Бібліографічний опис статті: Kazmyrchuk, M. (2020). Jewish landownership and interethnic relations in Kyiv Governorate at the end of the XIXth and the beginning of the XXth centuries. Skhidnoievropeiskyi Istorychnyi Visnyk [East European Historical Bulletin], 15, 72–79. doi: 10.24919/2519-058x.15.204970 JEWISH LANDOWNERSHIP AND INTERETHNIC RELATIONS IN KYIV GOVERNORATE AT THE END OF THE ХІХth AND THE BEGINNING OF THE ХХth CENTURIES

The aim of the article is to analyze possible modes, which were used by the Jews to own a plot of land and estate property in Kyiv Governorate at the end of the ХІХth century and the beginning of the ХХth century, to explain a negative attitude towards Jewish population by the growing struggle for the landownership based on the archival sources. The research methodology of the article is based on general historical methods such as typological and statistical; as well comparative and structural analyses have been used by the author. The Scientific Novelty. The article is the first attempt to discover the modes and schemes to own a land property by the Jews, who tried to avoid the law restrictions of the Russian Empire, and to explain other ethnical groups’ negative attitude towards the Jewish population in Kyiv Governorate by means of getting a land property, which was a symbol of freedom and welfare. This problem is especially urgentnowadays, when the issue of the moratorium on the sale of an agricultural land is actively discussed in Ukrainian society and the slogans are avoided to prevent tthe loss of a national heritage. The Conclusions. At the end of the ХІХth century and the beginning of the ХХth century Kyiv Governorate was a field of struggle between the representatives of different ethnic groups, among which the Jews were the most active. Their amount was growing in the governorate and representatives of the Jewish people dominated in commercial and industrial circles. This negative image was amplified by the attempts of the Jewish people to avoid limitation of rights, especially, prohibition on landownership. Having funds, the Jews were discriminated by the law of the Russian Empire. However, certain representatives of the Jewish people, who found flaws in the law, bought the lands in Kyiv Governorate. The analyzed documents illustrated that there were two ways to do this. The first way was to draw up a lease arrangement under nominee name from the Christians. Another way was to become a new landlord using a lease arrangement on a manor estate or land in case of debts or death of a previous owner.

Jewish landownership and interethnic relations in Kyiv Governorate at the end of the XIXth...
The Problem Statement. Nowadays, the acute issue of the moratorium on cancelling the sale of an agricultural land is being actively discussed in the Ukrainian society, and the slogans are heard to prevent the loss of a national heritage. That is why, the lessons from the history are quite topical in order not to repeat making mistakes of the past, taking into account modern realities. In the Russian Empire at the end the of the ХІХth and at the beginning of the ХХth centuries, as well as nowadays, the issue of landownership remained very acute, and there was a ban on a landownership for a certain category of the population. There is a considerable amount of actually unpublished and almost unanalyzed archival material that makes it possible to expose the land deals that allowed to avoid breaking the laws of the Russian Empire that forbade the landownership. The disclosure of such land deals, the distribution of which could not be stopped until the collapse of the Russian Empire, can be useful for the elaboration of a modern legislation. In addition to it, the absolute inactivity of the government in stopping the land deals, as evidenced by the historical example of the Russian Empire, contributed to the growing tension in the national issue.
Куiv Governorate (province) in the Russian Empire is an example of the dynamics and clashes of different national interests. Among the inhabitants of the province were the Jews, who stood out not only in number, but also in a socio-economic activity. This fact troubled the government of the Russian Empire, who tried to restrict and control the actions of the national minorities. The governmental policy concerning the residence in the Russian Empire of different nationalities and their beliefs was rather rigid, especially concerning large ethnic communities -the Jews and the Poles, who were competing with the Russians. As for the Jews, there were a number of restrictions in the Russian Empire, including the so-called "line of habitation" and all sorts of prohibitions, including landownership. Many unpublished archival sources are preserved about the ways, which the Jews used to avoid these discriminatory measures.
