tnings and thunders which
astounded the world under Alexander III.

It was but natural that the Jews that had become completely Russified
should enlist in the ranks of the extreme liberals. They found
themselves in every way as progressive and patriotic as the Christian
Russians. The language of Russia became their language, its manners and
aspirations their manners and aspirations. They contributed more than
any other nationality to Russifying Odessa, which, owing to its great
foreign population, was known as the un-Russian city of Russia.
Proportionately to their numbers, they promoted the trade and industry,
the science and literature of their country more than the Russians
themselves. Yet the coveted equality was denied them, and the
emancipation granted to the degraded muzhiks was withheld from them,
because of a religion they hardly professed. They were like Faust when
he found himself tempted but not satisfied by the pleasures of life,
when food hovered before his eager lips while he begged for nourishment
in vain. The liberals, on the other hand, preached and practiced the
doctrine of equal rights to all. Socialism, or nihilism, also appealed
to the Jews from its idealistic side, for never did the Jews cease to be
democrats and dreamers. In the schools and universities, which they were
now permitted to attend, they heard the new teachings and imbibed the
novel ideas.

Those, therefore, who disdained conversion allied themselves with the
secret organizations. "The torrent which had been dammed up in one
channel rushed violently into another." A Hebrew monthly, Ha-Emet
(Truth, Vienna, 1877), devoted to the cause of communism, was started by
Aaron Liebermann ("Arthur Freeman"), in which, in the language of the
oldest and greatest socialists, the doctrines of Karl Marx were
inculcated among the Hebrew-reading public. The more completely
Russified element took a leading part in the activities of the Narodnaya
Volya (Rights of the People), propagating socialism among the Russian
masses, either by word of mouth or as editors and coworkers in the
"underground" publications. Not a few went to Berlin, where, though
opulent, they sought employment in factories, the better to disseminate
socialism among the working classes. Others, like Aaronson, Achselrod,
Deutsch, Horowitz, Vilenkin, and Zukerman, fled to Switzerland, whence,
under the assumed names of Marx, Lassalle, Jacoby, etc., or united in a
League for the Emancipa