It finally came to the conclusion that the whole century-long system of restrictive legislation had failed of its purpose, and must give way to a system of emancipatory measures, to be carried out gradually and with extreme caution.

The majority of the members of the Commission concurred in this opinion, including Count Pahlen, its chairman.

In the following we present a few brief extracts from the conclusions formulated by this conservative and bureaucratic commission in its comprehensive "General Memoir" which was written in the beginning of 1888: Can the attitude of the State towards a population of five millions, forming one-twentieth of its subjects--though belonging to a race different from that of the majority--whom that State itself had incorporated, together with the territories populated by them, into the Russian body politic, differ from its attitude towards all its other subjects ?....

Hence, from the political point of view, the Jew is entitled to equality of citizenship.

Without granting him equal rights, we cannot, properly speaking, demand from him equal civic obligations....