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Originally found at:https://ru.wikisource.org/wiki/ЕЭБЕ/Екатерина_IIII
Catherine II - Russian Empress (1727-1796; reigned in 1762 after the violent death of her
husband, Peter III). Already in the first days after accession to the throne, C. faced the question of the
Jews. Arriving for the first time in the Senate as she tells in her notes, compiled by a third party, found
herself in a difficult situation when the first question was raised about the admission of Jews to Russia
expelled in the previous reign, and it was unanimously resolved in a favorable sense. “Not even had a
week passed, since Catherine II,” read the notes, “ascended the throne; which she assumed to defend
the Orthodox faith ...; minds were very excited, as is always the case after such an important event;
starting a reign with such a project could not be a means to calm but to recognize the project harmful
was impossible.” The Empress was faced in the Senate, with the resolution of Elizabeth’s hostility to
the Jews and C. declared that she wanted the case to be postponed until another time. “And that's how
often it is not enough to be enlightened, but to have the best intentions and the power to bring them to
fruition.” The same considerations guided C. even when in the manifesto of Dec 4. 1762 on the
permission of foreigners to settle in Russia, she stipulated "except for the Jews." In fact, C.'s attitude
towards Jews was different. Responding to Diderot in 1773 to his question about Jews in Russia,
Catherine explained that the question of admitting Jews to the country was raised inappropriately, and
added to this that in 1764 Jews were recognized as merchants and residents of New Russia and that
three or four Jews have been in Petersburg for several years where “they were tolerated contrary to the
law or she pretended not to know that they were in the capital ”(they lived in the apartment of the
empress's confessor). The recognition of the Jews by the inhabitants of New Russia was in connection
with the Senate's proposal to allow Jews to enter Russia. Not daring to openly declare her agreement
with the opinion of the Senate, C. resorted to covert actions. On April 29, 1764, she sent a secret letter
to Governor Brown in Riga, which (an excerpt) read as follows: “if the guardianship office (a prototype
for the Ministry of Agriculture) recommended some merchants of the Novorossiysk province, they
should be allowed to live in Riga and trade. If they wish to send clerks or workers to Novorossiya, all
without distinction of religion, they should be given a passport and a convoy; and if three or four
people come from Mitava to go to Petersburg, they must be provided with passports without indicating
their nationality, without asking them about their religion. For identification, they will submit a letter
from merchant Levin Wulf in St. Petersburg. C. personally attributed to this letter: “If you do not
understand me, then I will not be guilty: this letter was written by the president of the guardianship
office. Keep everything secret.” By “Novorossiysk merchants”, meant the Jews. Major Rtishchev
brought seven Jews from Mitava to Petersburg; two of them David Levi Bamberger (see Heb. Entsikl.,
III, 735) and Moses Aaron, as well as Benjamin Ber, who did not go to St. Petersburg, were given the
authority to work in Riga under the leadership of Levin Wulf under the auspices of resettlement of
Jews to New Russia. This episode indicates that Catherine, conscious of the commercial and industrial
significance of the Jews, recognized them as a useful element for the state. By allowing the Greeks,
Armenians, and others sent from the army to settle in Russia in 1769, C. granted the same for Jews to
enter and live in New Russia. To the  same extent, her favorable attitude toward the Jews was
discovered when, with the first partition of Poland, she adopted Belarus with numerous Jews in the

population under her scepter. In the poster of August 11, 1772 about the accession of the region there
were lines specifically dedicated to the Jews: “... Through solemn above-mentioned encouragement
(the rights of new subjects) to each and every one of the free administration of faith and inviolable
integrity of their property. It goes without saying that the Jewish societies living in the cities and lands
attached to the Empire of the Russian Federation would be left and preserved for all those freedoms
with which they now in the discourse of law and their property are used: for the humanity of Her Imp.
