useful distribution among the consumers of the
merchandise obtained from the wholesalers. Judging impartially, one
cannot help wondering how these numerous tradesmen can be regarded
as useless and consequently as detrimental, if one bears in mind
that by their petty and frequently maligned pursuits they promote
not only rural but also commercial life.

The atrocious scheme of "assorting" the Jews is nailed
down by Vorontzov as "a bloody operation over a whole class
of people," which is threatened "not only with hardships, but
also with annihilation through poverty."

I venture to think--with these words Vorontzov concludes his