an of the
miserable pittance which his wife was anxious to contribute by her
honest labor towards the maintenance of the family.

A great _political_ blow for the Jews was the clause in the new
reactionary "Statute Concerning the Zemstvo Organizations" issued on
June 12, 1890, [1] under which the Jews, though paying the local taxes,
were completely barred from participating in the election of deputies to
the organization of local self-government. This clause was inserted in
the legal draft by the three shining lights of the political inquisition
active at that time, Pobyedonostzev, Durnovo, and Plehve. They justified
this restriction on the following grounds: the object of the new law is
to transform local self-government into a state administration and to
strengthen in the former the influence of the central Government at the
expense of the local Government; hence the Jews, "being altogether an
element hostile to Government," are not fit to participate in the
Zemstvo administration. The Council of State agreed with this
bureaucratic motivation, and the humiliating clause passed into law.

[Footnote 1: The new law invalidated to a large extent the liberties
granted to the Zemstvos by Alexander II. in 1864 (compare p. 173) by
placing them under state control.]

While a large part of the Russian public and of the Russian press had
succumbed to the prevailing tendencies under the high pressure of the
anti-Semitic atmosphere, the progressive elements of the Russian
_intelligenzia_ were gradually aroused to a feeling of protest. Vladimir
Solovyov, "the Christian philosopher," a friend of the Jewish people,
who had familiarized himself thoroughly with its history and literature,
conceived the idea of issuing a public protest against the anti-Semitic
movement in the "Russian Press," [1] to be signed by the most prominent
Russian writers and other well-known men. During the months of May and
June, 1890, he succeeded under great difficulties to collect for his
protest sixty-six signatures in Moscow and over fifty signatures in St.
Petersburg, including those of Leo Tolstoi, Vladimir Korolenko, and
other literary celebrities. Despite its mild tone, the protest which had
been framed by Solovyov [2] was barred from publication by the Russian
censor. Professor Ilovaiski, of Moscow, a historian of doubtful
reputation, but a hide-bound Jew-baiter, had informed the authorities of
St. Petersburg of the attempt to collect signatures in