For centuries the lands lying along the northern shores
of the Black Sea were settled by alternating layers of Greeks, Persians,
Romans, Goths, Huns, Mongols, Turks, and Tatars. Finally, under the
treaties of Kuchuk_Kainarji (1774) and Jassy (1792) Empress Catharine II
expelled the Ottoman Turks and annexed the Crimea, bringing an end to the
Tatar Khanate. This new Russian territory along the Black Sea from the
Dneister River in the west to beyond the Crimea in the east became the new
imperial province named Novorossia (New Russia). This vast new colonial
territory presented opportunities which some Europeans likened to the
American frontier. In the late 18th century Catharine II had issued a
manifesto inviting prosperous German farmers to settle along the Volga
River, not only to develop and improve agriculture in the area but also to
provide a buffer zone against invading Asiatic tribes. The success of this
venture encouraged the adoption of similar policies in Novorossia where
agricultural colonization was encouraged at the beginning of the 19th
century. Immigrant settlers from Germany, Greece, Switzerland and France,
were invited to join Armenians, Tatars, Polish exiles, Cossacks and
Russian peasants in colonizing the province. The city of Odessa was
founded in 1794 and became the seat of government for the Due de
Richelieu, the Governor General of Novorossia. And as the German colonies
were gathering strength in Bessarabia and southern Russia, Czar Alexander
I enacted a plan which would answer another problem: by the resettlement
of the Jewish population from the Pale of Settlement, the economic and
political conditions of Jews would be improved. Jews had lived in the
Black Sea areas for centuries; the most famous sect, the Karaim, arrived
in the Crimea in the 12th century. The Enactment of December 9, 1804,
defined five classes of Jews: petit bourgeoisie, artisans, tradesmen,
manufacturers, and agriculturalists. To encourage agricultural
colonization in Novorossia, they were allowed to buy or rent lands for
cultivation in Kherson and Yelizavetgrad. The Jewish colonists were to be
exempt from taxes for 10 years, after which they would be taxed the same
as other groups. eliminating the standard double_tax for Jews in other
parts of the Empire The government would aid those who could not afford lo
bu\ orrent land by allotting them government land. In 1806 the first
colonists from Vitebsk and Mogilev established the first agricultural
colonies in Kherson. A more detailed account of the Jewish agricultural
colonies can be found in The Jewish Encyclopedia, edited by Isidore
Singer. Volume I, pp. 252_256.There were three periods during which Jewish
agricultural colonization was officially encouraged, then discontinued,
with the final era being the one which promoted the settlement of Siberia.
The following list, compiled by Vlad Soshnikov in the regional archive of
Dnepropetrovsk, is a partial sampling of the records available concerning
this program. |