Ivan Derzhavin: the history of the Jewish race in the life of Russia. Opinion on the disgust of hunger in Belarus and the organization of the life of the Jews Derzhavin opinion on the Jews download in fb2

Derzhavin G.R.

Owing to the supreme will of the Sovereign Emperor, being obliged to express my opinion on the aversion in Belarus of the lack of grain and the curbing of the selfish thoughts of the Jews in such a way that they, earning their livelihood with their own hands, were more than now useful to the common good, I read and scouted everything that only still belongs to these items. Based on all this, I find that my opinion should be in two parts: first, about the Belarusian inhabitants in general; secondly, about the Jews.

PART I

In general, about the Belarusian inhabitants

The Belarusian province, made up of the former Polotsk and Mogilev, extends over deliberately different earthen soils. In Polotsk clayey, sandy and podzol; in Mogilevskaya they are gray, silty and also somewhat clayey, therefore the grain harvests are not the same in them: in Mogilevskaya they are always the best, in Polotskaya they are always the worst. They assure that in this last one, for 9 years in a row, there has been a shortage of grain, and therefore all the stocks have been depleted. This year, in this northern part, the settlers suffered not only lack, but even hunger itself; in the afternoon, or Mogilev, although there was no abundance, they did not see a great need either. In addition to years of poor harvests, I find the following reasons for the lack of grain.

First: in general, the settlers in Belarus, although they are of the same tribe as the Russian people, there is an amazing difference in their customs and way of life. The Russian peasants, not only in the adjacent provinces, but who have come to this region for a long time, are industrious and diligent in agriculture. In the event of a grain shortage, they fill their lack with transport and various crafts, they almost never require loans or assistance from the owners, bringing them incomparably more profit, how much by regular payment of dues, so much by careful cultivation of the fields. On the other hand, the Poles are lazy in their work, slow, alien to all trades and careless in agriculture; do not care about the future, but are looking for how to skip time and shirk work. It has been noted several times that at the very working time [they] sit all day long over the lake with milk. In the event of a crop failure, it is considered a necessary duty to ask for supplies from the landowners, not only for seeds, but also for food. After the gathering of the harvest, they are immoderate and careless in spending: they drink, eat, have fun and give the Jews for old debts and for drinking everything that they demand; therefore, in winter, as a rule, they already show a deficiency. They eat bread not winnowed, in the spring mash or mash from rye flour; in May, June and July they are content with a little sprinkling of some kind of grain, chopped and boiled herbs like porridge; enduring hunger, they are so exhausted that they stagger with need, and therefore there can be no success in agriculture in this region. Adding to the fact that on holidays, of which they invented many themselves beyond the established ones, they turn into drunkenness and sit in taverns. This way of life of the Polish peasants, it seems, originated from their ancient freedom, that they were free to move from landowner to landowner, that at that time they paid very light taxes, that they went into management from one tenant to another. And therefore, being not tied either by habit, or by power of attorney to the landowners, or by care and construction to their houses, they almost do not know the first at all, and do not have the slightest zeal about the second, they hope today or tomorrow to move to new dwellings; and because of that they became so indifferent and lethargic to everything, that they look like desperate ones. In a word, they live from day to day, just to somehow spend time.

Secondly, the owners, with the exception of some, are not house-builders: they manage their estates, but especially the richest Polish gentlemen, for the most part not themselves, but through their tenants and housekeepers.

Thirdly, the most excellent profits are obtained here more from distillation: owners smoke wine, armored boyars smoke, devious gentry, priests, monks of various orders and Jews.

Fourthly, many of the owners' villages here are leased out, but one rarely sees arrangements in them for the reason that there are no general rules for the conclusion of lease contracts that would protect both the peasants from burdening and the economic part from disruption; and from this it follows that many covetous tenants, leaving a direct economy, which, if properly disposed of, could bring profit sufficient for the remuneration of their labor, seek out all the means to enrich themselves as soon as possible at the expense of the one who entrusted them with their villages; peasants are brought to the poorest condition by exhausting work and taxes and are turned from cultivators into beavers;

Fifth: also, some landowners, leaving wine sales at the mercy of the Jews in their villages, make decisions with them that their peasants do not buy anything they need for themselves anywhere from anyone and do not take on credit, as soon as from these tax-farmers, and none of their own. they gave nothing of food, except to these same Jews, tax-farmers; and these, buying from the peasants cheaper than the true prices and selling them three times as much, enrich themselves with profits and bring the villagers to poverty, and especially when returning the borrowed grain from them: for if not with a purely superiority, then, of course, they must give back twice; who among them does not do it, are punished. By such-and-such ties (I'm not saying this about everyone) all means have been taken away from the villagers to be prosperous and well-fed. However, for all that, there are enough who have come out of the need to be borrowed by the Jews.

Sixth: to the greatest of their [sufficient] frustration, not only in every village, but in others, and but several built by the owners of taverns, where wine is sold day and night for them and the tenant Zhid profits. These taverns are nothing but a strong temptation for the common people. In them, the peasants corrupt their morals, become revelers and indifferent to work. There, the Jews lure from them not only their daily bread, but also sown in the ground, arable implements, property, time, health and life itself.

Seventh: These abuses are aggravated by the custom, the so-called koleda, by means of which the Jews, traveling through the villages, and especially in the autumn at the harvest, and having drunk the peasants with all their families, collect their debts from them and steal the last food they need.

Eighth: they complain here about the strong export of grain by Jews to the Livonian province, and from there about the importation of a large amount of wine to Belarus. I did not understand the reason for this, what was the profit from exporting bread from Belarus to Livonia and sitting it there in wine, to import packs into Belarus. It seemed to me that it would be more profitable to convert the local bread into wine, and sell it here, and thereby get rid of the excess expenses for transportation here and there; but I was assured that the Livonian economists knew of some means of obtaining a greater quantity of wine from a smaller amount of bread, not by direct art, but by some kind of pastry.

Ninth: the peasants here suffer a lack of salt, because the state sale of it in 1794 was canceled, and no order was made for its export from Riga; but, on the contrary, it turns out to be an obstacle for them in that [since] as they exchange local products there for salt directly from foreign merchants, this is revered as a kind of trade belonging to the merchants, and therefore this is forbidden by Riga merchants to peasants.

Tenth: the total grain tax, which is considered a burden here compared to other provinces, also reduces the excess in grain.

Eleventh: they also complain here, and I personally noticed when going around the provinces that many small roads, along which there is no drive of cattle to the capital, are made as extensive as the big ones, that is, they are occupied by them 30 fathoms wide, therefore many the fertilized fields, or rather, some owners have almost entire estates under the lines of these roads, and have become deserted because there is no sowing of grain on them.

Twelfth: several thousand souls, who were formerly property-owning peasants, seeking the nobility, launched their fields without arable farming.

Thirteenth: the lack of livestock takes away the means of fertilizing the fields, and in general, from all of the above and the like, this province suffers poverty in bread. To avert what is necessary, remove all causes contributing to this, destroy abuses and find means to increase abundance, and for this the following is assumed.

First. Attention should be paid to rural house-building, which is in a poor state here, and since agriculture is the main part of it, from which scarcity and abundance come, I am enclosing the improvement of it under the letter “A” a project submitted to me through the ruling position of the provincial marshal, composed by some skillful in house-building by the local inhabitant and many others approved in accordance with the local situation of this province. Wouldn’t you like to instruct it to consider the Commission for Rural Economics and Custody of Foreigners, and if it is found useful, then, having issued an economic regulation on the basis of it, send the Belarusian nobility at least a kind of advice, because although every owner himself must take care of his private benefit, but the government, as a general political rule, is obliged to bring the good condition of private families into the nearest alliance with the common good. And for the greater encouragement of the owners to this generally useful part, would it not be desirable to ennoble them that any economic device brought to improvement, except for material profit and pleasure by itself, will be awarded the highest monarchial favor and will bring the advantage that, when choosing a position, it will be preferred such less zealous about their own house-building, and entrust the execution of this to the gentlemen of the district marshals.

Second. The improvement of the peasant character and condition should also be attributed to the care of the owners. They know their subjects' qualities, inclinations, behavior, economy without a constable, property, shortcomings and all sorts of needs. They can correct the evil in them, support the good with prudent instruction, diligent edification, active help in need and due punishment; especially take them away from idleness, which is the source of poverty, and make them industrial, so that, at the end of field work, in autumn and winter, they would not remain parasites in the houses of the summer fruits of their hands, but would be engaged in needlework according to their properties and skill or go out into cities for the manufacture of local products, such as flax and hemp, for which many Great Russian peasants come here and acquire profit for themselves, which they lose because of their laziness alone; or else they would work in carts and other jobs, which it is quite convenient to find in cities, in a word, make them useful to themselves and others, arousing more industrial differences for their own good, in others commendable jealousy and love for advantage, which will then revive the tendency to diligence, and this will bring contentment and abundance.

