vernment itself concerning the
Jewish future, and received unequivocal replies. Thus, in January, 1882,
Dr. Orshanski, a brother of the well-known publicist, [1] approached
Count Ignatyev on the subject, and was authorized to publish the
following statement:

[Footnote 1: See above, p. 238 et seq.]

The Western frontier is open for the Jews. The Jews have already
taken ample advantage of this right, and their emigration has in no
way been hampered. [1] As regards your question concerning the
transplantation of Jews into the Russian interior, the Government
will, of course, avoid everything that may further complicate the
relations between the Jews and the original population. For this
reason, though keeping the Pale of Jewish Settlement intact, I have
already suggested to the Jewish Committee [attached to the Ministry]
[2] to indicate those localities which, being thinly populated and
in need of colonization, might admit of the settlement of the Jewish
element ... without injury to the original population.

[Footnote 1: According to an old Russian law which had come into
disuse, departure from the country without a special Government
permit is punishable as a criminal offence.]

[Footnote 2: See p. 277.]

This reply of the all-powerful Minister, which was published as a
special supplement to the Jewish weekly _Razsvyet_, increased the panic
among the Jews of Russia. The Jews were publicly told that the
Government wished to get rid of them, and that the only "right" they
were to be granted was the right to depart; that no enlargement of the
Pale of Settlement could possibly be hoped for, and that only as an
extreme necessity would the Government allow groups of Jews to colonize
the uninhabitable steppes of central Asia or the swamps of Siberia.
Well-informed people were in possession of much more serious
information: they knew that the Jewish Committee attached to the
Ministry of the Interior was preparing a monstrous plan of reducing the
territory of the Pale of Settlement itself by expelling the Jews from
the villages and driving them into the over-crowded cities.

The soul of the Jewish people was filled with sorrow, and yet there was
no way of protesting publicly in the land of political slavery. The Jews
had to resort to the old medieval form of a national protest by pouring
forth their feelings in the synagogue. Many Jewish communities seemed to
have come to an understanding to appoint