rulers were steadily thwarted by bigoted councillors and jealous
merchants. Every favor shown the Jews aroused a storm of protests, which
resulted in numerous infringements. The Jews were compelled to pay for
the good intentions of Catherine with a double tax (June 25, 1794), and,
during Paul's reign, without the emperor's knowledge, a law was enacted
requiring of Jews double payment of the guild license. In spite of all
efforts, the Jews, instead of being emancipated politically, were
burdened with additional discriminations.[1]

Had not the wheel of progress suddenly stopped revolving, Russian Jews
might have constituted one of the most useful as well as most
intellectual elements in the vast empire. As it was, the kindly
intention of czar or czarina sufficed to arouse them from the asthenia
to which they were reduced for want of freedom. The times were rife with
excitement, and the Jewish atmosphere with expectancy. The mighty
changes which were taking place in Russia and Poland; the dismemberment
of the latter; the annexation of Balta (1791), Lithuania (1794), and
Courland (1797) to the former; the short-lived yet potent German rule in
Byelostok (1793-1807), and the rude but memorable contact with France
(1807-1812), these and many other important happenings in a brief span
of time had a telling effect upon the diverse races under the dominion
of Russia, and among them not the least upon the Jewish race. Everywhere
the desire for "liberty, equality, and fraternity" began to manifest
itself. In Courland, the most German of Russian provinces, Georg
Gottfried Mylich, a Lutheran pastor at Nerft, made a touching appeal
(ab. 1787) in German on behalf of the Jews, insisting that the word Jew
"should not be taken to indicate a class of people different from us,
but only a different religious body; and as regards his nationality, it
should not hinder him from obtaining citizen's rights and liberties
equal to those of the people of Sleswick, the Saxons, Danes, Swedes,