law, imperial bureaucracy and russian jews beyond the pale of settlement in 19 – beginning of the 20th centuries

Abstract

Studies into history of regional Jewish communities in the Russian Empire in the period between the 19th and early 20th century have so far been extremely erratic. There are topics that have rarely come into focus of Russian, Israeli and American Jewish studies. North Caucasus and Siberia were not included in the Pale of Settlement. The Jews who lived in Siberia as in North Caucasus had a specific legal status. Discrepancies in the national and regional laws adversely affected the lives and activities of local Jewish communities. Not only did the laws determine areas where Jews were permitted to reside, but also those sectors of the economy in which they could work. Law-making in the 19th and early 20th century regarding the Jewish population of Siberia and North Caucasus had no general trend and was subject to change from conservative to liberal character, depending on the state’s national policy. In this article, we will make use of specific examples and comparative analyse to look at the dynamics of the Russian laws on Jews of Siberia and North Caucasus in the 19th and early 20th century. This article is based on archival materials and acts of legislation.