They justified this restriction on the following grounds: the object of the new law is to transform local self-government into a state administration and to strengthen in the former the influence of the central Government at the expense of the local Government; hence the Jews, "being altogether an element hostile to Government," are not fit to participate in the Zemstvo administration.

The Council of State agreed with this bureaucratic motivation, and the humiliating clause passed into law.
[Footnote 1: The new law invalidated to a large extent the liberties granted to the Zemstvos by Alexander II.

in 1864 (compare p.

173) by placing them under state control.] While a large part of the Russian public and of the Russian press had succumbed to the prevailing tendencies under the high pressure of the anti-Semitic atmosphere, the progressive elements of the Russian _intelligenzia_ were gradually aroused to a feeling of protest.

Vladimir Solovyov, "the Christian philosopher," a friend of the Jewish people, who had familiarized himself thoroughly with its history and literature, conceived the idea of issuing a public protest against the anti-Semitic movement in the "Russian Press," [1] to be signed by the most prominent Russian writers and other well-known men.