motive to prevent the complete economic
ruin of the Jews who were settled in places outside the Pale and had
created there industrial enterprises. But such a motive, which even the
anti-Semitic Ministry of Tolstoi had not been bold enough to disregard,
did not appeal to the new Hamans. Many thousands of Jewish families, who
had lived outside the Pale for decades, were threatened with exile. The
difficulties attending the execution of this wholesale expulsion forced
the Government to make concessions. In the Baltic provinces the
banishment of the old settlers was repealed, while in the Great Russian
governments it was postponed for a year or two.

[Footnote 1: Compare p. 404.]

There was a particularly spiteful motive behind the imperial ukase of
1893, excluding the Crimean resort place Yalta from the Pale of
Settlement, [1] and ordering the expulsion from there of hundreds of
families which were not enrolled in the local town community. No
official reason was given for this new disability, but everybody knew
it. In the neighborhood of Yalta was the imperial summer residence
Livadia, where Alexander III. was fond of spending the autumn, and this
circumstance made it imperative to reduce the number of the local Jewish
residents to a negligible quantity. To avert the complete ruin of the
victims, many were granted reprieves, but after the expiration of their
terms they were ruthlessly deported. The last batches of exiles were
driven from Yalta in the month of October and in the beginning of
November, 1894, during the days of public mourning for the death of
Alexander III. On October 20, the Tzar was destined to die in the
neighborhood of the town which was purged of the Jewish populace for his
benefit. While the earthly remains of the dead emperor were carried on
the railroad tracks to St. Petersburg, trains filled with Jewish
refugees from Yalta were rolling on the parallel tracks, speeding
towards the Pale of Settlement.

[Footnote 1: The Crimean peninsula, forming part of the government of
Tavrida, is situated within the Pale.]

Such was the symbolic _finale_ of the reign of Alexander III. which
lasted fourteen years. Having begun with pogroms, it ended with
expulsions. The martyred nation stood at the threshold of the new reign
with a silent question on its lip: "What next?"

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of History of the Jews in Russia and
Poland. Volume II, by S.M. Dubnow

*** END OF THIS PR