Zone of Residence

The " Zone of Résidence" (in Russian: Чертаоседлости - cherta osedlosti ) is the western area of the imperial Russia where the Juif S have the authorization to reside in a permanent way. This zone extends until the accesses from the border from the Empire with the Central Europe.

The term English: Blade off Settlement drift of the Latin word palus , meaning stake and from which is resulting the word French Palissade . In a figurative way, this term means delimited zone where apply specific Loi S

Although including/understanding only 20% of the territory of European Russia, the Zone corresponds to the borders historical of the République of the Two Nations (Poland - Lithuania) and included most of what is now Lithuania, the Bielorussia, Poland, the Moldavie, the Ukraine and of the western parts of the Russia. Moreover, one number of City S inside the zone, are excluded. Only a limited number of categories of Jews are authorized with living apart from the Zone of Residence.

History

The Zone of Residence is created initially by the empress of Russia Catherine II in 1791, after several attempts fallen through by its predecessors, and more particularly by the empress Elisabeth Ire, to drive out the Jews of Russia unless they do not convert with the orthodoxe Christianisme Russian. The reasons of the creation of the Zone are first of all economic and nationalist. The Russian company then is traditionally divided between the noble , the serfs and the Clergé. The industrial progress lead to the emergence of a Middle-class, which is quickly filled of Jews which do not belong to any the sectors. By limiting their zone of residence, the imperial government allows the growth of a not-Jewish middle-class. Catherine II can say that it has establishes the Zone as a Compromis between the members of sound Gouvernement who always claim the expulsion Jews, his clean tendency liberal and the interests of the local Population of the Province S which suffer economically from the absence of a Jewish commercial class.

The institution of the Zone becomes particularly important for the Russian authorities after the second partition of Poland in 1793. Hitherto the Jewish population of Russia was relatively limited. The annexation of the Polish territory increases in a substantial way the Jewish population. With its apogee, the Zone which includes/understands the new Polish territories, has a population Jewish higher than 5 million, which represents at that time, the greatest concentration of Jews (40 pourcents) of the world.

Between 1791 and 1917, date on which the Zone officially ceases existing, this one underwent many modifications of its limits, so that certain areas, such as the the Caucasus, were successively opened or closed with the installation of the Jews. In the same way, the Jews have prohibition to live in agricultural communities or cities like Kiev, Sébastopol or Yalta), and are forced to settle in provincial small towns, supporting the emergence of the Shtetl S (literally, " small cities, " of German Stadt ). The commercial Jewish of the 1st corporation, the people educated or with an specialist education, the craftsmen as well as the soldiers, incorporated in accordance with the Charter of Recruitment of 1810 and their descendants have the right to life apart from the Zone of Residence. At certain periods, special exemptions are given to the Jews to live in the imperial big cities, but these exemptions are thin and for example in 1891, several tens of thousands of Jews are expelled of Moscow and Saint-Pétersbourg towards the Zone of Residence. During the Second world war, all the old Zone of Residence is under control of the Nazi Germany, involving executions of mass by the S, in the greatest planned operation of massive and systematic extermination of Jews.

The Holocauste led to the quasi-total disappearance of all the Jewish life, in an area which formerly included/understood the greatest concentration of Jews.

Life in the Zone

The life in the Shtetl S (villages) of the Zone of Residence is difficult and painful because of the Pauvreté. A sophisticated system of Jewish charitable organizations develops to come to assistance of the population, according to the Jewish tradition of Tsedaka. Associations provide Vêtement S to the student S the poor, Nourriture to hide with the Jewish soldiers enlisted in the army of the tsar, exempt medical care free with the poor, offer Dot S and Cadeau X domestic to the poor wives and off organize a technical education for the Orphelin S. According to the Historien Martin Gilbert author of the Atlas Jewish History , all the provinces of the zone have more than 14% of the poor profiting social securities. In Lithuania and Ukraine, percentage of the helped Jewish population reached 22%.

