Jews have not been accepted in Russia since the Middle Ages.. They were considered a problem for Russian society. The government said Jews made it impossible to form a nation of a single people based on common religion and language. It also did not like Jews living in villages where they were an important part of the economy. This was a problem because free people were not supposed to live on noble land (Kniesmeyer 29). Jews did not want to enter into mainstream society where they would be forced to desert Judaism. In 1804 Alexander I was the first Czar to force expulsion of the Jews from villages by creating the "Statute Concerning the Organization of the Jews" (Kniesm

With Stalin still in control of the Soviet Union, Jewish discrimination was not over. In 1948, Soviet authorities started to try to destroy the rest of Jewish culture. Members of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee were arrested and Jewish books and schools were eliminated. Influential Jewish artisans were arrested along with all Jews with leading positions in society. Twenty-five of the leading Jewish writers were secretly executed (Kniesmeyer 62). On March 5, 1953 Stalin died and the "Black Years" of Soviet Jewry were over. Nikita Khrushchev took over for Stalin and allowed minimal reforms. In 1959 Yiddish was again allowed to be published in the Soviet Union. In the last few years of Khrushchev's rule an atheistic movement took place in Russia. Jewish cemeteries were destroyed and more than fifty synagogues were closed (Kniesmeyer 63). By 1965 only sixty synagogues were still open. Soviet Jews finally decided that it would be best to just mix in with the everyday crowd.

When the Germans were annexing Eastern European countries many Jews fled into Russia. The Russian authorities sent tens of thousands of Jews to labor camps in the middle of Russia. Little did they know they were being saved from having to go to the German death camps (Kniesmeyer 60). Many Jews entered the Soviet Army and volunteered to be in the front line. When captured, the Jews were immediately shot, and by the end of the war around two hundred thousand Soviet Jew Soldiers had been killed. After the war the old rumor that Jews were cowards was falsified, because the number of Jews who received war decorations was proportionately higher than any other group of people (Kniesmeyer 60). In 1943 Solomon Mikhoels and Itzik Feffer went on a seven-month tour of the United States, Mexico, Canada, and Great Britain. They helped raise millions of dollars for the Soviet war effort. The Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee was formed. They helped Jews whose homes were occupied upon return from Nazi camps and other Jews in need of assistance (Kniesmeyer 61).

During his reign from 1881 to 1894, Czar Alexander III came up with a dastardly plan to fix the "Jewish problem." He said that one-third of the Jews should be converted, one-third should be starved, and the other third should be expelled. The plan was not carried out, but it was the closest plan to the Nazis' "Final Solution" that had ever been created (Blech 230).

In 1917, the Bolsheviks took over and Jewish culture stopped growing. Stalin and Lenin gained power, which crushed Jewish hopes of total freedom. Stalin said, "The Jews are a nationality on paper only, Zionism is a reactionary bourgeois movement, and Yiddish merely a jargon." (qtd. in Kniesmeyer 41). The Jewish community administration was not allowed to control Jewish religion and culture anymore. At this time 2.5 million Jews were still living in Russia (Kniesmeyer 41).

In March 1917 the Czarist Regime fell. As one of its first acts the new government took away all limitations based on religion or nationality. Jews were free to build Synagogues and schools, and Hebrew and Yiddish newspapers appeared (Kniesmeyer 41).

Under the rule of Czar Alexander II, the serfs were set free in 1861. This was an important time for Russian Jews, because they were free from oppression. The Cantonist system of Nicholas I was abolished. Certain groups of Jews were now considered useful and were allowed to work outside the Pale. The Jewish population in major cities grew rapidly. The appearance of Jewish lawyers and journalists caused a bad reaction from the Russians. After the Polish uprising in 1863 the fight for Jewish freedom was delayed (Kniesmeyer 32). Alexander II was murdered in 1881 and the hopes of Jews were shattered.

In February 1911, a plan to eliminate the Pale of Settlement was proposed. The people who opposed the plan developed a campaign to make laws against Jews more harsh (Kniesmeyer 37). In March 1911 a small Christian boy was foun

Some common words found in the essay are:
Dubno Ukraine, Russian Jews, Japan Jews, Middle Ages, Promised Land, Czar Nicholas, Nachman Bialik, Pale Settlement, Jews Kniesmeyer, Alexander II's, soviet union, russian jews, jews allowed, thousand jews, hundred thousand, , , jewish community, allowed enter, telushkin 356, jews living, hundred thousand jews, jews allowed enter, jews allowed leave, jews fled russia,
Approximate Word count = 2804
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page double spaced)