Pale of Settlement

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The Pale of Settlement with the percentage of Jewish population in the respective governorates (1905)

As Pale of Settlement (Russian Черта оседлости /. Tscherta osedlosti ;. English Pale of Settlement ) the area in the west of the European is Russian Empire referred to between the late 18th and early 20th century, the live and work of the Jewish population limited was. The area had previously been largely part of Poland-Lithuania and came under Russian rule with the partitions of Poland at the end of the 18th century.

The Pale of Settlement, which stretched from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea , covered more than a million square kilometers. Nearly five million Jews lived there at the end of the 19th century, who made up almost twelve percent of the population.

Jewish population in the western governorates of the Russian Empire (1897)
Governorate percent
Vilna 12.86
Kovno 13.77
Grodno 17.49
Minsk 16.06
Mogilev 12.09
Vitebsk 11.79
Kiev 12.19
Volhynia 13.24
Podolia 12.28
Warsaw 18.22
Lublin 13.46
Plock 9.29
Kalisch 8.52
Piotrkow 15.85
Kielce 10.92
Radome 13.78
Siedlce 15.69
Suwałki 10.16
Łomża 15.77
Chernigov 4.98
Poltava 3.99
Tauria 4.20 †
Kherson 12.43
Bessarabia 11.81
Ekaterinoslav 4.78
† plus 0.43% Karaites

history

In 1791, a decree by Tsarina Catherine II stipulated that Jews were only allowed to live and work within certain areas. In 1835 Nicholas I changed this decree and issued permits for other special districts that regulated the settlement of Jews. Alexander II relaxed some of these regulations a little, and wealthier Jews in particular were able to buy themselves free from the settlement and work regulations. But through the so-called May Laws of his successor Alexander III. , which were valid from May 1882 to the February Revolution 1917 , the freedom of movement of Russian Jews was restricted again.

The Pale of Settlement comprised 15 West Russian governorates and 10 Polish territorial units. Between 1862 and 1879 the regulations for merchants of the 1st guild, holders of academic degrees and guild craftsmen were partially lifted. However, a residence permit could be withdrawn at any time. From May 1882 onwards, Jews provided with such a document were only allowed to resettle in cities; they were forbidden from taking up residence in the countryside. The overwhelming majority remaining in the Pale of Settlement was excluded from the Russification practiced with other minorities from 1881 onwards , and Russian lessons in Jewish schools were forbidden. Numerous pogroms occurred with toleration or active support from state organs.

One consequence of this policy was that by the beginning of the 20th century more than five million Jews, around 90 percent of the Jews living in the Russian catchment area, had settled in the Pale of Settlement. After the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, the area came under German occupation, whereby a smaller proportion of the Jews were able to flee further east to Soviet areas - but the predominantly remaining Jewish population was almost completely murdered by Germans and local helpers during the Holocaust .

See also

literature

  • Eugene M. Avrutin: Pale of Settlement. In: Dan Diner (Ed.): Encyclopedia of Jewish History and Culture (EJGK). Volume 1: A-Cl. Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2011, ISBN 978-3-476-02501-2 , pp. 109-113.
  • Nathaniel Deutsch: The Jewish dark continent. Life and death in the Russian pale of settlement. Harvard University Press, Cambridge 2011, ISBN 978-0-674-04728-0 .
  • Heiko Haumann : History of the Eastern Jews. Deutscher Taschenbuch-Verlag, Munich 1990 (since then several updated and expanded new editions).
  • Yvonne Kleinmann: Jewish immigrants from the Paleon of Settlement in Odessa and in cities in Central Russia and Poland in the 19th century. In: Klaus Jürgen Bade (Ed.): Encyclopedia Migration in Europe. From the 17th century to the present. 3. Edition. Schöningh, Paderborn 2010, ISBN 978-3-506-75632-9 , pp. 725-731.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Первая всеобщая перепись населения Российской Империи 1897 г. In: Демоскоп Weekly. demoscope.ru, accessed September 30, 2013 (Russian).
  2. ↑ Andreas Kappeler : Russia as a multi-ethnic empire - emergence, history, decay . In: Beck's series . 2nd Edition. No. 1447 . Verlag CH Beck, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-406-47573-6 , p. 220 ff .