<DIV>I think this conversation is getting a little weird, but remember that being a rural resident, or being a farmer, is not the same as being a peasant. Not that it proves anything, but a google search on "Jewish Ukrainian Peasant" gets _zero_ hits: <A href="http://www.google.ru/search?q=%22Jewish+Ukrainian+Peasant%22&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=ru&btnG=%D0%9F%D0%BE%D0%B8%D1%81%D0%BA+%D0%B2+Google&lr">http://www.google.ru/search?q=%22Jewish+Ukrainian+Peasant%22&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=ru&btnG=%D0%9F%D0%BE%D0%B8%D1%81%D0%BA+%D0%B2+Google&lr</A>=</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Do you know when the Pale of Settlement got dissolved?<BR><BR><B><I>Grant Lee <grantlee@iinet.net.au></I></B> wrote:</DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE class=replbq style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #1010ff 2px solid">>From a cursory web search, it appears to me that Stalin actually increased<BR>the number of Jews involved in agriculture in Ukraine:<BR><BR><BR>"At the turn of the twentieth century, more than one-third of the Jews in<BR>western and central Ukraine lived in towns and shtetlach where they formed<BR>an absolute majority. Another fifth or so lived in places where they<BR>comprised nearly half of the population. Jews constituted nearly one-third<BR>of Ukraine's urban population, putting them in close contact with the<BR>largely Russian city dwellers but also, as traders and merchants,with the<BR>overwhelmingly Ukrainian peasantry. Though Jews were generally barred from<BR>owning land in Ukraine, there were Jewish farmers in some areas, as from<BR>time to time the tsars would give Jews lands in territories they wanted to<BR>colonize.</BLOCKQUOTE><p> <hr size=1><font face=arial size=-1>Do you Yahoo!?<br><a href="http://pa.yahoo.com/*http://us.rd.yahoo.com/hotjobs/hotjobs_mail_signature_footer_textlink/evt=23983/*http://hotjobs.sweepstakes.yahoo.com/careermakeover">Win a $20,000 Career Makeover at Yahoo! HotJobs </a>