[MUSIC] The Pale of Settlement was established in 1791. And it existed until 1917 until the time of the revolution. Is comprised the 25 Western provinces of the Russian Empire. That included modern day Baltic states, Ukraine, Belarus, part of the Caucasus, the southern part of the Caucasus. And this is the area where Jews were restricted to be. The phrase, the word "Pale of Settlement" actually came from Nicholas the First, from 1825. And this is where the Russian Jewry lived. And when we talk about the Russian Jewry, well actually, let me take it back. Russian Jewry is something of a misnomer, because one place where the Jews did not live was the Russian part of the Russian Empire. So we can talk about Ukrainian, Belarusian, Lithuanian Jewry, which all happened to be in the Russian Empire. And when we talk about the Russian Jewry in the 19th century, what we have in mind is the Pale of Settlement. At the end, by the time when the Pale of Settlement was disintegrating in the second decade of the 20th century, still, 95% of the Jewry of the Russian Empire lived within the Pale of Settlement. By the way, that 99% of them spoke Yiddish. But that perhaps will take us to a different time. >> We should also say that 99% of the men were literate. >> That is absolutely true. And let us talk about later about the educational division within the Russian Jewry. But when we talk about word Jewry, what we really have in mind is the Jewry in the Russian Empire. I mean, this was the 19th century, the great part of the of the Jewry of the world was within the Russian Empire. And what was happening within the Russian Empire in the Pale of Settlement was extraordinary demographic change. At the beginning of the establishment of Pale of Settlement, which came about by the three divisions of Poland of 1793, perhaps a little less than a billion Jews lived in the Pale of Settlement. At the end, we talked about over five million Jews. The first serious census of the Russian Empire took place in 1897. And that shows almost five million Jews, and the expansion of the Jewry continued. This is a remarkable demographic change. This is something extraordinary. Now this took place at a time when there was a demographic change within and outside of the Russian Empire, which came about because of technology, because of the decrease in death rate. And so, the population of the Russian Empire also greatly expanded. Maybe the size of the Russian peasantry, that is the peasantry within the Russian empire, that's what I always mean, maybe tripled from the beginning to the end of the century. But the case of the Jewry, it went up five times or more than five times. And that's an interesting question that, how come the demographic change among Jews was even higher than the rest of the population? And the explanation? Well, obviously we're talking about the diminishing death rate was perhaps hygiene among the Jews may be somewhat better. Then the hygiene among the Ukrainian, Belarusian, Lithuanian peasants, and consequently the death rate may be declined among Jews. But also, the commitment of go forth and multiply meant, in the Jewish case, is that girls and boys married very young. And they produced a very large number of children. Now this took place at the time of great misery, at the time of great economic misery. And when I talk about the Jewry within the Empire, we are talking about, well, very disadvantaged economically from our point of view, very miserable circumstances. Well, what were the Jews doing? Well, it's very hard for us to describe and imagine small traders, small craftsmen. And what was happening in the course of the century is that, finally toward the end of the century, industrialization in the early in the 1890s began. And at least a part of the Jews became workers. And by the way, I mean, a lot of the workers in the late 19th century, Russia was no means enviable. Their economic life did not greatly increase. But the rest of the Jewry was further impoverished. Further impoverished because the kind of jobs which they had by the degree of modernization, however little it was in the case of the Russian Empire, actually contributed to their immiseration. That is, the kind of small tradesmen with the jobs which the Jews performed became even more difficult to get. And mostly, because of the great increase of the population. That is the very increase limited space and limited there. But let me say something more about the Pale of Settlement. It's not only that the Jews were limited to living in these 25 provinces. And it was very difficult to get permission to leave. That is, as I said, about 5% of the Jews at the end of our period lived outside of the Pale. And these were people who had university education, medical professions, including nurses, for which there was a need, dentists, and prostitutes. And this is to me, a very sweet story. The instant of a case of a young Jewish woman who got a yellow certificate that she was a prostitute in order to go to St Petersburg, not to enroll in the university. She could not enroll because she was Jewish, and she couldn't enroll because she was a woman. But she could audit lectures. And, so she had to pretend, that she was a prostitute, for some reason, I find it a very moving story. But there were all sorts of ironies in the situation, because after 1905, when the first Duma that is the Russian parliament was established. Jews were elected to the parliament, not many, we're talking about a handful of people who in a liberal Party candidates, could go to parliament. But so, he went to St Petersburg, but he did not have a residence permit, so he was there without being permitted to be there, and he was a member of the body which was supposed to make laws. Which I also find amusing, well, amusing, in a grotesque sort of way, and, within the Pale of Settlement also, moving from one place to another, you need a special permission. And there were again, ironic cases that a young woman, married a man, moved into a different shetle, not too far, part of their place, and then her husband died. She couldn't go back to her parents house, because