Third. Distilling, granted by privileges to the local country, must be recognized as a necessary means in house-building according to the local situation. It affords convenience to the maintenance of a sufficient number of cattle, necessary for the fertilization of the local cold fields, and makes the main owner's income, but due to the abuses that have crept in, it does not bring the benefit to the owners, which they could have, taking full advantage of this disposition provided to them. And for this, it is necessary to strictly confirm the establishment of distillation in this province by Count Chernyshev, who was the governor general here, in 1772, which took place and was confirmed by the highest: firstly, so that only the landowners who own the villages, where their arable farming consists of small towns and farms, at their distilleries under their own or their supervisors’ supervision, and not in other remote places, and with the obligation that every such owner would certainly leave every year for himself and for his peasants in the grain of spare grain as much as, according to the calculation, although the smallest proportion, it is necessary to feed in the event of a shortage of their peasants and to sow their fields, under fear for failure to do this, subject their estate to an inventory to the treasury. And so that the distillation of each year should not open earlier than in mid-September, and end in mid-April. Secondly, to renew the prohibition, so that the devious gentry, armored boyars and Jews, who do not own their own villages, do not smoke wine either at home or in the landowner's factories, under any guise, and do not import it in the form of trade from other provinces, and they were not sold either at home, or in taverns, or by bucket, or by gift. And about the estates of priests and monastics (except for their own family or acquired noble ones), according to those that, according to wills and other institutions, passed from landowners to plebans to commemorate their souls and are considered church, would you like to order to examine their former inventories, and in which there will be no income from distillation, those will be subject to the same prohibition. Thirdly, violators of the prohibition should not be left unpunished, but immediately, as soon as their crime is known, they should be brought to justice; and the landlords, if they either set up distilleries in the prescribed places, or produce distillation at an unlawful time, or allow distillation in their factories to those people who do not have the right to it, under any guise, deprive them forever the right to distillation, and for all that, to instruct the zemstvo police to have strict supervision, determining, moreover, that informers are rewarded with half of the smoked wine, and the other in the Order of public charity, so that this establishment is executed in all accuracy.

Fourth. In Great and Little Russia it is not customary for owners to lease their estates to others; but here and in other provinces annexed from the former Poland, it has existed since ancient times; the same is common in Courland and Livonia provinces. The difference between some rents between others is palpable. In Courland, this way of managing estates, if it does not elevate, then does not lead to the decline of house-building; but here (although one cannot say at all) it brings more ruin than benefits. The reason for this difference is that the terms of leases are not the same here and there: in Courland they are made for 9, 12 and 15 years, and in the contracts concluded, the estates in all parts are protected from disorder; and in Belorussia usually a lease is given for a year, for three, and rarely for six, after the expiration of one or three years it sometimes continues again with one or another tenant; and at the same time, there is less precaution in protecting the estate from ruin, because contracts are mostly particular and do not reach judicial approval; and from this it happens that the one who receives an estate for a year or three does not need to make special efforts to fertilize the house-building, for the circle of his lease is completed only on what he grabs from the owner; and for this, he directs all his efforts to extract his self-interest from what he sees and with what he accepts the estate, not worrying about its improvement and not regretting its depletion. On the contrary, the time of 9 or 12 years forces the tenant to take care of maintaining the economy in the best order, since after three years there are still 6 or 9 years left in which [he] must collect the fruits of his care or neglect. Consequently, if from the very beginning [the tenant] neglected his housekeeping, then in the course of time he would have to lose from his own pocket, especially in the event of a crop failure, paying every year the same income according to position. And in order to do this, would you like to extend this general rule about leases to the provinces annexed from Poland: consent, at 12 and 15; 2) that when giving away the entire economic, landlord and peasant state, there should be a correct description for the common owner and tenant signing; 3) the contracts to be concluded should contain the obligations of the tenant, curbing him from the disruption of the estate, such as: that he should not burden the peasants beyond the prescribed with work and various taxes under the answer that the parties agree to put among themselves; that forests, except for domestic household use, farm and peasant, for building and firewood, have no right to exterminate for their own self-interest; that he will keep all the household parts in order and will not allow them to fall into decay, and that after the expiration of the lease he will be liable to give everything according to the very inventory according to which he received it, in the same condition, quality and quantity in which he received it, excluding accidents, witnessed by the lower Zemsky court, somehow: fire, ulcers and bestial case; 4) lease contracts, inventory or inventories must be made in the presence of places, and upon them, the entry into leasehold, and after the expiration of the term for the transfer of the estate to the otchinnik, must be made through the lower zemstvo court. All leases of noble estates to merchants and philistines, whether they are of Christian law or Jews, should be completely prohibited and immediately destroyed, so that people do not engage in exercises that are not characteristic of their state, because through this both private and general harm occurs. With these precautions, without violating the right to freedom to dispose of all their property, noble estates that are leased out will be protected, as far as possible, from ruin.

Fifth. Count Chernyshev allowed to build taverns and, according to local privileges, sell wine in them only on high roads at a legal distance from each other, at fairs and other places to satisfy the travelers with food and fodder; but how since the taking of the region to this time they have multiplied too much and, according to the statements submitted to me, there are about 5000, but it is heard that if there are even more, then all the edges of the taverns are superfluous and newly built after the taking away, which are not located near high roads, not at fairs and transportation and not at mills, in a word where there is no gathering of strangers, immediately destroy it, and prohibit the sale of wine in them; and likewise, without the permission of the Treasury Chamber and the governor, they should not be built again, and especially on the borders of the Great Russian provinces, where state-owned wine is sold by tax-farmers, because such taverns serve to undermine crown attorneys, therefore, to the detriment of the treasury. And where the taverns remain, then establish them on the right of taverns, and immediately expel the Jewish tenants, and nowhere shall they be allowed to sell wine in buckets or cups, nor distillers at wine factories, nor factors or merchants at landowners' houses, in a word, besides the big roads, fairs, mills and wharfs, where there is a gathering of strangers, not only taverns, but even the taverns themselves should be kept only in shtetls and farmsteads under the own supervision of the landlords or their stewards; and in the villages and in empty remote places they by no means have them, so that the peasants do not become drunkards. Whoever in his dachas, although in designated places, has taverns or taverns and allows Jews, taverns, distillers, factors to sell wine on the spot or deliver it to the villages in them or in their own or someone else’s, he will be deprived of the right to distill and, in addition, he will pay the informer half the price of the wine sold, and the other in the Order of public charity.

Sixth. Under the ban to take custody of the estate for three years, to destroy the abuse that has crept into the custom among many owners that they do not allow their peasants to buy on the side what they need and sell their surplus to anyone other than their innkeepers, but in this case to extend freedom for the villagers in the whole space, as usual in Russia.

Meanwhile, seventh: to confirm not only to the owners, but also to the village police, that on holidays and Sundays there would be no sale of wine at all during the divine service, and in those hours, as well as at night, according to the instructions of the city police, they should be locked, and see that many settlers did not gather in them and did not spend whole days idly.

Eighth. Not only the owners themselves, but also the managers and clerks of the villagers should watch the villagers with the utmost care, so that Koleda the Jews and no other people did not even go out with their bread, but especially at night and stealthily, through drinking wine, they did not collect, and in general, so that the Jews and no one [other] would pay their grain debts without first presenting their accounts to the owners and without attached to to that from them people; and on state estates, without the supervision of the rural police, that is, voits, elders and elected, under the fear of the peasants being returned without a queue for recruits, and the Jews alone, without wives, to work in mining plants, or whatever they want, they will impose a fine, but only a strict one, because such secret entrances of the Jews and the drinking of the villagers make the closest connection between them, corrupt them so much and deprive them of constant food. In short, the sale of wine should be limited as much as possible, it could even be turned to the benefit of the treasury by setting up taverns, as in Russia, if it weren’t against the ancient privileges of this region, most graciously confirmed by the Sovereign Emperor; but only the freedom to smoke wine should not be taken away from the owners and state distilleries should not be built, because through this all the benefits from the landowners would be taken away, and the latter would be exterminated due to the poverty of the meadows.

Ninth. All of the above points, which relate to the best house-building and management of noble estates, should also be extended to state-owned estates leased by temporary owners if the Courland tenant rules are not given in an indispensable law for them, because, moreover, according to the tenant rules of Count Chernyshev, the highest confirmed, appointed officers were established under the command of the Chamber Expedition to oversee the administration of state elders, in temporary possession, whether they were ruining them and, in the case of peasant complaints, for their protection; at the Treasury, which has taken the place of the Chamber Expedition, not only there are no officers, but the former assessor for parcels has been canceled: then there is no one to either inspect them or protect them. And for that, wouldn’t it be nice to re-determine one assessor to the Treasury Chambers in those provinces where such estates are located, for their annual certificate: whether the temporary owners are exactly fulfilling the rental institution and the rules prescribed for the general arrangement, or when they are introduced in Belarus Courland rules, then act according to them.

Tenth. To avert the many exports of grain from the province, prescribe that the provincial government, and especially the governor, have the most accurate information every month in each county, receiving statements about the prices of grain, and, having printed them, published them throughout the province, so that everyone knows about its direct prices, and if they suddenly began to rise excessively, and even more so if, through special reports from the rural police, it began to come to the attention that somewhere there began to be a complete shortage of bread, then, recognizing the real reason for the high cost, to avert it with legal orders, forbidding it in other provinces export of grain, or at least inform the higher government in advance so that appropriate measures can be taken without wasting time. As for the import of wine from Livonia, as it was prescribed by the institution of Count Chernyshev in 1772, paragraph 12, through the noble marshals, to testify to the goodness of the wine for sale and set its price, then on the basis of this, if a great import had been noticed, from where the wine would have been there is a strong suspicion of a fake thereof, they have the right, in the reasoning of his kindness, to inspect, and if there is, to deal with the carriers according to the laws.

Eleventh. In disgust of the lack of salt in the local province and the extreme poverty of the peasants, if it is dissimilar and difficult, as I myself think, to restore the state sale of it, then at least make such orders that in Riga it is bought from foreign ships by the treasury was also sold to peasants coming from here with various products, not only at true prices, but with the addition of some interest in favor of the treasury, assigning to that exact time when the peasants come for salt. Through this, it seems, the treasury, buying salt at a cheap time, can benefit, and the peasants, traveling for salt at the same time, will avoid various merchant bindings, harassment and losses.

Twelfth. As for all these local settlers, who are being searched for by the nobility throughout the province by several thousand, wouldn’t it be nice to order who should be examined as soon as possible and without a queue, and if they are found to be truly nobles, then, deporting them to the borders, establish a land militia from them, or as it pleases will; and when they are recognized as serfs, owners, then calculate, for several years, as recruits or, by strict imperial personal command, order them to be in obedience to the landowners and cultivate the lands given to them from them, which now lie in vain.