Concentration of Jews in the Zone, fact of them an easy target for the Pogrom S and the anti-Jewish massive riot S (very often on the initiative of the government). This as well as the repressive Laws of May , devastate the whole of the communities. Although the pogroms proceeded during almost all the existence of the Zone, the particularly fatal attacks between 1881 and 1883 and of 1903 with 1906, hundreds of villages devastated, killed out of the thousands of Jews and caused hundreds of thousands of roubles of damage.

One of the positive consequences of the concentration of the Jews in a limited zone, is the development of the modern system of Yechiva. Until the beginning of the XIXe century, each city supports its own higher students who study with the local Synagog with the rabbinical team of the community. Each student eats his meals, each day in a different house, a system known under the name Yiddish of " essen teg " (" days of repas").

In 1803, the rabbi Chaim Volozhin first disciple of Gaon de Vilna opens the Yechiva Volozhin which attracts young men of all the Zone. The yechiva is financed by Donation S of many communities and by collections carried out in Europe and America. The yechiva accommodates with its maximum to 450 students and gets also the lodging and cover to them. But when in 1892 the Russian government imposes on all the personnel teaching to have a Diplôme recognized by an establishment of Russian education and that courses of Langue and Russian Culture belong to the taught program, the yechiva which was directed purely towards the study of the Torah, then decides to close its doors. Its rabbis and its students leave towards others yechivot to Russia or with the the United States.

The quotas of Jews exist in the Enseignement since 1886: the percentage of Jewish students cannot exceed 10% in the Zone, 5% apart from the Zone and only 3% in the capitals (Moscow, Saint-Pétersbourg and Kiev). The quotas in the capitals will be slightly increased in 1908 and 1915.

In spite of the difficult terms of life and employment of the Jewish population, courses of hassidic dynasties thrive in the Zone. Thousands of disciples of rebbe (word Yiddish to designate a rabbi, a Master), such as the Rebbe de Gour (Góra Kalwaria currently in Poland), Yehouda Leib Alter, so known under the name of the Sfat Emits ), Rebbe of Tchernobyl (currently in Ukraine) and Rebbe de Vizhnitz (Vyzhnytsia currently in Ukraine), goes as a crowd in their cities for the Jewish holidays and follows the Minhag gim (habits) of their rebbe in their own hearth.

The tribulations of the Jewish life in the Zone of Residence are immortalisées by writers Yiddish such as the Humoriste Cholem Aleichem whose stories of Tevye der Milchiger (Tevye the slag) in the imaginary shtetl of Anatevka were popularized later in the musical comedy a violin on the roof . Because of the living conditions very hard day laborers in the Zone, approximately 2 million Jews, mainly not-monks, emigrates between 1881 and 1914, mainly towards the United States. This strong emigration have however only little influence on the number of Jewish inhabitants of the Zone which remains stable around 5 million people, because of a high birthrate.

During the First World War, the Zone loses its rigid influence on the Jewish population when a great quantity of Jews flee towards the interior of Russia to escape the invasion from the German troops. The March 20th 1917, the Zone is abolished by the Décret Russian Provisional government on the abolition of the denominational and national restrictions (Оботменевероисповедныхинациональныхограничений). Most of the Zone with its Jewish population becomes part of Poland. The revolution Bolshevik and the civil war of 1918 - 1920 lead to pogroms and military exactions of great width. More than 1236 pogroms are indexed only in Ukraine during which more than 31.000 Jews are massacred. (Abramson, Henry).

Territories of the Zone

The Zone of Residence evolved/moved during time. It includes/understands the following territories:

1791

Ukase of Catherine II of the December 23rd 1791:

1794

After the second partition of Poland, the ukase of the June 23rd 1794 adds the following territories:

1795

After the third partition of Poland, the following territories are added:

1805-1835

The Zone narrows gradually and is limited to:

The Jews do not have any more the right to move into the rural areas located at less than 50 Verste S (approximately 50 kilometers) of the western border.

Final

In 1882 it is interdict with the Jews to move into the rural areas.

The following cities are excluded from the Zone of Residence:

References

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