JUDAEOPHOBIA TRIUMPHANT 1.

INTENSIFIED REACTION The poisonous Judaeophobia bacilli seemed to thrive more than ever in the highest Government circles of St.Petersburg.However, not only the hatred against the Jews but also the fury of general political reaction became more rabid than ever after the "miraculous escape" of the imperial family in the railroad accident near Borki on October 17, 1888.
[1] Amidst the ecclesiastic and mystic haze with which Pobyedonostzev and his associates managed to veil this episode the conviction became deeply ingrained in the mind of the Tzar that it was the finger of God which pointed to him the way in which Russia might be saved from "Western" reforms and brought back into the fold of traditional Russian orthodoxy.

This conviction of Alexander III.

led to the counter-reforms which marked the concluding years of his reign, having for their purpose the strengthening of the police and Church regime in Russia, such as the curtailment of rural and urban self-government, the increase of the power of the nobility and clergy, the institution of Zemstvo chiefs, [2] and the multiplication of Greek-Orthodox parochial schools at the expense of secular schools.

The same influences also stimulated the luxurious growth of Judaeophobia which from now on assumed in the highest Government circles a most malignant character.