Thirteenth. Inasmuch as the lack of cattle, as far as is known here, happens most from an infection introduced by driven cattle, then it is most strongly confirmed to take all possible precautions so that infected cattle are not let in, and although sufficient prescriptions have already been made about this, only the utmost strict observance of them is necessary; however, it seems that it would not be bad to add this rule to them, so that every industrialist, when driving cattle in any place where he will have an overnight stay, from the owner of that village or foreman, take certificates with the meaning of the exact date and date of driving the cattle , taking certificates that he is not susceptible to disease in any way, in which the owners and foremen should check it with an obvious inspection, and in the case of [the presence of] an infection, the difference between healthy cattle and the sick one according to known external signs. In the same way, in the event of the sale of any part along the way, take certificates from the buyers about this and present them at the first overnight stay to the owners or foremen. According to how, if one or several cattle did not appear against the certificate at the first overnight stay and the industrialist did not certify in any way that they were sold, or even the very signs of the disease were found on the cattle, then in this case, not allowing for a further run, you can it would have been possible to detain and excommunicate the cattle, revered in the infection, to a special place, safe from communication with the cattle of that village, for three or four days. If at this time there was a case or signs of illness became visible, then the owner or foreman notifies the zemstvo police of this, so that legal measures could be taken in this case; when neither one nor the other appears within four days, then the industrialist is released on his journey with a certificate of his delay. By this means, it seems, it would be more reliable to somewhat avert the death of cattle, but only firmly through the rural police to the governors to ensure that under such an inspection of cattle, merchants or industrialists do not have any hitches or bindings along the roads from the villagers, and through this the price of driving cattle in the capitals.

Fourteenth. As for the roads along which there is no drive of cattle to the capital, order to act according to the strength of the boundary instructions, where it is precisely prescribed to allocate 30 sazhens for those roads that go to the capital and along which they only drive cattle, and give other cut-off lands to previous owners.

The fifteenth. Rural stores, on the basis of issued laws, to keep the eliko in good order; but just as every time the issuance and reception of bread, personally for the marshals, but for the space of povets, is not only painful, but it is almost impossible at all, then it is possible to allow these shops, especially in state-owned villages, to keep under seals and locks the elders chosen for that world. And therefore, the distribution and reception of bread should be entrusted to them, but only if they, without continuing time, gave the marshals information, so that in case of any abuse it would be possible for the marshals to avert or correct it by collecting from those foremen of the distributed bread without extreme need. In the landowners' villages, [the issuance of bread] should be left to the report of the landowners themselves, for, as it is assumed above, for not feeding the peasants to describe their villages in the treasury, then there is no further need for the marshals to observe exactly their shops, but it is enough if they will visit about gathering bread in them at the appointed time, and sometimes testifying about the integrity of it.

Thus, the lack of food may turn away from the Belarusian province for the future. The owners will receive no less income from the surplus of their crops, and the peasants, eating needlessly clean daily bread, will bless the Heavenly and earthly Father, who has extended His high care for them.

Derzhavin G.R. Opinion on the aversion of hunger in Belarus and the organization of the life of the Jews // "Academy of Trinitarianism", M., El No. 77-6567, publ. 12814, 12.01.2006

Catherine II ruled the country until 1796, and after her death, her son Pavel I occupied the Russian throne. In 1799, Jews from the Belarusian town of Shklov complained to the emperor about the owner of the town, a retired general S. Zorich, in the past - one of the favorites of Catherine II. When the empress lost interest in Zorich, she granted him the Shklov estate, where he built himself a castle and lived "in magnificent arrogance": he maintained at his own expense an opera house, a military school for three hundred noble children, "every day" arranged balls, masquerades, fireworks and grand hunts. The “Shklov despot”, a man of strong temper, considered all Jews “subject to him, as long as they live on the earth”‚ and dealt with them at every minute whim as with serfs: he drove them out of the town, took away houses and property, beat him with his own hands, drove him to work "in stocks and glands", levied such taxes that "left only air without payment".

Paul I had no particular sympathy for the favorites of his late mother. Having received a complaint from Shklov, he sent there the famous Russian poet, Senator Gavriil Romanovich Derzhavin, to sort out on the spot "unauthorized acts against the Jews ... retired Lieutenant General Zorich." Derzhavin arrived in Shklov, questioned witnesses, but treated Zorich's "amusements" condescendingly and reported to Petersburg that "no matter how hard he tried", he did not find excessive "harassment of the Jews by Zorich" for which he could be subjected to ... trial. However, the testimonies could not be crossed out, and Derzhavin took advantage of the trial on accusing the Jews of drinking Christian blood.

It happened in the same year in Belarus, in the Senno district, shortly before Easter. Near the tavern they found the corpse of a woman, and on the basis of "the popular rumor that the Jews need Christian blood", they accused four Jews who happened to be in that tavern of ritual murder. An investigation began, and a special official was instructed to "secretly find out if ... there is a provision in Jewish laws that Jews need Christian blood?" The baptized Jew Stanislav Kostinsky took the code of Jewish laws "Shulchan Aruch" and translated excerpts from it with distortions to support the accusation. This incorrect translation, erecting slander on the whole people, was submitted to the court for consideration, but the case ended happily and the accused were acquitted.

However, even before the end of the investigation, Derzhavin informed the emperor that the Senno case "accuses all the Jews of maliciously spilling Christian blood through their Talmuds" and therefore they cannot give impartial testimonies against Zorich "until" - as he wrote - Jewish people will not be justified before Your Imperial Majesty in the mentioned ... villainy against Christians. "Paul I ordered Derzhavin to conduct the case of Zorich, without taking into account the Senno trial, but Zorich died in the meantime, the case was sent to the archive, and the Senate decided that the Jews belonged to to the merchant and petty-bourgeois estates, they cannot be considered serfs in landowner towns and villages.Thus, they were formally recognized as free citizens with a limited place of residence - in contrast to the peasants, who, according to the manifesto of Paul I, were forbidden even to "dream that they have become free."

A year later, Derzhavin was again sent to Belarus with the broadest powers. In the region for several years in a row there was a crop failure, famine raged, and the landowners left their serfs without help and sent all the grain to distilleries, which brought them good incomes and soldered the peasants. “Terrible poverty,” a contemporary wrote, “is a consequence of drunkenness, and drunkenness is a consequence of free distillation and the sale of wine, which is extremely cheap and consumes the welfare of millions for the benefit of several hundred people.” Sending Derzhavin to Belarus, Paul I ordered to stop abuses and strictly to punish the landowners who “out of immeasurable self-interest leave their peasants without help to feed themselves.” The emperor’s order did not say anything about the Jews, but on the same day Derzhavin received an explanation from the Prosecutor General of the Senate: the essence of the Jews ... then the Highest Will is that Your Excellency pay (on them) special attention. "And Derzhavin's inspection acquired a different meaning.

In those days, the Jews were engaged in the Shinkar trade in the villages‚ in the pan's estates‚ and they were accused of soldering the peasants of the western provinces. At the same time, they forgot that not only Jews used the income from the production and sale of vodka. “The owners are smoking wine,” wrote Derzhavin in his report, “they are smoking boyars, gentry, priests, monks and Jews of various orders.” They also forgot that the peasants drank and starved in those provinces where there were no Jews at all. In Kiev, for example, Jews could not live in the eighteenth century, and the tradesmen, Cossacks, the city magistrate and even monasteries, including the famous Pechersk Lavra. “Khreshchatyk was turned almost into a continuous distillery settlement,” the researcher noted. - Distilleries were scattered around the whole of Kyiv. At one Podil, twenty-five to thirty thousand buckets of vodka were drunk annually in magistrate's taverns, which gave income to the magistrate up to ten thousand rubles.

Even under Empress Elizaveta Petrovna, they were looking for such a source of "multiplication" of state revenues, which "cannot have any diminution at all, but there will be a single circular and endless appeal." The sale of vodka became such a main source of income for landowners and the state, and agronomists recommended that landlords "use bread to smoke wine in order to get double profit through this." The calculation was simple: one could earn twice as much money for wine than for the sale of bread, from which this wine was made. In 1773, the government bought two million buckets of vodka from the landlords of Russia and received from its sale more than four million rubles of net profit - a huge amount for those times.

When Jews were accused of soldering peasants, they did not take into account the fact that Jews in the villages did not have the right to own land, they were limited in trade and crafts in cities, and the main way to earn a living for them was distillation and tavern making. The law forbade them to independently engage in this trade, and therefore they took over the production and sale of vodka from the landowners. Willy-nilly, they became intermediaries between landowners and peasants, and the landowners, using their power, forced Jewish taverns to sell huge quantities of alcoholic beverages. Sometimes several landowners owned the same village, each of them built a tavern there, planted his own tavern maker and sold his own vodka. In the Senate report, it was noted that S. Zorich "forced the Jewish shinkars to take 16,000 buckets of grain wine from him every year and exact from them 3 rubles 15 kopecks per bucket" although this wine cost three times cheaper and sold it was not possible in such quantities. By order of Zorich, barrels were forcibly rolled into the taverns and money was collected from the taverns "through execution." It turned out that the Jewish shopkeeper bargained for the last penny from the peasant and gave it to the landowner, remaining as poor as his enslaved neighbor. Contemporaries noted the poverty of the taverns that struck them, and the Lithuanian governor reported in a report that only women sit in taverns, and their husbands "go out to other trades, because the income from the tavern is often insufficient for their maintenance."

Arriving in Belarus, Derzhavin discovered during an audit that the serfs ate bread half and half, sorrel, quinoa and roots: out of "habit and need for contented indifference" ‚ "thin and pale as dead," - and the Jewish population of the region was "in extreme exhaustion and poverty, and such a large part." He even noted that the landlords were largely to blame, who made wine in huge quantities, built taverns, planted drunkenness and imposed exorbitant requisitions on the peasants. However, Derzhavin, himself a large landowner, blamed only Jews for all the troubles of the Belarusian peasant, although in a private letter to the Prosecutor General of the Senate he said otherwise: “It is difficult to blame anyone severely without error and in fairness. in it. The owners cannot forbid drunkenness because they get almost all their income from the sale of wine. And the Jews cannot be fully blamed either, because they extract the last food from the peasants for their livelihood. In a word, everyone should save moderation ... but everyone wants more benefits for himself.

