Within a short time 1317 Jews declared their readiness to settle on the new lands; many had actually started on their way in batches.

But in January, 1837, the Tzar quite unexpectedly changed his mind.

After reading the report of the Council of Ministers on the first results of the immigration, he put down the resolution: "The transplantation of Jews to Siberia is to be stopped." A few months later orders were issued to intercept those Jews who were on their way to Siberia and transfer them to the Jewish colonies in the government of Kherson.

The unfortunate emigrants were seized on the way and conveyed, like criminals, under a military escort into places in which they were not in the least interested.

Legislative whims of this kind, coupled with an uncouth system of tutelage, were quite sufficient to crush in many Jews the desire of turning to the soil.
Nevertheless, the colonization made slow progress, gradually spreading from the government of Kherson to the neighboring governments of Yekaterinoslav and Bessarabia.