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Nicholas I and Jewish Education

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 February 2017

David W. Edwards
David W. Edwards*
Affiliation:
Department of History, University of Arkansas
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Extract

The Enunciation of the tripartite slogan of “Orthodoxy, Autocracy, and Nationality” by Count S. S. Uvarov in December of 1832 provided a brief but ill-defined slogan for the reign of Nicholas I (1825–1855). These words served as a convenient prescription for policies in all fields and affected all the peoples of the empire, but Uvarov, as Minister of Public Instruction from 1833 to 1849, possessed particular advantages in translating his own theory into educational policy. The first two terms of the motto caused little conceptual confusion; few inhabitants in the Russian Empire misunderstood the rock-hard meaning of Orthodoxy or autocracy. Nationality (narodnost’) supposedly meant the promotion of those elements which made Russia unique among nations. But what elements were to be singled out and what means should be employed to promote them? In practice, official nationality encompassed the other two terms by training the citizens of the empire to serve the church and the state, promoting Russian patriotism, and emphasizing Russian national culture. In Uvarov's scheme, the school became a tool of official nationality.

Type
Articles
Information
History of Education Quarterly , Volume 22 , Issue 1 , Spring 1982 , pp. 45 - 53
Copyright
Copyright © 1982 by History of Education Society 

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References

Notes

1. See Riasanovsky, Nicholas V. Nicholas I and Official Nationality in Russia, 1825–1855 (Berkeley, California, 1959). Also the same author's “‘Nationality’ in the State Ideology during the Reign of Nicholas I,” Russian Review 19 (January, 1960): 38–46. For a brief summary, see Thaden, Edward C. Conservative Nationalism in Nineteenth-Century Russia (Seattle, Washington, 1964), pp. 19–24.Google Scholar

2. Studies of the Jews in Russia are readily available. Some of the most useful in English are: Greenberg, Louis The Jews in Russia: The Struggle for Emancipation, 2 vols. in one. Forward by Levin, Alfred (New Haven, 1965 [first published in 1944, 1951]). Levitats, Isaac The Jewish community in Russia, 1772–1844 (New York. 1970, [first published, 1943]). Dubnow, S. M. History of the Jews in Russia and Poland from the Earliest Times until the Present Day, trans. I. Friedlaender, 3 vols. (Philadelphia, 1918). Baron, Salo W. The Russian Jew under Tsars and Soviets (New York, 1964).Google Scholar

3. Levanda, V. O. (ed.), Polnyi khronologicheskii sbornik zakonov i polozhenii kasaiushchikhsia evreev… ot 1649–1813 g. (St. Petersburg, 1874), no. 59, pp. 53–60.Google Scholar

4. For the impact of Jewish emancipation in Austria and Prussia upon the situation in Russia, see Dubnow, Jews in Russia and Poland, II, pp. 46, 49.Google Scholar

5. The relevant statutes are Polnoe sobranie zakonov, series I, vol. XXVII, no. 20,597, January 26, 1803, pp. 437–442; no. 20,701, April 4, 1803, pp. 526–530; no. 20,765, May 18, 1803, pp.610–620; no. 20,905, August 23, 1803, pp. 848–858; vol. XXVII, no. 21,497, November 5, 1804, pp. 569–570; no. 21,501, November 5, 1804, pp. 626–647.Google Scholar

6. Beletskii, A. Vopros ob obrazovanii russkikh evreev v tsarstvovanie imperatora Nikolaia I (St. Petersburg, 1894), pp. 7–8.Google Scholar

7. Levanda, Polnyi, no. 304, Chapter VI, pp. 359–376.Google Scholar

8. Ibid., p. 374.Google Scholar

9. Hans, Nicholas History of Russian Educational Policy (1701–1917) (New York, 1964 [originally published in 1931]), p. 86. Also see Beletskii, Vopros, pp. 10–22 and V. I. Charnoluskii. “Nachalnoe obrazovanie v pervoi polovine XIX stoletiia,” Istoriia rossii v XIX veke (St. Petersburg, n.d.), IV, p. 122.Google Scholar

10. Zhurnal ministerstva narodnogo prosvescheniia, vol. 32, Division 3, pp. 44–45.Google Scholar

11. Levitats, Jewish Community in Russia, pp. 188–190. For a negative evaluation of the state of Jewish education in 1840, see Beletskii, Vopros, pp. 32–36.Google Scholar

12. Ibid., p. 16.Google Scholar

13. See minister of Public Instruction, Dopolnenie k sborniku postanovlenii po ministerstvu narodnago prosveshcheniia, 1803–1864 (St. Petersburg, 1867), pp. 696–700.Google Scholar

14. Dubnow, See Jews in Russia and Poland, II, 47–49; the translation of the committee title is found on p. 49. Also see Hans, Russian Educational Policy, p. 86.Google Scholar

15. Rozhdestvenskii, S. V. (ed.), Istoricheskii obzor deiatel'nosti ministerstva narodnago proveshcheniia, 1802–1902 (St. Petersburg, 1902), p. 294.Google Scholar