The Analysis of Recent Researches. A number of recent works have been devoted to the national and land issues in the Russian Empire. It is impossible to analyze all the scientific researches on this subject due to the limited volume of the article. The amount of researches on this issue is increasing every year, because landownership problems remain acute and topical. Thus, the works of A. Humeniuk focus on the most acute for the Ukrainian lands national and social issues in the towns in the ХІХth -ХХth centuries (Humeniuk, 1993). The works of A. Kappeler deal with the analysis of the influence of national issues on the history of the Russian Empire (Kappeler, 2000). Nowadays, the scientists address actively to the problems of entrepreneurship in the Russian Empire, highlighting the national and property problems. Thus, O. Donik investigates the merchants' activity in the Russian Empire, in particular, highlighting the Jews and their entrepreneurial initiatives in Kyiv region (Donik, 2008). Foreign researchers, in particular I. Potkina, pay attention to the legal aspects of the Jewish entrepreneurship (Potkina, 2009). In the socio-economic studies, which contain the data on the Куiv Governorate of the post-reform years, in one way or another, there is information about the Jewish population. However, in these works, the attempts of the Jews to free themselves from economic and legal constraints in Куiv Governorate were not investigated separately. In 2014, the article written by A. Borodii, was published, where an attempt was made to analyze the main directions, forms and methods of the Jewish participation in agrarian relations on the Right Bank (Borodii, 2014). In the article the attention is paid to the statistics of "latent" landownership of the Jews, but does not fully disclose the scheme of the Jewish land deals in Kyiv province. More over, the author paid little attention to the national contradictions and their aggravation in Куiv Governorate precisely against the background of the agrarian issue.
The Purpose of the Research. The purpose of this article is to analyze, using the archival sources, the ways the Jews from the Куiv Governorate used to become the owners of the land and property of predominantly impoverished nobles at the end of the ХІХth -beginning of the ХХth centuries. It is also necessary to explain the negative attitude towards the Jews by the deployment of the struggle for landownership.
The Statement of the Basic Material. The national composition of Куiv Governorate population was diverse. The Jews were the third largest ethnic group after the Ukrainians and the Russians, who in the mid-ХІХth century together comprised about 91% of the urban Right Bank population (Humeniuk, 1993, pp. 81-84). In 1887, in Куiv Governorate there were more than 300 000 Jews, comprising about 13% of the total population of the Куiv Governorate (Mozgovoj, 1887, pp. 58, 59). As compared to them, the groups of the Poles, the Germans, the Belarussians, the Czechs and the Tatars comprised 2,66% in the census of 1897 (Chornyj, 2001, pp. 12, 13, 26). Kyiv hubernia was considered to be densely populated. According to the the statistical data there were 220 inhabitants per settlement in 1885 -1887, while the average number was 143 per one settlement in the Russian Empire. The most densely populated were the southern districts of Kyiv province, Cherkasy, Kaniv and Lypovets counties (povits). Куiv Governorate consisted of 12 counties, 11305 settlements, of which there were 12 cities (1 provincial, 109 towns, 7146 independent settlements and 4038 adjacent settlements). In 1888 the total amount of the population was about 2,5 million people, of whom about 400 000 there were urban residents (Kievskij Gubernskij Statisticheskij komitet & Mozgovoj, 1888, pp. 46, 47, 56, 57). In 1895 the population of Куiv Governorate increased to 3,5 million people (Kievskij guberns'kij statisticheskij komitet, 1895, pp. 364-367). According to statistics, the population growth increased at a rapid rate and it was the most significant among the Jews (Mozgovoj, 1887, p. 7).
At the end of the ХІХth century Куiv Governorate was included to the zone of the Jewish settlement, but they were not allowed to settle in Kyiv. The ways to avoid these restrictions were the following: baptism and adoption of basic ideological postulates or passing an educational course. During the reign of Mykola I, the main ideological triad was established in the Russian Empire: Orthodoxy, autocracy, nationality. S. Uvarov, Minister for National Education, emphasized: "Without love for the Faith of ancestors, the people, as well as the private person, must perish; to weaken the Faith in them, is the same as to deprive them of blood and to tear out the heart ..." (Shevchenko, 1995, p. 71). A similar ideology developed at the legislative level, when the representatives of other ethnic groups received certain privileges, accepting its basic postulates. In 1861, the right to settle outside the residency zone was granted to persons with higher education, and from 1879 -to the representatives of medical professions (Donik, 2008, p. 30).
