on religions grounds to have close contact with the Christians." It was
necessary, in his opinion, to resort to legal repression in order to
counteract "the intellectual superiority of the Jews," which enables
them to emerge victorious in the straggle for existence.

Similar condemnations of Judaism came from the governors-general of
Odessa, Vilna, and Kharkov, although they disagreed as to the dimensions
which this repression should assume. Totleben, the master of the Vilna
province, who had refused to countenance the perpetration of pogroms in
Lithuania, nevertheless agreed that the Jews should henceforth be
forbidden to settle in the villages, though he was generous enough to
add that he found it somewhat inconvenient "to rob the whole Jewish
nation of the possibility of earning a livelihood by its labor." The
impression prevailed that militant Judaeophobia was determined to
deprive the Jews even of the right of securing a piece of bread.

The Government was well aware beforehand that the labors of the
gubernatorial commissions would yield results satisfactory to it. It,
therefore, found it unnecessary to wait for their reports and
resolutions, and proceeded to establish in St. Petersburg, on October
19, "a Central Committee for the Revision of the Jewish Question." The
committee was attached to the Ministry of the Interior, and consisted of
several officials, under the chairmanship of Assistant-Minister
Gotovtzev. The officials were soon busy framing "temporary measures" in
the spirit of their patron Ignatyev, and, as the resolutions of the
gubernatorial commissions were coming in, they were endeavoring to
strengthen the foundations for the projected enactment. In January,
1882, the machinery for the manufacture of Jewish disabilities was in
full swing.