. . Beyond the Pale STUDIES ON THE HISTORY OF SOCIETY AND CULTURE Victoria E. Bonnell and Lynn Hunt, Editors Beyond the Pale The Jewish Encounter with Late Imperial Russia Benjamin Nathans UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS Berkeley Los Angeles London University of California Press Berkeley and Los Angeles, California University of California Press, Ltd. London, England © 2002 by the Regents of the University of California Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Nathans, Benjamin. Beyond the pale : the Jewish encounter with late imperial Russia / Benjamin Nathans. p. cm.—(Studies on the history of society and culture ; 45) Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. ISBN 0–520–20830–7(Cloth : alk. paper) 1. Jews—Russia—History—19th century. 2. Jews—Russia— Saint Petersburg—History—20th century. 3. Jews—Cultural assimilations—Russia. 4. Russia—Ethnic relations. I. Title. II. Series. ds 135. r 9 . n 38 2001 947'.004924—dc21 2001003513 Manufactured in the United States of America 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 The paper used in this publication meets the minimum require- ments of ANSI/NISO Z39.48–1992 (R 1997) ( Permanence of Paper ). 8 To my mother Joanne Gomberg Nathans and to the memory of my father Daniel Nathans (1928–1999) my greatest teachers c o n t e n t s list of maps, illustrations, and tables / ix acknowledgments / xiii list of abbreviations / xvii Introduction. The Russian–Jewish Encounter / 1 part i. the problem of emancipation under the old regime 1. Jews and the Imperial Social Hierarchy / 23 2. The Genesis of Selective Integration / 45 part ii. the jews of st. petersburg 3. Language, Ethnicity, and Urban Space / 83 4. Conflict and Community / 123 5. The Geography of Jewish Politics / 165 part iii. jews, russians, and the imperial university 6. The University as Melting Pot? / 201 7. A Silent Pogrom / 257 part iv. in the court of gentiles 8. The Judicial Reform and Jewish Citizenship / 311 9. Ethnicity and Civil Society: The Russian Legal Profession / 340 Conclusion. The Russian–Jewish Encounter in Comparative Perspective / 367 bibliography / 383 index / 403 m a p s , i l l u s t r a t i o n s , a n d t a b l e s MAPS 1. Russian Poland and the Pale of Settlement / 30 2. Jewish communities outside the Pale of Settlement, 1897 / 84 ILLUSTRATIONS 1. Count Pavel Dmitrievich Kiselev / 32 2. Baron Evzel Gintsburg / 41 3. Emanuel Levin / 55 4. A former Jewish cantonist / 63 5. Public notice to Jews announcing the 1897 imperial census / 95 6. Police map showing the distribution of Jewish population in St. Petersburg, ca. 1890 / 118 7. The new Jew / 127 8. Lev Levanda / 132 9. Frontispiece of David Maggid’s Chronicle of the Congregation of the Merchant [mitnagdic] Bet Midrash in Petrograd (1917) / 139 10. Baron Goratsii (Horace) Gintsburg / 141 11. Adolf Landau / 145 12. Pauline (Pessele) Wengeroff, née Epstein / 148 ix 13. St. Petersburg Choral Synagogue / 162 14. Dedication ceremony at the St. Petersburg Choral Synagogue, 1893 / 163 15. Delegates to the Vilna Commission, 1869 / 176 16. Jewish soldiers celebrating Passover, ca. 1905 / 183 17. Alexander Tsederbaum / 192 18. Count Nikolai Pavlovich Ignat ́ev / 197 19. Leon Mandelshtam / 211 20. A law degree conferred on a Jewish graduate by Novorossiiskii University, Odessa / 219 21. Students in a dining hall at the Bestuzhev Higher Courses for Women, 1900 / 224 22. Vladimir Harkavi / 243 23. Vladimir Medem / 245 24. A Jewish auditor at the Imperial University / 276 25. A “son of Israel” reacts to The Smugglers / 289 26. Students and auditors in a dining hall at the Imperial University of St. Petersburg, 1910 / 297 27. A Jewish student at a commercial high school / 299 28. Genrikh Sliozberg / 325 29. Mendel Beilis and his attorneys / 330 30. “Beilis innocent, but the Jews guilty as usual” / 331 31. Maksim Vinaver / 336 32. Vladimir Danilovich Spasovich (Spasowicz) / 349 33. Fedor Nikiforovich Plevako / 360 TABLES 