In 1876, the Jews were only allowed to stay temporarily outside the settlement zone to assert their rights in court or in commercial matters. With the permission of the police, the Jews had the right to extend the stay in this or that town for 6 weeks. With the permission of the governor, they stayed for up to two months. The Jews were given the opportunity to live in Kyiv being engaged in service, in commerce, cart service, purchase, treatment or education. This right had such professional groups of the Jewish population as doctors, nurses, mechanics, wineries workers, craftsmen and artisans with their families (CSHAUK,f. 442,d. 646,c. 183,pp. 3,4). Getting education allowed the Jews to come to Kyiv with their family. In 1881 the Jewish merchants of the first guild were given the right to reside in the city with their families (Polovcov,Without a year,p. 48). In 1889 the Jews were granted the right to settle, having a special permission of the governor or governor-general, i.e., the local government. The change of status of the Jews took place in 1903, when they were allowed to live outside the settlement zone, and the Minister for the Interior Affairs was granted the right to expand the list of settlements for the Jews' permanent place of residence (Potkina, 2009, p. 67).
At the end of the ХІХth century the Jews of Куiv Governorate were traditionally engaged in a trade-intermediary activity, a small scale production and usury. In 1862 there were about 2,5 000 of the Christians-merchants in Kyiv province, and the Jews-merchants -20 000 of people (CSHAUK,f. 442,d. 41,c. 2а,p. 14). In 1897, 1/3 of the Jews worked in industry, 3 -4% in agriculture, 40% in commerce, the rest -in the administrative apparatus as civil servants, military men, priests. According to other data, 63.72% of the Jews were engaged in trade and credit operations in Ukrainian lands (Lazans'ka, 1999, p. 169). Among rich and influential Jewish entrepreneurs, we should mention the Ginsburg and Brodsky, wealthy burghers of Kyiv -H. M. Rosenberg and V. H. Ginzburg (Zaets, 2004, р. 68). In Berdychiv, among the influential Jews there were the surnames of Glasberg, Lytvak, Ritakh, Baron and Katsnelson (Donik, 2008, pp. 79, 80). The Jews-entrepreneurs could gain the state support by gaining the status of merchants of the 1st guild and achieving the recognition of their own business, useful for the county (Potkina, 2009, p. 80).
There were many Jews among the great bourgeoisie of Kyiv province. They were the owners of trading firms, houses, shops, banks and pawnshops with a significant capital (Kruhliak, 1994, p. 79). The Jews were famous and influential bankers of Kyiv province. In the second half of the ХІХth century, in Ukraine private pawnshops belonged to the Jews. These profitable commercial establishments made millions of profit owing to Jewish executives (Kazmyrchuk, 2007, p. 33). Many Jews were engaged in a small-scale trade, factoring, and commissioning. There were many Jews at the market places in Kyiv (CSHAUK,f. 442,d. 646,c. 183,pp. 3,4).
All ethnic groups were inferior to the high positions of the Jews in the entrepreneurship of Kyiv province. The Jews were inferior to the activity of the representatives of other ethnic groups in agriculture. The attempts to involve the Jews in agriculture had no results in Kyiv province, as indicated by the governor of Kyiv in 1870 (CSHAUK,f. 442,d. 51,c. 376,p. 3). In the countryside, there were some closed communities with orthodox Jewish culture and a minimal contact with the outside world. The imperial authorities did not object to the land ownership of the Jewish farmers, the members of the Jewish community (Komarnits'kyj, 2009, p. 41). In 1885, more than 20 agricultural Jewish communities of Куiv Governorate owned about 3,000 d. of land in Kyiv, Berdychiv, Vasylkiv, Chyhyryn and Radomyshl counties. The plot of land per Jew in the community ranged from 0,3 d. up to 2,2 d. (Mozgovoj, 1887, pp. 24, 25).
