Maskilim to Govenors of the Pale – A Program for Russification 1841 [Russia] [Provisional]: “The Russian government’s objectives in the encouragement of enlightenment among the Jewish people [should be] special emphasis to the moral as opposed to the academic aspects of the education of the Jews… To pay special attention to the teaching of Russian history and language, for there is nothing which unites diverse ethnic groups… better than the dissemination of information concerning that nation’s history and literature… In order to thwart the harmful influence of the Talmud, without at this stage destroying the book… the rabbis should be empowered to prepare a short religious text… in accordance with the accepted principles regarding civil responsibilities to the tsar and the motherland… the Jews must be ordered to change their dress for the clothing commonly worn throughout the country…”
Paul Mendes-Flohr & Yehuda Reinharz ed., The Jew in the Modern World, (Oxford University Press, 1995), p. 385, Researched and Translated by Joan Paez 2/24/2016