1. Jewish and Total Population of St. Petersburg, as Reported by Governor General, Police, and Census, 1826–1910 / 92 2. Jews and Non-Jews in St. Petersburg Manufacturing Sector, 1881, by Position Held / 104 x illustrations 3. Number of Dependents per 100 Persons Gainfully Employed in Jewish Families and in All Families, St. Petersburg, 1881 and 1887 / 109 4. Native Language Reported by Jewish Men and Women, St. Peters- burg, 1869–1910 / 111 5. Members of Ethnic Groups Who Spoke Their Own National Languages, St. Petersburg, 1869–1910 / 112 6. Literacy in Yiddish and Russian among Jewish Males and Females, St. Petersburg, 1897 / 113 7. Percentage of St. Petersburg’s Non–Russian Orthodox Population That Would Have to Relocate to Achieve Residential Distribution Equal to That of the Russian Orthodox Population, 1869 and 1910, by Religious Group / 120 8. Number of All Students and of Jewish Students in Gymnasia and Progymnasia and in Universities, Russian Empire, 1840–1886 / 218 9. Number and Percent of Jewish Students in Non-Jewish Educational System, Russian Empire, 1886, by Type of Institution / 229 10. Jewish and Non-Jewish Students in Gymnasia and Progymnasia Within and Outside the Pale, 1886 and 1896 / 270 11. Jewish and Non-Jewish Students in Universities, Russian Empire, 1886 and 1896, by University / 271 12. Jews in Incoming Classes in Universities, Russian Empire, 1905 and 1906, by University and Quota / 296 13. Lawyers and Apprentice Lawyers in St. Petersburg Judicial Circuit, 1888, by Religious Affiliation / 348 14. Jewish Lawyers and Apprentice Lawyers in Selected Judicial Circuits, Russian Empire, 1890 and 1895 / 354 illustrations xi a c k n o w l e d g m e n t s The long list of people to whom I owe a debt of gratitude in connection with this book begins with my parents, Daniel and Joanne Nathans. They nurtured in me, among other things, a thirst for ideas and a love of language that have sustained me to this day. Although my father did not live to see this book ap- pear in print, I hope that something of his grand spirit of inquiry lives in its pages. Along with my parents, many friends and colleagues generously gave me the benefit of their comments on drafts of part or all of the book. They in- clude Richard Brody, Richard Cohen, Lois Dubin, Ben Eklof, ChaeRan Freeze, Christoph Gassenschmidt, Daniel Gordon, Herbert Kaplan, Samuel Kassow, John Klier, Helene Moglen, Seth Moglen, Susan Morrissey, my brother Eli Nathans, Alexander Orbach, Derek Penslar, Janet Rabinowitch, Moses Rischin, the late Hans Rogger, David Sorkin, Shaul Stampfer, Michael Stanislawski, Richard Stites, Robert Weinberg, the late Richard Webster, Amir Weiner, Reginald Zelnik, and Steven Zipperstein. For their advice on the sub- ject of my research as well as on the fine art of working in former Soviet archives, I am indebted to I. A. Al ́tman, G. M. Deych, D. A. El ́iashevich, Gre- gory Freeze, G. I. Ippolitova, V. E. Kel ́ner, John Klier, and S. I. Varekhova, as well as to staff members at the various archives listed in the bibliography. Librarians at the University of California at Berkeley, Harvard University, the New York Public Library, Indiana University, the Y IVO Institute for Jewish Research, the Hoover Institution, and the University of Pennsylvania all pro- vided vital assistance. Katia Guth-Dreyfus of Basel, great-granddaughter of Horace Gintsburg, was an important source of information about her an- cestors, generously making unpublished family memoirs available to me. Har- riet F. Sigal of New York similarly provided me with unpublished family mem- oirs concerning Shaul Ginzburg and other figures in the late imperial xiii Russian-Jewish intelligentsia. To both I am profoundly grateful. Michael Blacher, Robert Geraci, Susan Morrissey, Steven Rappaport, and Theodore Weeks identified or helped procure important archival documents for my research. The idea for this project was born during my first year in graduate school at Berkeley, in a seminar taught