18th century
Ukase of Catherine I
26 avril 1727·Empire russe, Ukraine
The toll is reproduced exactly as the source states it — never rounded, never added to another. Tolls overlap from one event to the next.
expulsion of all Jews from Russia and Little Russia, goods and currency detained at the border crossing
The ukase of Catherine I orders that all Jews be expelled from Russia and Little Russia — that is, from Ukraine then under Russian domination — and that they cross the border without taking any minted gold or silver, their assets to be converted into Russian goods.
The measure fits within a consistent policy of the tsars since Ivan the Terrible: the Russian Empire considered itself closed to Jews. It would be renewed by Elizabeth, who rejected the petitions of merchants by declaring she wanted no profit from the enemies of Christ. Everything would change with the partitions of Poland, when the Empire annexed at a stroke the largest Jewish communities in Europe.
- Period :
- 18th century
- Type :
- Expulsion
- Region :
- Central and Eastern Europe
- Country :
- Empire russe
*Polnoïe sobranié zakonov Rossiiskoï imperii* ; Simon Doubnov, *History of the Jews in Russia and Poland* ; John Klier, *Russia Gathers Her Jews*.