The regenerated Russia of Alexander II., stubborn in its refusal of political freedom and civil equality, could only choose the path of half-measures.

Nevertheless, the transition from the pre-reformatory order of things to the new state of affairs signified a radical departure both in the life of Russia in general and in Jewish life in particular.

It did so not because the new conditions were perfect, but because the old ones were so inexpressibly ugly and unbearable, and the mere loosening of the chains of servitude was hailed as a pledge of complete liberation.
Far more intense than in the political life of Russia was the crisis in its social life.

While a chilling wind was still blowing from the wintry heights of Russian officialdom, while a grim censorship was still holding down the flight of the printed word, the released social energy was whirling and swirling in all classes of Russian society, sometimes breaking the fetters of police restraint.

The outbursts of young Russia ran far ahead of the slow progress of the reforms inspired from above.
It blazed the path for political freedom which the West of Europe had long traversed, and which was to prove in Russia tortuous and thorny.
The phase of Jewish life which claimed the first thought of Alexander II.'s Government was the military conscription.