The disaster was, as usual, timed for Passover, late March 1891. Of Moscow’s 30,000 Jews, 20,000 were to be expelled; almost all its working artisan population plus shopkeepers and merchants were arbitrarily deemed desirable. The decree became known on the morning following the first Seder as Jews were assembling for synagogue. The tragic variation on the exodus fell hard on them. Different groups were to be deported in phases depending on how long their residence had been; last in, first out. But the uprooting, the panic selling of property – movable and immovable – the liquidation of assets,
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