Despite the rapid entrepreneurial activity of the Jews, in almost every report of ministers and governors-general of Куiv Governorate at the end of the ХІХth -beginning of the ХХth centuries, there was the Jews' general characterization as idlers and exploiters (CSHAUK,f. 442,d. 532,c. 202,. Thus, in 1878 the governor of Kyiv made a peremptory statement about the inability of the Jews to farming and the exploitation of the peasantry due to the temporary lease of land or property in the village. The scheme of exploitation, described by the governor, consisted in the following: the Jews settled in a particular village and rented a large local estate, thereby gaining power over the peasants, who were economically dependent on the tenant. The Jews-tenants were able to take advantage of the peasants' credit needs, collecting high interest rates in spite of the damage to the agriculture. According to the governor's opinion, the tenant Jews made the most of all the rented property, destroying the local population at the same time (CSHAUK,f. 442,d. 532,c. 202,p. 5). Nevertheless, since 1870, the Polish landowners had an official permission to lease the land to the Jews (CSHAUK,f. 442,d. 51,c. 376,p. 4). At the end of the 70-ies of the XIXth century more than 220 Jews rented the land in Kyiv province, the total area of which was more than 160 000 desiatyn and was estimated at more than 740 000 rubles per year. In 1878 Kyiv governor noted the massive lease of land by landowners to the Jews and expressed grave fears about the future of these leasehold estates (CSHAUK,f. 442,d. 532,c. 202,pp. 5,7). According to the materials of the city council in 1878, 1879 and 1880, 60 Jews of the town of Skvyra purchased a real estate. In 1876 Cherkasy city government informed about 290 Jews of landowners, whose number was growing. Thus, in 1877 there were already more than 310, and in 1880 -320. There was a similar statistics in other towns, in particular in Uman, Zvenyhorodka and Chyhyryn, where during 1878 -1880 the Jews acquired more than 50 estates and plots of land (Polovcov,p. 34).
The Jews got the opportunity to buy the estates in the province of Kyiv owing to the estate owners' debts. Thus, the Jews-tenants Mordko Pysmenyi and Itsko Pysmenyi loaned the landlord Earl J. Krasytsky more than 28 000 rubles. Under the terms of the lease agreement, they had the right to own a part of the estate in Khrestynivka of Lypovetsky county for 10 years, which previously belonged to J. Krasytsky, However, J. Krasytsky could not pay the already existing huge debt of more than 80 thousand rubles, that is why his property was transferred to the creditor Jews, in particular, the property became the property of Mordko Pysmenyi and Itsko Pysmenyi (CSHAUK,f. 442,d. 183,c. 433,. In the same way, for the debts of the 1980-ies of the ХІХth century, but after the death of the owner, the estates in Motyzhyn and Pliakhtianytsia of Skvyra county also became the property of the town resident, A. Ferdman, a Jew. Their owner, General Savytsky, did not have enough time to pay him for the debts, and therefore his property (factories, livestock, land, buildings) became the property of a Jewish burgher (CSHAUK,f. 442,d. 536,c. 52,pp. 1,26).
Among the negative characteristics of the Jews in the society there were the following ones: the seizure of all crafts, the thirst for profit by cheating the labourers, the deception of honest citizens. Thus, in 1866, Martin Olshansky, Podilsky nobleman, complaining about the fraud, made by the Jews F. Zynkler and I. Lyapis from Nemyriv, Vinnytsia merchant Mosho Woinan, justified their guilt, claiming that the tricks of the Jews had been known for a long time (CSHAUK,f. 442,d. 180,c. 256,pp. 1,5). The "abnormality" of relations between the Christians and the Jews was noted by the governor of Kyiv in 1870, because the Christians treated the Jews with contempt because of the stereotypes about the Jews as dishonest people. According to the governor's opinion, these stereotypes were supported by some Jews, united and willing to help one another, but the Jew treated the rest of the population dishonestly (CSHAUK,f. 442,d. 51,c. 376,p. 3).