Derzhavin observed Belarusian Jews for three or four months, and nevertheless decided to draw up a detailed plan for the complete reorganization of Jewish life. His note, submitted to the government, was called: "The opinion of Senator Derzhavin on the aversion in Belarus of the lack of bread by curbing the selfish thoughts of the Jews, on their transformation and other things." He wrote, based on his "research": Jews avoid hard work, because from their "Talmuds" it follows that they should rule, and other peoples should obey them; their school is a "nest of superstitions" where children are taught only religion and fanaticism, and until their schools change, their manners will not change; they collect their riches "to build a new temple of Solomon" or "for carnal pleasures"; they always walk with their heads covered, because "they honor themselves before all other peoples as the most excellent"; they take the same names, “some Movshev, Abramov, Leibov, Khaimovichev, Leizarovichev and the like”‚ and this should also be “attributed to their cunning”; wear the same black dress, which is why "memory is lost, the concept is confused" and it is difficult to determine their true number when levying taxes.

After such a preface, Derzhavin outlined an extensive project - eighty-eight points for the "transformation of the Jews." "In order to make (them) useful citizens", it is necessary to distribute the Jewish population equally in different places of Belarus, where they will turn to agriculture, and the surplus to be resettled on "empty lands in the Astrakhan and Novorossiysk provinces." Derzhavin suggested placing the Jews on special streets, separate from the Christians; not to allow Jews to take part in elections to city magistrates, so that the fate of Christians "is not to be betrayed into the hands of those who hate them"; "weaken their fanaticism... and, having exterminated their hatred for other peoples, to destroy the insidious plans to steal other people's property"; to prohibit Jews from taking "Christians and Christian women in their services"; "not even send Jews with their wives to hard labor in Siberia, so that they do not multiply and corrupt the heart of the Empire, that is, the indigenous people" - and so on. Thus, wrote Derzhavin, "the Jews are obstinate and crafty, the enemies of Christians, will receive an image of improvement" , and Paul I, having made this reform, will be awarded great glory for fulfilling the commandment: "Love your enemies and do good to those who hate you."

The Senate was supposed to consider Derzhavin's note, but in March 1801 there was a palace coup, the conspirators killed Paul I, the reign of his son, Alexander I, began, and with him a new, seemingly, approach to the Jewish problem.

Posts from This Journal by “Jews” Tag

• 
  Masada will fall no more

  Up, step by step, along the narrow path people are going to the fortress, How long can we hold out? Day? a week? Month? Or maybe a year? Pala the capital is a temple…

• The word of the Jew to the UN and others.

  Listen, comrades in the United Nations, And you are Europeans sitting in Brussels. Stop the Jews reading lectures. You are ringing copper and sounding cymbals ...

• Allah gave this land to the Jews, there is no Palestine in the Quran - said the sheikh

  Jordanian religious scholar Sheikh Ahmad Adwan claims that "Palestine" does not exist. Adwan claims that Allah has given away the Holy Land...

• 
  

  * 1 Full title of the original: Opinion of Senator Derzhavin on the aversion in Belarus of the lack of bread by curbing the selfish> crafts of the Jews, their transformation and other things. To establish the text, three lists of this extensive opinion served us, received: 1, from M.P. Pogodin (written during the life of Derzhavin, with a correction by his hand, but without appendices), 2, from P.P. Pekarsky, p. 3, from the late Ad.F. Stackelberg, former director of the statistical committee ( the last two some of the following appendices in the note, but they are inferior in fidelity to the first, modern copy). The original manuscript burned down in the fire of 1862, which destroyed the archives of the Department of Religious Affairs of Foreign Confessions (Compare below note .. In applications, p. 306). Part of this note was published by A. M. Lazarevsky in the Edition of N. V. Kalachov: Archive of History. And pract. Information, book. 4 (Spb. 862: pp. 60-84); moreover, only the section on the Jews was reported in its entirety. The first half on the situation of the Belarusian peasants, and the end - the project for the transformation of the way of life of the Jews - were outlined in abbreviated form; applications remained unknown to the publisher. Many inaccuracies crept into the text printed then, and especially into the footnotes of the note, which have now been eliminated thanks to the comparison of several lists. After Derzhavin, many people wrote about the Jews, including A. P. Turgenev (1800), as can be seen from Karamzin’s letter to him and from Turgenev’s own note in Moskvityanin 1855, No. 1, p. 86. In the same letter, Karamzin mention is made of a Polish book by Chatsky on the same subject, published in Vilna in 1807 under the title:

  Under the name of the armored boyars, a special category of free rural inhabitants is known, settled in the Vitebsk province on their own and landowners' lands and still retaining some features of their former historical name of their own, the armored boyars were nothing more than commoners, although in a row, although in a number of different categories of this class and occupied the highest position." This is how the article “The Armored Boyars” by V.I. Vishnyakov begins in the same book of the Archive (pp. 79-94), where part of Derzhavin’s Opinion is printed.

  * Count Zakhar Grieg. Chernyshev, who contributed to the annexation of Belarus, held this position from 1772 to 1782 and formed two governorships, Mogilev and Pskov. From there he was transferred to Moscow as the mayor. (Words. Bow. - Kam., part 5)

  ** Pleban, Polish == parish priest

  * 70 years after R. X. Roman commander Titus, Vepasian's son, who later was emperor.

  1 70 years after R. X. Roman commander Titus, Vepasian's son, who later was emperor.

  3 In the year 315, the Greek emperor Constantine forbade at first to use the Jews in any public positions, but as they had the right to do so by the previous imperial laws, he ordered two or three people to be honored with this; but in later times extended this right to all the teachers and elders of this people. Also, the emperors Honorius and Theodosius, Valentine and others gave many privileges, but after bad deeds they canceled them and even subjected them to cruel execution.

  According to the scripture itself, it is clear that they were ruled by patriarchs, judges, kings, prophets, asking them themselves, and then murmuring and rebelling against them. In subsequent times, internecine wars were waged in Alexandria under the Ptolemies, and in Rome under the emperors almost unceasing unrest and rebellions were carried out.

  7 The common people do not understand it, but only the rabbins, and those who, on secret appointments in the Talmuds, explain it as they like, according to their own inventions.

  On the contrary, it is clear from history that the Jews were only free for a short time, but were always in slavery to foreign peoples: Abraham himself lived in a foreign land, Jacob served different peoples until his old age; in Egypt they were slaves, even in Palestine their state changed several times: sometimes they were ruled by judges, sometimes by foreigners, priests, and they were under kings for no more than 400 years. The Assyrians, the Medes, the Persians, and finally the Romans, who were paid tribute, fell under the rule. Shrek, part 6, page 366.

  They were also expelled from England by King Edward the 1st in 1291 (l "histoirc universelle dcpuis le commedcement du monde jusqa3i Present, 123, livr. 19, page 631). From France repeatedly, and for the last time they were driven out by King Philip, named Beautiful, following the example of Edward, King of England (l "histoire dc la dispersion Des Jnifs, chap. V), and from Spain in 1492 (Basnage, livr. XV), for their various atrocities, in order to cleanse the state from this harmful people.

  4 From these appendices we have a note by Kakhovsky about the Jews of the Mogilev province; this document is placed after the "Opinion"

  It is known from history that when the emperor Julian the Apostate, persecuting Christians and patronizing the Jews, allowed them to renew their temple in Jerusalem, which was really begun, the Jews, running from all over the earth, brought their treasures there and women even sacrificed their jewelry . This temple, however, was destroyed by miraculous supernatural or natural events, in its first beginning. About this, not only spiritual, but also secular historians certify

  This custom, adopted by many Asiatic peoples, seems to be derived from the traditions of the Zoroasters.

  Permissible meat is called kosher, and illicit meat is trefl. If the latter is sold for 2 kopecks, then the former is not less than 6; looks after this podrabbinok, according to the legends of the Talmuds, which originated from the laws of Moses known to all. Through this, the common people are oppressed, and the rabbins and kahals get richer. Details about kosher and club, as well as other features of Jewish life mentioned by Derzhavin, see the remarkable edition of Mr. Brafman "The Book of Kahal".

  Theodosius the emperor in 429 legalized that the government would annually demand an account for the treasury collected in their kahals for evidence.

  Although it was ordered from the provincial authorities that an appeal to the governor be paid to the provincial kahal, but this was not done because it was not confirmed by the highest authority, or that the Jews find many ways to evade the laws themselves. See extract under lit. B

  Righteous or reverend. Some educated people assured me that this sect is like the Illuminati, and promised to deliver me a book about it; but since I did not receive it and do not have exact information, I cannot verify what this sect truly consists of.

  Derzhavin's incorrect name for Khosada has been corrected by us. See Brafman, p. XVI, and the work cited there by VV Grigoriev about Heb. sects

  Emperor Honorius in 399 ordered that the gold and silver in the synagogues collected and called the apostolic tribute should not be sent to their patriarchs in Palestine: it is not surprising if they still transfer gold and silver to Palestine according to the above-mentioned traditions. However, the aforementioned tribute was revered on a par with the imperial taxes, and therefore they called it "aurum coronarium"; its origin is from the Jewish law, which is prescribed to give a tenth to the temple of Jerusalem; upon its destruction, this tribute turned into the income of their patriarchs. (Shrek, part 7, p. 402;).

  The conspirators on the life of the French kings Henry 3 and 4 used the sorcery of the rabbins, who, making terrible spells according to the Talmud, pierced their wax dolls after six weeks with daggers in front of the altar, to certify their immutable death. (Maimbonrg, Histoire de la ligne, 90.)

