In January, 1844, alarming communications concerning a “Jewish mutiny” reached St. Petersburg.  The matter was reported to the Tzar, and a swift and curt resolution followed:  “To court-martial the principal culprits implicated in this incident, and, in the meantime, as a punishment for the turbulent demeanor of the Jews of that city, to take from them one recruit for every ten men.”  Once more the principles of that period were applied:  one for all; first punishment, then trial.

The ukase arrived in Mstislavl on the eve of Purim, and threw the Jews into consternation.  During the Fast of Esther the synagogues resounded with wailing.  The city was in a state of terror:  the most prominent leaders of the community were thrown into jail, and had to submit to disfigurement by having half of their heads and beards shaved off.  The penal recruits were hunted down, without any regard to age, since, according to the Tzar’s resolution, a tenth of the population had to be impressed into military service.  Pending the termination of the trial, no Jew was allowed to leave the city, while natives from Mstislavl in other places were captured and conveyed to their native town.  A large Jewish community was threatened with complete annihilation.

The Jews of Mstislavl, through their spokesmen, petitioned St. Petersburg to wait with the penal conscription until the conclusion of the trial, and endeavored to convince the central Government that the local administration had misrepresented the character of the incident.  To save his brethren, the popular champion of the interests of his people, the merchant Isaac Zelikin, of Monastyrchina, [1] called affectionately Rabbi Itzele, journeyed to the capital.  He managed to get the ear of the Chief of the “Third Section” [2] and to acquaint him with the horrors which were being perpetrated by the authorities in Mstislavl.

[Footnote 1:  A townlet in the neighborhood of Mstislavl.]

[Footnote 2:  See above, p. 21, n. 1.]

As a result, two commissioners were dispatched from St. Petersburg in quick succession.  On investigating the matter on the spot, they discovered the machinations of the over-zealous officials and apostasized informers who had represented a street quarrel as an organized uprising.  The new commission of inquiry, of which one of the St. Petersburg commissioners, Count Trubetzkoy, was member, disclosed the fact that the Jewish community as such had had nothing whatsoever to do with what had occurred.  The findings of the commission resulted in an “Imperial Act of Grace”:  the imprisoned Jews were set at liberty, the penal conscripts were returned from service, several local officials were put on trial, and the governor of Moghilev was severely censured.