[Footnote 1:  Byedonostzev means in Russian “Misfortune-bearer,” a play on the name Pobyedonostzev which signifies “Victory-bearer.”]

Accordingly, the imperial manifesto [1] promulgated on April 29, 1881, proclaimed to the people that “the Voice of God hath commanded us to take up vigorously the reins of government, inspiring us with the belief in the strength and truth of autocratic power, which we are called upon to establish and safeguard.”  The manifesto “calls upon all faithful subjects to eradicate the hideous sedition and to establish faith and morality.”  The methods whereby faith and morality were to be established were soon made known, in the “Police Constitution” which was bestowed upon Russia in August, 1881, under the name of “The Statute concerning Enforced Public Safety.”

[Footnote 1:  A manifesto is a pronouncement issued by the Tzar on solemn occasions, such as accession to the throne, events in the imperial family, declaration of war, conclusion of peace, etc., accompanied, as a rule, by acts of grace, such as conferring privileges, granting pardons, and so on.  Compare also above, p. 115.]

This statute confers upon the Russian satraps of the capitals (St. Petersburg and Moscow) and of many provincial centers—­the governors-general and the governors—­the power of issuing special enactments and thereby setting aside the normal laws as well as of placing under arrest and deporting to Siberia, without the due process of law, all citizens suspected of “political unsafety.”  This travesty of a habeas corpus Act, insuring the inviolability of police and gendarmerie, and practically involving the suspension of the current legislation in a large part of the monarchy, has ever since been annually renewed by special imperial enactments, and has remained in force until our own days.  The genuine “Police Constitution” of 1881 has survived the civil sham Constitution of 1905, figuring as a symbol of legalized lawlessness.

2.  THE INITIATION OF THE POGROM POLICY

The catastrophe of March 1 had the natural effect of pushing not only the Government but also a large part of the Russian people, who had been scared by the spectre of anarchy, in the direction of reactionary politics.  This retrograde tendency was bound to affect the Jewish question.  The bacillus of Judaeophobia [1] became astir in the politically immature minds which had been unhinged by the acts of terrorism.  The influential press organs, which maintained more or less close relations with the leading Government spheres, adopted more and more a hostile attitude towards the Jews.  The metropolitan newspaper Novoye Vremya ("The New Time”) [2] which at that time embarked upon its infamous career as the semi-official organ of the Russian reaction, and a number of provincial newspapers subsidized by the Government suddenly began to speak of the Jews in a tone which suggested that they were in the possession of some terrible secret.