  In the file of the late General Lieutenant Zorich, there is a note of gratitude from one Jew that a cherim was drawn up against him. (For the Zoric case, see Vol. 6, p. 122.)

  In ancient times, according to their superstition, in desecration of the Christian faith, they carried in their processions the image of Amman, chained to the cross. And Gamalei, their patriarch, actually perpetrated many such Christian bloodsheds, and regarding the crucified one Christian boy, the emperor Theodosius in 415 forbade him to build synagogues in secluded places so that they could not produce such rampages, about which in many kingdoms , and in Poland itself, many anecdotes and inscriptions on tombs are found.

  In Russian literature, there is a fairly thorough study of these "bloodsheds"; Unfortunately, it is not available to many. As far as we know, it was compiled by V.I. Dalem, during his service in the Ministry of the Interior, and printed in a small number of copies. Attached to the list delivered to us by Shtakelberg is also, under the letter D, a handwritten copy of a book published in 1787 in St. Petersburg (at the expense of P.D.), under the title: “Jewish rituals performed every month at the Syapvetsieciuhs. Translation from Polish. (Smird. Painting, No. 900).

  In the original according to which the “Opinion” was published in the Kalachov Archive (see note on p. 229), the following sections of the transformation project were in two forms: lengthy and abbreviated. Only an abridged version is printed in the Archive; for the sake of completeness, we give this second edition a space below the line.

  Here is the corrupted edition of the 1st section : 1) With the most merciful manifesto, declare them the highest patronage and say that, due to their noticeable impoverishment, they are taken care of in order to provide them with food, and at the same time confirm the poster of 1772 with some cancellations of their ancient institutions, with the image of a well-organized Christian monarchical government of dissenters, and allow those who do not want to be subjected to this institution to go abroad . 2) Designate a special protector for them. 3) Establish a commission in Byelorussia (of 3 owners, 3 merchants, 3 Jews and 3 ranks of the province) to settle all debts of Jews and Christians. In other provinces, similar commissions will have to be established, for it will be impossible to do anything in the transformation of the Jews, if not all of a sudden

  When Ferdinand and Isabella in 1492 set out to cleanse the state of the Jews; then they, knowing about it, brought 600,000 chervonny coins to the treasury; However, despite this gift, although the state was in dire need of money, and that 30,000,000. the red ones were taken out of Spain with them, they were expelled.

  This, of course, if only in Belarus alone to make a reform about the Jews, and if in other provinces acquired from Poland, then it is necessary to establish such commissions in all provincial cities, but so that they all have the first protector as the center of their relations, and without this the organization of the Jews in one province will not do the desired benefit; for they will run from one to another.

  Abridged edition 2nd. On the analysis of debt claims and their resolution.

  1) Promulgate by the same manifesto, so that from its publication in 4 months, all Christians and Jews present their claims against each other to the commission under fear of their destruction, and at this time, so that no mutual credit between Christians and Jews will be made.

  2) In the statements of both capitals, the commission makes it known about the claims received by it, by whom and on whom exactly, without mentioning the amounts. In the following 4 months, all debtors are required to appear before the commission and approve the debt, submit a pledge or deposit money. The silence of the defendants will accuse them, and henceforth no excuse will be accepted.

  3) Whoever does not present a pledge or guarantee, in order to act according to the laws. To make a decisive decision on the disputed money on the basis of laws, and this is subject to a third 4-month period, since the plaintiffs and defendants will be in person.

  4) For indisputable debts, the commission will make a balance, how much the Jews owe to Christians and these Jews, - only to collect, and to settle other debts. Present this balance to the protector, who, repeating it, gives it to execution, without any appeal; on cie relies for another 4 months. And after that, the obligation made will have no legal force.

  Abridged edition 3rd.

  On the collection of revenues and on the payment of Kahal debts for the establishment of capital for the conversion of the Jews . 1) All fees from the Jews, salaries and non-salary, from the day the manifesto was announced, will be presented for payment for poor people and kahal debts, and for their resettlement and furnishing; and therefore it is proposed that from the remaining 3 years, and from the resettled - 6 years, these fees should not be taken to the treasury, but paid to the commission. 2) The commission, according to the complexity of the past 3 years, will make an approximate calculation of how large the amount collected per year, under different names, from the Jews should be - and submit to the protector . 3) On the day of the publication of the manifesto, the commission in all cities and towns where there are kahals and podkagals and schools will seal the boxes and boxes with money, appoint an elected from the Jews, who will continue to collect. 4) This treasurer, collecting money with receipts, writes in books. 5) After 4 months, money and books are sent to the commission, which keeps them in the provincial treasury, and after a year, the commission submits a report to the parishes to the protector. 6) If in the first year it will not be possible to start the resettlement of the Jews, due to the fact that their collections will be insufficient to pay off their debts, then immediately forbidding them to trade in wine, instructing the kahals - the poor and those without food, if found, to be sent to work for scutching flax and hemp, or for the wire of ships and the digging of channels. 7) When, at the end of the payment of mutual claims according to the rules prescribed in this decree, a sufficient amount is accumulated from the Jewish fees, then the real reform begins.

  Cieit is intended solely to clear the Jews of their debts as soon as possible and make them free for reform.

  abridged edition IVth branch:

  By the aforementioned manifesto, order all the kahal elders, under the deprivation of all their property and being sent without wives forever to Siberia to work, to compile a true head-to-head census of all Jews. When compiling it, for better convenience, from now on, add Russian nicknames to each Jew, for example. Note Khaimovich the Intricate, Leiba Itskovich Industrial, and so on, and announce it to everyone, so that they remember and are called them.

  abridged edition Vth branch:

  It is proposed to divide the Jews into 4 classes:

  1) merchants,

  2) urban philistines,

  3) rural philistines,

  4) settlers and their workers.

  1) Merchants are divided into 3 guilds, according to the city position, and they are given all freedom irrevocably, on the same basis.

  2) City burghers must declare capital from 1000 to 500 r. and remain evenly with their benefits; one half must certainly be artisans, and the other half - clerks and other ministers of trade.

  3) State-owned rural philistines pay peasant taxes; must declare capital from 500 to 100 r. and will settle on state lands and start various factories. Those who settle in the landowner's towns under special contracts are called possessory and live in special streets from Christians.

  4 ) Fourth class, the owner of which each must declare from 50 to 100 rubles. capital and have with them 4 workers who are in perfect obedience to the thread until they themselves accumulate that capital and become masters.

  5) When an agreement follows between the owners and the Jewse to settle them in shtetls and estates, then the owners must commit themselves to the government in

  A) that in towns for 3 years without fail o they will lead the Jews to various manufactories, factories and needlework; and on the estates, they will indeed lead arable farming, cattle breeding and other rural work, as if by Jewish hands,

  b) that they are the owners for the Jews, state taxes will be regularly paid,

  V) and they will be satisfied, especially in case of famine;

  G ) will not give them the maintenance of the lease,

  e.) neither keep them as factors, nor give taverns at the mercy of them, nor allow them to sell wine, but they will try to make them useful workers and artisans.

  6) For violation and failure to comply with all these articles, the owner is first subject to a fine, and finally to the confiscation of the estate to the treasury, and the Jews are deported to Siberia.

  7) Moreover, between the owner and the Jews, detailed contracts must certainly be concluded on all duties and fines on both sides, meaning that the Jews remain free people and after 10 years can change the contract and place of residence

  Cieit is assumed that there are enough prosperous Jews in the townships, who are considered philistines, who have their own not only wooden, but also stone houses, then, on the one hand, not to burden them with a speedy resettlement, and on the other, so that by encouraging them to sign up as merchants, multiply state income; the poor philistines living there hopefully will accept their settlement in their former places.

  Cie under Polish rule it was still instituted. Constantine, the Greek emperor, in 315 forbade any communication with the Jews; then and now, it seems that their villages should be settled separately from other peoples.

  This bailiff is in everyone settlement they rely, like Prussian institutions, both for watching in their schools so that nothing harmful happens, and for solving civil cases, and for monitoring the streets and houses of cleanliness and tidiness, which should be from poor, retired officers and on the maintenance of Jewish sums .

  By this we mean buildings made of earth invented by N.A. Lvov, about which see in the previous Volumes on the Indexes, under the name of Lvov.

  abridged edition VIth branch:

  1) Upon receipt of a new total census, the commission, through the zemstvo courts and kahals, within two months, collects announcements from all Jews, in which class anyone wants to join and how much capital will show.

  2) Therefore, the commission will make a calculation, observing a strictly political rule, so as not to burden one city with a note of many merchants or philistines, and not to leave another with a small number, following the calculation that according to the number of census souls settled in any district, there were no merchants in that city and burghers more like n.againstone hundred and one merchants and 4 tradesmen.

  3) And because in Belarus the inhabitants are considered to be 632,009 souls, then in all cities there should be 6,320 merchants, 25,280 philistines. But since in that number there are already 1,1259 Christian merchants, 16,768 philistines, 595 Jewish merchants, 17,526 philistines, then 4,466 should be added to the number of merchants, and 9,014 should be subtracted from the burghers according to this calculation. To the rest of all Jews who do not settle in the estates, to allocate land in the Astrakhan and Novorossiysk provinces, appointing the poorest for resettlement. About all this, the commission will submit a statement to the protector.

  As in the Byelorussian province, according to the statement of the state chamber, there are only 2.145 acres 940 sazhens of state empty lands, then, assuming 15 ten. per capita, and it will be possible to accommodate state-owned settlers on these no more than 148 souls of the male sex.

  abridged edition VIIth branch:

  1) At the end of the new audit, the kahals must select the required number of young people from merchants, burghers and villagers, and the commission sends them to St. Petersburg, Moscow and Riga to study accounting, literacy, crafts and skills and arable farming

  2) The owners of the Jews who have settled in them evenly bake to teach various useful exercises.

