the banner of emancipation, but it also went much further than
its predecessors in its championship of Russification and assimilation.
The motto of the _Dyen_ was "complete fusion of the interests of the
Jewish population with those of the other citizens." The editors looked
upon the Jewish problem "not as a national but as a social and economic"
issue, which in their opinion could be solved simply by bestowing upon
this "section of the Russian people" the same rights which were enjoyed
by the rest. The Odessa pogrom of 1871 might have taught the writers of
the _Dyen_ to judge more soberly the prospects of "a fusion of
interests," had not a meddlesome censorship forced this periodical to
discontinue its publication after a short time.

[Footnote 1: The name was meant to symbolize the approaching day of
freedom. It was a weekly publication.]

The next few years were a period of silence in the Russian-Jewish
press. [1] The rank and file of the Russian Jewish intellectuals, who
formed the backbone of the reading public of this press, became
indifferent to it. Living up conscientiously to the principle of a
"fusion of interests," they failed to recognize the special interests of
their own people, whose only duty they thought was to be Russified,
i.e., obliterated and put out of existence. The better elements among
the _intelligenzia_, however, looked with consternation upon this
growing indifference to everything Jewish among the college-bred Jewish
youth. As a result, a new attempt was made toward the very end of this
period to restore the Russian-Jewish press. Three weeklies, the _Russki
Yevrey_ ("The Russian Jew"), the _Razswyet_ ("The Dawn"), and later on
the _Voskhod_ ("The Sunrise"), were started in St. Petersburg, all
endeavoring to gain the hearts of the Russian Jewish _intelligenzia_. In
the midst of this work they were overwhelmed by the terrific cataclysm
of 1881, which decided the further destinies of Jewish journalism in
Russia.

[Footnote 1: We disregard the colorless _Vyestnik Russkikh "Yevreyev"_
("The Herald of Russian Jews"), published by Zederbaum in the beginning
of the seventies in St. Petersburg, and the volumes of the _Yevreyskaya
Bibliotyeka_ ("The Jewish Library"), issued at irregular intervals by
Adolph Landau.]

4. THE JEWS AND THE REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT

The Russian school and literature pushed the Jewish college youth head
over heels into the intellectual currents of progressive Russian