--- andie nachgeborenen <andie_nachgeborenen at yahoo.com> wrote: about 1890s Russian life in the Pale, the area to which Jews were restricted under Czarism,
--
That's not really true, actually. Many Jews lived outside of the Pale. What is true is that they had to apply for permission to do so, and this was extended to only certain categories -- ex-Army soldiers, wealthy Jews and so forth. Rasputin was one person who facilitated a lot of such permits in exchange for favors.
Also this seems to have applied only to Jews who lived in the Western territories obtained by Catherine the Great. There have been Jews living in the Caucasus for a couple of thousand years -- Mountain Jews, Georgian Jews and so forth. Quite far from the Pale.
Karaite Jews were a third category. I assume that no restrictions applied to them, although they lived in the Pale as well, since they acquired non-Jewish legal status in the mid-1800s.
____________________________________________________________________________________ Got a little couch potato? Check out fun summer activities for kids. http://search.yahoo.com/search?fr=oni_on_mail&p=summer+activities+for+kids&cs=bz