  3) Upon assigning places of land for resettlement, the commission selects efficient and thorough Jews through kahals and sends them there to occupy places, with the appointment of no more than 300 houses in each town, and no more than 10 owners or 40 households in the villages.

  4) Thesedeputies, upon arrival at the place and having received plans for the villages, submit to the protector, who refers to the governor, about the construction of several houses for the first case.

  abridged edition VIIIth branch:

  1) Following the amount to be resettled is divided into parties, Andone goes ahead, to build houses on the site of others. who will follow them.

  2) At each party, 3 nimble Jews are appointed;

  for the resettlement in this way of all parties, .they are given benefits for 6 years. And those who remained in Belarus, the government favors to give 3 years of benefits; for though not much, yet they will suffer a disorder from. this reform. After the lapse of same these years, to take taxes from all Jews for equalwith other subjects, not double; Moreover, it is also proposed, in order to encourage the establishment of factories, to collect from the townspeople not in money, but in cloth or linen. The protector will use all possible diligence for the establishment of manufactories

  abridged edition IXth branch:

  1) In all provinces where Jews live, prohibit and destroy kahals and their very title, following the example of how they are in Prussia AndThe Caesars have been destroyed.

  2) In all civil matters, the Jews between themselves and Christians must be subordinated to be legalized by the government

  3) The spiritual ones are taught in schools, which are under the discretion of the mayor, zemstvo police, bailiffs and owners.

  4) Cancel taxation fees; collect state taxes on an equal footing with other subjects equally.

  5) If, according to the establishments of their faith and customs, there should be unsettled fees, somehow: pe6eniedead, from boxes, paradise apples, etc., then nothing else, porridge, a kind of voluntary alms and for nothing else, but pleasing deeds for the good. e, and the most spiritual corrupted morals, introduced sybarism, discovered cabalistic, astrological and other superstitious teachings. and through that, having breathed in wickedness, they shook Christianity, from which from the beginning there was a heresy known from Novgorod Strigolnikov; then in Moscow and in other cities, various rumors and splits occurred, which, even when brought to the common people, spill their ulcer. For this purpose, in 1497, in 1509, and in subsequent years, there were councils that conducted investigations, according to which exposed criminals were punished by death; but all ce does not intimidate the Jews. The latest incidents prove them to be of such assistance. (Manuscript Enlightener, part 6, pp. 171 and 127 Let. Novgorodsk. Search for Dmitry Rostov., part 3, ch. 8. Message apxbishop Slovenian to the Old Believers, Art. 2. History. news about the strigolniks, art. 181 and 183.)

  Politicians prove that the Jews cannot be useful merchants to the state, so much because of treachery, so much because of their non-attachment to the land, and that they are always ready to take the money they have earned to other states or send it to Palestine, and therefore it is supposed, at least through attorneys, to refrain from doing so and to have as much information as possible about their capitals.

  Theodosius emperor in 415 forbade the Jewish glorious patriarth branch:

  To form schools where teaching would be in pure Hebrew; Topometeaching various sciences, introduce the teaching of languages; Russian, Polish and German. Distinction and ability of pupils should be carefully rewarded. As mentors, choose, for the most part, meek and enlightened people.

  Among other many examples that the Jews in Spain were elevated to noble dignity, under King Alfonso XI, of them was one state treasurer, originally from According to Jewish custom, at their weddings, even the poorest at feasts spend the last of their property, which lasts for several days, so that at the end of them sometimes the newlyweds are left with nothing.

  According to history, it is not clear that entire nations were led into captivity, but the Jews were twice Nebuchadnezzar and Titus; also, under the leadership of only the Maccabees, they showed the experiments of their courage and art in military operations, and more, it seems, nowhere, and even now, at the slightest danger they are always shown extremely timid.

  In the biography of Derzhavin, written by V.F. Khodasevich is surprised by one oddity: the author of the biography, apparently, does not like his hero very much. He obviously does not say this anywhere, but every now and then phrases like the following come out: “Derzhavin began in everything with imitations, proceeded from ready-made forms, borrowing shades of thoughts and feelings from other poets along with them”; “It came out clumsily and clumsily; neither verse nor syllable was given”; “only thanks to the most complicated course of court affairs, unexpectedly for himself, Derzhavin began to rise” - with this last phrase Khodasevich almost denies his hero independence of action ... Here and there in the biography written by Khodasevich, one feels a certain grave suspicion, as if Derzhavin is a criminal whom must be convicted. For example, already in the introduction, Khodasevich writes that he relies on facts about Derzhavin, which he takes "from his correspondence and from the testimony of his contemporaries." "Evidence" is quite a prosecutor's word ...

  We will not understand the reason for this hostility of Khodasevich until we get acquainted with the activities of Derzhavin connected with the Jewish question. Everyone, of course, knows that Derzhavin, on the instructions of Paul I, twice went on business trips to Belarus, where Jews lived compactly, and submitted his report to the emperor; Solzhenitsyn in his book "200 Years Together" retold this final "Opinion" of Derzhavin in some detail. Solzhenitsyn's retelling, however, does not give a complete picture, and only if we carefully study Derzhavin's "Opinion" in its entirety (together with the appendices - more than a hundred large pages!), then we will understand that this is far from an ordinary bureaucratic "paper". Perhaps this "Opinion" was one of the main works of Derzhavin, such a work in which his literary and statesmanship talents were combined.

  In his Opinion, Derzhavin says that the Jews are “untidy, stinking, idle, lazy, cunning, covetous, sneaky, treacherous, evil, and the like” - of course, the Jews could not forgive him for such a characterization, and this explains their usual, as at least, a suspicious attitude towards Derzhavin. Vladislav Felitsianovich Khodasevich was a Jew: biographers report that his mother came from the family of rabbis Brafman. This explains the general hostile attitude that is felt in his biography.

  Derzhavin, it is true, in the same place in his Opinion also listed many positive features of the Jews (“smart, insightful, quick-witted, agile, courteous … sober, temperate, modest, not voluptuous, etc.”)— "Is it merit? This is just a duty, for which it is not proper to praise, but for pointing out negative qualities, a person should be punished ...

  And "punished"; Or rather, they are trying to do it... Let's see: what exactly does Khodasevich write about his "Opinion" in Derzhavin's biography? Answer: absolutely nothing! He does not keep silent about Derzhavin's two trips to Belorussia, but he presents the matter as if the aims of both trips had nothing to do with the Jewish question. In the first case, they say, it was about taking custody of the Zorich estate, and in the second, about eliminating the famine that had arisen in Belarus. I repeat, Khodasevich does not write a word about the final report of Derzhavin, although he, of course, read Opinion...

  Khodasevich made no secret of the fact that in his work he relied on the fundamental two-volume biography of Derzhavin, published by Yakov Karlovich Grot; in it, everything is said correctly and clearly about the “Opinion”, while the “Opinion” itself with its appendices was included by Grot in that seventh of the nine-volume collected works of Derzhavin compiled by him. Khodasevich's biography was, as it were, a squeeze out of Grot's enormous work, and Khodasevich, having reached the Belarusian business trips, was probably tormented by the question: should they reveal their true purpose and meaning? At this point in Khodasevich's book, grave suspicion and dislike for Derzhavin thicken, approaching undisguised hatred... And then Khodasevich decides keep silent, to pretend that there was no Jewish question in Derzhavin's life at all ...

  And immediately it becomes easy for him, and any hostility towards the hero of the biography disappears! In the final part of his book, Khodasevich is simply “filled with a nightingale”: Derzhavin is now both a “genius” and a “dearest person” ... Khodasevich, having performed his act of silence - but in fact: misrepresenting his biography! - even feels some guilt towards Derzhavin, which he tries to make up for with immoderate praise ...

  So, Khodasevich in his biography presented, in fact, a Jewish view of Derzhavin: if he is a great poet, then he should not have any anti-Jewish deeds and even statements. But isn't the generally accepted, so to speak, textbook view the same? Derzhavin is a great poet and an outstanding statesman (no joke: Minister of Finance under Paul I and Minister of Justice under Alexander!); Everyone recognizes this, but the Jewish question seems to be forgotten...

  By the way, already in the voluminous biography written by Groth there is a tendency to avoid this issue. The learned German professor tells in detail about everything that Derzhavin did in Belarus (the second business trip lasted four months), about how he wrote his "Opinion" and how the latter was accepted by the emperor ... But Grotto does not give any own assessment of Derzhavin's note, and one can understand him: why would he, a German, interfere in the delicate issue of Russian-Jewish relations? He, as a conscientious researcher, as impassive second, ensured compliance with all conditions ... And then - figure out your relationship yourself. Here is the "Opinion" in the seventh volume, read, draw conclusions ...

  Well, that's what we'll do. Let's try to quote some quotations from Derzhavin's note and evaluate them from the point of view of today.

  Derzhavin begins his opinion almost immediately with the conclusions that we find at the end of the introductory part:

  "I find: schools them (Jews - A.A.) are nothing but a nest of superstitions and hatred towards Christians; kagali - dangerous status in status which a well-organized political body should not tolerate: in Prussia they have been destroyed. Cash fees more to the oppression of their people than to the benefit they serve, and according to their own boasting, the wine from the innkeepers for the common people, and the money from the kahals for the rest, are such swords that few can resist. Khazaki, an insidious invention for keeping in their single hands all farms and leases, is a kind of the most certain monopoly. Herims- an impenetrable, sacrilegious cover of the most terrible atrocities committed to the detriment of the general and the particular. Koledy- skillful robbery, under the guise of friendliness and friendly visitation. Leases, taverns, factors, trade and all their other establishments and deeds described above are nothing but subtle inventions, under the guise of profits and services to their neighbors, to deplete their property.

  In a word, ... it is impossible to correctly conclude that the Jews in their current position were good people, and therefore they cannot be honored as good subjects, for it is known that the only well-meaning way of thinking produces civic virtues.

