State, an imperial rescript was issued on December 27, 1840, calling for the establishment of a “Committee for Defining Measures looking to the Radical Transformation of the Jews of Russia.”  Count Kiselev, Minister of the Crown Domains, was appointed chairman.  The other members included the Ministers of Public Instruction and the Interior, the Assistant-Minister of Finance, the Director of the Second Section of the imperial chancellery, and the Chief of the Political Police, or the dreaded “Third Section.” [1] The latter was entrusted with the special task “to keep a watchful eye on the intrigues and actions which may be resorted to by the Jews during the execution of this matter.”

[Footnote 1:  See p. 21, n. 1.]

Moreover, the expose of the Council of State, which was to serve as the program of the new Committee, was sent out to the governors-general of the Western region [1] “confidentially_, for personal information and consideration.”  The reformatory campaign against the Jews was thus started without any formal declaration of war, under the guise of secrecy and surrounded by police precautions.  The procedure to be followed by the Committee was to consider the project in the order indicated in the memorandum:  first “enlightenment,” then abolition of autonomy, and finally disabilities.

[Footnote 1:  See above, p. 16, n. 1.]

2.  UVAROV AND LILIENTHAL

An elaborate expose on the question of enlightenment was composed and laid before the Committee by the Minister of Public Instruction, Sergius Uvarov.  Having acquired the bon ton of Western Europe, Uvarov prefaces his statement by the remark that the European governments have abandoned the method of “persecution and compulsion” in solving the Jewish question and that “this period has also arrived for us.”  “Nations,” observes Uvarov, “are not exterminated, least of all the nation which stood at the foot of Calvary.”  From what follows, it seems evident that the Minister is still in hopes that the gentle measures of enlightenment may attract the Jews towards the religion which derives its origin from Calvary.

The best among the Jews—­he states—­are conscious of the fact that one of the principal causes of their humiliation lies in the perverted interpretation of their religious traditions, that ... the Talmud demoralized and continues to demoralize their co-religionists.  But nowhere is the influence of the Talmud so potent as among us (in Russia) and in the Kingdom of Poland. [1] This influence can be counteracted only by enlightenment, and the Government can do no better than to act in the spirit that animates the handful of the best among them....  The re-education of the learned section among the Jews involves at the same time the purification of their religious conceptions.

[Footnote 1:  See on the meaning of the latter term Vol.  I, p. 390, n. 1.]