—
Agricultural Colonies
THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA
(Bussia)
and Novo Poltnvka (Ni'w
Polfmnilics (" Vos." Wi. vol. 7). Kartzev's report uf 1M4.') showed timt there were l.tilil families (12.779 persons) in Statistics the Kherson colonies. Of these. U.Olti) of Kherson individuals were settled l>y the irovernnient: the rest, having paid for their Colonies. farms, settled on their own aeeount. From 1841 to 1S45 the jrovernnient expended 234,539 nd)les in aidins Jewish colonists in Kherson. The following table shows the condition of the fifteen colonies in the government of Kherson in bcTfr).
IJoiimnov,
tavka),
and
1845
settled llicrc
7(ll>
Families.
Settled.
Houses.
Settled.
SO
187
111 151 91
15
159
14
i;iO
20 9 30
l.Tll
82 60 60 119 95 31 92 150
IL'S
i;i2
19
Israelevka Izluchlsta Kaiiienka Lvov (LcmtxTir)
19 204 35
- i
si 119
HI
ii
37
- (
Napartov, Great Napartov. LiUIe
J
Novy Breslavl Ndvii I'liltuvka Koinan(»v
Saigadak
229 Si
Seidenieniihn, (ireat.
SeldemeDuba,
Not yet
2Si
Int'iiietz
Little..
Total
1.397
boring villages
intil sprin,e. as Stempel had sugThose who did so were cruelly driven back by Co.s.siicks. El>idemics of scurvy and smallpox
gested.
occurred soon after (" Archives of Kherson- Bessjirabia Board of Adminislnition." report of Fib. 15, 1849, No. 116: sec al.si> Harold Frederic. "The NewExodus." pp. 7S. 79. New York. 1893). After 1849. Jewish immiu'ranis from northwestern Russia were dirccl(<l chiirty to the governnn-nt of Ekaterinoslav, where, up to 1S.56, fifteen colonies, Colonies at sheltering 766 families, were founded. Ekateri- The Ekaterinoslav colonies were undrr thi' managi'mcnt of a director noslav.
ISO
1,555
each. The colonists elected their own aldermen, all the other authorities being Christians. Hebrew schools i/ieiliin'm) were prohibited in the colonies. The followin.ir table shows the condition of the Jewish colonics in the government of Ekaterinoslav in 1890:
Name
In the fifteen colonies there were 5 synagogues, 12 houses of prayer, G town halls, 7 warehouses. 7 bath houses, 1 seed-warehouse. 8 windmills, 463 horses, 2,332 sheep, 3.323 o.xen, 1.117 wa.srons. 28!) plows, and 533 harrows. Of the colonists 3.308 were entered in the books as taxpayers. The colonies had an income of 3.363 rubles per annum, besides rents from distilleiies and restaurants kept by Jews who were not colonists. The local authnriticsof the fifteen Jewish villages named in the table were 11 mayors, 23 assessors, and 11 Keligious affairs were administered bv 12 clerks. rabbis, assisted by 30 juiriinmm (" directors ") and 16
The five synagogues were maintained treasurers. at the expense of the communities. Jlost of the colonists firiginally belonged to the merchant class, 833 persons only being artisans. Only the tailors (359), shoemakers 144). and blacksmiths (11) found (
employment employment
in the colonies; the others cither sought or established themselves in surround-
ing towns. very high.
To
death-rate of the colonies
was
every birth there were over twentj' deaths. The poor results shown were due to the inexperience of the colonists, the corruption of the officials, and the absence of all instructicm from more exiierienced colonists. This was practically confessed by the Russian officials in their reports to Czar Nicholas, who took a deep jiersonal interest in the whole matter (see Kisselcv's report. June, 1845). In 1846 the colonies were put under the
management
of the Jlinistry of Domains, a special
Jewish fund, called
("basket fund"), being set apart for the necessary expenditures. As regards the colonies in Ekaterinoslav, a report made in 1847 by Baron Stem pel. superintendent of the colonies, shows that the settlers on arriving in Ekaterinoslav generally found no provision made for them. They were not permitted to repair the dilapidated shanties which served for houses, and were not even allowed to seek shelter in the neiffhkni-ulikn
Land
of Colony.
1,1150
(iorkaya (irafskaya
TKO 910
.
Khlyetwdarovka Krasnoselka
1.2IK)
Mezhirwh
l.llll
Nadezlinaya.
...
NiM-liaycvka
.
.570
Help. 278 252 181 81
319 290
1.230
—
216 458
sro 7S0
llovnnpttl
3.51
IBO 1.S60
.
.N'ovoziatopol ...
Iloskt'shnaya
Hired
In
Dtvlatfnes.*
Bopodarovka
i'rlymimya
The
254
appoinle<l by the Klierson-B<'Ssjirabia bureau of govermncnl domains, and wereilividcd into four districts, with an riverseer at the head of
NniiiH of Colony.
B<)hrovy-Kllt Kfeiipar
.
1«9 178
1.190
2)12
hlU
244
I.IHIO
•£ii
1.170
1
deeiatine
370
17,620
•
5 20 5
19:i
irrd
Total
1
3 24 12
219
MO
Sladkovddnaya.. Tniddlyubovka. Vfselnya Zatlshye Zellonoepole
4
16 3
4.314
121
= 2.70 acres.
Of the
hired help. 106 persons were Christians and 35 were Jews K. Sluchev.ski. " Yevreiski va Kolonii," (
"Russki Vyestnik."
iv. 306, 1890). Ev/.el (Joseph) Gl'inzburg gave the government 10.000 rubles, the interest of which was to be applied in providing annual rewards for the best Jewish farmers: the recipients to be determined by the Minister of Domains (" Civil Code," vol. xxxi.
in
In
18.')6
No. 30. 672). After 18-56 only f(rar more colonics were founded; namelv, two in the government of Kherson and two in that of Ekateiinoslav. Under a law enacted in 1866 Jewish colonization ceased entirel.v. The measure was adopted mainly for financial reasons, the basket fluid no longer siifiicing for both colonizationand education. Besides this, New Russia was no longer in need of artificial colonization. The reports of V. A. Islavin, an official who visited the colonies in 1851 and again in 1865. enable a comparison of those years to be made. Instead of the 15 colonies in 1847 there were 37 Contrast in 1.^65 20 in Kherson and 17 in
—
between 1851 and 1865.
Ekaterinoslav: the 2.210 families in 1S51. consisting of 14,780 persons, had increased in 1865 to 2.873 families, consisting of 32,943 persons: and instead of 85,563 deciatines of cultivated land in 1851, there were in 1865, 129.521 deciatines. The following figures contrasting the condition of the colonies in 1851 and in l865 will be of interest