  Here we need to stop and clarify two questions. Firstly, how well did Derzhavin understand this problem, and, secondly, what were the Jews of Belarus at that time really like?

  There is no doubt about the first question: Derzhavin was absolutely competent. After the death of Potemkin, Derzhavin, as a senator, was engaged in settling inheritance disputes between the relatives of the Prince of Tauride - and almost all of Potemkin's property was located in the provinces newly acquired from Poland, where the Jews lived. And the land with three hundred souls of peasants, which was granted to Derzhavin himself by Catherine, was also in Belarus. Therefore, already during the life of Catherine II, Derzhavin understood the Jewish question well, and it is no coincidence that Paul twice sent him on official trips to Belarus (in 1799 and 1800) and it was he who was instructed to work out ways to resolve this issue.

  Derzhavin approached this work with extreme conscientiousness. He knew the German language very well (since in childhood his first teacher was a natural German) and freely used the state documents of Prussia and Austria on this topic (this can already be seen in the above quotation). He also refers to the Byzantine experience, for example, to the "Theodosian code", and to Spain - perhaps he also received these references through German-language sources. In addition, Derzhavin consulted with Ilya Frank and other Jewish reformers of that time; some of them, having learned that he was preparing a reform of Jewish life, sent him their own developments. The modern American researcher J. D. Klier writes in detail about Derzhavin's use of the experience of Jewish reformers.

  Now about what the then Jews of the “Western Territory” of the Russian Empire were like (as Derzhavin himself calls Belarus and the surrounding regions in his memoirs). In fact, he also answered this question in the quoted passage: “status in statu”, “a state within a state”. After the liquidation of large Jewish communities in Spain, from where Torquemada expelled the Jews in 1492, they dispersed to many countries, but more and more concentrated precisely in Eastern Europe, specifically in Poland, and after the partition of Poland, they ended up partly in the Russian Empire, partly under power of Prussia and Austria.

  ... It was easy to say that "Jews are the enemies of Christianity" without seeing them; but the Russian people came face to face with them, and what did they see? Derzhavin in Opinion frankly describes the shock that one could not help but experience when crossing the border between Russia and Belarus. Here is a Russian peasant: he is cheerful, healthy, active, enterprising, but Belarusians: always drunk, exhausted, poor, sick ... Complete apathy: all day long a Belarusian peasant sits by the pond with a fishing rod in the hottest rural season, during mowing or reaping ( when, according to a peasant proverb, “one day feeds a year”). The thing was that the Jews had so entangled the Belarusian peasants with debts that there was no way to pay off; and if so, it was useless to harvest. From those Belarusian peasants who nevertheless harvested bread, the Jews lured it out with the help of “koleds” (or “carols”), mentioned by Derzhavin in the above quote ...

  After the harvest, the Jews came to the Belarusian villages and gave the peasants free vodka to drink - this was called "koleda". In a drunken state, the peasants signed new enslaving debt obligations ... As a result, the peasant gave away the entire crop, but not only did not repay the previous debt, but turned out to be indebted even more!

  What then is the point of working in the fields if everything is taken away to the last grain? The activity of the Jews was the main cause of the famine in Belarus - this was the first thing that Derzhavin established. At the same time, the Jews violated all conceivable laws: the judges were bribed by them, the landowners were also controlled by them through imposed managers or entangled in debts. In itself, the Jewish production of vodka was illegal, and one of the first cases of Derzhavin in Belarus was the closure of the underground Jewish distillery he discovered. Also in one of the districts of famine-stricken Belarus, Derzhavin discovered about a hundred wagons with grain, which the Jews exported through Minsk and Riga. Derzhavin requisitioned this grain, relying on the decree of Peter I of 1723, and ordered bread to be distributed to those in need. On the report of this on July 7, 1800, Paul I imposed the resolution "Very trying."

  Derzhavin sent reports to Pavel both directly and (most often) through Prosecutor General Obolyaninov, and Grot writes in Derzhavin’s biography that Obolyaninov, for his part, asked the sovereign’s permission “to bring to justice both the Jews who smoked wine in Lezna and those who allowed it is by its weak supervision; bread, taken from the former, is considered confiscated to the treasury. Pavel was so pleased with this order that, having signed a resolution on the report of the Prosecutor General: So be it, granted Derzhavin two awards at once - the rank of real privy councilor and the honorary commander's cross of St. John of Jerusalem".

  With such emergency actions, Derzhavin instilled fear in the local authorities, in the landlords and in the Jews; however, it was clear that "fire" measures in the long term would not solve the problem. The Jews in Belarus, where they needed it, knew how to create their numerical superiority. For example, they could bring many witnesses in their favor (and often false witnesses) to the court. Their kahals collected money for all kinds of bribery of officials, and those Jews who refused to participate in these collections were subjected to ostracism and confiscation of property.

  Derzhavin traveled around many regions of Belarus and collected many different materials; then, having settled in Vitebsk, he wrote his voluminous Opinion.

  His main proposal was that the Jews should be resettled from Belarus, transferring, for example, to the empty lands of Novorossia. Derzhavin proposed a course of action opposite to that practiced by the Jews, creating, where they needed, a numerical superiority. He proposed to resettle them in such a way that, on the contrary, they would be in the minority everywhere and not only could not control the situation themselves, but would always be under the control of the Russian authorities and the population. This control over the Jews was to begin with the unraveling of the mutual debts with which the entire economic life of the Western Territory was stitched. Peasants, landlords, Jewish and non-Jewish merchants, the state treasury - all owed each other, and it seemed to some that it was impossible to unravel this debt tangle.

  Looking ahead, let's say that this turned out to be quite possible, and the mass resettlement of Jews from Belarus was carried out - however, much later than Derzhavin had planned.

  At first, the assassination of Paul I prevented, then the Napoleonic Wars; but in the 20s of the nineteenth century, migrations began on a large scale. Derzhavin, in his Opinion, worked out in detail the financial side of the issue, in particular, the mechanisms for offsetting debts; the main part of his “Opinion” is devoted to this aspect and migrations. President of the College of Commerce under Catherine II and Minister of Finance under Paul I, he knew and loved financial issues well. In particular, he provided for such a mechanism for offsetting debts so that a fund would be formed that would be sufficient to finance both this organizational work itself and the resettlement of Jews to "open lands."

  Shortly after his accession to the throne, Alexander I formed the "Committee for the welfare of the Jews", which included Derzhavin and four other members; in 1804 the committee published the Regulations on the Jews. The Jews were very alarmed by Derzhavin's work, and they immediately began to oppose it. Grot writes in Derzhavin's biography that the kahals began collecting money (more precisely, they decided to impose an additional fee on all Jews) for expenses in order to resist government measures. Us. 828 Grotto quotes the decision of the general meeting of representatives of the kahals: “Due to the unfavorable news from the capital that the fate of all Jews has now passed into the hands of five dignitaries, who have been given full power to dispose of them at their discretion, we are forced to go to Petersburg in order to ask the sovereign, yes his glory will be exalted, so that we do not make any innovations.

  Have you made any innovations? It wasn't there! In general, on the Jewish question, all five members of the committee were like-minded (in the opinion of the author of this article; but in general, this is, of course, a controversial issue). Two of them were Poles: Czartoryski and Potocki; the third, Valerian Zubov, owned estates in the Western Territory, and later married a Polish woman. The landowners of the Western Territory did not in any way want their affairs to fall under the control of the Jews; if they were interested in cooperation with the Jews, then only under their own control. But that was exactly what Derzhavin's plan was aimed at: to seize control of the situation. Finally, the fifth member of the committee, Kochubey, as Minister of the Interior, was also by no means happy that the Jews of Belarus not only ignored all the laws of the Russian Empire, but even tried to extend their own laws to St. Petersburg.

  I repeat: in my opinion, in relation to the Jews, all members of the committee - at least potentially - could be like-minded; another thing is that on other issues and in general they waged an irreconcilable struggle among themselves. For example, Derzhavin, as Minister of Justice, and the young Count Kochubey, as Minister of the Interior, almost immediately embarked on the warpath, and everyone understood that one of them had to leave. Derzhavin became this person; simply because he was 60 years old in 1803, and he may have felt that he was no longer capable of exhausting active work in government ...

  Derzhavin resigned and gradually retired from all affairs (except literary), but, as already mentioned, it was his plan for solving the Jewish question that the Russian government began to implement after the end of the Napoleonic Wars. Of course, the migration was not without conflict, and some historians have portrayed it as barbaric and brutal. For example, J. Gessen in his two-volume book "The History of the Jewish People in Russia" calls the "Committee for the Improvement of the Jews" for some reason the "Anti-Jewish Committee", and refers to the resettlement only as "eviction". He writes at the end of the first volume of his work: “Evictions have begun. By January 1824 in Belarus expelled(highlighted by me - A.A.) about 20 thousand Jews. Finding no shelter and food, the deportees suffered terribly.”

  The process of resettlement of Jews to new lands dragged on for many years; in fact, it took place throughout the nineteenth century, and in the twentieth century too ...

  Derzhavin laid the fundamental foundations for this epoch-making reorganization. The beginning of this assimilation of Jews into Russian society was laid under Paul I, therefore I would like to end this article by quoting the final lines from Derzhavin's "Opinion":

  “Thus, the Jewish race is obstinate and savage, the enemies of Christians, although, by the definition of the eternal Fates, they will remain in their indispensable dispersion, as long as the Almighty pleases; but even in this sad state they will receive an image of well-being. And Paul the First will have an unforgettable glory in generation and generation, that he was the first of the Russian monarchs to fulfill this great commandment: "Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you."

  Genuine signed: Senator Derzhavin.

  ___________________________________________________________________________

  Khodasevich V.F. Derzhavin. Paris, publishing house "Modern Notes", 1931.