she'd lost her residence permit, Also, the size of the Pale was periodically reduced. Within the Pale also, there were areas where the Jews were limited, for example, the main city of this region was the modern Ukrainian capital Kyiv. Where the Jews were allowed to live only with special permission, so the Pale of Settlement by its very nature, by its very definition, made life a great deal more difficult. So, Russia had a Jewish problem, and this is the way the government saw it, from the very beginning to the very end, what are we to do? And consequently, they periodically, more than once, they sent ambassadors to study, what was happening in Western Europe, to what extent can we imitate? What extent can we learn from the western European example? And by and large, nothing came of this, first of all because they came back and then they came back saying that, well our Jewry is not like the western European Jewry. They are backward, and therefore they cannot be integrated, and they are backward because, they are not integrated. And so that's created a certain, not resolution which could not be resolved. >> This may be a good moment for me to note, that though you are talking about Western values of economic well being, the Jews of the Pale of Settlement, had come to Poland. And it was a wonderful opportunity for them compared to other situations in Europe at the time. And in fact the Jews of Poland, explain this, by mentioning that the word Poland, if you wrote it in Hebrew, broke up into two words, "stay here," and that they therefore felt at home in Poland. >> Well, I would disagree, Indeed the Jews went to Poland, because they were expect from various states, we're talking about 16th, 17th century. >> Right >> But that they really found their paradise, they found their new Eretz Israel, that's perhaps would be an exaggeration. >> That's an exaggeration. >> Even the worst Jewish mass murder, took place In Polish territory in 1650 under Khmelnytsky, figure something like 100,000 Jews were... so we should not exaggerate the well being of the Polish Jewry. >> I'm not exaggerating the well being, but the lives of Jews, not economically, but in terms of their cultural and religious habits, was much better, in Poland, than it had been in other places. >> That is true, after all they were expelled and consequently, there from the place where they could settle. An interesting question, is that after all, in the division of Poland, Poland was divided into three, the Austrian part, and Prussian part and the Russian part. And by far, the Russian part was the greatest, largest, relatively few ended up in Prussia compared, but a considerable number ended up in Austria Hungary, Galicia. And, it is a very interesting issue, that how these three Jewry's, coming out from the same environment, developed somewhat differently, in the Austro Hungarian empire, in Galicia. They lived in a culturally freer state, but in great poverty, and they developed a different, and again in some ways very attractive culture, [INAUDIBLE]. of its became a cultural capital for [INAUDIBLE]. >> My mother's family, comes from [INAUDIBLE]. >> Indeed, so the Russian Jewry, the Austro Hungarian Jewry, and the Russian Jewry were three separate stories, and by far the most important of course in the Russian Jewry because of their number. >> The reason I mentioned that they felt at home, is that's one way of understanding, why there was a sudden increase in population, because they felt much more secure. >> Yes, the great increase took place in the 19th century, within the Russian Empire. The other things which, well, perhaps I already talked about the immiseration of the Jewry. But I want to say something about, that the Jewry, in the beginning of the establishment of the pale, the one million Jews were talking about. Was fairly homogeneous in culture, and educational, in economic standing. And what was happening in the course of the century, is the Jewry came to be divided. Came to be divided, as a result of education, and I think last time he already said something about the Haskalah, and the significance of the Jewish influences. And the Hasidim who, and altogether a different culture, and a different Hasid families, That established in different courts, in different parts of the empire. >> But what you have is a double movement, one is, the secularization, of the Haskalah, of the enlightenment And the increasing intricacy of Hasidic religious life, which more and more centered on the Hasidic Rabbi. So we had dynasties, little right, so we have them going [CROSSTALK] into different direction in terms of economics and integration. >> So what we talk about is a very heterogeneous Jewry by the end of the century as a result of education, as a result of geography. So much so that actually I understand there is different Yiddish was spoken in Vilna than in Odesa. Different cultures that is, you are surrounded by different linguistic cultural environment and consequently your language changes by picking up words from the surrounding environment. >> I should mention that Yiddish is a fusion language and it meant that it took words from the neighborhood that people lived in. So Vilna Jews had different vocabulary, >> [CROSSTALK] Word for the neighborhood, but yes, I see what you mean, yes. And also as a result of the political differences namely the governor bettered the situation and of course the economic environment mattered. And what I want to emphasize that I talked about that the great majority of the Russian Jewry lived in miserable circumstances. But by the end of the century, a small segment was able to take advantage of economic opportunities which had existed in Western Europe almost a century earlier. And consequently now, there is a small layer of Jewish autocrats who established, we talked about last time of course about Odesa, which is the most impressive, and the most varied, and most. But also individual Jews now, became owners of textile factories in Warsaw, participated in the banking industry. In Odesa and not only in Odesa, but also in the rest of the country and railroad building. So