16. Minister of Public Instruction, Dopolnenie, pp. 701–702.Google Scholar

17. Rozhdestvenskii, Istoricheskii, p. 295.Google Scholar

18. Minister of Public Instruction, Dopolnenie, pp. 702–703. Also see pp. 711–12. Uvarov hoped to replace the study of the Talmud with that of the Pentateuch. The latter engendered no opposition from Christians who shared this heritage with Jews. Talmudic studies, however remained a symbol of Jewish exclusiveness. For a very favorable evaluation of Uvarov and his program, see Beletskii, Vopros, pp. 23–31.Google Scholar

19. Filaret, Metropolitan of Moscow, Mneniia, otzyvy i pis'ma Filareta, mitropolita moskovskago i kolomenskago, po raznum voprosam za 1821–1867 gg., (ed.), L. Brodskii (Moscow, 1905), no. 19, p. 44.Google Scholar

20. Ginsburg, Saul M. “Max Lilienthal's Activities in Russia: New Documents,“ American Jewish Historical Society Publications, vol. 35, (1939): 41. This article also includes the Notice Biographique submitted by Lilienthal to the Ministry of Public Instruction, pp. 42–43. Also see Ministry of Public Instruction, Dopolnenie, p. 707 for a very favorable report on the impact of Lilienthal upon the school in Riga.Google Scholar

21. For accounts of Lilienthal, see Levitats, Jewish Community in Russia, pp. 69–86; Baron, pp. 41–44; Dubnow, Jews in Russian and Poland, II, 50–59; Beletskii, Vopros, pp. 46–68.Google Scholar

22. Dubnow, Jews in Russia and Poland, II, 53.Google Scholar

23. See Ministry of Public Instruction, Dopolnenie, p. 700.Google Scholar

24. Quoted in Levitats, Jewish Community in Russia, p. 85. Also found in Beletskii, Vopros, pp. 48–49.Google Scholar

25. Ibid., p. 49.Google Scholar

26. Ginsburg, “Max Lilienthal's Activities:“ 44–49. The reaction to Lilienthal reflected the divisions existing among Russian Jews. While many opposed any steps toward secular education and assimiliation, others supported both. Conversion to Orthodoxy engendered strong opposition, but less stress upon the study of the Talmud found favor among adherents of the emerging Haskalah or Jewish enlightenment. This divisiveness surely encouraged Uvarov to energetically pursue the more extreme goals of the government.Google Scholar

27. Beletskii, Vopros, p. 66. Foreign Jews did come to Russia but, as with Sir Moses Montefiore of England, did not promote Uvarov's educational scheme.Google Scholar

28. Polnoe sobranie zakonov, series II, vol. II, no. 1308. Also see: Rozhdestvenskii, p. 198; Beletskii, pp. 61–62; and Shil'der, N. K. Imperator Nikolai pervyi: ego zhizn'i tsarstvovanie (St. Petersburg, 1903), vol. II, pt. 1, pp. 33–35. The exemption of “spiritual” (dukhovnyi) schools undoubtedly led to some differences of interpretation regarding the status of Jewish schools.Google Scholar

29. Levanda, Polnyi no. 462, pp. 530–531.Google Scholar

30. [Uvarov, S. S., Desiatiletie ministerstva narodnogo prosveshcheniia, 1833–1843 (St. Petersburg, 1864), p. 107.Google Scholar

31. Levanda, Polnyi, no. 462, pp. 530–531.Google Scholar

32. The commission was originally to have four rabbis, but only two were named. The commission was divided on Uvarov's policy. See Levitats, Jewish Community in Russia, p. 75; Dubnow, Jews in Russia and Poland, II, 56–57; Beletskii, Vopros, pp. 69–73.Google Scholar

33. Levanda, Polnyi, no. 505, pp. 574–576.Google Scholar

34. On the candle tax, see Dubnow, Jews in Russia and Poland, II, 61–62. In their letter to Judah Lilienthal, the elders of Vilna lamented the use of communal taxes for public schools. Such expenditures would eliminate funds “for the maintenance of men diligently engaged in the study of the Torah.” See Levitats, Jewish Community in Russia, p. 85.Google Scholar

35. Quoted in Rozhdestvenskii, Istoricheskii, p. 295.Google Scholar

36. Ibid., Dubnow, Jews in Russia and Poland, 2, 57.Google Scholar

37. Ibid., p. 59.Google Scholar

38. Levanda, Polnyi, no. 505. pp. 574–576; No. 509. pp. 577–590; No. 510. pp. 590–594.Google Scholar

39. Professor Thaden, Edward C. has suggested to me that the restriction of the kahal by Nicholas has parallels to the destruction of corporations and estates in western Europe. Although separated in time, the two developments had a similar result: the polizei staat or the absolutist bureaucratic state.Google Scholar

40. Beletskii, Vopros, p. 147.Google Scholar