by Reggie Zelnik. Reggie’s qualities as men- tor, reader, and adviser—and, it should be added, as mentsh —are already leg- endary, and I count the chance to have studied with him as one of the great pieces of good fortune in my life. His steady encouragement, his good hu- mor, and above all his consistently illuminating comments on my work made Reggie as close to an ideal reader as one could hope for. He has set an in- spiring example of what it means to be a scholar and teacher. I would also like to thank Robert Alter and the late Amos Funkenstein, who along with Reggie Zelnik served as members of my dissertation committee at Berkeley and whose work I deeply admire. The esteemed ethnographer and historian Nataliia Vasilievna Iukhneva generously served as my adviser during an in- valuable year of research in Russia. I am grateful to my former colleagues in the History and Literature Pro- gram at Harvard University and at Indiana University in Bloomington for their generous friendship and support. In Philadelphia I am similarly lucky to be surrounded by colleagues who have made the University of Pennsyl- vania an extraordinary intellectual home. At Indiana and at Penn I benefited from the help of a number of research assistants: Lindsey Barton, Dina Danon, Tamar Kaplan, Michele Katz, David Khantsis, Greg Klein, Dana Ohren, Lynn Sargeant, Matt Thornton, and Anya Vodopyanov. In a category all her own is Deborah Broadnax of Penn’s History Department, whose dili- gence and good spirits are a constant wonder. At the University of California Press, Stanley Holwitz, Mary Severance, Laura Pasquale, and Barbara Salazar did everything to ensure that Beyond the Pale moved beyond the manuscript. My thanks also to Victoria Bonnell and Lynn Hunt for including my book in their distinguished series. To my wife, Nancy Silverman, I owe the greatest debt of all. It was she who lived through the creation of this book, keeping a steady hand through the highs and lows of the entire project. Her love and companionship made bear- able the otherwise intolerable solitude that writing a book requires. Our chil- dren, Gabriel, Ilana, and Dora, have been a constant delight and distraction. One day, I suspect, they will come to understand what their father was do- ing in the faraway city that Gabriel called “Pete Seegersburg.” Finally, I thank the following institutions for their generous financial sup- port: the Social Science Research Council, the International Research and Exchanges Board, and the National Council for Eurasian and East European Research, all of which are supported in part with funds provided by the U.S. Department of State (Title VIII Program) and/or the National Endowment xiv acknowledgments for the Humanities; the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; the American Coun- cil of Learned Societies; the U.S. Department of Education (Fulbright-Hays program); the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture; the Lucius N. Lit- tauer Foundation; the University of California at Berkeley; Indiana Univer- sity, including its Russian and East European Institute; and the University of Pennsylvania Research Foundation. None of these institutions is responsi- ble for the views expressed in this book. acknowledgments xv a b b r e v i a t i o n s GARF (formerly TsGAOR) Gosudarstvennyi arkhiv rossiiskoi federatsii, Moscow PSZ Polnoe sobranie zakonov rossiiskoi imperii RGIA (formerly TsGIA SSSR) Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyi istoricheskii arkhiv, St. Petersburg RNB (formerly GPB) Rossiiskaia natsional ́naia biblioteka, otdel rukopisei, St. Petersburg SPb-FIV-RAN (formerly Sankt-Peterburgskii Filial Instituta LOIV AN-SSSR) Vostokovedeniia Rossiiskoi Akademii Nauk, St. Petersburg TsGIA-SPb (formerly TsGIAL) Tsentral ́nyi gosudarstvennyi istoricheskii arkhiv goroda Sankt-Peterburga, St. Petersburg Y IVO Y IVO Institute for Jewish Research, New York, Tcherikover Archive, Horace Guenzburg [Gintsburg] Papers xvii