Majesty does not allow them to be excluded from common grace and future welfare under Her blessed
State, as long as they, for their part, are subject to obedience like loyal subjects, will live in real trading
and crafts, according to their titles,”. With this manifesto, the Jews were not equal in rights with the
other new subjects, but rather retained only the rights of the administration of the faith and the use of
property. In relation to other residents, moreover, it was stipulated that each state would enjoy the
rights of “ancient” subjects throughout the whole space of the empire. It is possible that in this case
Catherine II was guided by caution. In any case, soon the rights of the Jews were thus expanded so that,
while they made up a separate group in Poland, distant from common civil and political life, Jews now
became citizens in Russia. In 1772, at the suggestion of the Belarusian governor-general Count
Chernyshev the kagal organization was introduced that had long existed in Poland, and the Jews were
subject to a special fee. But after the Jews got the right to enroll in the merchant estate in 1780, she
personally explained to the procurator-general that, with regard to the payment of a percentage of
capital from a merchant class, “the confession (religion) of merchants should not be a reason for any
difference” and on May 3, 1783, there was a decree that the Jews should be taxed according to the
estate in which they were assigned (merchants or petty bourgeois). Along with taxes, Jews were equal
in rights with other merchants and petty bourgeoisie in the field of estate and city self-government,
which at that time very widely covered the life of the urban commercial and industrial class, and
therefore the functions of the kagal were limited to “Jewish Kagals, in county towns and those who are
in the provinces must not concern themselves with any other matters besides the rites of the law and
their worship”. When Christian society began to impede the election of Jews to the positions of urban
self-government, City government, Heb. Enz., VI). Catherine sought the equality of the Jews before the
law and upon this principle she tried to hold on all issues of Jewish life. In 1785, Belarusian Jewry,
represented by a deputation arrived in St. Petersburg, appealed to the empress with a complaint about
the violation of their rights by the local administration. C. sent a complaint to the Senate, and she
commissioned her secretary, Count Bezborodko to convey to the Prosecutor General that “when the
aforementioned Jewish law was in effect people already entered on the basis of the decrees of Her
Majesty in a state equal to others, then it was necessary to observe the rule. At any rate,  Her Majesty
established that everyone should enjoy the benefits and rights without distinction of law and people.
According to this, the Senate issued a decree on May 7, 1786 (incorrectly referred to by some
researchers as the “1786 Regulation”), which determined certain rights of the Jews. By the way, the
decree abolished the eviction of Jews from the counties to the cities, which was supported by the
sovereign, who was striving to create commercial and industrial centers, for which purpose the Jews
were a desirable element. The rights granted to Belarusian Jews were extended to the Jewish population
of the provinces joined in the second and third partitions of Poland-Lithuania. A new direction was
initiated by C. concerning the politics of the Jewish question in 1791, when, according to complaints

from Moscow and Smolensk merchants, she recognized that the Jews did not have the right to join the
merchants in the internal gubernias, since this right belonged to the Jews only in Belarus. At the same
time, the Empress extended the right of "citizenship" to the Ekaterinoslav governorship and to the
Tauride region. This law established the so-called "Pale of Settlement", although the name itself did not
yet exist. Three years later on June 23, 1794, for unknown reasons, the Jews were levied a double tax
compared with the rest of the population (there is an assumption that C. wanted to encourage the Jews
in this way to settle in New Russia). An exception was made for the Karaites so that Jews, known by
the name of “Rabbins”, would not join their society. Then the same was granted by the Taurida
Governor-General to provide other Karaites with relief. Somewhat later, C. approved the restriction of
Jews in the estate-city self-government imposed in the Minsk province. It should be noted that with the
transition of the Jews to Russian citizenship in the acts emanating from the sovereign, the word "Jew"
disappears. Archival materials relating to the life of Jews in the era of C. are almost completely
undeveloped, and this was due to contradictions, discovered by C. as a sovereign and as a thinker. She
did not take the opportunity to fully figure out her personal attitude to the Jews.
 Wed: Golitsyn, "Istor. Russian law. about the Jews "; Gradovsky, “Trade and other rights of
Jews” (the text of the manifesto on the accession of Belarus is given); Orshansky, “Russian law. about
the Jews "; Hesse, "Jews in Russia"; Buchholtz, Geschichte der Juden in Riga; “To the history of
Western Russian. Heb., Heb. Library."
Yuli Isidorovich Hessen 
Notes [ edit ]
1.↑ Prince Golitsyn in his "East. Russian the law. ”stated that with the words“ according to their ranks ”, C.
would like to say“ as part-time citizens ”. This fabrication is refuted by the fact that the same manifesto on
the annexation of Podolia and Volyn clearly defined the meaning of these words: “engaging, as before, in
trade and crafts”. Yes, and the local authorities understood these words properly - for the time being, the
Jews would turn "in their bidding and trades of their own, as is customary."