t result in economic ruin, instead of leading to
economic reform.

Nor was the governmental system of encouraging agriculture among Jews
attended by greater success. In consequence of the expulsion of tens of
thousands of Jews from the villages of White Busier in 1823, some two
thousand refugees had drifted into the agricultural colonies of New
Russia, but all they did was to replace the human wastage from increased
mortality, which, owing to the change of climate and the unaccustomed
conditions of rural life, had decimated the original settlers. During
the reign of Nicholas, efforts were again made to promote agricultural
colonization by offering the prospective immigrants subsidies and
alleviations in taxation. Even more valuable was the privilege relieving
the colonists from military service for a term of twenty-five to fifty
years from the time of settlement. Yet only a few tried to escape
conscription by taking refuge in the colonies. For the military regime
gradually penetrated into these colonies as well. The Jewish colonist
was subject to the grim tutelage of Russian "curators" and
"superintendents," retired army men, who watched his every step and
punished the slightest carelessness by conscription or expulsion.

In 1836 the Government conceived the idea of enlarging the area of
Jewish agricultural colonization. By an imperial rescript certain lands
in Siberia, situated in the government of Tobolsk and in the territory
of Omsk, were set aside for this purpose. Within a short time 1317 Jews
declared their readiness to settle on the new lands; many had actually
started on their way in batches. But in January, 1837, the Tzar quite
unexpectedly changed his mind. After reading the report of the Council
of Ministers on the first results of the immigration, he put down the
resolution: "The transplantation of Jews to Siberia is to be stopped." A
few months later orders were issued to intercept those Jews who were on
their way to Siberia and transfer them to the Jewish colonies in the
government of Kherson. The unfortunate emigrants were seized on the way
and conveyed, like criminals, under a military escort into places in
which they were not in the least interested. Legislative whims of this
kind, coupled with an uncouth system of tutelage, were quite sufficient
to crush in many Jews the desire of turning to the soil.

Nevertheless, the colonization made slow progress, gradually spreading
from the government of Khers