  Derzhavin G. R. Opinion of Senator Derzhavin on the aversion in Belarus of the lack of grain by curbing the selfish thoughts of the Jews, on their transformation and other things. Derzhavin's writings. With explanations, notes by J. Grot. T. 1-9. St. Petersburg, 1867-1880. T. 7, p. 250.

  Derzhavin G. R. Works of Derzhavin. T. 1-9. St. Petersburg, 1867-1880. T. 7, p. 250.

  Derzhavin G. R. Works of Derzhavin. T. 1-9. St. Petersburg, 1867-1880. T. 7, p. 261.

  Klier J. D. Russia gathers its Jews. Klier, J. D. Russia Gathers Her Jews: The Origins of the "Jewish Question" in Russia, 1772-1825. Illinois, 1986.

  Grot Ya.K. Life of Derzhavin: according to his writings and letters and according to historical documents. T. 1-2. St. Petersburg, 1880-1883. T.1, p.734.

  Grot Ya.K. Life of Derzhavin: according to his writings and letters and according to historical documents. T. 1-2. St. Petersburg, 1880-1883. T.1, p.828.

  Gessen Yu.I. History of the Jewish people in Russia, vol. 1-2, L., 1925. Vol. 1, p. 206.

  D.Z. Feldman

  The history of the existence of the note by G.R. Derzhavin about Belarusian Jews

  1800 from the RGADA collection

  Keywords: note by G.R. Derzhavin on the aversion of famine in Belarus and the organization of the life of the Jews, "The opinion of Senator Derzhavin ...", Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts.

  The Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts (RGADA), as part of the collection "Manuscript Department of the MGAMID Library", contains a note on the Jewish question in Russia, the author of which is a prominent statesman and poet of the end

  XVIII - early XIX century. Gavriil Romanovich Derzhavin. Its handwritten original has the author's title: "The opinion of Senator Derzhavin on the aversion in Belarus of the lack of bread by curbing the mercenary crafts of the Jews, on their transformation and other things"1. The text of this essay, which appeared as a result of the inspection trip of the senator, bound and placed under a large-format hard cover, is written in several handwritings, with corrections and remarks. The “Opinion...” is accompanied by copies of numerous documents collected by the senator-poet on the Jewish question in Russia and European countries (38 in total), including legislative acts, correspondence, various notes and opinions, translations from Jewish books, etc. Given the fact that Derzhavin's note played a very important, if not decisive, role in the formation of the early

  19th century internal policy of Russia towards the Jews2, the history of its writing and publication, as well as the modern interpretation of the content of this document, are of interest.

  The document was included in the second academic edition of Derzhavin's Works under the title "Opinion on the aversion of famine in Belarus and the organization of the life of the Jews" in 18003 (as we can see, it has become smoother, and the question of the Jews has been relegated to the background). The text for publication was prepared according to three lists, the first of which was received from the historian, writer M.P. Pogodin (written during the life of Derzhavin, with his corrections, but without appendices), the second - from the historian, bibliophile P.P. Pekarsky and the third - from the director of the Statistical Committee A.F. Stackelberg. The last two contained some of the published applications. Earlier, a part of the note without appendices was printed by A.M. Lazarevsky in the edition of the prominent historian-archivist N.V. Kalachov "Archive of Historical and Practical Information Relating to Russia"4, and only part II "On the Jews" was transmitted in its entirety, and part I "In general about the Belarusian inhabitants" (on the situation of the peasants) and the separation of part II (the project of transforming the organization of the Jews) - in abbreviation. These brief versions are placed in the footnotes of the publication in Derzhavin's Works. However, "Opinion." Derzhavin was even before the publication of his "Works" a famous Jewish historian of the XIX century. I.G. Orshansky, who reviewed it5.

  Let us especially note the latest publication by the Belarusian researcher E.K. Anishchenko's unpublished appendices to Derzhavin's note6. They are divided in accordance with the tasks of the inspection trip of the senator into two groups (“On the peasants and the Belarusian province in general” and “On the Jews”) and are accompanied by a very detailed historical essay, revealing in detail the political and socio-economic situation in the Pale of Settlement of the Pavlovian era and the details of official trips G.R. Derzhavin 1799 and 1800 to the Belarusian Territory and writing his famous "Opinions.".

  This prose work of the poet and senator is rightly considered by the publisher as one of the few sources of our knowledge about the local social environment, and with an underlined exaggeration of the place of the Jews in it.

  It is known that Derzhavin's original manuscript burned down in the fire of 1862, which destroyed the archives of the Department of Religious Affairs of Foreign Confessions. True, by that time the Moscow Main Archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MGAMID) already had a copy of it. This story is like this. Back in 1804, the note was handed over by its author to Count A.I. Musin-Pushkin, former chief prosecutor of the Holy Synod and president of the Academy of Arts, owner of one of the largest collections of written monuments of Russian history7. We learn about how this happened from his letter to Derzhavin dated April 18, 1804: “I humbly ask you to send an opinion about the Jews, and that I will send you a copy, it gives you the right word of God in [high] Your humble servant, Count A. Musin-Pushkin”8. (By the way, in November 1795, the poet handed over to him the manuscripts of his other works as well.) On behalf of N.N. Bantysh-Kamensky, manager of the Moscow State Museum of Foreign Affairs, in the summer of 1805 a copy was made from the original for the archive library, now stored in the RGADA9. This is evidenced by a fastening entry at the bottom of the first sheets of the text: “Decommissioned for the archival library and the original returned to Count Alexei Ivanovich Musin-Pushkin, who received it from G. Derzhavin. 1805, July 12. N. B[antysh-] Kamensky. For this reason, one cannot agree with the historian E.K. Anishchenko, who believes that the manuscript in the RGADA is a genuine record keeping of Derzhavin’s senatorial visit to Belarus in 1800. Although most of the collection of A.I. Musina-Pushkina died in the fire of Moscow in 1812, the original then, apparently, still survived, having existed for another 50 years, until the aforementioned fire of 1862. However, in any case, the archival copy remains today the only surviving and most accurate list of the original manuscript.

  We learn about how the manuscript was prepared from Derzhavin's Notes. The Rescript of Paul I of June 16, 1800, announced by the Prosecutor General of the Senate P.Kh. Obolyaninov, the senator was sent to Belarus to investigate the causes of the famine that raged among the local peasants and to compile a report on it12. The emperor’s letter said: “According to the information that has come down to us, that in the Byelorussian province there is a shortage of bread and some landowners, out of boundless greed, leave their peasants without help to feed, we instruct you to find out about such landowners where the peasants in need of food are left without help from them. , and having selected these estates, put them under guardianship, and by order of this, supply the peasants from the master's bread, and in case of shortage, borrow it for them at the expense of the landowners from rural shops. In the instructions drawn up by the Prosecutor General, after listing the measures for the execution of the decree, an addition was made: “And as, according to the information, the Belarusian peasants are the Zhids, according to their turnover in extracting their self-interest from them, then there is the highest will that Your Excellency pay special attention and a note on their fishing in that and to the aversion of such common harm from them, they filed their opinion on the appropriate consideration of all local circumstances. Thus, this order is connected with the "suppression of harmful abuses" by the landlords and Jews in relation to the Belarusian peasantry.

  The senator entered Belarus through Velikiye Luki, Pskov province, and then moved through the territory of the Sebezh district, past ten villages granted to him, to Vitebsk, and then went to the town of Shklov, Mogilev district. September 7, 1800 Derzhavin

  told his wife Darya Alekseevna from Vitebsk: "Now I'm sitting and writing about the Jews"15. Since he had very little information about the Jews, he had to get acquainted with their life and history on his own, through personal observations, inquiries and reading various materials. Judging by his memoirs, Derzhavin ordered all information on the Jewish problem to be delivered to Vitebsk by September 1, where he "composed a detailed opinion about the Jews based on references to historical, community information and clerical acts." The local Belarusian “most prudent inhabitants”, the Jesuit Academy, government offices, representatives of the nobility, merchants and Cossacks provided the senator with materials “regarding the way of life of the Jews, their crafts, deceptions and all the tricks and tricks”, about the means of protecting the “nonsense mob” from them, and also about ways to “deliver them an honest and shameless subsistence: by placing them in their own cities and villages, making them useful citizens”16. At the same time, in their materials, they tried to write off the calamities of the peasants on their laziness and propensity for drunkenness, or to shift all the blame on the Jews who sold the landowners' bread and tavern wine, which paid state taxes and paid off noble debts. Numerous correspondents of Derzhavin, as a rule, described the "abominations and vices" of all Jews, who, in their opinion, played the role of "skilled robbers and parasites", and attributed to them the leading role in the ruin and starvation of the Belarusian peasantry. Having completed the inspection of the region, G.R. On October 2, 1800, Derzhavin went back to St. Petersburg with three completed assignments: determining the means for "feeding" the Belarusian province, compiling a description of the elders (a charter of leases from the state treasury indicating the number of souls, the amount of land, land, livestock, etc. ) and composing an “opinion on the Jews”, which he submitted through the Prosecutor General to Paul I, who submitted them for consideration to the Governing Senate17.

  Most of the note prepared by Derzhavin was devoted to the Jews, since it was them, guided by the materials received, that he presented as one of the main culprits of all the disasters in Belarus, although the Jewish population was only the middle link in the economic chain, at the ends of which stood the landowner and the peasant. The massive famine of the peasants of the Belarusian province in 1800 became the embodiment of social cataclysms in this part of the empire, resulting in a socially explosive situation. It is not for nothing that Derzhavin named the lack of grain and the poor system of distribution of its reserves as one of the conclusions about the causes of the famine. The authorities, on the other hand, engaged in a large-scale clarification of the detrimental effect of Jewish distillation and taverns on the economy of the Belarusian Territory. Thus, in developing the government position, G.R. Derzhavin, who directly stated that the Jewish “people, predestined to rule. at the same time in