Gresser’s ordinance was issued on November 17, 1890, a few days before the protest meeting in London.  As the Russian Government was at that time assuring Europe that the Jews were particularly happy in Russia, the ordinance was not published in the newspapers but nevertheless applied secretly.  The Jewish storekeepers, who realized the malicious intent of the new edict, tried to minimize the damage resulting from it by having their names painted in small letters so as not to catch the eyes of the Russian anti-Semites.  Thereupon Gresser directed the police officials (in March 1891) to see to it that the Jewish names on the store signs should be indicated “clearly and in a conspicuous place, in accordance with the prescribed drawings” and “to report immediately” to him any attempt to violate the law.  In this manner St. Petersburg reacted upon the cries of indignation which rang at that time through Europe and America.

CHAPTER XXIX

THE EXPULSION FROM MOSCOW

1.  PREPARING THE BLOW

The year 1891 had arrived.  The air was full of evil forebodings.  In the solitude of the Government chancelleries of St. Petersburg the anti-Jewish conspirators were assiduously at work preparing for a new blow to be dealt to the martyred nation.  A secret committee attached to the Ministry of the Interior, under the chairmanship of Plehve, was engaged in framing a monstrous enactment of Jewish counter-reforms, which were practically designed to annul the privileges conferred upon certain categories of Jews by Alexander II.  The principal object of the proposed enactment was to slam the doors to the Russian interior, which had been slightly opened by the laws of 1859 and 1865, by withdrawing the privilege of residing outside the Pale which these laws had conferred upon Jewish first guild merchants and artisans, subject to a number of onerous conditions.

The first object of the reactionary conspirators was to get rid of those “privileged” Jews who lived in the two Russian capitals.  In St. Petersburg this object was to be attained by the edicts of Gresser, referred to previously, which were followed by other similarly harassing regulations.  In February, 1891, the governor of St. Petersburg ordered the police “to examine the kind of trade” pursued by the Jewish artisans of St. Petersburg, with the end in view of expelling from the city and confiscating the goods of all those who should be caught with articles not manufactured by themselves [1].  A large number of expulsion followed upon this order.  The principal blow, however, was to fall in Moscow.

[Footnote 1:  See above, p. 170 et seq., and p. 347 et seq.]