At the beginning of the XXth century L. I. Brodsky, a well-known Jewish representative, made a special report on the Jews and agriculture at the meeting of Kyiv Provincial Committee. He declared the change in attitude towards the Jewish issue in the Russian Empire. L. Brodsky believed that the times when the activities of the Jews were considered harmful had already passed (Kievskij guberns'kij komitet, 1903, pp. 57, 62). However, at the beginning of the XXth century, along with the vision of the Jews as the exploiters, another negative definitionthe revolutionaries -began to be applied to them (SAKR,f. 2,d. 222,c. 215,p. 29).
As a result of the negative opinion about the Jews, the property of the Jews was burned and numerous pogroms were registered in the Records of the events of Куiv Governorate during different years. Unknown intruders robbed shops and set fire to Jewish factory property in Kyiv. Some Jewish pogroms had to be suppressed by troops, in particular in Smila, in May 1881 (CSHAUK,f. 442,d. 663,c. 2 (vol. 2),pp. 75,89,104). The pogroms also took place in the towns of Trypillya, Obukhiv, Hermanivka, Bila Tserkva, Hostomel (Komarnits'kyj, 2009, p. 54). A. Kappeler considered the pogroms to be the motivation factor to the Russian government to impose sanctions on the Jews and to strengthen the position of the Russian entrepreneurs (Kappeler, 2000, p. 199).
In 1882, the Jews were banned from renting real estate outside cities and towns. However, many estates of Куiv Governorate were still transferred to the Jews' property. The problem consisted in the following fact: the prohibition concerned the leases of immovable property made in the name of the Jews, so the agreements began to be made involving fake persons among the Christians with whom the Jews had a deal. Thus, the real lease deal was masked. Another way of acquiring landownership by the Jews was to make a formal agreement that was not officially certified. In this case, the landowner and the tenant Jew did not advertise the existence of the lease agreement, but they were limited to a verbal agreement. At the end of the ХІХth century the Jews made deals with fake persons, concerning various real estate properties. Later on the land was acquired by making the same procedure. Thus, in 1862, in the name of the State Advisor A. M. Shostakovsky, Felix Ihnaryov, a Jew, registered a powerful steam-sugar plant, which had six hydraulic presses, in one of the villages of Tarashchansky county (CSHAUK,f. 486,d. 5,c. 437,pp. 28,29). This method of acquiring landownership became so popular among the Jews that in 7 years the Governor-General of Kyiv had to apply to the Ministry of Finance to ban the formal agreements. Even a fine of more than 800 rubles for not making official leases did not scare the Jews, because it was appealed in court (CSHAUK,f. 442,d. 543,c. 297,pp. 6,7).
The Conclusions. Thus, at the end of the ХІХth -at the beginning of the XXth century Куiv Governorate became an arena of interests clashes of different ethnic groups representatives, among which the Jews were the most active in the industry. Their number in Куiv Governorate grew steadily and was predominant in the cities and towns. The representatives of the Jewish ethnic group prevailed in trade and economic circles, most of them among the city merchantusury stratum. This fact caused the following situation: during the crisis among the population dominated the negative image of cunning Jews, who raised a high percentage on loans, as well as the image of greedy and lazy Jews, who did not work, moreover. They were allegedly persecuted by the authorities, and therefore they were beyond the law, they were strangers. The negative attitude towards the Jews was facilitated by their attempts to avoid legal restrictions in various ways. The issue of landownership by the Jews was especially acute.
Possessing a significant capital, the Jews encountered the legal restrictions in the Russian Empire, where only the Christians had significant preferences. A large proportion of the Jews were engaged in business and commerce, but there were also those, who did not want to put up with social injustice. They found a gap in the legislation system of the Russian Empire concerning the right to own land and the Jews were able to acquire it in Куiv Governorate in various ways. There are many archival documents that conclusively prove that there were two ways of obtaining a plot of land for Jewish ownership. Firstly, making agreements on leasing with a fake person of a Christian origin. Secondly, making a formal leasing agreement for obtaining an estate or a plot of land. By making such agreements, the Jews were subsequently able to obtain the estates in a full ownership because of debts or death of the previous owner.