INNER UPHEAVALS 1.

DISILLUSIONMENT OF THE INTELLIGENZIA AND THE NATIONAL REVIVAL The catastrophe at the beginning of the eighties took the Jews of Russia unawares, and found them unprepared for spiritual self-defence.

The impressions of the recent brief "era of reforms" were still fresh in their minds.

They still remembered the initial steps of Alexander II's Government in the direction of the complete civil emancipation of Russian Jewry, the appeals of the intellectual classes of Russia calling upon the Jews to draw nearer to them, the bright prospects of a rejuvenated Russia.

The niggardly gifts of the Russian Government were received by Russian Jewry with an outburst of gratitude and devotion which bordered on flunkeyism.