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. Similarly, according to M.S.Altman, when Jews of hisshtetl referred to Gentiles eating, drinking, or sleeping, they used wordsnormally reserved for animals.The Yiddish for the town of Bila Tserkva( White Church ) was Shvartse tume ( Black filth, the word tumegenerally denoting a non-Jewish place of worship).[Slezkine, The JewishCentury, p.108]M.S.Altman s grandmother never called Christ anything other thanmamser, or the illegitimate one. Once, when there was a Christianprocession in the streets of Ulla [Belorussia], with people carrying crossesand icons, Grandma hurriedly covered me with her shawl, saying: May yourclear eyes never see this filth. [Slezkine, The Jewish Century, pp.108-109]As World Zionist Congress President Nahum Goldmann stated regardingJewish perceptions of Lithuanians early in the century, The Jews saw theirpersecutors as an inferior race.Most of my grandfather s patients were peasants.Every Jew felt ten or a hundred times the superior of these lowly tillers of the soil;he was cultured, learned Hebrew, knew the Bible, studied the Talmud he knewthat he stood head and shoulders above these illiterates. [Nahum Goldmann, TheJewish Paradox (New York: Fred Jordan Books/Grosset & Dunlap, 1978), p.13.]Alexander s successor, Tsar Nicholas I, was less inclined to favor Jewry,and in fact viewed their inroads into the Russian economy with alarm.He wasmuch hated by the Jews.Prior to his reign, Alexander I had allowed any male Jew the privilege ofescaping compulsory military duty by paying a special draft-exemption tax.In1827 Nicholas abolished the custom, with the result that Jews were for the firsttime taken into the Imperial armies.In 1844 Nicholas I further antagonized Jewryby abolishing the institution of the Kahal (Jewish self-rule, autonomy), and in thatsame year he prohibited by law the traditional Jewish garb, specifying that all Jewsshould, except on ceremonial occasions, dress in conformity with Russianstandards.These measures, and many others like them, were aimed, again, atfacilitating the assimilation of Jewry into Russian life.The Tsarist government wasmuch concerned by the Jew s failure to become Russian citizens, and viewed withhostility the ancient Jewish customs of maintaining a separate culture, language,mode of dress, etc. all of which contributed to keep the Jew an alien in the landof his residence.It is to this determination to Russianize and civilize the Jewthat we can ascribe the unusual efforts made by the Imperial government to 11provide free education to its Jews.As I said already, in 1804 all schools werethrown open to Jews and attendance for Jewish children was made compulsory.Compulsory education was not only a novelty in Russia, but in any country in theearly 19th century.In Russia education was generally reserved for a privilegedfew, and even as late as 1914 only 55% of Russia s population had been in school.The net result of the Imperial government s assimilation program was that RussianJewry became the best educated segment in Russia.This, well, eventually workedto the destruction of the Tsarist government.Then, the reign of Alexander II marked the apex of Jewish fortunes inTsarist Russia.In 1861 Czar Alexander II, the famous Liberator, had liberated23,000,000 Russian serfs.From that moment the prospect of liberty andimprovement opened out for Russian citizens of all nationalities (Russia containedabout 160 nationalities and the Jews formed about 4 percent of the totalpopulation).By 1880, as Slezkine says, they were becoming dominant in theprofessions, in many trades and industries, and were beginning to filter even intogovernment in increasing numbers.As early as 1861 Alexander II had permittedJewish university graduates to settle and hold governmental positions in greaterRussia, and by 1879 apothecaries, nurses, midwives dentists, distillers, and skilledcraftsmen were permitted to work and reside throughout the empire.Nevertheless Russia s Jews were increasingly rebellious over the remainingrestraints which still bound the greater part of Russian Jewry to the Pale ofSettlement, and which, to some extent at least, restricted their commercialactivities.Moreover, with the emancipation of the peasant serfs in the 1860s and1870s, Jewish socio-economic life was changing; aristocratic-linked privilegesincluding complete self-autonomy were eroding. The commercial monopoly ofthe Jews declined, notes Abram Leon, in the degree that the peoples whoseexploitation had fed it, developed. [LEON, p.136]Herein lay the dilemma; the Imperial government could retain certain of therestrictions against the Jews, and by doing so incur their undying hostility, or itcould remove all restraints and thus pave the way for Jewish domination overevery phase of Russian life.Certainly Alexander viewed this problem withincreasing concern as time went on.Alexander II lost a considerable amount of his enthusiasm for liberal causesafter an attempt was made to assassinate him in 1866.He dismissed his liberal advisors and from that time on displayed an inclination toward conservatism.Thisis not to say he became anti-Jewish, but he did show more firmness in dealing withthem.Then, in 1876 a secret society, Land and Liberty, was formed.The groupwas led by Mark Natanson.In October, 1879, the Land and Liberty split into two 12factions.The majority of members, who were Jewish and favored a policy ofterrorism, established the People s Will (Narodnaya Volya).Others, such asGeorge Plekhanov, who wasn t Jewish, formed Black Repartition (ChernyjPeredel), a group that rejected terrorism and supported a socialist propagandacampaign among workers and peasants.Jews were to be found in both factions andplayed a substantial role in the formation and activity of both organizations.Indeed, not only Aaron Zundelevich and Mark Natanson but Jewish activists ingeneral contributed significantly to the evolution of People s Will and BlackRepartition.[Erich Haberer, Jews and Revolution in Nineteenth-Century Russia(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), p.148] With the establishment ofNarodnaya Volya the Jewish mission of infusing Russian revolutionaryPopulism with a party-political dimension complementing, if not transcending, itssocial-revolutionary fixation had been accomplished.[Haberer, Jews andRevolution in Nineteenth-Century Russia, p.171]Despite the obvious presence of Jews in Chernyj Peredel, it has been arguedthat Jews qua Jews were more attracted to Narodnaya Volya because politicalterrorism was more congenial to Jewish participation than the theory and practiceof traditional Populism
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