en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konstantin_Pobedonostsev
2 corrections found
He issued a manifesto, with the approval of Alexander the Second, demanding the abolishment of the constitutional movement
This is chronologically impossible: Alexander II had already been assassinated in March 1881. The April 29, 1881 manifesto was issued by Alexander III, while Pobedonostsev is described in reliable sources as its drafter or author.
Full reasoning
The claim is wrong on both the approver and the issuer.
- A U.S. State Department historical document records that Alexander II died on March 13, 1881 (Gregorian) and that the heir immediately ascended the throne as Alexander III. That means Alexander II could not have approved an April 29, 1881 manifesto.
- A standard reference biography on Encyclopedia.com says that Pobedonostsev was responsible for drafting the manifesto that Alexander III read in April 1881. In other words, Pobedonostsev drafted it, but Alexander III issued/read it.
So the article's wording incorrectly attributes the manifesto to Pobedonostsev "with the approval of Alexander the Second." The supported version is that Pobedonostsev drafted the manifesto and Alexander III issued it after Alexander II's death.
2 sources
- Historical Documents - Office of the Historian
The holy communion was administered just before his death... he expired at 3.35 p.m.... At a late hour last night the Czarevitch, the heir apparent, assumed the supreme power of the empire as Alexander III.
- Konstantin Petrovich Pobedonostsev | Encyclopedia.com
After the assassination of Alexander II, Pobedonostsev became one of the strongest forces arguing against the Mikhail Loris-Melikov constitution... He was responsible for drafting the manifesto that Alexander III read in April 1881.
These began with the temporary "May Laws" that banned Jews from rural areas and shtetls even within the Pale of Settlement.
This reverses what the May Laws actually said. The 1882 rules barred Jews from settling outside towns and townlets, so they were confined to towns/shtetls rather than banned from them.
Full reasoning
The description of the May Laws is inaccurate.
Reliable reference works reproduce the substance of the 1882 law as forbidding Jews to settle outside towns and townlets/boroughs. That means the rules restricted Jews from rural settlement and confined them to towns and townlets (shtetls) in the Pale; they did not ban Jews from shtetls.
Two independent reference sources say this explicitly:
- Encyclopaedia Judaica (via Encyclopedia.com) states that the May 3/15, 1882 regulations said: "Jews are forbidden to settle outside the towns and townlets" and adds that, in effect, Jews were "confined to towns and townlets only."
- JewishEncyclopedia.com reproduces the law as forbidding Jews to settle anew "outside of towns and boroughs."
So the article's wording gets the direction of the restriction wrong: the May Laws targeted residence outside towns/townlets, not residence in shtetls.
2 sources
- May Laws | Encyclopedia.com
the "temporary regulations" of May 3 (15), 1882 stated: (1) Jews are forbidden to settle outside the towns and townlets... In effect they were a contraction of the Pale of Settlement, since Jews were confined to towns and townlets only.
- MAY LAWS - JewishEncyclopedia.com
it is decreed that the Jews be forbidden to settle anew outside, of towns and boroughs... [and] the measures... shall apply only to the governments within the Pale of Jewish Settlement.