In the inner, cultural life of Russian Jewry a radical break took place during this period.  True, the change did not affect the rank and file of Russian Jewry, being rather confined to its upper layers, to Jewish “society,” or the so-called intelligenzia. But as far as the latter circles are concerned, the rapidity and intensity of their spiritual transformation may well be compared with the stormy eve of Jewish emancipation in Germany.  This wild rush for spiritual regeneration was out of all proportion to the snail-like tardiness and piecemeal character of civil emancipation in Russia.  However, the modern history of Western Europe has shown more than once that such pre-emancipation periods, including those that evidently prove abortive, offer the most favorable conditions for all kinds of mental and cultural revolutions.  Liberty as a hope invariably arouses greater enthusiasm for self-rejuvenation, than liberty as a fact, when the romanticism of the unknown has vanished.

Hurled into the abyss of despair by the last events of Nicholas’ regime, the Russian Jews suddenly received what may be called an earnest of civil emancipation.  The Jewish “Pale” knew but vaguely what was taking place in the recesses of the St. Petersburg chancelleries during the decade of reforms, but that a striking change in the attitude of the Government had taken place was seen and felt by all.  Freedom had been granted to the victims of the military inquisition, the cantonists.  The gates of the Russian interior had been opened to Jews possessing certain qualifications with regard to property, education, or labor.  The educated Jews, in particular, were smiled upon benevolently “from above”:  they were regarded by the Government as a factor making for assimilation and as a connecting link with the lower Jewish classes.  The vernal sun of Russian liberty, which flooded with its rays the social life of the whole country, just then emerging from serfdom, shone also for the hapless Jewish people, and filled their hearts with cheer and hope.  The blasts of the reveille which had been sounded in the best circles of Russian society by such humanitarians as Pirogov, [1] and such champions of liberty as Hertzen, [2] Chernyshevski, [3] and Dobrolubov, [4] were carried through the air into the huge Jewish ghetto of Russia.  True, the Jewish question received, during the decade of reforms, but scanty attention in the Russian press, but the little that was said about it was permeated by a friendly spirit.  The former habit of making sport of the Zhyd was energetically repudiated.

[Footnote 1:  Nicholas Pirogov (1810-1881), famous as pedagogue and administrator.  He was a staunch friend of the Jews, and was deeply interested in their cultural aspirations.]

[Footnote 2:  See above, p. 24, n. 1.]

[Footnote 3:  Famous publicist and author, died 1889.]

[Footnote 4:  A famous literary critic, died 1861.]