In view of the fact that sad occurrences in the past have made it
evident that the local population, incited by evil-minded persons
from covetous or other motives, has taken part in the disorders, it
is the duty of the gubernatorial administration to make it clear to
the local communes that they are obliged to adopt measures for the
purpose ... of impressing upon the inhabitants the gross criminal
offence implied in willfully perpetrating violent acts against
anybody's person and property.

It would almost seem as if the Government, by promulgating on one and
the same day the "Temporary Rules" against the Jews and the circular
against the pogroms, wished to intimate to the Russian people that,
inasmuch as the Jews were now being exterminated through the agency of
the law, there was no further need to exterminate them on the streets.
The originators of the "Temporary Rules" did not seem to realize that
the latter were nothing but a variation of those "violent acts against
person and property," from which the street mob was warned to refrain,
for the loss of the freedom of movement is violence against the person,
and the denial of the right of purchasing real estate is violence
against property. Even the Russian press, though held at that time in
the grip of censorship, could not help commenting on the fact that the
effect of the official circular against the pogroms had been greatly
weakened, by the simultaneous promulgation of the "Temporary Rules."

It would seem as if the terrible atrocities at Balta had made the
highest Government spheres realize that the previous policy of
connivance at the pogroms, which had been practised for a whole year,
could not but disgrace Russia in the eyes of the world and undermine
public order in Russia itself. As soon as this was realized, the
luckless Minister, who had been the pilot of Russian politics throughout