This took place in November, 1844, after the Mstislavl community had for nine long months tasted the horrors of a state of siege.  The synagogues were filled with Jews praising God for the relief granted to them.  The community decreed to commemorate annually the day before Purim, on which the ukase inflicting severe punishment on the Jews of Mstislavl was promulgated, as a day of fasting and to celebrate the third day of the month of Kislev, on which the cruel ukase was revoked, as a day of rejoicing.  Had all the disasters of that era been perpetuated in the same manner, the Jewish calendar would consist entirely of these commemorations of national misfortunes, whether in the form of “ordinary” persecutions or “extraordinary” afflictions.

CHAPTER XV

THE JEWS IN THE KINGDOM OF POLAND

1.  PLANS OF JEWISH EMANCIPATION

Special mention must be made of the position occupied by the Jews in the vast province which had be n formed in 1815 out of the territory of the former duchy of Warsaw and annexed by Russia under the name of “Kingdom of Poland.” [1] This province which from 1815 to 1830 enjoyed full autonomy, with a local government in Warsaw and a parliamentary constitution, handled the affairs of its large Jewish population, numbering between three hundred to four hundred thousand souls, independently and without regard to the legislation of the Russian Empire, Even after the insurrection of 1830, when subdued Poland was linked more closely with the Empire, the Jews continued to be subject to a separate provincial legislation.  The Jews of the Kingdom remained under the tutelage of local guardians who were assiduously engaged in solving the Jewish problem during the first part of this period.

[Footnote 1:  Compare Vol.  I, p. 390, n. 1.]

The initial years of autonomous Poland were a time of storm and stress.  After having experienced the vicissitudes of the period of partitions and the hopes and disappointments of the Napoleonic era, the Polish people clutched eagerly at the shreds of political freedom which were left to it by Alexander I. in the shape of the “Constitutional Regulation” of 1815.[1] The Poles brought to bear upon the upbuilding of the new kingdom all the ardor of their national soul and all their enthusiasm for political regeneration.  The feverish organizing activity between 1815 and 1820 was attended by a violent outburst of national sentiment, and such moments of enthusiasm were always accompanied in Poland by an intolerant and unfriendly attitude towards the Jews.  With a few shining exceptions, the Polish statesmen were far removed from the idea of Jewish emancipation.  They favored either “correctional” or punitive methods, though modelled after the pattern of Western European rather than of primitive Russian anti-Semitism.

[Footnote 1:  The author refers to the Constitution granted by Alexander I., on November 15, 1815, to the Polish territories ceded to him by the Congress of Vienna.  The Constitution vouchsafed to Poland an autonomous development under Russian auspices.  It was withdrawn after the insurrection of 1830.]