Biography · Youth in Russia · From Primary Sources

The Wandering Years: Moscow, Poltava, and the Beginning of the Road

A poor melamed and maskil, the arrest in Moscow, and the beginning of his writing under the pen name "Ladier"

Before his aliyah, AZR passed through years of wandering as a poor melamed (traditional teacher) and maskil across Russia. The memoir chapters "In Moscow" and "In Poltava" reveal his poverty, his first encounter with Russian antisemitism, the beginning of his literary career, and new biographical and family details. "Chapters of Memoirs" · Project Ben-Yehuda · Public Domain

1 Moscow: "Glebov Courtyard" and the Arrest

In Moscow AZR lived in the famous "Glebov Courtyard," where Jews were allowed to stay as "transients" in exchange for bribes to the police. His uncle R. Yaakov was a shochet (ritual slaughterer) in the city. One night the police raided, arrested him, and locked him up with drunkards, an experience that seared into him his first encounter with Jew-hatred:

"I, the maskil, the lover of Russian literature, who drinks in with thirst the words of Gogol, Pushkin, and Turgenev… led like a criminal through the capital of Russia; for what? Only because I am a Jew! And where is justice, where is fairness?" AZR, "In Moscow," "Chapters of Memoirs"; Project Ben-Yehuda.

"In Moscow I saw for the first time the Russian people's hatred toward us… the word 'zhid.'" And yet he remained an optimistic maskil: "the kingdom of liberty, equality, and brotherhood will soon come."

2 Vyazma: A Circle of Friends and the Beginning of Writing

The pressure of earning a living brought AZR to a melamed's post in Vyazma (Smolensk Governorate). There he found a circle of maskilic friends (among them Mr. Sender Margolin, an autodidact with a love of chemistry and mechanics), and together they subscribed to "HaShachar." And here he took his first steps in writing, in the newspaper "Russkiy Yevrey":

The Beginning of the Literary Road: "Ladier"

"The first article was 'In Defense of the Melamdim,' which I signed 'Ladier'…" Ibid. (A signature after his native town, Lyady.)

The pen name "Ladier" (a man of Lyady) is a bibliographical detail, one of AZR's early pen names.

3 The Dream That Failed: A Journalist in Moscow

Hoping to become a journalist, AZR returned to Moscow and tried to gain a position with the editor Lipskerov ("Novosti Dnya"). The dream failed; poverty weighed on him; his son Eliyahu was born in Moscow (his uncle R. Yaakov was the sandak). The police harassed him until he burst out:

"What do you want of me? I have no work. You have the authority to expel me, and I shall not grieve much over it, for I have found nothing in the capital but hunger." Ibid. (his words to the district police officer).

4 The Wanderings to Belgorod and Poltava

Destitute, AZR set out to wander as a preacher through Kaluga, Oryol, and Kursk, until he reached Belgorod and was taken on as a house tutor, and in time moved to Poltava.

The teacher's route (from a primary source): Vyazma → Moscow → Kaluga → Oryol → Kursk → Belgorod → Poltava.

In Belgorod (Kursk Governorate) he taught; there, in time, his pupil was Eliezer Margolin, later commander of the Jewish Legion (see "The First Jewish Legion"). In Poltava he was hired as a melamed at the Talmud Torah (25 rubles a month). He reformed his classroom, taught Hebrew, Bible, and writing in Yiddish to some 70 children, and fought the children's poverty (food, boots). Of the joy of study he wrote:

"Whoever has not seen the joy and the eagerness of the little pupils during that lesson has never seen a sight so inwardly splendid, however flawed its outward appearance." AZR, "In Poltava," "Chapters of Memoirs"; Project Ben-Yehuda.

In Poltava he also befriended R. Mordechai Krichevsky (Ezrachi), who later made aliyah, a friendship bound up with "Hibbat Zion."

New family details (genealogy): from these chapters emerge, the uncle R. Yaakov, a shochet in Moscow and sandak of his son Eliyahu; another well-off uncle on Solyanka Street; his mother-in-law and his wife from the town of Romanova (where he sent his family); and his son Eliyahu, born in Moscow (by then he already had three children). The Belgorod→Poltava move links this line to "The First Jewish Legion" (Margolin) and to "Uncle R. Yitzchak" (who helped him move to Poltava).