CHAPTER XIX.
THE REACTION UNDER ALEXANDER II.
1.

CHANGE OF ATTITUDE TOWARD THE JEWISH PROBLEM The decided drift toward political reaction in the second part of Alexander's reign affected also the specific Jewish problem, which the homoeopathic reforms, designed to "ameliorate" a fraction of the Jewish people, had tried to solve in vain.

The general reaction showed itself in the fact that, after having carried out the first great reforms, such as the liberation of the peasantry, the introduction of rural self-government and the reorganization of the administration of the law, the Government considered the task of Russian regeneration to be completed, and stubbornly refused, to use the expression current at the time, "to crown the edifice" by the one great political reform, the grant of a constitution and political liberty.

This refusal widened the breach between the Government and the progressive element of the Russian people, whose hopes were riveted on the ultimate goal of political reorganization.

The striving for liberty, driven under ground by police and censorship, assumed among the Russian youth the character of a revolutionary movement.