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Zambrów also had to
participate in the celebration, when Nicholas II ascended the throne, just as
all other cities and towns of the Russian Empire. Naturally, most of the
ceremonies took place in the barracks, but also in the city, it was a week full
of celebrations.
First, all
the houses in the city had to hang out new Russian flags. Beside
the white Beth Hamidrash, a gate was erected, fashioned from
colored flowers, and at night, they were illuminated by colored
lanterns of red, blue and white – the colors of the Russian
national flag. the same was done on the balconies of the new
Jewish houses on the marketplace. Poles got drunk, soldiers drank,
and the Jews offered ‘Mi SheBerakh’ blessings in the various
houses of study, and sang [the national anthem] ‘God Protect the
Czar,’ [for] the new king, Nicholas II. And Nicholas immediately repaid
them with taking away the taverns from the Jews, and replacing
them with [state-run] monopolies. Perhaps, it was necessary to
stop drunkards from drinking, but many Jews lost their livelihood.
photo: Czar Nicholas II of
Russia. From
Wikipedia.
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Nothing else
newsworthy happened in Zambrów in those years. Poland was already on
the way to becoming industrialized. This had the greatest effect on
the large, landed estates of the nobility, and this brought tens of
thousands of the rural element into the cities, to compete with the
urban people. And this, in turn, drove thousands of people out of
the cities, mostly Jews, causing them to emigrate to other
countries, to America. Zambrów was no exception. One would travel to
earn and save a few hundred dollars, and then come back. People
would even return to serve in the military, because no one wanted to
be cut off from their birthplace. In the later years, when the
anti-Semitism had worked its way into the fabric of the economy of
the land, emigration to America became permanent – to never again
look upon Russia.
The beginning of the twentieth century heralded the coming of great change,
because the masses of two of the largest countries, on two
continents, had harbored revolutionary ideas for years: to topple
their monarchial governments and to establish a constitutional
government. These were Russia and China. The opportunity to do so
came quickly, when the Czarist government sought to weaken the
revolution, by dragging Russia into a war with Japan. This had
exactly the opposite effect – because the Russian masses did not
want wars, and this led to severe defeats on the battlefields of
Manchuria and forced the Czar to issue a Manifesto, introducing a
constitutional monarchy in the Duma.
The economic plight of
the Jews in Poland grew worse and worse. The Czarist regime
curtailed political rights. This caused a great emigration of
Jews, from all cities and towns, to America – and Zambrów was
among them.
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