we are talking about now, a small layer of actually, well of Jews all this will be very significant because we should be talking later about the Jews role in the revolutionary movement. But now, and they were disproportionate, let me advance this. But now, Jews could be seen as exploiters and plutocrats and also at the same time leaders of the revolutionary movement. And so this would create a great advantage to the anti-Semites who could now blame the Jews for all sorts of things, including being provocateurs, and subversives, and also exploiters among exploiters. >> Well, this is one of the ways in which Jews became, >> [CROSSTALK] I want to return to this topic later. >> Became associated with modernization. >> Yes. >> Even though they didn't have a major role in making it happen. >> Indeed, not in the case of the Russian Empire. Well, the point of view of the leaders of the empire was, what shall we do with our Jews? And they agonize over this. I mentioned before that they send the ambassadors abroad to study the solution. They did not come up in the solution and on occasion they wanted how to bring about integration which did not happen. But then we have to have an understanding and appreciation of the Russian class structure. What Russia was at the time. First of all, Russia was a multinational empire. At the end of the century of the 19th century, only 44% of the empire population was Russian. The rest were, as we mentioned before, Germans, Poles, Ukrainians, Latvians, Estonians, and what have you? So what kind of attitude did the Russian leadership, the Russian government had toward the national minorities? Well, that depended on the minority. The Baltic Germans did very well and they were very much integrated in the Russian upper classes. Oddly enough, the descendants of the Tatars who occupied Russia in the 13th and 14th century also, some of them came to be integrated in the Russian upper classes. And many of the well known Russian upper class families actually had Mongol background. The Poles was another question because they were troublemakers, they periodically had revolution. >> Well, there was a religious difference too. >> And indeed a very significant. That was a very disturbing thing, that the Poles happened to be Catholics and that was dangerous. >> And the Russians were Eastern Europe. >> Russians were Eastern Orthodox and so what should happen in the Ukraine, which is the Catholic influence is present, but also it's a home, it's the origin of the Russian Orthodox Church, which really started out in Kyiv. But interestingly they did not really bother so much about Muslims, Muslims were all right, they were not much bothered. But the Jews, even within this framework is a special case and particularly disturbing. And the reason for that is because this complete lack of integration. But integration takes place in Western Europe class by class. Now, Russia had an explicit class structure, so much so that you had an official standing which was entered into your certificate. >> Your identification. >> Identification, yes, Krestyanstvo means peasant, Meshchanstvo which means lower class, city dwellers, artisans, and their life. And Dvoryanstvo, the nobility and of course priests. Now, what what section? What class? What Sosloviye the Russian word for estate, do you integrate the Jews? Well, of course, the attempt was to integrate them into the peasantry. That was a complete failure for a number of reasons, Jews did not take too peasant life, Jews were actually excluded from agriculture. Sometimes they wanted to integrate them and settle them in areas, and other times they were forbidden actually to buy agricultural land. But here we are in the end of the century, Jewish peasantry simply does not exist. So what do you integrate the Jews to? It did not happen, and it is really a remarkable phenomenon that to me is the most interesting thing about the Russian Jewry, that is the Jewry of the Russian Empire, is this complete lack of integration, that is a separate world. There is no Jewish Christian weddings, I mean obviously maybe have been a handful, with about 5.5 million people also no conversion. The amount of conversion which takes place in this enormous population is a few 100 a year. And even though conversion promises your various advantages, you can go and live in different places by the way, I want to talk to this topic. Maybe later, when I talk about antsemitism, the perception was that even a converted Jew remains a Jew. >> I want to say that the ambiguous status of the Jews that they didn't fit anywhere was very important for the Jews as well as. >> Well of course, of course, so I cannot think of of a minority in early modern Europe. Or indeed anywhere where there is no integration when lives remained separate and consequently the Ukrainian peasant had no idea who the Jews were. And the Jews had very little understanding of Ukrainian peasant life and consequently each could entertain various prejudices against one another. Because of this complete lack of knowledge of one another. I mean that there would be really millions of people living in surrounding by Ukrainians, Latvians, Lithuanians and what have you. And yet retain their identity. This would begin to change only in the Soviet period that is while in Western Europe, there is well no assimilation. But there is acculturation in as much as Jews came to look like anybody else, and you could not recognize in the street who was a Jew and it was not a Jew. In the Russian case, you could recognize perfectly well, it was a Jew, there was no acculturation. Not even acculturation to say nothing about the assimilation, which did not happen. So we are talking about an ethnic minority to which I do not know any other, which would be so willing to retain its identity as the Jewry of the Russian Empire. >> There are other examples, there are examples of the Native Americans in the United States, who also maintain their indigenous cultures to a certain extent. But they were under greater pressure from the government, which wanted their land. The Jews of course, did not have land [MUSIC]
