re to be those engaged in
"burgher trade" [1] with business licenses, also the clergy and the
learned class. The remaining huge mass of the proletariat was placed in
the category of "unsettled burghers," who were liable to increased
military conscription and to harsher legal restrictions as compared with
the first four tolerated classes of Jews. This hapless proletariat,
either out of work or only occasionally at work, was to bear a double
measure of oppression and persecution, and was to be branded as despised
pariahs.

[Footnote 1: i.e., petty trade, as distinguished from the more
comprehensive business carried on by the merchants who were enrolled in
the mercantile guilds.]

By April 1, 1852, the Jews belonging to the four tolerated categories
were required to produce their certificates of enrolment before the
local authorities. Those who had failed to do so were to be entered in
the fifth category, the criminal class of "unsettled burghers." Within
the brief space allotted to them the Jews found themselves unable to
obtain the necessary documents, and, thanks to the representations of
the governors-general of the Western governments, the term was extended
till the autumn of 1852, but even then the "assortment" had not yet been
accomplished. The Government was fully prepared to launch a series of
Draconian laws against the "parasites," including police inspection and
compulsory labor. But while engaged in these charitable projects, the
law-givers were taken aback by the Crimean War, which, with its
disastrous consequences for Russia, diverted their attention from their
war against the Jews. Yet for a successive number of years the law
concerning the "assortment," or _razryaden_, as it was popularly styled
by the Jews, hung like the sword of Damocles over the heads of hundreds
of thousands of Jews, and the anxiety of the suffering masses was poured
out in sad popular ditties:

_Ach, a tzore, a gzeire mit die razryaden!_ [1]

[Footnote 1: "Alas! What misfortune and persecution there is in the
assortment!"]

2. COMPULSORY ASSIMILATION

As for the measures of compulsory assimilation long ago foreshadowed by
the Government, such as the substitution of the Russian or German style
of dress for the traditional Jewish attire, the long coats of the men,
they were without any effect on Jewish life, and merely resulted in
confusion and consternation. A curt imperial ukase issued on May 1,
1850, prohibited "all ove