Page:Jewish Encyclopedia Volume 1.pdf/300

254 —



Agricultural Colonies

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

(Bussia)

and Novo Poltnvka (Ni'w

Polfmnilics (" Vos." Wi. vol. 7). Kartzev's report uf 1M4.') showed timt there were l.tilil families (12.779 persons) in Statistics the Kherson colonies. Of these. U.Olti) of Kherson individuals were settled l>y the irovernnient: the rest, having paid for their Colonies. farms, settled on their own aeeount. From 1841 to 1S45 the jrovernnient expended 234,539 nd)les in aidins Jewish colonists in Kherson. The following table shows the condition of the fifteen colonies in the government of Kherson in bcTfr).

IJoiimnov,

tavka),

and

1845

settled llicrc

7(ll>



Families.

Settled.

Houses.

Settled.

SO

187

111 151 91

15

159

14

i;iO

20 9 30

l.Tll

82 60 60 119 95 31 92 150

IL'S

i;i2

19

Israelevka Izluchlsta Kaiiienka Lvov (LcmtxTir)

19 204 35


 * i

si 119

HI

ii

37

Napartov, Great Napartov. LiUIe

J

Novy Breslavl Ndvii I'liltuvka Koinan(»v

Saigadak

229 Si

Seidenieniihn, (ireat.

SeldemeDuba,

Not yet

2Si

Int'iiietz

Little..

Total

1.397

boring villages

intil sprin,e. as Stempel had sugThose who did so were cruelly driven back by Co.s.siicks. El>idemics of scurvy and smallpox

gested.

occurred soon after (" Archives of Kherson- Bessjirabia Board of Adminislnition." report of Fib. 15, 1849, No. 116: sec al.si> Harold Frederic. "The NewExodus." pp. 7S. 79. New York. 1893). After 1849. Jewish immiu'ranis from northwestern Russia were dirccl(<l chiirty to the governnn-nt of Ekaterinoslav, where, up to 1S.56, fifteen colonies, Colonies at sheltering 766 families, were founded. Ekateri- The Ekaterinoslav colonies were undrr thi' managi'mcnt of a director noslav.

ISO

1,555

each. The colonists elected their own aldermen, all the other authorities being Christians. Hebrew schools i/ieiliin'm) were prohibited in the colonies. The followin.ir table shows the condition of the Jewish colonics in the government of Ekaterinoslav in 1890:

Name

In the fifteen colonies there were 5 synagogues, 12 houses of prayer, G town halls, 7 warehouses. 7 bath houses, 1 seed-warehouse. 8 windmills, 463 horses, 2,332 sheep, 3.323 o.xen, 1.117 wa.srons. 28!) plows, and 533 harrows. Of the colonists 3.308 were entered in the books as taxpayers. The colonies had an income of 3.363 rubles per annum, besides rents from distilleiies and restaurants kept by Jews who were not colonists. The local authnriticsof the fifteen Jewish villages named in the table were 11 mayors, 23 assessors, and 11 Keligious affairs were administered bv 12 clerks. rabbis, assisted by 30 juiriinmm (" directors ") and 16

The five synagogues were maintained treasurers. at the expense of the communities. Jlost of the colonists firiginally belonged to the merchant class, 833 persons only being artisans. Only the tailors (359), shoemakers 144). and blacksmiths (11) found (

employment employment

in the colonies; the others cither sought or established themselves in surround-

ing towns. very high.

To

death-rate of the colonies

was

every birth there were over twentj' deaths. The poor results shown were due to the inexperience of the colonists, the corruption of the officials, and the absence of all instructicm from more exiierienced colonists. This was practically confessed by the Russian officials in their reports to Czar Nicholas, who took a deep jiersonal interest in the whole matter (see Kisselcv's report. June, 1845). In 1846 the colonies were put under the

management

of the Jlinistry of Domains, a special

Jewish fund, called

("basket fund"), being set apart for the necessary expenditures. As regards the colonies in Ekaterinoslav, a report made in 1847 by Baron Stem pel. superintendent of the colonies, shows that the settlers on arriving in Ekaterinoslav generally found no provision made for them. They were not permitted to repair the dilapidated shanties which served for houses, and were not even allowed to seek shelter in the neiffhkni-ulikn

Land

of Colony.

1,1150

(iorkaya (irafskaya

TKO 910

.

Khlyetwdarovka Krasnoselka

1.2IK)

Mezhirwh

l.llll

Nadezlinaya.

...

NiM-liaycvka

.

.570

Help. 278 252 181 81

319 290

1.230

—

216 458

sro 7S0

llovnnpttl

3.51

IBO 1.S60

.

.N'ovoziatopol ...

Iloskt'shnaya

Hired

In

Dtvlatfnes.*

Bopodarovka

i'rlymimya

The

254

appoinle<l by the Klierson-B<'Ssjirabia bureau of govermncnl domains, and wereilividcd into four districts, with an riverseer at the head of

NniiiH of Colony.

B<)hrovy-Kllt Kfeiipar

.

1«9 178

1.190

2)12

hlU

244

I.IHIO

•£ii

1.170

1

deeiatine

370

17,620

•

5 20 5

19:i

irrd

Total

1

3 24 12

219

MO

Sladkovddnaya.. Tniddlyubovka. Vfselnya Zatlshye Zellonoepole

4

16 3

4.314

121

= 2.70 acres.

Of the

hired help. 106 persons were Christians and 35 were Jews K. Sluchev.ski. " Yevreiski va Kolonii," (

"Russki Vyestnik."

iv. 306, 1890). Ev/.el (Joseph) Gl'inzburg gave the government 10.000 rubles, the interest of which was to be applied in providing annual rewards for the best Jewish farmers: the recipients to be determined by the Minister of Domains (" Civil Code," vol. xxxi.

in

In

18.')6

No. 30. 672). After 18-56 only f(rar more colonics were founded; namelv, two in the government of Kherson and two in that of Ekateiinoslav. Under a law enacted in 1866 Jewish colonization ceased entirel.v. The measure was adopted mainly for financial reasons, the basket fluid no longer siifiicing for both colonizationand education. Besides this, New Russia was no longer in need of artificial colonization. The reports of V. A. Islavin, an official who visited the colonies in 1851 and again in 1865. enable a comparison of those years to be made. Instead of the 15 colonies in 1847 there were 37 Contrast in 1.^65 20 in Kherson and 17 in

—

between 1851 and 1865.

Ekaterinoslav: the 2.210 families in 1S51. consisting of 14,780 persons, had increased in 1865 to 2.873 families, consisting of 32,943 persons: and instead of 85,563 deciatines of cultivated land in 1851, there were in 1865, 129.521 deciatines. The following figures contrasting the condition of the colonies in 1851 and in l865 will be of interest