ns of human
beings within the suffocating confines of the towns and townlets of the
Western region. And yet, notwithstanding its tremendous implications,
the law was passed outside the ordinary course of legal procedure--under
the disguise of "Temporary Rules," which, in spite of their title, have
been enforced with merciless cruelty for more than a generation.

2. ABANDONMENT OF THE POGROM POLICY

After imposing a severe and immediately effective penalty upon Russian
Jewry for having been ruined by the pogroms, the Government suddenly
remembered its duty, and dangled the threat of future penalties before
the prospective instigators of Jewish disorders. On the same fateful
third of May, the Tzar sanctioned the decision of the Committee of
Ministers concerning the necessity of declaring solemnly that "the
Government is firmly resolved to prosecute invariably any attempt at
violence on the person and property of the Jews, who are under the
protection of the general laws." In accordance with this declaration, a
senatorial ukase dated May 10 was sent out to the governors, warning
them that "the heads of the gubernatorial administrations would be held
responsible for the adoption of timely measures looking to the
prevention of the conditions leading to similar disorders and for the
suppression of these disorders at the very outset, and that any
negligence in this regard on the part of the administration and the
police authorities would result in the dismissal from office of those
found guilty." This warning was accompanied by the following confession:

In view of the fact that sad occurrences in the past have made it
evident that the local population, incited by evil-minded persons
from covetous or other motives, has taken part in the disorders, it
is the duty of the gubernatorial administration to make it clear to
the local communes that they are obliged to adopt measures for the
purpose ... of impressing upon the inhabitants the gross criminal
offence implied in willfully perpetrating violent acts against
anybody's person and property.

It would almost seem as if the Government, by promulgating on one and
the same day the "Temporary Rules" against the Jews and the circular
against the pogroms, wished to intimate to the Russian people that,
inasmuch as the Jews were now being exterminated through the agency of
the law, there was no further need to exterminate them on the streets.
The originators of the