The mysterious and unloved tribe rose before the vision of the new Tzar as a band of cannibals and evil-doers.
This sinister notion can be traced in the conscription statute which was then in the course of preparation in St.Petersburg and was soon afterwards to stir Russian Jewry to its depths, dooming their little ones to martyrdom.
While punishment was to be meted out to the entire Jewish population of Russia, the fate of the Velizh community was particularly tragic.

It was subjected to the terrors of a unique state of siege.

The whole community was placed under suspicion.

All the synagogues were shut up as if they were dens of thieves, and the hapless Jews could not even assemble in prayer to pour out their hearts before God.

All business was at a standstill; the shops were closed, and gloomy faces flitted shyly across the streets of the doomed city.
The stern command from St.Petersburg ordering that the case be "positively probed to the bottom" and that the culprits be apprehended gladdened only the heart of Strakhov, the chairman of the Commission of Inquiry, who was now free to do as he pleased.