ittle
wiser somehow shook off the objectionable matter, and became 'whole'
again; and a great number 'died,' and a still greater number are
dangerously 'sick' to this very day.

"The sick among our Russian brethren, those who partook in dangerous
quantities of the unwholesome delicacies, believed that they would solve
all difficulties by 'Russification,' that is, by abandoning the old
Jewish culture and adopting Russian mannerisms and customs--by ceasing
to lead Jewish lives and by leading the lives of Russians. A great
number of Jewish literary men of those times believed that if the
Russian Jews would become 'Russified,' and would adopt modern
civilization, they would receive full and equal rights, on the same
terms as the other nationalities. These literary men were dazzled by the
little liberty Alexander II granted the Russian Jews, and they did not
understand that he pursued the same object as his father, Nicholas I. In
the days of Alexander II, many more Jews were converted to Christianity
than in the bitter days of Nicholas I; and many who were not converted
remained but caricatures of real Jews.

"The so-called 'Jewish Aristocracy' in Russia, and especially the
wealthy Jews of North Russia, of St. Petersburg, Moscow, and Kharkov,
Russified at top speed. They removed from their homes and their
home-life anything that was in the least degree Jewish. They shattered
all that for thousands of years had been holy and dear to the Jew. Like
apes they imitated the manners and customs of the Christians. The
younger children did not even know that they were descended from Jews,
as was the case in the first 'pogroms,' when the children asked their
parents: 'Why do they beat us? Are we, too, Jews (Razve vy tozhe
Yevrey)?'"]

[Footnote 28: For a full biography see Brainin, Perez ben Mosheh
Smolenskin, Warsaw, 1896; Keneset Yisrael, i. 249-286; Ha-Shiloah, i.
82-92, and his works, especially Ha-Toeh be-Darke ha-Hayyim, Vienna,
1876.]

CHAPTER VI

THE AWAKENING

1881-1905

(pp. 268-303)

[Footnote 1: Most of this is based on Persecution of the Jews in Russia,
Philadelphia, 1891, pp. 8-18, 22, 35, 51-82, 184-185; Frederick, The New
Exodus, London, 1892, pp. 192-208; Errera, Les juifs russes, Brussels,
1893, pp. 29, 43 f., 89-90, 188-189. Between 1883 and 1885, the Mining
Institute and Engineering Institute for Public Roads adopted the five
per cent limit, the Kharkov Technical Institute a ten per cent limit,
and