The cry of these unfortunates, who were threatened with eviction in the dead of the winter, was heard not in near-by Kiev but in far-off St.Petersburg.By a senatorial ukase, published in January, 1884, a check was put on these administrative highway methods.
The expulsion was stopped, though a considerable number of Jewish families had in the meantime been evicted and ruined.
[Footnote 1: See p.

312.] At the same time other restrictions which were in like manner deduced from the "Temporary Rules" were allowed to remain in full force.

One of these was the prohibition of removing from one village to another, even though they were contiguous, so that the rural Jews were practically placed in the position of serfs, being affixed to their places of residence.

This cruel practice was sanctioned by the law of December 29, 1887.

As a contemporary writer puts it, the law implied that when a village in which a Jew lived was burned down, or when a factory in which he worked was closed, he was compelled to remove into one of the towns or townlets, since he was not allowed to search for a shelter and a livelihood in any other rural locality.