Following a bit of research, I have to correct myself: the Russian Empire got most of its Jews from the partition of Poland, the government of which which was more tolerant of Jews than were the Tsars. Much of the area annexed by Russia appears to have been ethnically Ukrainian/Belarusian/Russian. However, it seems that there were at least a small number of Jews around the Black Sea and in the Caucasus (associated with the Khazars etc.), from ancient times
"Kulak" may only have been used, in a vague, pejorative sense before 1906, but the Stolypin reforms did dramatically increased the numbers of independent, labour-employing, surplus-producers. While this class may not have been called "kulaks" _at_the_time_, they certainly fit the bill in terms of the later usage of the word.
regards,
Grant.
----- Original Message ----- From: Inna Shtakser To: grantlee at iinet.net.au Sent: Tuesday, May 11, 2004 5:45 PM Subject: Jewish peasants
Hi Grant,
Listen, I am not a subscriber to LBO (could not handle the volume), but I do work on a dissertation in Jewish-Russian history and your numbers seem fine to me. Sure, there were Jewish peasants in Russia and they were known to be exceptionally poor (definitely not kulaks). Odessa area, the Crimea, Poltava. There was a law against Jews possessing land (part of the post-Alexander II assassination anti-Jewish legislation), but those Jews who were already peasants could stay so. By the way this legislation, rather than any obscure cultural reasons, was the numbers are so small. There were plenty of poor Jews petitioning the government about getting land in one of the new areas and becoming peasants. As for the Pale, it was in place until 1915, when the government simply could not handle making arrangements for all the Jews it expelled from the border areas inside it. There were some legal and some illegal (but prevalent) ways for a Jew to reside outside of the Pale, but we are talking overall only about a 5% of the Jews in the country many of whom lived in fear of being instantly expelled. Anyhow, I enjoyed your post with the actual data. And I do think there was a typo in the original article. I do not recall anyone claiming that Jewish peasants in the Ukraine were victimized as such.
All the best,
Inna Shtakser