l_ liquidation of Jewry, inaugurated in 1823 in White
Russia. [1] The Grodno province was merely meant to serve as a starting
point. Grand Duke Constantine, [2] who had brought up the question, was
ordered "_at first_ to carry out the expulsion in the government of
Grodno alone," and to postpone for a later occasion the application of
the same measure to the other "governments entrusted to his command."
Simultaneously considerable foresight was displayed in instructing the
grand duke to wait with the expulsion of the Jews "until the conclusion
of the military conscription going on at present." Evidently there was
some fear of disorders and complications. It was thought wiser to seize
the children for the army first and then to expel the parents--to get
hold of the young birds and then to destroy the nest.

[Footnote 1: It may be remarked here that the principal enactments of
that period, down to 1835, were, drafted in their preliminary stage by
the "Jewish Committee" established in 1823. See Vol. I, p. 407 _et
seq._]

[Footnote 2: Commander-in-Chief of the former Polish provinces. See p.
16, n. 2.]

The expulsion from Kiev was of a different order. It marked the
beginning of a new system, the narrowing down of the _urban_ area
allotted to the Jews within the Pale of Settlement. Since 1794 [1] the
Jews had been allowed to settle in Kiev freely. They had formed there,
with official sanction, an important community and had vastly developed
commerce and industry. Suddenly, however, the Government discovered that
"their presence is detrimental to the industry of this city and to the
exchequer in general, and is, moreover, at variance with the rights and
privileges conferred at different periods upon the city of Kiev." The
discovery was followed by a grim rescript from St. Petersburg,
forbidding not only the further settlement of Jews in Kiev but also
prescribing that even those settled there long ago should leave the city
within one year, those owning immovable property within two years.
Henceforward only the temporary sojourn of Jews, for a period not
exceeding six months, was to be permitted and to be limited, moreover,
to merchants of the first two guilds who arrive "in connection with
contracts and fairs" or to attend to public bids and deliveries.

[Footnote 1: See Vol. I, p. 317.]

In 1829 the whip of expulsion cracked over the backs of the Jews
dwelling on the shores of the Baltic and the Black Sea. In Courland a