Rybinsk's Jews in the history of Russia

Vladimir Ryiboy

(fragments of the book)

The first Abraham of Rybinsk: living or dead?

"The description of Rybinsk" was written in 1811 by an unknown author who managed to find two Jews among the town's male population numbered 1498. This book was published a century later by David Zolotarev who was an ethnographer and geographer. To all appearances, these two legendary Jews must have been permanent inhabitants of Rybinsk, not merely tradesmen who had visited the town for a short time.

Yet this information runs counter to the legal regulations regarding Jews which existed at that time (i.e. during Catherine's II and Alexander's I reign). In 1793 Catherine the Great issued a decree by which Jews were forbidden to settle in some definite towns of Russia. Jews were allowed "to have citizenship and bourgeois rights in Belarus and Novorossiysk district only". Thus the Pale of Settlement was drawn on the Russian political map.

In 1808 Alexander I issued a decree which pointed out the status of the Jews in the Russian Empire:

"… Jews are by no means allowed to run taverns or inns in any town or village …"

So we would certainly consider our two Jews as imaginary figures if it weren't for the research work of David Zolotarev's brother, Alexey, a writer and regional ethnographer.

The validity of his research work has always been indisputable. In his manuscript "The Necropol" he made the following statement:

"The old Jewish cemetery is situated westwards of the old-believers' graveyard. One can still see its remnants. It ought to have been founded as early as in the 18-th century. A. Zolotarev, the 4 of October 1949".

For a long time no attempts were successful to find any traces of Jewish temporary settlements (to say nothing about permanent ones) in Rybinsk at the beginning of the 19-th century.

Fortunately, at the very last moment, when our book had already been written but not yet designed and reviewed, we managed to "find traces" of the first Jew who had been living in Rybinsk for about 4 or 5 years.

There were about 3000 inhabitants in Rybinsk in the first decade of the 19-th century, the male and female population being virtually equal in number (about 1500 men and 1500 women). Some factories and plants were run in Rybinsk, namely 2 tanneries, 2 creameries, 4 candle-works, 3 rope-yards, 5 cereal products factories, 4 dye-houses, 11 brickyards as well as 2 malt-houses and 1 pottery outside the city boundaries. As to the town's social structure, there were 243 merchants, 816 bourgeois, 23 clergymen, 27 noblemen, 39 scribes, 67 soldiers, 4 foreigners and 34 gypsies in Rybinsk.

One of contemporary writers writes the following (in modern language):

"People in Rybinsk live quite peacefully and soberly, but not in luxury; their food is wholesome but not delicate. Their houses are neat and clean, and rich people often parade the beautiful interior of their houses. Many a household have mahogany furniture; and even the poorest of poor people's chambers are usually plastered or wallpapered… As for clothing, people are dressed splendidly in Rybinsk. Few middle class people, to say nothing about the affluent, do not have a fox or wolf fur coat covered with English cloth and a caftan made of the same material. In summer people usually wear dresses made of nankeen cloth, besides tailcoats and frock coats. Poor people and workers usually wear Russian clothes. As to women, their wardrobe, both festival and everyday, seems to be tidier than that of the women from other Yaroslavl provinces".

One of the tailors who were making clothes for Rybinsk's women of fashion for 4-5 years was Loval Asherovitch Guinzburg, a Jew. Guinzburg must have settled in Rybinsk not until 1809, for not earlier than that year his name entered "The register of merchants and tradesmen: tailors, shoemakers, carpenters from different districts and villages; from both the house-serves and the peasantry". According to the Handicraft board's register, Guinzburg got his tailor's license as an inhabitant of Rybinsk, not as a newcomer.